How I Made Communication Easier When I Am In Thailand

[kenjon]

I travel to Thailand very often for business and leisure. The biggest problem I have is "HOW TO" communicate with the locals. Especially when ordering food, guess u guys out there, have the same experience at finger pointing whats on the menu, and not knowing what to expect. haha... Even asking them for a fork or spoon was a big headache. I once tried ordering more rice for my the chicken rice meal that I was having. Wat I got was another plate of chicken rice?!?

I got this app recently for my iphone which helped me alot. I can now just type it in and show them the translation in thai. It even has audio and the pronuncaition to help me learn abit of the language. Works well for me!!! To everyone who has the same problem as me...I recommend this!!! Check it out on app store...its called "the thai translator"....you can recognise it by the TTT on the icon.

Hope this helps!!! :D

Maybe you guys can share wat u do to communicate when u are a non thai speaker.... I really need to make my life easier when I am there....

[apetley]

I'm learning to speak Thai

[simon43]

Probably this post should be in the Thai Language forum. If you are able to read Thai, the 'ThaiDict' from True Applications is also a very good dictionary for the iPhone

Simon

[sharecropper]

I go up to them real close, point at them and bellow English in their face until they get the message.

Ok, I don't, but I would suggest a lot of patience, smiling and pointing at whatever the object under discussion is, can do the trick. As can mime (but be careful what you mime!).

[OxfordWill]

"Wave your arms, talk a bit louder, and if they still dont understand- smash the place up, secure in the knowledge that you did your best."

- Ricky Gervais

[kensingto]

Are you promoting iphone here? Just kidding. If you want to make your life easier here, you better learn the language.

[galvheim]

I see very often that the people in the world that really should know to speak English, like people from the UK, US, and Australia and New Zealand, are many times the worst at communicating it. I see many Thai's give up totally when trying to understand the English coming out from people from the UK. No offence, but it seems like many people don't adjust to the level of english that Thais speak. Its not that they can't understand the periods of a verb (go, went, gone) or diffrent or what number the subjective is (car, cars) or what grade of the adjective (happy, happier, happiest) - but they simply not use things like that in their own language and it takes a lot of practise and experience to learn. So you have to make it simple. In my case, I have downgraded my English A LOT from I started to visit Thailand. I also mix it more and more with Thai.

My suggestion is to learn some crucial words when it comes to dining, which was also some of the first words I learnt myself, from the same experiences as described above.

The biggest mistake, when ordering, is that they see you are farang, so you can of course not eat as spicy as them (in their mind). So if asked if you want spicy (pet), and you say "just little bit", or trying some basic Thai and say "gin pet nid-noy", then very often you get absolutely no chilli in it, and it taste like shit. So the best way to answer is to say "gin pet tama-da", which mean you you will eat it as they would noramlly serve it to a Thai.

Many times the food can also get ruined by the chef putting in too much sugar. Especially some people like their meat-dishes very sweet, and I hate it so much. So often I just say to them in advance = Mai waan, krap" (Not sweet, thanks). On the other hand, they may ruin a perfectly nice and cooling fruit-shake by adding too much salt to it as a flavour enhancer. To avoid this, say: "Mai kem, krap".

Also just try to teach yourself the name of dishes. Usually you will learn many useful words by doing that. Like:

gai=chicken

kao=rice

pet=spicy

nam=water

bpann=shake

pla=fish

pat=vegetables

moo=pork

neua=beef

gaeo=glass

goong=shrimp

prick=chilli

nam-mann=oil

kai-mann=fat

glua=salt

gluai=banana

ma-prao=coconut

kai-dao=fried egg

nam-dtaan=sugar

waan=sweet

kem=salt

priao=sour

grob=fried pork skin

het=mushroom

subparod=pineapple

nom=milk

jaan=plate

zap=fine cut (used with meat)

Here's one example dish:

Pat-Ka-Pao Moo Zap, ao Kai Dao, Pet Tama-Da, Mai Waan=Minched Pork with Basil leaves with Fried Egg, Normal Spicy, and Not Sweet.

Edited January 4, 2010 by galvheim

[PattayaParent]

Are you promoting iphone here? Just kidding. If you want to make your life easier here, you better learn the language.

No, he's promoting his application.

[phibunmike]

Are you promoting iphone here? Just kidding. If you want to make your life easier here, you better learn the language.

No, he's promoting his application.

