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 1-2 hours a day, every day. I also travel to Thailand often and have lived there for over a year. I’m not a native speaker, nor can I speak like one. But my skills are at the level where I can have both philosophical and technical conversations without headache on the listener’s part. I’ve also read dozens of Thai novels, albeit slowly.

Objectively speaking, I scored a 2.5 a year ago on the DLPT (Defense Language Proficiency Test) V, which is the official language test for the US Department of Defense. A score of 3 is required to be a professional translator, and a score of 4 is considered to be the equivalent of a native speaker. If I do make a sporadic non-native error, please feel free to comment, correct, and expand, as I neither want to spread misinformation nor allow mistakes.

Now for my writing style: I prefer to keep things fun. I don’t want this blog to feel like reading a dictionary and I don’t want to teach rarely used words or phrases. This won’t be a Thai 101 blog, but instead a Thai language companion and online manual. I’ll cover offer tips and hints that you won’t find anywhere else, and in order to cater to all variations, I’ll cover a difficulty level spread by jumping between beginner and intermediate levels. This way I can keep it educational for everyone. Post titles and categories will specify the difficulty level, and a printable vocabulary list will be presented at the end of each post.

Full disclosure: I’ll typically not bother with karoake (spelling Thai using the English alphabet). I know, it’s a pain for those who can’t read and write Thai yet, but trust me on this, it will be much better for you to learn the hard way. I’ll still include a karaoke spelling for the more tricky words, but we won’t let it be a crutch! I use my own method for spelling karaoke, where a number after the word specifies the standard Thai tone number:

1) Mid tone

2) Low tone

3) Falling tone

4) High tone

5) Rising tone

In this instance, long vowels are specified by an extra vowel while words are spelled so that a native-English speaker will read it out correctly. I also spell out diphthongs such as bp and dt.

Anyway, let’s get started!

Language of the Protester (Intermediate)

As I write this blog there about 100,000 protestors in the streets wearing red shirts protesting against the current government. At least 10,000 police (ตำรวจ) are out on duty, and probably 10,000 soldiers (ทหาร) on standby. Now I at least have a valid excuse not to go to the gym, as all these groups are literally blocking the area!

 

Let’s begin with ‘red shirts’. It’s a simple direct translation, เสื้อแดง. Or if you don’t particularly like them, you can refer to them as ไอ้เสื้อแดง, where ไอ้ denotes a slightly negative connotation. A more formal way of referring to this group is UDD, or in Thai, นปช (just say the sound each letter makes). It’s an abbreviation for the full name, กลุ่มแนวร่วมประชาธิปไตยขับไล่เผด็จการแห่งชาติ. I won’t blame you if you don’t want to memorize that . . .

The word for ‘mob’ is exactly the same in Thai as in English – ม็อบ. You know, mob rule and all. Remember the PAD, that group wearing the yellow shirts? In Thai they aren’t referred to as ‘yellow shirts’, but instead พันธมิตรฯ (paan1-ta1-mit4). If you don’t like them, you can refer to them as ม็อบพันธมิตรฯ, or the PAD mob. Or for extra learning fun, you can use ไอ้ม็อบพันธมิตรฯ. The Thai abbreviation for this group is พธม, short for พันธมิตรประชาชนเพื่อประชาธิปไตย. Again, no need to remember that . . . When this group protests against the UDD, they wear a random mix of colors and refer to themselves as เสื้อหลากสี, the ‘no color shirts,’ so they don’t sound hypocritical.

As a note, you’ll often see the word ม็อบ mis-spelled as ม็อป. The act of breaking up a mob is called สลายม็อบ.

So what do these protester groups really want? Well, they all want to take corruption – a word stolen from English – คอรัปชั่น – out of the government, รัฐบาล. They all want democracy, ประชาธิปไตย. What they disagree on is what corruption and democracy actually are . . .

Useful nugget: All protesters typically yell this phrase out at rallies. “Get out!” ออกไป! is a popular one. Although, now that people are getting tired of protest after protest, quite a few Thai citizens are yelling this same chant at the protesters . . .

There are plenty more words and phrases, but I’ll save them for the next post. So stay tuned! For now, here is a list of words you can print out and study on your otherwise not as exciting commute to work.

Thai vocabulary list 1: Language of the Protester

ตำรวจ police

ทหาร soldier/army

เสื้อแดง red shirts

ไอ้ beginning particle to show slight disrespect

นปช UDD

ม็อบ mob

พันธมิตรฯ PAD

พธม PAD

สลายม็อบ crackdown on a mob (riot)

เสื้อหลากสี no color shirts

คอรัปชั่น corruption

รัฐบาล government

ออกไป! get out!

ประชาธิปไตย democracy