Tag: Thai
Total 36 Posts
Posts regarding Thai Language and Thai Culture including Cracking Thai Fundamentals, Thai Bites and other Thai series by Stuart Jay Raj.
I mentioned in the 'politeness' post the other day that I have been coaching a friend who is getting his Thai citizenship, so that he can get through the Interview process in Thai. Another part of getting Thai citizenship is having to assume your new Thai identity under a new
I have been coaching a friend lately who is going for their Thai citizenship and is drilling interview scenarios to make sure that: 1. He responds appropriately; 2. He projects the right 'image' of himself through HOW he responds in Thai; YOU MAY BE A SUM OF THE WORDS YOU
In the spirit of controversial and thought provoking posts, I hope that the discussions spurred from this post will act as memory pegs for everyone and by the end of it, nobody will use the Thai word กว่า 'gwà' interchangeably with the '-er' (big, biggER ... biggest) in English.
Why doesn't Thai use spaces? Surely it would be easier to read if spaces were put between words? Really? ... maybe you'll have a different opinion after watching this clip. If you haven't watched part 1 yet, here's the link https://stujay.com/debunked-thai-is-the-worlds-most-complicated-writing-system/ The Part 1 'Debunked' clip caused so
There is one clip on Youtube that has probably done more to destroy the spirit of people learning Thai than any other. 'The World's Most Complicated Writing System' (Thai) by Youtuber Xidnaf came out about 6 years ago and while at first the clip just frustrated me through its preposterous
I'm sure there will be some differing opinions out there on this one, but for me personally, one of the things that I have seen really stunt learners' development of gaining a deep and broad facility in Thai (and other languages) has derived from asking 'How do you say [WORD
Learning the Thai script - consonants, vowels, tones, tone markers ... I know this is probably preaching to the choir, flogging a dead horse - and many other overused idioms ... but as I read through discussions here, on Youtube and in other groups, I realised when I put my clip out
On the topic of Pitch Paradigms from mother tongues interfering with tones and prosody / natural sounding rhythms when speaking Thai, I've just put this visual representation together of how many learners of Thai - or just visitors to Thailand pronounce สวัสดี sawat dee (khrap /kha) - In English when
THE 'LISTING' PARADIGM ... 1→(N-1)=RISING ; N=FALLINGIf you're a native speaker of English or other European language, count to 10. ... ... Now count to 5 ... Chances are that you'll notice some subconscious 'Pitch Paradigms' or 'Pitch Envelopes' come into play. In English when we list things off - like when
Many new-comers to Thailand make the mistake of asking 'How do you say 'Yes' and 'No' in Thai?' The reality is that there's no such word as 'Yes' as we have it in English. To answer in the affirmative, just repeat the verb back. ใช่ châi means 'it
When writing Thai letters, ALWAYS start from the location of the main loop - even in writing styles where the loop is missing, your pen will still start from that place. There are only 2 Thai letters without a loop - ก and ธ. You will see many fonts out
How should you REALLY pronounce 'Huawei' 华为 (華為)? Xiaomi 小米? - How about surnames starting in NG like 'Ng', 'Ngo' 吳 and 'Nguyen' 阮? - And what about Muay Thai (มวยไทย)? Some people spend a lifetime mastering Thai boxing and even moving to Thailand, but still fail to pronounce it
Asking for 'Not too spicy' and still getting Nuclear level spicy? - Maybe you're saying it wrong. This issue has come up twice this past week with 2 foreigners learning Thai who finally realised that they were ordering 'spiciness' wrong for many years now - and were finally able to
There are two topics that recur month after month in all of the Thai language online groups that I follow. The first is whether or not the Thai letter ก should be transliterated as a 'g' or a 'k' when written in the Latin alphabet and the second is whether
"I'll see you on my furry this evening" - This might sound like the introduction to an 'R'-rated story, but this in fact was the parting sentence that led to a deep state of confusion for an American friend visiting Thailand when he was planning to meet up with a
Learning a new language can be confusing sometimes. No matter how hard we listen and how hard we try, there are often times where native speakers struggle to understand what we are trying to say. Surely we're saying it right aren't we? Take a look at the following words: dog
Getting Tattoos in Thai, Chinese, Arabic and other Foreign Scripts is Dangerous - Think Before You Ink Getting a tattoo in Chinese characters, or using Thai, Khmer or even Arabic writing may seem exotic, mysterious, spiritual or just 'cool' to some, however even if you actually manage to translate what
The lady had the word ไทย 'Thai' tattooed inThai on her foot. “I wish someone would throw acid on her – that would show these uneducated people without couth to respect people” “I would like to splash acid in her face” “How would she feel if I put her country / name in the same place?”
Take a look at the following words in English and see if you can work out what they all have in common: pedestrian, podiatrist, pedestal, pedicure, pedal, path. FEET! If you're a native speaker of English, even if you don't speak fluent Latin or Greek, you will still twig when
While the Thai language did not derive from Sanskrit (which is an Indo-european language akin to Latin and Greek), because of its cultural and religious history, there are an enormous amount of Sanskrit based words and influences used in everyday Thai. Take a look at these words in English and