Correct. Should be under "classifieds".

[simon43]

, better to stick to the Thai dictionary for iPhone that I suggested.

(No, I didn't write it and I already speak/read/write reasonable Thai - it's just a very useful application)

Simon

[geriatrickid]

One of the most useful posts. To be printed and memorized.

Thanks!

[PeaceBlondie]

First, you'll seldom meet a Thai who's fluent in English, and willing to have a significant conversation in it.

Second, you will almost surely exhaust 40.000 baht and 300 hours of failing to find a Thai who can teach Thai to farang. They mai kojai, mostly.

Meanwhile, good luck,

[MrRichard2009]

Thats nonsence ..... it depends where you live and who you hang out with. Most all educated people in Thailand speak English just fine. The last upscale place I lived virtually everyone over 12 spoke fluent English.

[ignoramus]

Love that word "nonsence".... thanks Mr R. Great post galvheim....loved it, copied it to a doc for future reference, or is that "referense"?

[bellste]

Are you promoting iphone here? Just kidding. If you want to make your life easier here, you better learn the language.

He is trying to sell something, I think. I never had a problem with this. Who want an apple? Too much Jobs.

Where is he eating? In the jungle?

[SeanMoran]

Also just try to teach yourself the name of dishes. Usually you will learn many useful words by doing that. Like:

Aroi maak maak! Yes, thank you very much for such an informative and poignant post. For the past month, apart from the odd occasion when I have snuck away to KFC or A&W for an incognito lunch, my entire diet has consisted of khao-phad-gai or moo for breakfast and moo-yung-tim with khao-nio for dinner, because I just don't know how to read a menu and have such a meagre understanding of the right words to use when ordering a feed that lately (now that I've become a regular customer at BOTH of the restaurants around here and got to know the cook ladies by nickname) I just walk up to the counter when I arrive, take off the sunnies, smile apologetically and say "Gin khao lae ta khun and nueng kuat bia Chang, kap" and go and sit down and stare at the Moon until someone brings me something to eat with my beer.

Much appreciated. I have saved that textual list and will try to memorise a few of the components tomorrow before dinnertime.

[DegenFarang]

First, you'll seldom meet a Thai who's fluent in English, and willing to have a significant conversation in it.

Interesting. I have near daily conversations with Thai's who speak fluent English. Granted they are not serving me food at restaurants or dancing on silver poles - but there are plenty of Thai's who speak fluent English.

[PeaceBlondie]

First, you'll seldom meet a Thai who's fluent in English, and willing to have a significant conversation in it.

Interesting. I have near daily conversations with Thai's who speak fluent English. Granted they are not serving me food at restaurants or dancing on silver poles - but there are plenty of Thai's who speak fluent English.

I spent my first two years here teaching English with Thais who taught English. Hardly any could hold a conversation beyond "this sticky rice is very sticky." My former landlady is high-so Thai who's fluent. Three Thais were fluent but I seldom see them and one is really Laotian. Leo was fluent but he's Burmese. Your mileage will vary. I'm glad you have daily, lengthy, significant conversations in English with Thais. I doubt if I could be fluent in 10 more years.

[PattayaParent]

First, you'll seldom meet a Thai who's fluent in English, and willing to have a significant conversation in it.

Interesting. I have near daily conversations with Thai's who speak fluent English. Granted they are not serving me food at restaurants or dancing on silver poles - but there are plenty of Thai's who speak fluent English.

I work with a lot of Thai that speak and understand English fluently, especially the ones that have studied in England or US.

[joeboy21]

Probably this post should be in the Thai Language forum. If you are able to read Thai, the 'ThaiDict' from True Applications is also a very good dictionary for the iPhone

Simon

I learning too. I tried this but I cannot read thai. I can speak abit but since I dun use the language often...so I forget some words sometimes. Been looking for something like this to carry around when I am about. They sell alot of those translator devices but I need to carry 1 more item. Very troublesome. Tried downloading that TTT thing...one of the better ones for iphone.

The best way to learn the language is to get a thai girlfriend...

[sanook2me]

First, you'll seldom meet a Thai who's fluent in English, and willing to have a significant conversation in it.

Interesting. I have near daily conversations with Thai's who speak fluent English. Granted they are not serving me food at restaurants or dancing on silver poles - but there are plenty of Thai's who speak fluent English.

