One of the more common things I had heard about my future life was that I would return to the States fluent in Thai. I would be able to show off my impeccable skills at all of the Thai restaurants I liked to frequent. Sadly, I have no idea where else I would be able to utilize my killer skills, but I would find a way. Everyone said that I would definitely pick up the language after living here for a year. How could I not? And seriously- how could I not? I live in a town where 99.99999% of the people speak only Thai. The only other people that speak English are our students (and that's debatable), a handful of co-workers, the other farang, and a few random locals that we meet here and there. But, the majority of people speak Thai without an ounce of English. And that's my problem. I am living in their country. So, really, the assumption that I would pick up the language isn't that unbelievable. But try listening to Thai for a few minutes and you'll see why I am struggling to just 'pick it up.
In the beginning, Thai terrified me. When I went to the local street vendors, I put my head down in shame as I butchered their language. I panicked as they continually asked for my order. I ate a whole lot of 'kao gai' which isn't even a real thing. All I was saying was 'rice chicken.' Luckily, they found my farang-ness amusing and made something delicious. Even as I gained confidence in my small vocabulary, I still made a fool of myself. Ordering 'kao phat gai' (fried rice with chicken) could have been a number of things. It's the tones... those dang tones. The Thai language has 5 tones and and at first, they all sounded the same to me. Now, I can hear them, but I haven't even come close to mastering them in my own speech. 'Kao' is one of those special words that has multiple meanings, depending on the tone. AKA I could have been ordering 'fried fishy chicken' or 'fried news chicken.' You would think that in the context of ordering food it would make sense to the vendor...but I was met all too often with a very confused gaze. Yikes.
Months have gone by and I have definitely made a lot of progress in my Thai. Between working with my students, mingling with Thais and asking fellow teachers for help, I have picked up a lot of words. I tried to compile a list of all of the words I knew, and to my surprise, I had written down a couple hundred Thai words/phrases. And my diet has gone far beyond simply rice and chicken. My food-ventures have become much more exciting, as I can communicate more detailed orders. However, I am so far off from understanding what is going on around me. For every 15 words spoken to me, I can maybe understand one or two. I may know a decent amount of words, but when I try to communicate them to the students, they usually laugh at my abysmal Thai accent. And then there's the sentence structure. It is still beyond me. Something as simple as 'What is your name?' ("Khun chue arai, ka?') is literally translated as 'You name what?" There are no articles and the adjectives come after the noun and it's all very confusing.
I am getting much more aggressive in my attempt to learn the language by asking a million plus one questions to those few coworkers or friends that speak Thai and English. Sarah and I bought a book this weekend in Bangkok, which we plan to practice with daily. We plan on spending a lot of time at coffee shops and 'restaurants' in hopes that the Thais will assist our learning. But learning the language is going to take a lot of time, dedication and guidance. There is literally no chance of just 'picking it up.' I have high hopes of advancing my skills, but only because I am determined, not because it will just come to me.
So, I can confidently say that Myth #1 has been busted. Sorry, suckers.
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| Thai alphabet |
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| Wish me luck! |
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