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Lesson Transcript

Ryan: All About Thai, lesson 14 - Top Five Tips for Avoiding Common Mistakes in Thai. Hi, everyone! Welcome back to the All About Thai series.
Rawinporn: Sà-wàt-dii khâ.
Ryan: You’re in for a very useful lesson, because we’re here to give you some tips on how to avoid common mistakes made by learners of Thai. Now remember, nothing is wrong with making mistakes.
Rawinporn: It’s how you learn.
Ryan: In this lesson, we’ll just give you a heads up so that you can aware and that will make your Thai language learning experience a lot easier.
Rawinporn: Let’s get started!
Ryan: Tip Number One: Don't attach khun to your own name!
Rawinporn: Remember that khun is a polite prefix that you attach to people’s name to show respect.
Ryan: It’s similar to “Mr.” or “Mrs.” in English. You can attach khun to the first name or a nickname.
Rawinporn: For example, Khun Ryan.
Ryan: “Mr. Ryan.” Khun plus my first name.
Rawinporn: Or Kun plus my nickname.
Ryan: Khun Rawin.
Rawinporn: Exactly!
Ryan: This is a title of respect, so you can’t use it to refer to yourself. When teachers teach Thai, they refer to their students as Khun so and so. For example, Eakkaporn becomes Khun Eakkaporn, Siriporn becomes Khun Siriporn, and so on. And I think what happens is that students get used to hearing their names like that and then they start introducing themselves in that way.
Rawinporn: So, just remember to refer to yourself using only your name. For example, dì-chǎn chûue rá-win-phaawn khâ. “My name is Rawinporn.”
Ryan: phǒm chûue Ryan khráp. “My name is Ryan.”
Ryan: Tip Number Two: Watch Your Politeness Level!
Rawinporn: So, you’ve already learned that Thai has different politeness levels.
Ryan: Which one you use depends on the age and status of the speaker and listener and the relationship between them.
Rawinporn: One thing that’s very important to remember is to speak politely to people who are older or who have higher status than you.
Ryan: As well as people you don’t know. An exception is if you’re talking to children. With everyone else you don’t know, you should speak formally.
Rawinporn: In general, people who study Thai are taught formal language first, but those who learn mostly from friends and peers might only pick up informal language.
Ryan: Right. So you just have to be careful about making that switch between levels when it’s appropriate. I would say when in doubt, speak formally. If the other person doesn’t think it’s necessary, they’ll probably let you know, so it’s no problem. A good habit to learn in the beginning is to always use khráp or khá.
Rawinporn: That’s good advice. What’s the next one?
Ryan: Tip Number Three: Watch Your Gender!
Rawinporn: So, in thai, men and women use somewhat different language.
Ryan: Yeah. This is a really interesting aspect of Thai. Sentence endings and word choice are different between men and women.
Rawinporn: So, it’s important to be aware of and be able to recognize the differences.
Ryan: I think this is something that male non-native speakers have to be especially careful of. A majority of Thai teachers are female and if they are learning Thai from a female friend or partner, they run the risk of sounding feminine if they start copying the speech patterns they hear.
Rawinporn: Something that helps is listening to a lot of different styles of Thai.
Ryan: That’s right! Listen to Thai spoken by all kinds of speakers and eventually, you’ll start to pick up on the differences between male and female speech.
Rawinporn: What’s the next tip we have?
Ryan: Tip Number Four: Learn Your Long Vowels Now! Thai has both short and long vowels. For example, the vowel /a/ can be either short or it can be long as in /aa/.
Rawinporn: And these are two distinctly different sounds. Whether a vowel is long or short can affect the meaning of a word.
Ryan: For example, the word for “enter” is khâo. That’s the short vowel.
Rawinporn: And the word for “rice” is khâao.
Ryan: That’s the long vowel. So the tone is even exactly the same, but the length of the vowel changes the meaning of the word. How about another example?
Rawinporn: dtó, as a short vowel, means “table.”
Ryan: While dtoo, as a long vowel, means “grow up.”
Rawinporn: Exactly!
Ryan: Can you hear the difference? It’s an important one. Thai has tons of pairs like this.
Rawinporn: Yeah. So when learning new Thai vocabulary, pay attention to the long vowels. Okay Khun Ryan, what is the last tip we have for everyone?
Ryan: Tip Number Five: Watch out for Similar Sounding Words in any language. The difference between words is only one syllable or something like that. And when you’re starting out and still have a small vocabulary, it becomes even easier to mix words up.
Rawinporn: Right.
Ryan: What are some more infamous examples?
Rawinporn: One example is khài versus gài.
Ryan: They sound really similar. So, what do they mean?
Rawinporn: gài with a “G” means “chicken.” khài with a “K” means “egg.”
Ryan: Oh, you do have to be careful with this one. For example, if you want to eat fried rice with chicken, you should order khâao-phàt-gài.
Rawinporn: Yeah. and if you order khâao-phàt-khài, you will get fried rice with egg instead.
Ryan: How about another example?
Rawinporn: sǔuai vs suuai.
Ryan: What are their meanings?
Rawinporn: The first word, sǔuai, means “beautiful.” And the second word suuai means “bad luck.”
Ryan: Yikes! So be careful when you’re complimenting females. I’ve hear of this happening before.
Rawinporn: Really?
Ryan: Yeah. Someone tries to say to his Thai girlfriend that she is pretty, for the first - sǔuai, but it comes out as the second, suuai.
Rawinporn: Oh, no!
Ryan: All right. Well, there was our top 5 tips for avoiding common mistakes in Thai.
Rawinporn: Don’t attach khun to your own name.
Ryan: Watch your politeness level. When in doubt, speak formally.
Rawinporn: Watch your gender.
Ryan: Learn long vowels and watch out for similar-sounding words.
Rawinporn: Keep these in mind and your Thai learning experience will be a lot easier.
Ryan: You’ll be on the right track.
Rawinporn: See you next time.
Ryan: sà-wàt-dii khráp.
Rawinporn: Sà-wàt-dii khâ.

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