Open Sesame, Thailand
Fourteen days into my alotted six weeks in Thailand and it has yet to become the “Land of Smiles” for me. I feel I need to take some responsibility for this, however, so I have decided to do two things: cease the constant comparisons to Bali and learn to speak some Thai. This morning, rather than leaving Chiang Rai for Pai as I had planned, I did a complete about-face and enrolled in an intensive two-day/ eight hour Thai language course. I’m studying with a woman named Wanlapa who promises I can speak Thai after 6 hours of lessons. Of course we both know that I won’t be speaking fluently … that’s what the extra two hours are for. Kidding.
I realize that I can’t make Thailand into Bali … nor should I try. Thailand has its own charms and unique personality that I look forward to knowing. But I think a big part of the reason Bali opened up to me and showed me her magic is that I took the time to learn some Indonesian before I arrived and made the effort to use it once I was there. I’m hoping that Thailand is the same and that being able to say sewatdee ka (hello) with all the right tones will be the equivalent of saying “open sesame.”
The Thai language has 44 consonents and fifteen vowels that can be combined in 32 different ways. Additionally, one can say the same word with five different tones and have five different meanings. For example, “mai” can mean “no,” “mile,” “new,” “silk,” or “correct?” depending on whether your tone is rising, falling, flat or a combination of rising/falling (marked with ˆ) or falling/rising (marked with ˇ). If you’re not careful with your tones, while attempting to tell someone “come here,” you can instead call them a horse or a dog. I couldn’t imagine how Wanlapa could have me speaking this incredibly complex language in six hours, yet after two, I can say, “Hello, my name is Beverly. I am American. How are you? I am fine. Nice to meet you. This is a book. Is that a pen? Excuse me. Thank you. You’re welcome.” I also learned to count to one hundred. Granted, I can’t do the majority of this without a lot of pauses and thinking at this point. However, I’m optimistic … and determined. Open sesame, Thailand.
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You can do it, Bev!
FROM BEVERLY: Thanks Aynex. I appreciate the vote of confidence.
I thought that you were almost to the point of using hand gestures to communicate! Glad that it didn’t come to that point. Enjoy yourself!
FROM BEVERLY: LOL. Maybe I’ve given a mis-impression of Thailand. It’s not that the people here are mean or ugly; not at all (except for that knife-vending woman who was rather abrupt.) I just haven’t experienced that “Welcome to Thailand! We’re so glad you’re here!” kind of magic that I did when I was in Bali … or Mexico, Brazil, Morrocco or many other places I’ve traveled to. But I notice that one common denominator among all of those countries is that I at least spoke a little of the local language and people really seemed to appreciate me making the effort. Perhaps it’s just trying that opens doors in these countries. Think of all the times Americans get upset when people come to our country and never attempt to learn English. I figure it’s the same thing so hopefully by learning some Thai, I’ll open some doors here in Thailand. If not, I have no problem moving on to Vietnam a little ahead of schedule!
Hi… great post here, and I think you are absolutely right that learning some of the Thai language will definitely open doors for you. I just wanted to tell you that I have been working on a website that teaches Thai language with online courses. There are a lot of free lessons on our site with audio from native speakers and some exercises that can give you a jump start to learning Thai. The website it at http://www.its4thai.com.
I think you have the right approach and you’ve made a lot of progress already. Good luck!
FROM BEVERLY: Thanks, Stuart. I’ll have a look at your site.
Hey Beverly! I only just got to reading your blog… I couldn’t find it anywhere in our emails, yet there was reference to it !
I am reading recent … to backwards, so just seeing that Thailand is yet to be ’smiley’ for you… I went for a wild 3 day weekend way back in 1991 and it was awesome… I went with a carry-on and returned to the UK with 3 full suitcases of jewelry and custom-made clothing ! I can tell you now that the gold jewelry (that looks SO gold it seems fake) IS worth buying
I don’t know how or why you would compare Bali to Thailand.. I’ll read back in your blog to try and discover that.. but as you can see they are worlds apart !
No doubt I will comment on other things as I go back in time and read about the rest of your travels…
Smiles from Florida
Julia
FROM BEVERLY: Read on (or back), Julia and you’ll understand. Glad you found the blog site.