There are approximately 150 countries in the world. The average person probably couldn’t name more than half from memory, and point to likely even less on a map. This isn’t necessarily to say they are ‘uneducated’, it’s just we only learn what we are exposed to. For example, in Thailand, Thais are exposed to the countries that border it – such as Burma, Laos, Cambodia, and to a lesser extent Malaysia. They are also exposed to cultures from other countries that are important to them – especially Korean, Japanese, and American export culture. They are exposed to culture due to historical influences, such as immigration from China, Buddhism from India and Nepal, and American influences from the Vietnam War era. And more recently, Thailand has been influenced by tourists from around the world that decided to make Thailand their home away from home.

As such, I’m not going to list all 150 countries in Thai. I don’t want you to spend weeks memorizing something you’ll never even use until you’ve long forgotten it. Instead, I’ll list the countries that will most likely come up in conversations while speaking Thai.

Before we start, the Thai word for country is bpra2tet3 ประเทศ. As for the tones, ~80% of all syllables in the country names will use the mid-tone. If you cannot remember the tone while in conversation, just use the mid tone.