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How to Cheat in Thai, part 2 of 2 (Beginner) Posted by palmisano on Aug 14, 2010
With so many scams, I couldn’t just leave you hanging with a handful of words. One of the more popular scams is called the Gem Scam. Lets say you’re a happy tourist, walking around Bangkok, heading towards a popular tourist destination. Now a Thai man walks up to you and says ‘its closed’. He answers…
How to Cheat in Thai, part 1 of 2 Posted by palmisano on Aug 9, 2010
My title to this post is a bit misleading. We aren’t going to cheat to learn Thai. Instead, we are going to learn about how to say ‘cheating’ in Thai. As any tourist to Thailand knows, you’re going to be cheated, swindled, and scammed. Entire websites are devoted to filling databases of all the scams…
Guessing the Thai Tones, part 2 of 2 (Beginner) Posted by palmisano on Aug 4, 2010
As you may know already, tone marks alone do not define the tone of the word. All consonants in each syllable influence the tone. The actual influence is determined by the location of the consonants within the syllable, whether the consonant class is low, mid, or high, whether the syllable is open or closed, and…
Guessing the Thai Tones, part 1 of 2 (Beginner) Posted by palmisano on Jul 30, 2010
The rules for reading Thai are fairly complex, especially when it comes to determining the tone of the word based on the spelling. When I first started learning Thai, I preferred to memorize the tone of each word and not bother so much learning the actual rules. In reality, memorizing the tones allows for faster…
Political Responses to Thai Protests Posted by palmisano on Jul 28, 2010
Between my last post and this one (the dates don’t match the actual writing date), Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva อภิสิทธิ์ เวชชาชีวะ ordered a crackdown on the protesters camped out. Prime Minister is translated as นายกรัฐมนตรี, but in the newspapers you’ll only see it in the short version, นายกฯ (naa1 yok4). For those familiar with what…
Language of the Protester (Intermediate) Posted by palmisano on Jul 27, 2010
This is, obviously, my first post in what will be a fruitful blog for those interested in learning to speak Thai and how Thai culture relates to its language. Let’s start by stating who I am and what makes me qualified to do this. I’ve been studying Thai for approximately six years now, about…