Language Barriers

Thai is a tonal language. There are high, mid, and low tones, as well as rising and falling (and in some dialects of the language there are rising, static, and rising again tones, and vice versa with falling). For example: a low class consonant, long vowel, and dead ending, the tone is falling. A mid class consonant with any vowel and a live ending is a mid-tone. Right now I’m still reading off a little chart Ajaan (teacher) Wilasinee made up for us, and feel like I will be for quite some time. 

It’s a difficult language. They make sounds we don’t have in English. I accidentally called my Maa (mom) a duck because I pronounced it like the a in swam, instead of like the baah sound a sheep makes. My maa and pi (respectful title for one older than you) Fang just couldn’t stop laughing. It took a while until my nong (title for younger) Fern stopped giggling long enough to tell me what I said. Keep in mind, most people learn a language in 3-5 classes a week, an hour per class, for 2-5 years. I am learning Thai in 4 hours a day, 4 days a week, for 8 total weeks this semester. 

My pa is a police officer and had to work late, so Aaron’s host family was taking me home. He’s a fellow ISDSI student and lives nearby. With now three growing boys in the house, his maa stops by the food market on the way home from school. Placed right next to a 7 Eleven, these rows and rows of food vendors line the street and an open air building. Pastries, flowers, and a large selection of Thai cuisine are yours for the choosing, usually between 20-50 baht (max $1.50 USD) In Thai custom and courtesy, Aarons maa bought me some food while we were there. I got a delicious, freshly made crepe: a large dough, filled with banana slices and cream, folded up and fried, topped with sweet and condensed milk (that stuff is in everything here) and some confectioners’ sugar. IT WAS DELICIOUS! This is a large serving (for only 20 Baht!), so I was relatively full by the time we made it home. 

My maa doesn’t speak any English, so in Thai she asked me if I had eaten yet. I told her Aaron’s maa drive (hand motions and sound effects included) to market and I eat food. I said no want food, and proceeded to eat the rest of the mango (fresh, picked from the tree in our yard!) I started yesterday. The italics are what I said in Thai, so here’s [a modified version of] what I think she heard me say “You drive to market and buy food. I haven’t eaten yet.” Whoops… So next thing I know we’re in the car with Pi Fang, who doesn’t speak English either, and we end up at a market.

She buys TONS of food! A little from a half dozen vendors, and all of a sudden we’re on our way out. By now it’s 9 pm and we’re picking Fern up from some sort of extra late school. I try a sweet and sour (and spicy) meat on a stick (as always, delicious) she hands me while we drive home. Oh, did I mention there was a giant cockroach in her purse? She found it while we were sitting and waiting for Fern. So she just zipped the purse back up and waited until we went back outside before fishing it out. I sat a good 6 inches further away from her while we waited. Anyways, back on topic, on the way home I’m falling asleep in the car so when we get home I just want to shower and go to bed. Finally my pa and Fern are there and I can explain that I’m entirely too full to eat anymore, but thank you for the food. I feel so, so bad for [accidentally] making her drive to a market and buy me food, and then I was too full and tired to eat any of it. As I learn more Thai, I should be able to distinguish between the past, present, and future and we won’t have this problem again.

Family Photo! From left: Fang, Maa, Pa, Me, Fern.

On a very different note: Today I spend a lot of time showing pictures to my host family. I showed them prom photos, PG Betty photos, and family photos, to name a few. Likewise, I got to see family photos of Fang and Fern from way back when. I’m the tallest in my family, but they were some FAT babies. We talked about Thai versus American customs, and about money as well. I said I make about 270 Baht/ hour, and that’s a low wage. They said a Thai would make about 300 a day! That’s probably why you don’t see many Thai’s in America. I explained all about my job and showed them some pictures of Broken Rocks as well. I explained how a plate of Pad Thai in America costs around 400 Baht. Theirs is around 30. A few days earlier I was telling Fern how we make Pad Thai and Broken Rocks, so tonight for dinner we went to a market and my maa bought me some. This pad Thai came wrapped in a giant leaf. It was more noodles and less meant & egg than I’m used to. They also put sugar (nam thaan) on it, and fish sauce for salt. Less than full marks, but decent enough to pass.

Tomorrow I hike a mountain!