Make that one more farang who has daily fluent English conversations with Thais. Not all fluent but certainly enough to have a normalish conversation that does not revolve around.. " me hungry you" However, this is me and my wife

Only yesterday a lady was telling me about her visit to Windsor castle and Oxford in England...and another chap was telling me about his golf handicap of 13 and how he learnt to play with a bunch of crazy for golf Japanese..

Yup, folks these people i communicate with are not in bars but in my sports club..... guess its where you choose to spend your time here as to the level of English spoken by the Thais you mix with...

[NADTATIDA1]

The only real way to learn a dialect of thai is to park yourself up in the village somewhere and involve yourself in the day to day lives of real people!....ie: shopping,eating,drinking and working? just sitting around the folks in the village it is amazing what you pick up and what sticks with you,i always asked if i did not understand something and would have pen and paper about me for saving words that i could memorize.

No westerners to talk to and you have to make the effort or go completely insane!!...it is difficult and i still cannot speak thai but it is by far the best way to learn a language anywhere in the world.

first understand the culture and then the language will follow....the problem is most people are not interested in the culture hence no language skills follow.

[joeboy21]

First, you'll seldom meet a Thai who's fluent in English, and willing to have a significant conversation in it.

Interesting. I have near daily conversations with Thai's who speak fluent English. Granted they are not serving me food at restaurants or dancing on silver poles - but there are plenty of Thai's who speak fluent English.

Make that one more farang who has daily fluent English conversations with Thais. Not all fluent but certainly enough to have a normalish conversation that does not revolve around.. " me hungry you" However, this is me and my wife

Only yesterday a lady was telling me about her visit to Windsor castle and Oxford in England...and another chap was telling me about his golf handicap of 13 and how he learnt to play with a bunch of crazy for golf Japanese..

Yup, folks these people i communicate with are not in bars but in my sports club..... guess its where you choose to spend your time here as to the level of English spoken by the Thais you mix with...

Nice to be in a place like that...but when I am in thailand...I like going to the local places. Its actually so much cheaper and you can really experience the actual thai party culture... but these places you can seldom find someone who speaks really good english. Even at RCA where alot of tourist go there to party...the waiters/waitresses speak very little english.

Guess its really where you go to...

[MrJohnson]

First, you'll seldom meet a Thai who's fluent in English, and willing to have a significant conversation in it.

Second, you will almost surely exhaust 40.000 baht and 300 hours of failing to find a Thai who can teach Thai to farang. They mai kojai, mostly.

Meanwhile, good luck,

There are plenty of Thais fluent in English but they are unlikely to be selling noodle soup on the corner and there are some really good Thai courses around with some very good teachers. Try Chulalongkorn Thai Language classes or AUA for that matter. Generally speaking though the more you pay for the course the better the quality of the teacher. Not always, but often.

[galvheim]

There are some words I forgot when I wrote the list. I was happy to see that it could be useful to others. Also I would urge you to practise both the tone and the pronounciation of the word with a native speaker, ant tell them to use 'R' where it should be. It is complicated to write Thai in english, and in fact it is much easier, except for the tones, to write it in Norwegian, since we have 3 additional vocals that is widely used in Thai too. These are Æ-Ø-Å. For excample we can simply write:

Gæo=Glass

Nøa=Beef

Lå=Handsome

...and it will sound very accurate to the Thai pronounciation. Many Thai-English dicitionaries have to compensate for the lack of such letters by inventing new ones.

Anyway, here's some additional words you might want to learn when dining in Thailand:

Katiem=Garlic

naam(+fruitname)=juice of that fruit / Naam-Som=Orange-juice

(fruitname+)bpann=shake of that fruit / Daeng-Moo Bpann=Watermelon Shake

AeP-Bunn=Apple

Quat=Bottle

Manao=Lemon

Hoy=Shell

Bpoo=Crab

Som=Fork

Chon=Spoon

Meet=Knife

A-haan=Food / A-Haan-Farang= Western Food

TamaDa=Normal

Hiu=Hungry

Im=Full (from eating)

Suk= meat, food to be fully cooked; done, (usually I used it with 'mai-suk', as in the meat or rice is not coocked enough).

[SeanMoran]

Thank you once again. I added that to the text file for future reference when I can find the time to stop procrastinating. Truth is I got sidetracked by this forum all afternoon and can't work out how to classify that as productive but that's what I did today, and used the same line to Miss Elle the cook at the restaurant with the good sense of humour once again, "Lae ta khun, kap..." (up to you, thanks)...

