Learning the Language

Another lovely perk of being an educator at ISB (International School Bangkok) is that the school wants you to immerse yourself in the culture so they pay for you to attend 10 Thai language lessons. I take my lessons each Monday afternoon from 4:00 – 5:30 with four other new staff to ISB. Two are Canadians and two are Australians so you can imagine the ribbing I take.  Our teacher is Khun Narissa (Khun is the polite way to address a Thai person like Mr. or Mrs). We have a book with words to learn and dialogue to practice each session. Lately we have been working on our numbers. We have also learned how to direct taxi drivers.  I now know how to tell the drivers to turn left, turn right and go straight ahead.  Our group does tend to get a little off task like when we were taking about the word for like (chaup). We went from liking water to liking fruits to liking beer to liking our spouses, and even some movie stars. Probably the most useful phrase I have learned lately and have actually been able to use I learned when we were talking about the wording for “a little” – nit noi. Somehow that day our off-task discussion ended with learning “chuay bow bow nit noi mai?”  This can be translated to “Please lessen the pressure of the massage, okay?” And believe it or not, David and I actually were able to use it when were were in Sai Yok last weekend. I can’t wait to learn how to start bargaining with the vendors.