Archive for 'Beginner'

In every culture there are stereotypes for guys and stereotypes for girls. Boys like blue, girls like pink. Boys like action figures, girls like Barbies. It is of course only a stereotype, i.e. what the culture assumes and accepts as the truth – whether it is or not. It’s no different in Thailand.

Today I’m going to talk about a very fundamental word in the Thai language, เป็น bpen1, which means ‘to be’.

The word ‘to have’ มี (mee1) in Thai is very important to learn and understand.

If you’ve been to Thailand, you’ve probably ridden a taxi where on the inside roof above the driver are funny little squigglies and wondered what they meant. These are religious protection markings, like a charm or blessing. The markings aren’t really Buddhist, but you’ll see them interconnected with Buddhism due to the superstitious powers they…

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As evident by their many ghost movies, Thais are very superstitious. They definitely believe in ghosts. Just like in the west, Thais also have many different types of ghosts. I won’t go over them all, but I’ll go over the main types.

Today I’m going to talk about Poo3 Yai2 ผู้ใหญ่. Poo3 means ‘person’ and Yai2 means ‘big’. Generally, ‘poo yai’ means ‘adult’. You start off as a child (dek1 เด็ก), work your way up to teenager (wai1 run3 วัยรุ่น), and after a few more years you’ve made it.

When we go out to eat, or eat over at a friend’s place, often times we’ll be asked ‘how is the food?’ If the food tastes good, the answer is easy. But what if it doesn’t and you find yourself in a moral battle between honesty and politeness? How do you respond to this question…

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