Today was our last Thai Language Class for Book 1. This means we'll have new classmates and more than likely a new teacher for Book 2 (which starts Thursday!)
To celebrate, we all took our teacher, Tuk, out for lunch and bought her one of her favorite things- a chocolate cake! And it was ALL for her to eat!
Here are some pictures that our friend Kyo took during lunch.
Peter, Tuk and Bill
Brian, Mo, Roxanne and Kate
Ferdie, Lena, Jen and Me
Jen and I following the Red Taxi to the restaurant
Bill, Lena and Roxanne in the back of the Red Taxi
Kyo was taking all the pics, so I dont have any pics of her :(
Studying Thai is so fun! But also so hard!
Basically in Thai there are 5 tones. You could take one word such as “maa” and it could have 5 different meanings for it depending on how you say it. It’s really challenging to remember what words go with what tone. So our brains get extremely tired after studying for a while.
It’s also interesting to learn the language because there is so much history tied into it. So much of the Thai language is centered around their culture. Reasons they say things one way or another. For example, when you are speaking to someone older than you, you say “Pii” and then their name. But if they are younger than you, you say “Noong” and then their name. So in Thailand, it’s very much their practice to ask you your age as soon as they meet you, so they know what to call you.
We just recently learned how to tell time. There are 2 different ways to do it- 2 systems. One of the system is set back before Thailand had clocks. They would have a huge Gong in the village. And each hour they would strike the Gong as many times as it was the hour. So now, when they tell what time it is, you say “hour (like 1, 2, etc), then “moong” (sounds like Moooooongggg) – because that is the sound the Gong used to make! Then you say the time of day (morning, afternoon, evening). Its so interesting!
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