practice speaking Thai more often

This entry will complete my series on learning new words in Thai. I will continue to learn Thai but I am marking this goal as complete. My girlfriend wrote out a whole page full of words in addition to these that I have to learn, and now that it’s December, it’s time for my next test. I will also continue to have my girlfriend speak Thai to me everyday to help with my fluency.

Monday – Wan Jan (Monday)
Tuesday – Wan Ang Kan (Tuesday)
Wednesday – Wan Poot (Wednesday)
Thursday – Wan Pa Reu Hat (Thursday)
Friday – Wan Sook (Saturday)
Saturday – Mai Sabai (Sick, literal: not well) – I’ve had a terrible sinus infection so this was one that I learned along the way. My doggies have been sick too. It has cooled off quite a bit here recently, primarily at night.
Sunday – Lao Ngah (So what?) – The way you say the “ng” is kind of like a spanish n, or a combination of ny, said like “nyuh.” This is another one of my favorite things to say, often when my girlfriend and I are kidding around with each other.
...And now, on to the test.

This is something I’ve wanted to learn for awhile but really never committed to it. Now seems to be the perfect time to do that. While this is more about the months and days, I just wanted to explain a bit about the time. There are basically 4 parts to the day when telling the time. You have the early morning hours 12 am-6am. The morning hours 6-12. The afternoon hours 12-6, and the evening hours 6-12 (which start from 6 pm and then go by ones. e.g. 7 pm reads like 6 pm plus 1 hour, and so on…). As for the month of the year, my girlfriend told me that according to how many days in the month, you either end it with “kom” (31 days) or “yon” (30 days). February ends with “pan.” And so, here are the months of the year plus 2 days.
Monday – Deu An Ma Ga Rah Kom (January)
Tuesday – Deu An Gum Pah Pan (February)
Wednesday – Deu An Mee Nah Kom (March)
Thursday – Deu An Mair Sah Yon (April)
Friday – Deu An Preut Sa Pah Kom (May)
Saturday – Deu An Mi Tu Nah Yon (June)
Sunday – Deu An Ga Rak Ga Dah Kom (July)
Monday – Deu An Sing Hah Kom (August)
Tuesday – Deu An Gan Yah Yon* (September)
Wednesday – Deu An Du Lah Kom (October)
Thursday – Deu An Preut Sa Ji Gah Yon (November)
Friday – Deu An Tan Wah Kom (December)
Saturday – Wan Sow (Saturday)
Sunday – Wan Ah Tit (Sunday)

Monday – SumnumNah! (Serves you right!) – This is one of my favorite sayings now. And I hear other people saying it regularly now that I know the word.
Tuesday – Bahtihtin (Calendar)
Wednesday – Daoreet (Iron – not the element)
Thursday – Reetpah (To iron)
Friday – BpakGah (Pen)
Saturday – Dtinsaw (Pencil)
Sunday – BaaWah (Mean – not the emotion)
Starting on Sunday I asked my girlfriend if she would continually speak Thai to me everyday for five minutes until the end of the month. Hopefully this will help with my fluency and ability to understand people who speak at a normal pace.

I had my girlfriend give me my first test on last month’s learned words. She wrote the words in Thai and I had to write them in English. I passed. Big time. I only had trouble with one. After that, she wrote out a new list of words of things around the apartment and gave me clues as to what they were. Some of them I actually knew or could figure out on my own. I’m well on my way.

Monday – Doh (Table)
Tuesday – Piewbpak (to whistle)
Wednesday – Mai (Wood) – Another “Mai” word. To date we have Mai that means “No,” “New,” and now “Wood.”
Thursday – MangGorn (Dragon) – One of my students gave me this one. Could come in handy, you never know.
Friday – DooYen – (Refrigerator)
Saturday – ToRahsap (Telephone)
Sunday – MahNawnLap (A dog sleeping) – Toongun was sleeping on the bed (complete with blanket and pillow).

I suppose I should explain the transcriptions from Thai, if anyone’s interested. The book I learned to read and write Thai from, explained transcriptions like this: aa is pronounced as an American (primarily a midwest American) would pronounce the “a” in the word “Can.” In Bangkok, most of the “R’s” are actually pronounced as an “L.” So when I’m trying to learn a word, I actually have it spelled in Thai script so I can literally transcribe it. For instance, the word Rawn (Hot) actually is pronounced as Lawn. A word with only one “A” or an “Ah” is pronounced as the British would pronounce it.

I should also note, my girlfiend has commented me recently on my expanded knowledge of Pasa Thai (Thai Language), and I plan on having her give me a test of this month’s newly learned words. This list is going to be big here as I have been without internet for close to 3 weeks, so here goes…

