Learn how to make requests
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Ohm: สวัสดีครับ |
| Ja: Hello, and welcome back to ThaiPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 12: Thailand: A Paradise for Fruit-Lovers! I'm Ja. |
| Ohm: And I'm Ohm. What are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Ja: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to make polite requests. |
| Ohm: This conversation takes place at a fresh market. |
| Ja: And it’s between two friends, Nok and Dao. |
| Ohm: The speakers are friends, so they'll be using casual Thai. |
| Ja: Alright, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| ดาว : ช่วยถือกระเป๋าให้หน่อย เราจะเลือกผลไม้ |
| นก : ได้ จะซื้ออะไรเหรอ |
| ดาว : จะซื้อฝรั่ง เธอจะเอาอะไรมั้ย |
| นก : ช่วยซื้อมะม่วงให้ด้วยได้มั้ย |
| ดาว : ได้เลย |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| ดาว : ช่วยถือกระเป๋าให้หน่อย เราจะเลือกผลไม้ |
| นก : ได้ จะซื้ออะไรเหรอ |
| ดาว : จะซื้อฝรั่ง เธอจะเอาอะไรมั้ย |
| นก : ช่วยซื้อมะม่วงให้ด้วยได้มั้ย |
| ดาว : ได้เลย |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| ดาว : ช่วยถือกระเป๋าให้หน่อย เราจะเลือกผลไม้ |
| : Please hold this bag for me. I'm going to pick out some fruit. |
| นก : ได้ จะซื้ออะไรเหรอ |
| : Okay. What are you going to buy? |
| ดาว : จะซื้อฝรั่ง เธอจะเอาอะไรมั้ย |
| : I'm going to get guava. Do you want anything? |
| นก : ช่วยซื้อมะม่วงให้ด้วยได้มั้ย |
| : Can you buy me some mango? |
| ดาว : ได้เลย |
| : Sure. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Ja: I think one of the best things about living in Thailand is all the fresh fruit available. |
| Ohm: Yes, it is great. You can get different fruits all year long. |
| Ja: I know. In the hot season there are lychees and mangoes. |
| Ohm: And in the rainy season we have mangosteens and durians. |
| Ja: And then you've got bananas, papayas, and pineapples, which are available all the time. |
| Ohm: That's true. |
| Ja: If you had to recommend one month for fruit lovers to visit Thailand to get the most variety, which would it be? |
| Ohm: I'd probably say June. It's right at the end of the hot season and the beginning of the rainy season. So there's a large variety of fresh fruit in season. |
| Ja: Okay, you heard it folks. Come to Thailand in June if you love fruit and don't mind a little rain. Now let’s move on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Ja: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is... |
| Ohm: ช่วย [natural native speed] |
| Ja: please (when asking for a favor). |
| Ohm: ช่วย [slowly - broken down by syllable] ช่วย [natural native speed] |
| Ja: Next we have... |
| Ohm: ถือ [natural native speed] |
| Ja: to hold, to carry |
| Ohm: ถือ [slowly - broken down by syllable] ถือ [natural native speed] |
| Ja: Our next word is... |
| Ohm: กระเป๋า [natural native speed] |
| Ja: bag |
| Ohm: กระเป๋า [slowly - broken down by syllable] กระเป๋า [natural native speed] |
| Ja: Next... |
| Ohm: ผลไม้ [natural native speed] |
| Ja: fruit |
| Ohm: ผลไม้ [slowly - broken down by syllable] ผลไม้ [natural native speed] |
| Ja: Next we have... |
| Ohm: ซื้อ [natural native speed] |
| Ja: to buy |
| Ohm: ซื้อ [slowly - broken down by syllable] ซื้อ [natural native speed] |
| Ja: Next... |
| Ohm: ฝรั่ง [natural native speed] |
| Ja: guava |
| Ohm: ฝรั่ง [slowly - broken down by syllable] ฝรั่ง [natural native speed] |
| Ja: Our next word is... |
| Ohm: เอา [natural native speed] |
| Ja: to take, to get, to bring, to want |
| Ohm: เอา [slowly - broken down by syllable] เอา [natural native speed] |
| Ja: Our last word is... |
| Ohm: มะม่วง [natural native speed] |
| Ja: mango |
| Ohm: มะม่วง [slowly - broken down by syllable] มะม่วง [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Ja: Let's take a closer look at the usage of some of the key words and phrases from this lesson. The first one is… |
| Ohm: ช่วย |
| Ja: This is the verb "to help," but it can also be used to begin a sentence indicating a request. |
| Ohm: That's right. This is how it was used in the example from the conversation. ช่วยถือกระเป๋าให้หน่อย |
| Ja: Meaning, "Please hold this bag for me." |
| Ohm: An example of ช่วย (chûuai) meaning "to help" would be |
| คุณหมอช่วยเขาไม่ได้. |
| Ja: "The doctor couldn't help him." Oh no, the poor guy. Well, what do we have next? |
| Ohm: ถือ |
| Ja: This verb means "to carry" or "to hold." It's used mostly when talking about carrying something in your hands. |
| Ohm: Yes, and there are also a few interesting compound words with this word. For example, มือถือ (muue-thǔue) means "mobile phone." The first part of this word is มือ (muue), meaning "hand." |
| Ja: So the literal translation is "hand-held." |
