Coming to Thailand twenty-five days ago, I knew one word in Thai: “sawadikap” (some friends in Malaysia, when they found out I was going to Thailand, started to say that to me all the time; it means “hello”). I felt okay with my one-word vocabulary though. I had started to feel a little concerned that I didn’t make more of an effort, any effort really, to learn some Thai, especially when Pete urgently asked me on several occasions if GSV should invest in some Rosetta Stone and send it my way. And then Antonia sent me a note a month or two prior to my arrival saying I should really try to pick up some simple Thai because it would make a world of a difference. But even then, I didn’t have the energy to sit down and learn a completely foreign language, amidst my leaving Malaysia, coming home to LA, visiting NY, and traveling to Thailand. I knew learning Thai would not be easy, but I felt ready to go with the flow. So I was content with “sawadikap.”
Then I arrived in Nongkhai and learned that I was saying the one word I thought I knew, incorrectly. Since I am a female, the correct way for me to say hello is “sawadiKA” not “sawadiKAP”. It was then I started to understand Pete’s and Antonia’s concern.
In my first couple weeks here, I really felt overwhelmed by Thai. I have always loved learning new languages. I loved French in high school and college. I loved Malay and Dusun in Malaysia. I was looking forward to learning Thai. But this is also the most I’ve ever been immersed in a language other than English. In Malaysia, English was everywhere (former British colony) and I could have easily gone through the year learning no Malay. Here in Thailand, in my placement, it really is necessary to learn Thai in order to build more fulfilling relationships with the community. And Thailand, which incidentally is a country that has never been colonized by any outside nation, really seems to be very Thai. TV shows, radio stations, movies – it seems to be 98% Thai. Which is a big difference from Malaysia, where I was kept up to date with American and British entertainment. I knew every song on the radio when I came back home. That won’t be the case when I come back from Thailand. (I’m really really excited about this discovery. I’m already a fan of Thai music videos.)
So in arriving here, I understood just how necessary learning Thai was. But I was overwhelmed. Every time I heard someone speaking Thai, every time one of the women spoke Thai to me, all I heard were sounds. I couldn’t even distinguish between different words let alone sentences. It was, it IS, such a foreign language to me. With Malay, it sounds very similar to Tagalog, which I grew up hearing my mom speak. So with Malay, I felt I caught on to the rhythms of the language quickly. But hearing Thai was like someone trying to teach me how to whistle – it just didn’t register in my brain at all.
My first two weeks, I don’t think I said anything at all to the people I work with at Hands of Hope. Of course I would say hello and thank you, but I was very frustrated that I couldn’t say simple things like “beautiful!” or “do you have scissors?” or “how are you?” I kept saying all these phrases in my head in Malay and inwardly grumbling that if I were back in Sabah, it would be so different.
I really felt trapped and silenced in the first couple weeks. (Mostly with the people I work with – Antonia my boss is Australian and my two Danish housemates speak English fluently.) Even though there was so much communication possible and even though body language works pretty well, I just couldn’t express myself and there was so much I wanted to know, so much I wanted to tell them.
The frustration continued when I started to try to learn some words, by pointing at things and saying “Thai?” - I could barely understand how people were pronouncing things. Like I said, it really just sounded like sounds. Sounds that I couldn’t even visualize in my head. Which was another thing! It was difficult to write things down phonetically, which was even more discouraging because I really need to see something to memorize it. And I couldn’t even practice reading Thai (I can read Malay pretty well), because Thai is written in Thai script! Overwhelming.
Then we started Party Thai lessons. Our teacher’s name is Party. We meet with her twice a week and it’s amazing. She has been able to give us phonetic spellings, which has opened up Thai for me. I stopped being so frustrated.