... This time she cooked me up some nice looking dish with rice and prawns. The rice was called Khao Suay and I forget the words for the prawn and vegetable dish, but there was baby corn in there, nicely sliced, and carrot too by the look of it, with lots of green stuff and some soupy thing in it that tasted quite delicious, except that I am reasonably allergic to prawns and crayfish, and still have the itchy throat as I type even now, just from the residue of that soupy stuff - I didn't eat the prawns but carefully shelled them and stuffed the meat in a plastic bag in my rucksack so as not to let her think I didn't appreciate her latest gin khao lae ta khun. I figured she always did pork or beef or chicken and never expected tonight's surprise.

Best I start learning the right words for what I might like to eat in future.

Thanks again. Bon Appetit'.

[galvheim]

Funny to read your stories. I really look forward to go there and try the "Le ta Khun, krap" as you did. Sometimes it can be so difficult to figure out what to eat and what you are really hungry for. Especially if you wait until your bloodsugar is really low... I can see from your writing that you enjoy to discover the food and tastes of the country, and I have to say this is one of the things I miss the most when I stay in Norway.

I see from you write, that you got 'Kao Suai', that simply means its ordinary boiled (possibly jasmine) rice. This is how you can specify that you want a normal bowl of rice instead of 'kao-niao' (sticky rice), if they are serving both or its common for that particular dish.

It must be fun to try what you do, because one might discover many great dishes, that may not sound that interesting when reading the menu. Many times I go looking discreetly at what others are eating, and if I see something that looks good I just tell the chef to make me the same. There are aslo many bad and good chefs in Thailand and some really do understand food, while some should never been in a kitchen. Some are even able to ruin a simple Quaitiaow or a simple Gaman-Gai from their lack of cooking knowledge.

Eating is fun, because its so cheap there. Its not a big deal to try a new dish and find out you didn't like it. Just order a new. In my case I have no food allergy, but its sometimes sad that I don't like too much seafood. Shrimps and Shells are ok, but I do not like fish, except if its Sushi.

If you like some E-sarn/Lao-food and the person cooking is positive to know that language, replace "Arroy Mak-mak" with "Sepp Ilii-Dhuu!", which will for sure put a smile on their face. :-)

Have fun!

Edited January 6, 2010 by galvheim

[SeanMoran]

"Sepp Ilii-Dhuu!"

Have fun!

Splendid! I will try to memorise that using the mnemonic, "Simply Do!", if that might pass for a compliment to the chef tomorrow night. I have been feeding on Khao Nio for most of the time at Miss Elle's restaurant over the past month, and make an unqualified assumption that there might be a connection between sticky rice and Issan.

That raan-ahaan is one of the few places where there's always happiness and laughter in the air, (along with the mosquitoes but well...) and of the three or four staff there most nights, it is she, the owner and chef and gold-fish feeder that seems to have the greatest sense of humour as if to fuel the mirth for the rest of us.

I'm fairly used to the occasional "Aroi maak" or "maak-maak" as a compliment, but there will be a rare occasion here in Rayong where it might be appropriate to adapt to the complimentary words you have suggested: "Sepp, Lii-Dhuu!" in a low voice when the traffic noise from the highway isn't too loud. I hope I have the right phrasing with SEPP as a first word, and then Li-DHUU! with emphasis on the Dhuu.

Mate, I reckon I owe you a good night out for dinner after all this advice! Let me know if you're ever down here in Rayong ways and I'll return the favour.

[galvheim]

Maybe I'll be there some day as I sometimes, but rarely go to Rayong :-) You'll show me a nice place to eat in Rayong

When it comes to Sepp I-Lii Dhuu. It is Sepp, like in Eppisode. "I-Lii" is more like Ee-lee, like in Eel or (Bruce) Lee. "Dhuu", is not like "Do!", as in your mnemonic. The Dhuu! should be more like the sound you use when say Bird, Curve or Serve, and should be prolonged going upwards. The !-mark is just to show some enthusiasm or making it going louder.

Good luck :-)

[PattayaParent]

Are you promoting iphone here? Just kidding. If you want to make your life easier here, you better learn the language.

No, he's promoting his application.

Correct. Should be under "classifieds".

Maybe now it should be in the Thai Language section? Or the Food section?