Learning Thai: the most rewarding thing to do badly

Over 60 million people speak Thai (six times more than speak Swedish). While you can enjoy your Samui holiday speaking only English, you’ll be infinitely rewarded for learning just a few words in Thai. Unlike in many parts of Asia, Thais will expect you learn at least hello and thank you in their language. It’s the least you can do for a perfect vacation, right? Any efforts will pay off &, again, unlike many parts of Asia, Thais will be far happier to teach you their language than pester for English tips.

So how does the Thai language work? There’s no standard method to write Thai words in the Latin alphabet. (Whereas Chinese has ‘pinyin’, for example). So you might see ‘sawasdee’ (hello) written any number of ways.

• Like French, pronouns are selected by gender. (However the speaker and subject’s relative status are considered, too).
• Verbs aren’t conjugated. Instead, the sentence gives context to the tense. (E.g. the words ‘yesterday’ or ‘tomorrow’ would indicate past or future tense). This makes it an easy language to learn to speak badly!
• There are 5 tones – making Thai 1 tone harder to learn than Mandarin. (Consider it the pay-back for lack of verb conjugation). Pronunciation will be your Everest…

Learn a few words in advance

        

• Lonely Planet’s Thai phrasebook ranks #1 on Amazon for learning Thai. As ‘visual learners’, it helps to have words & phrases to look at while asking Thai speakers for pronunciation.
• Slightly more seriously, Thai For Beginners, comes with an Audio CD and very positive reviews.
• On Samui? We’ve always enjoyed Mind Your Language for fun and informative classes. It’s possible to book just a 1-hour class during your stay to pick up the basics – learn to order your favourite curry!

(Photo credit to Hidde de Vries via Flickr Creative Commons)