Monday – Lang Jak (after) – I saw it also used as just lang, but that means back, as in “I hurt my back.” Maybe it’s just understood as “after.”
Tuesday – Dawn Nee (now) – Another useful word to know. A British colleague of mine took me by one of my student’s house as he set up private tutoring for me with him, and he was speaking Thai to the cabbie, and I heard him say “dawn nee” and it was just really neat to be able to understand so much more when you know certain words.
Wednesday – Lok (Earth, ground)
Thursday – Muh Gaw (Before)
Friday – Ai (Shy) I was ordering food to take back to my apartment and had my dog Toongun with me, and some woman was trying to pet him, but he was so shy with her. I didn’t know it at the time but thought of it to ask my girlfriend how to say it for next time.
Saturday – Jep Kaw (Sore Throat) – I was going to run a 12K marathon tonight but got a sore throat, maybe mild bronchitis. Jep means “hurt” and Kaw means “throat.”
SundayMai (New) – Not to be confused with Mai, which means “No.”
Monday – Dai Yin (Hear)
Tuesday – Kahn Nawk (Outside)
Wednesday – Mua Wan, Mua Keun, Mua Bee (Yesterday, Last Night, Last Year)
Thursday – Fang (Listen) – You can say “Fang Na” or “Fang Dee Dee” which is telling someone to listen to you right now, politely of course.
Friday – Gat (Bite) – We took Lilly and Toongun to Fashion Island (local mall) today where they were having a little pet bazaar, and people were asking me if they bit. Nice to know for next time. They don’t bite, by the way.
Saturday – Tang Kai Yah (Garbage)
Sunday – Tuke (Right, correct)
Monday – Gaaow (Glass, mug, cup) – This word is so highly unspecific.
Tuesday – Yu (Stay) – You use this to say you are somewhere. Pom yu tee nee means “I am here.”
Wednesday – Doo (Watch (v.))
Thursday – Sia Jai (Sad) – Literally means, “lose heart.” Dee Jai (Happy) literally translates to “good heart.”
Friday – Khian (Write)
Saturday – Daa (Bad) – My girlfriend and her brother were talking about their older brother, and used this word to describe him.
Sunday – Nah Giat (Ugly) – If you say Nah in front of some descriptive words, it changes the meaning considerably. Rak (pronounced with an “L”) means “love” but when you add Nah before it it means “Cute” or “Lovely.” The same with Kee (Shit). If you say Kee Niow it literally means “Sticky Shit” but is used to say someone is cheap or stingy.

I think this is going to really help me remember things. I’m a visual learner, and have been remembering Thai words better if I see them written down. It doesn’t just help if I hear the word, because if I see it in Thai, I know how to exactly pronounce it.

Monday – Grah Pao (bag, backpack) – I just asked one of my students this as I looked around the room for something new to learn. He happily obliged and wrote the word in Thai on the whiteboard so that I could commit it to memory.

Tuesday – Nah Lee Gah Kaw Muh (wristwatch) – It literally means clock on your wrist, because Nah Lee Gah means clock, and Kaw Muh means wrist.

Wednesday – Rawng Tao (shoes) – I just asked my student to write the word of the day on the board.

Thursday – Pueun (friend) – Thought this was one I should know. The way this is pronounced is you say Poo-un but tighten your lips up as you say it.

Friday – Gep (put away) – I told my students to put something away and asked my resident Thai mentor/homeroom student how to say it in Thai. Now I’ll be able to catch them off guard when I bust out a little Thai on them.

Saturday – kaang raang (strong) – We were taking my dogs for a walk, and I commented to my girlfriend’s brother how strong my dalmatian, Lilly, was. Then I asked him how to say it in Thai. Of course in Bangkok, it would really be pronounced kaang laang instead.

Sunday – daa (but) – Just another word I felt was appropriate to know.

I’ve made a commitment to myself now. I will learn one new word in Thai every day, however insignificant it may be. I will record my process on 43T and see how well it goes. My girlfriend made a comment to me a while ago about how all of my friends here speak Thai better than I do. I don’t think this is very true. I think being able to read and write Thai already puts me ahead of them, and I said what my girlfriend said to me to my friend Gord, and he disagreed. He said that I’ll say stuff to my girlfriend in his presence sometimes and he has no idea what I’m talking about. True I have been lazy about learning, but I have been very busy lately, and I don’t get out much either.

When I do get out, however, I have to remember to add “krahp” at the end of my sentences. It’s a polite way of speaking to somebody you are unfamiliar with. My girlfriend is always having to correct me on that one. Oops!

Thursday – bit fah (lid or cover for a cup) – I often stop at 7-11 in the morning to get coffee (a little 9oz. cup!) and I have to ask for a lid at the counter. Made sense to know this one.
Friday – laa gaw (and then)- useful in giving directions to someone. Turn right, go straight, and then turn left. Who would ask me for directions, I have no idea.
Saturday – lang (wash) – I was at my girlfriend’s parents’ house and needed to wash my face. Learned this one from them. Lang nah (wash face).
Sunday – sai (wear) – I was debating on whether or not I should wear my nice, new knockoff watch that I paid 100 Baht for (about $3). My girlfriend told me this one.

Bear in mind that the tones also mean a lot when speaking Thai, something I have far from mastered.

I really need to work on this. Especially since every time I DO speak Thai the Thai people are always complimenting me on my pronunciation. I’ve been out here for 7 weeks now, and while I have learned a lot (especially swear words – I know TOO many of these. One is in the title of this entry.), I really should get back to my Thai CD-ROM program. I did, however, buy another book called “Thai for advanced readers” the other day. And I am miles ahead of almost any farang out here because I can read and write Thai script, and this book is really going to further me along in that department.

So the point of this entry is I know a lot of Thai swear words and I really want to get back to my CD-ROM program, and really start practicing again.

Well, when I got back from Thailand in February, I worked ever so diligently at practicing speaking and writing in Thai. I bought several speaking aid programs and a few books as well. Then, summer came. And the learning stopped. And now that it is fall, I have still been struggling getting back into the swing of things. But I am bound and determined to finish what I started. I even brought my speaking program into work today. Now, if I can just tear myself away from 43T for a little bit…