However, it is still a little bit overwhelming sometimes because so much of the language IS based on sounds. There are many different tones and intonations in Thai and there are words that are pronounced the same phonetically but with different tones have different meanings. For example, the word “ngai.” Say “ngai” in a slightly low voice, kind of like you’re tired, and it means tired! Say “ngai” in a slightly high voice, kind of like you’re excited, and it means easy! My notes for Thai have a lot of up and down arrows and exclamation points after the words.
Antonia compared learning Thai like learning how to sing. And I love that she said that because approaching Thai like music has really helped me find some kind of rhythm. I’ve never learned a language like this. There are so many layers! I often have to remind myself to not only listen to how people are pronouncing things, but to notice how and where their voices go up and down. If I were really talented and a super fast note taker, I would love to write Thai phonetically WITH music notes. From my years playing piano, I know there are notations for high and low and dragging notes out, all of which would be so useful to me right now! For example, the words for near and far is “glai”: near is “glai!” and far is “glaaaaaiii”.
Now I’m really starting to love learning Thai. I love that words like “glai” SOUND like their meanings. Think about it. It’s like saying “It’s so close!” or “It’s soooo faaaaar.” I’m having more fun, now that I’m approaching it with different ears, different mind.
Some observations on learning a new language:
- NO EXPECTATIONS. In learning a new language, you really have to forget what you think you know about communicating. You have to give up all your perceptions of how you think people should say things. Of what you expect them to say.
- NO COMPARISONS. Things usually don’t translate word for word. And many times, don’t translate at all! Don’t be surprised if common phrases like “Did you have a good day?” are not common at all. Furthermore, sometimes, what takes 5 words in English, will take 10 in Thai. “How many children do you have?” is “Khun mee nak rian pbra man tau rai ka?”
- There are MANY INTERPRETATIONS. For example, “kao” can mean he or she, or rice, or understand, depending on how you use it. Just like the English word "will" is the future tense, or the last will and testament, or the stubbornness of a person!
- It’s important to learn proper Thai, but also learn the local accent. When you say “rong rian” people will look at you and scratch their heads. When you switch and say “long lian” then they will understand that you’re saying “school.” On that note, embrace that your name is Lala in Thailand.
- STAY POSITIVE. Just because you can’t speak it, doesn’t mean that you should beat yourself up OR the language! At the end of the day, millions of people read these symbol looking things like it’s nothing. Millions of people speak this foreign, in every sense of that word, language like its nothing. The way we use language is so special and so unique.
Then I arrived in Nongkhai and learned that I was saying the one word I thought I knew, incorrectly. Since I am a female, the correct way for me to say hello is “sawadiKA” not “sawadiKAP”. It was then I started to understand Pete’s and Antonia’s concern.
In my first couple weeks here, I really felt overwhelmed by Thai. I have always loved learning new languages. I loved French in high school and college. I loved Malay and Dusun in Malaysia. I was looking forward to learning Thai. But this is also the most I’ve ever been immersed in a language other than English. In Malaysia, English was everywhere (former British colony) and I could have easily gone through the year learning no Malay. Here in Thailand, in my placement, it really is necessary to learn Thai in order to build more fulfilling relationships with the community. And Thailand, which incidentally is a country that has never been colonized by any outside nation, really seems to be very Thai. TV shows, radio stations, movies – it seems to be 98% Thai. Which is a big difference from Malaysia, where I was kept up to date with American and British entertainment. I knew every song on the radio when I came back home. That won’t be the case when I come back from Thailand. (I’m really really excited about this discovery. I’m already a fan of Thai music videos.)
So in arriving here, I understood just how necessary learning Thai was. But I was overwhelmed. Every time I heard someone speaking Thai, every time one of the women spoke Thai to me, all I heard were sounds. I couldn’t even distinguish between different words let alone sentences. It was, it IS, such a foreign language to me. With Malay, it sounds very similar to Tagalog, which I grew up hearing my mom speak. So with Malay, I felt I caught on to the rhythms of the language quickly. But hearing Thai was like someone trying to teach me how to whistle – it just didn’t register in my brain at all.
