learning thai.

I say "learning"... but take that with a grain of salt. So far I've succeeded in saying that a little boy is "toothless" (instead of handsome), that "I cough" (instead of "I'm embarrassed") and "2nd floor" (instead of "I teach") and that was just today.

Thai is hard! There are 5 different tones, which result in 5 different meanings for many words. "Cow" can mean: enter, white, rice, knee, etc. So much room for "farang error!" My Thai friends are very patient with me, and while my "Thai" is often met with quizzical looks and "mai cow jai" (I don't understand), they have been teaching me a lot!

Ting gave me a small notebook last month to start recording the Thai words I was learning. So far I have over 80 words in my notebook, not all of which I have mastered, but I am practicing! Ching-ching (really)!

Tonight, on our way back from Victory Monument, Aom challenging me to count to 100 in Thai, which I have never done. Numbers have been a bit of a struggle for me. Not because they are particularly hard, but because I don't practice them enough to really be fluent in them. It took almost the whole walk back, but I did it! (Nung, song, sam, sea, ha, hok, jet, baa(d), gaow, sip...)

As hard as it is to get the tones right and figure out where to place words in a sentence, it has also be so rewarding. My friends and even my students have been very encouraging of my efforts to speak in (albeit broken) Thai. It is also fun (sanook) to be able to pick out words that I recognize when I overhear conversations in Thai.

Noo and Aom are also teaching me a song (well, chorus) in Thai... They said this song was really popular ten years ago, which I believe based on the music video! Haha. The chorus is "mai ow na greng jai" which means "I don't want you to feel like your being a bother". "Greng jai" is a very common phrase in Thailand-- it means "I don't want to be a bother/be inconvenient". It is usually used to turn down someone's offer... but usually if you offer again, they will accept. Especially if you couple it with "mai ow na greng jai"!

[I don't know any of the Thai alphabet, but one of my students taught me how to write my name in Thai!]

I think that come September I will sign up for a Thai class to help with some of my Thai grammar and tones. I am learning a lot just by listening and through my many impromptu Thai tutoring sessions-- but I think having a class to lay a foundation would be helpful. Right now, I can only talk to people about a limited number of things... shopping, food, and very basic pleasantries. I would love to be able to share the Gospel not only with Thais who speak English well, but also with those who are in the lower-levels of English. I think that learning more of the language would really help with that.

Thank you for all your support, and "Praa-jaow oii pawn" (God bless you)!