Thai Language and Vocabulary
Thai can be quite difficult for Westerners to learn, however if you’re just visiting the country you’ll find that you really don’t need to know much Thai in order to get around. Having some knowledge of the language though will help you when it comes to meeting and interacting with Thai;s as they will really appreciate your effort to learn there language.
Thailand has its own language and alphabet which is completely different from Western languages. The Thai alphabet contains 44 consonants and 18 vowels. In addition, Thai is a tonal language with 5 different tones, meaning the same word can have 5 different meaning dependent on the tone. Believe me this can be very confusing when you are learning the language! Golf has demonstrated for me already and I’ll be damned if I can hear much difference in the tones most times and I certainly can’t reproduce them. Very funny for her and very frustrating for me.
That being said, most common words and phrases can be picked up by the Westerner and it is very appreciated by the Thai’s. Want to get a smile? Simply use some Thai phrases when you are in Thailand. Even if you mangle the pronunciation it will be appreciated and in most cases will get you a huge smile and possibly a new friend.
Here’s a great resource for Thai writing: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/thai.htm
However if you just want some basic phrases to use keep coming back here to Thailand Musings. I will try to add short lists of 5-10 words or phrases each week and if you have any questions about any of them you can certainly leave a comment and Golf can help you.
So, here’s the first of many Thai vocabulary lists:
Sawasdee – Hello
La korn – goodbye
Korp khun – thank you
Khun cheu a rai? – What is your name?
Khun pood pa sa ang krit mai? – Do you speak English?
Kor tode – excuse me
Ka rue na – please
Sa ba dee mai? – How are you?
Dee – good
Mai dee – bad
Please note also that Thai’s are very polite, especially to strangers. When speaking it is polite to add –khrab to the end of any sentence or phrase if you are a male. If you are a female you would add –kaa. So “Hello” is said like this:
Sawasdee khrab (for males)
Sawasdee kaa (for females)
Please do not forget to add these to everything you say lest the person you’re speaking to think you are rude and unthinking. Let me know if there are any words or phrases in particular you’d like to learn and I’ll be happy to include them in the next Thai vocabulary post.
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