My first two weeks, I don’t think I said anything at all to the people I work with at Hands of Hope. Of course I would say hello and thank you, but I was very frustrated that I couldn’t say simple things like “beautiful!” or “do you have scissors?” or “how are you?” I kept saying all these phrases in my head in Malay and inwardly grumbling that if I were back in Sabah, it would be so different.
I really felt trapped and silenced in the first couple weeks. (Mostly with the people I work with – Antonia my boss is Australian and my two Danish housemates speak English fluently.) Even though there was so much communication possible and even though body language works pretty well, I just couldn’t express myself and there was so much I wanted to know, so much I wanted to tell them.
The frustration continued when I started to try to learn some words, by pointing at things and saying “Thai?” - I could barely understand how people were pronouncing things. Like I said, it really just sounded like sounds. Sounds that I couldn’t even visualize in my head. Which was another thing! It was difficult to write things down phonetically, which was even more discouraging because I really need to see something to memorize it. And I couldn’t even practice reading Thai (I can read Malay pretty well), because Thai is written in Thai script! Overwhelming.
Then we started Party Thai lessons. Our teacher’s name is Party. We meet with her twice a week and it’s amazing. She has been able to give us phonetic spellings, which has opened up Thai for me. I stopped being so frustrated.
However, it is still a little bit overwhelming sometimes because so much of the language IS based on sounds. There are many different tones and intonations in Thai and there are words that are pronounced the same phonetically but with different tones have different meanings. For example, the word “ngai.” Say “ngai” in a slightly low voice, kind of like you’re tired, and it means tired! Say “ngai” in a slightly high voice, kind of like you’re excited, and it means easy! My notes for Thai have a lot of up and down arrows and exclamation points after the words.
Antonia compared learning Thai like learning how to sing. And I love that she said that because approaching Thai like music has really helped me find some kind of rhythm. I’ve never learned a language like this. There are so many layers! I often have to remind myself to not only listen to how people are pronouncing things, but to notice how and where their voices go up and down. If I were really talented and a super fast note taker, I would love to write Thai phonetically WITH music notes. From my years playing piano, I know there are notations for high and low and dragging notes out, all of which would be so useful to me right now! For example, the words for near and far is “glai”: near is “glai!” and far is “glaaaaaiii”.
Now I’m really starting to love learning Thai. I love that words like “glai” SOUND like their meanings. Think about it. It’s like saying “It’s so close!” or “It’s soooo faaaaar.” I’m having more fun, now that I’m approaching it with different ears, different mind.
Some observations on learning a new language:
- NO EXPECTATIONS. In learning a new language, you really have to forget what you think you know about communicating. You have to give up all your perceptions of how you think people should say things. Of what you expect them to say.
- NO COMPARISONS. Things usually don’t translate word for word. And many times, don’t translate at all! Don’t be surprised if common phrases like “Did you have a good day?” are not common at all. Furthermore, sometimes, what takes 5 words in English, will take 10 in Thai. “How many children do you have?” is “Khun mee nak rian pbra man tau rai ka?”
- There are MANY INTERPRETATIONS. For example, “kao” can mean he or she, or rice, or understand, depending on how you use it. Just like the English word "will" is the future tense, or the last will and testament, or the stubbornness of a person!
- It’s important to learn proper Thai, but also learn the local accent. When you say “rong rian” people will look at you and scratch their heads. When you switch and say “long lian” then they will understand that you’re saying “school.” On that note, embrace that your name is Lala in Thailand.
- STAY POSITIVE. Just because you can’t speak it, doesn’t mean that you should beat yourself up OR the language! At the end of the day, millions of people read these symbol looking things like it’s nothing. Millions of people speak this foreign, in every sense of that word, language like its nothing. The way we use language is so special and so unique.
1 comment:
It will be interesting when you've learned more and you look at this post, and say, Thai? So easy!
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