Learn how to attract the attention of a waiter
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Hello and welcome to Thai Survival Phrases brought to you by ThaiPod101.com, this course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Thailand. You will be surprised at how far a little Thai will go. |
| Now, before we jump in, remember to stop by ThaiPod101.com and there, you will find the accompanying PDF and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Table manners are a must wherever you go! In this lesson, we'll cover some basic table etiquette when sitting down for a meal in Thailand. |
| When it comes to a meal, Thai people typically do not say anything formal to start things off. While table etiquette is somewhat crucial in Thai culture, saying something before a meal is not at all important. However, there is a chance that you will hear people say a few words before starting the meal. One of these is chooen. |
| chooen, which means "please" as an invitation. As usual, we add khâ and khráp to make it more polite. |
| Therefore, women may say - chooen khâ |
| chooen khâ |
| While men may say - chooen khráp. |
| chooen khráp |
| You may use this phrase as an invitation to start having a meal, take a seat, or come into the house. |
| Another phrase that you may hear during a meal is a question of whether or not you like the meal. To ask "Is the meal good?" in Thai is - say à-ràwy mǎi. |
| à-ràwy mǎi. |
| Don't forget to sound polite by adding khâ or khráp at the end of the phrase. |
| Therefore, women say - à-ràwy mǎi khá. |
| à-ràwy mǎi khá. |
| While men say - à-ràwy mǎi khráp. |
| à-ràwy mǎi khráp. |
| Let's break it down by syllable: |
| à-ràwy mǎi khá. |
| à-ràwy mǎi khá. |
| à-ràwy mǎi khráp. |
| à-ràwy mǎi khráp. |
| The first word, à-ràwy, means "delicious," and is followed by mǎi, which indicates the question. Khá and khráp make the phrase more polite and formal. Together, this phrase is equivalent to the English phrase "Is it delicious?" |
| To respond to this question, you may say à-ràwy khâ |
| à-ràwy khâ |
| Or, à-ràwy khráp |
| à-ràwy khráp, with the meaning of "Yes, it is delicious." Now you may be wondering, what if it is not delicious? Well, it is important to remember that even though your meal is not delicious, you might not want to say it out loud. Thai people have a way to deal with this awkward situation. If your meal is not so good and someone asks what you think, you may politely say à-ràwy khâ or à-ràwy khráp in the first place. I know what you are thinking. Now you are wondering, are you asking me to tell a lie? Well, not really, because while you say it is delicious, your face will tell that it is not quite the truth. And that's a better way of saying "No, it is not delicious" than saying it out loud! And believe me, Thai people will understand that. And trust me, there is a huge chance that Thai people will ask you whether you like what you are eating! |
| There are a few things you might like to remember. Thai use both a fork and a spoon at almost every meal, and the spoon is not limited to just eating soup. Actually, the spoon is the major tableware for your meal. You use a spoon for rice, soup, an appetizer, the main course, and everything else. Your fork is only an accompanying tableware that helps you get your food into your spoon. Using your fork as the major tableware is considered not very polite in Thailand. |
| Another thing to remember is this: don't scoop a lot of food onto your plate. Take only some food at a time. When you finish what you have on your plate, you may take some more. If you take a lot of food onto your plate all at once, well, you might appear to be greedy in Thai culture. And that's not very nice. |
Outro |
| Okay, to close out today's lesson, we'd like for you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for saying it aloud. You'll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so chôok-dii khâ, that means "good luck" in Thai. |
| Remember, khâ is for women and khráp is for men. |
| Ok, here we go! |
| "Inviting people to start having meal.” for women - chooen khâ |
| chooen khâ |
| chooen khâ |
| "Inviting people to start having meal.” for men - chooen khráp |
| chooen khráp |
| chooen khráp |
| "Is it delicious?” for women - à-ràwy mǎi khá |
| à-ràwy mǎi khá |
| à-ràwy mǎi khá |
| "Is it delicious?” for men - à-ràwy mǎi khráp |
| à-ràwy mǎi khráp |
| à-ràwy mǎi khráp |
| "Yes, it is delicious.” for women - à-ràwy khâ |
| à-ràwy khâ |
| à-ràwy khâ |
| "Yes, it is delicious.” for men - à-ràwy khráp |
| à-ràwy khráp |
| à-ràwy khráp |
| All right. That’s is going to do it for today. Remember to stop by ThaiPod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
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