Post from Tim:
Our off-season beach resort on Ko Lanta was nearly empty. With a full week to be productive on a quiet beach, I had the perfect chance to learn the basics of the Thai language.
I worked through the alphabet with my homemade flash cards, arming myself with a shaky knowledge of Thai's 44 consonants and 28 vowels and dipthongs. In no time at all, I found myself transliterating street signs and store names in my head as I passed by them on the streets of the small island.
I needed real help to get farther, so I approached the unhurried staff at Kaw Kwang Bungalows for answers. I soon found myself seated with two women to receive a Thai lesson and give an English one.
The Thai language is tonal, much like Chinese and Vietnamese. Words are pronounced with a tone that is either low, mid, high, rising, or falling, allowing many similar words to have different meanings. Thus the sentence, "The new wood was not burnt, silk burnt," is translated in Thai as, "Mai mai mai mai mai mai." Correctly pronounced, this sentence would sound like this, "Mai (with high tone), mai (with low tone), mai (with falling tone), mai (with falling tone), mai (with rising tone), mai (with falling tone)."
Mastery of tones is important when speaking Thai, so I started with some questions I had on the subject. My two friends had different names with different spellings, and yet they were both called Puey. Rather, one was Puey (with rising tone) and one was Puey (with high tone). So the three of us sat around a table saying, "Puey? Puey! Puey? Puey!" and laughing. High tones are the hardest to pronounce with westerners. Words are pronounced at the top of one's vocal range. When I try it I sound as though I am singing falsetto.
I quickly learned that most Thais don't understand tones by terms such as high, low, and mid. Instead they hear them from birth and just understand them naturally. Puey (high) and Puey (rising) were perplexed by my simple questions. When I asked them to place tone markers over the "Mai mai mai mai mai mai." example they looked at me with confusion.
Puey (rising) said, "Well it is just, 'Mai mai mai mai mai mai.'."
As if that answered my question easily... "Yes, but which one is rising, falling, low, mid, and high?"
That question began a chorus of "mais" in every tone. Puey (rising) and Puey (high) sat and repeated the word over and over, waving their hands in the air tracing the tones like orchestra conductors. The two women were still baffled and consulted the idle kitchen staff, which set off a larger chain reaction. The restaurant sounded like a forest of chirping crickets repeating one word over and over.
The group settled on one version of tones, which I discovered 10 minutes later in my textbook was incorrect. I didn't learn much Thai that day, but I had a great time not learning.
I worked through the alphabet with my homemade flash cards, arming myself with a shaky knowledge of Thai's 44 consonants and 28 vowels and dipthongs. In no time at all, I found myself transliterating street signs and store names in my head as I passed by them on the streets of the small island.
I needed real help to get farther, so I approached the unhurried staff at Kaw Kwang Bungalows for answers. I soon found myself seated with two women to receive a Thai lesson and give an English one.
The Thai language is tonal, much like Chinese and Vietnamese. Words are pronounced with a tone that is either low, mid, high, rising, or falling, allowing many similar words to have different meanings. Thus the sentence, "The new wood was not burnt, silk burnt," is translated in Thai as, "Mai mai mai mai mai mai." Correctly pronounced, this sentence would sound like this, "Mai (with high tone), mai (with low tone), mai (with falling tone), mai (with falling tone), mai (with rising tone), mai (with falling tone)."
Mastery of tones is important when speaking Thai, so I started with some questions I had on the subject. My two friends had different names with different spellings, and yet they were both called Puey. Rather, one was Puey (with rising tone) and one was Puey (with high tone). So the three of us sat around a table saying, "Puey? Puey! Puey? Puey!" and laughing. High tones are the hardest to pronounce with westerners. Words are pronounced at the top of one's vocal range. When I try it I sound as though I am singing falsetto.
I quickly learned that most Thais don't understand tones by terms such as high, low, and mid. Instead they hear them from birth and just understand them naturally. Puey (high) and Puey (rising) were perplexed by my simple questions. When I asked them to place tone markers over the "Mai mai mai mai mai mai." example they looked at me with confusion.
Puey (rising) said, "Well it is just, 'Mai mai mai mai mai mai.'."
As if that answered my question easily... "Yes, but which one is rising, falling, low, mid, and high?"
That question began a chorus of "mais" in every tone. Puey (rising) and Puey (high) sat and repeated the word over and over, waving their hands in the air tracing the tones like orchestra conductors. The two women were still baffled and consulted the idle kitchen staff, which set off a larger chain reaction. The restaurant sounded like a forest of chirping crickets repeating one word over and over.
The group settled on one version of tones, which I discovered 10 minutes later in my textbook was incorrect. I didn't learn much Thai that day, but I had a great time not learning.
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