| Ohm: That's right. Another word you might come across is นับถือ (náp-thǔue), meaning "to believe in," "to admire," or "to venerate." |
| Ja: You can use this verb when you want to say that somebody believes in a particular religion. |
| Ohm: Exactly. For example, I could say, คนไทยส่วนใหญ่นับถือศาสนาพุทธ. |
| Ja: "Most Thai people believe in Buddhism." And what's our final term? |
| Ohm: ฝรั่ง |
| Ja: This is a Thai word that you’ll no doubt hear a lot. It usually means "western" or "westerners," and can be used as either an adjective or a noun. |
| Ohm: As an adjective, ฝรั่ง (fà-ràng) refers to "western" things. For example, "western food" such as burgers and pizza would be อาหารฝรั่ง (aa-hǎan fà-ràng). |
| Ja: When talking about people, this word specifically refers to people who are "white" or "caucasian." It can be used this way as a noun, and although it's not really a racist term, some long-term foreign residents of Thailand resent the way it's used to lump a large group of people together based on appearance. |
| Ohm: But another meaning of the word ฝรั่ง (fà-ràng) is a noun meaning "guava." |
| Ja: This was how it was used in the conversation. |
| Ohm: Do you know why guava is called ฝรั่ง ? |
| Ja: My guess is that this fruit wasn't native to Southeast Asia. |
| Ohm: That's right. Guavas, or ฝรั่ง, were introduced to Thailand a few hundred years ago by Europeans. |
| Ja: Interesting. Now let's move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Ja: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to make requests. |
| Ohm: There are many ways to make requests when you’re speaking Thai, but they mostly follow a certain pattern. |
| Ja: The general formula is to begin the sentence with a word for "please," followed by the action, and then include one or more polite words at the end of the sentence. |
| Ohm: In more formal speech, you can use either กรุณา (gà-rú-naa) or โปรด (bpròot) for "please." |
| Ja: For example, you may hear these at the beginning of an announcement at the airport. |
| Ohm: Right. But we don't use them in everyday conversation. Instead, we use ช่วย (chûuai). |
| Ja: And as we heard a moment ago, this is also the verb "to help." |
| Ohm: Yes, but when using it to make a request, it's more like saying "please." |
| Ja: What was one of the requests that we heard in the conversation? |
| Ohm: ช่วยถือกระเป๋าให้หน่อย |
| Ja: "Please hold this bag for me." In this case, the speakers are very close friends, so using "please" in the English translation might sound a little too formal, but the Thai version is a polite request, nevertheless. |
| Ohm: After the word ช่วย (chûuai), we have the action ถือกระเป๋า (thǔue grà-bpǎo), meaning "carry the bag." |
| Ja: And then a polite phrase is stuck onto the end of the sentence. |
| Ohm: In this case, the polite words are ให้หน่อย (hâi nàuy), which mean "for me a little." ให้ (hâi) is "for" and หน่อย (nàuy) means "a little." |
| Ja: There are several different polite words and phrases you can use at the end of a request. How about we run through some of the options? |
| Ohm: Okay, are you ready listeners? The first is หน่อย (nàuy). |
| Ja: "A little." |
| Ohm: ให้ฉันหน่อย (hâi chǎn nàuy) |
| Ja: "For me a little." |
| Ohm: ให้หน่อย (hâi nàuy) |
| Ja: Shortened form of "For me a little." |
| Ohm: ด้วย (dûuai) |
| Ja: "Also; please." And we have one more... |
| Ohm: ได้มั้ย (dâai mái) |
| Ja: "Can you?" We can use any of these in the example sentence and the essential meaning would not change. |
| Ohm: That's right. I could say ช่วยถือกระเป๋าให้ฉันหน่อย or ช่วยถือกระเป๋าหน่อย. |
| Ja: And both sentences just mean "Hold this bag for me" or "Please hold the bag for me." If we wanted to, you could even use two or more of these polite phrases to make the request extra polite. |
| Ohm: Yes, you could. For example, you could say something like ช่วยถือกระเป๋าให้หน่อยได้มั้ยครับ. |
| Ja: Even among close friends, you can still include multiple polite words at the end of a request. In the conversation, Nok asked Dao to buy some fruit for her by using a request like this. |
| Ohm: ช่วยซื้อมะม่วงให้ด้วยได้มั้ย |
| Ja: "Can you buy me some mango?" |
| Ohm: In this request, the action is ซื้อมะม่วง (súue má-mûuang). |
| Ja: "To buy mangoes." |
| Ohm: It's followed by three polite phrases: ให้ (hâi), ด้วย (dûuai), and ได้มั้ย (dâai mái). |
| Ja: As a beginning language learner, you might find yourself in a situation where you want to make a polite request asking a native speaker to repeat what they just said, or to speak more slowly. |
| Ohm: Yes, that's a good point. You can make both of these requests using ช่วย (chûuai) and some polite phrases. "To speak slowly" is พูดช้าๆ (phûut cháa-cháa), and "to speak again" is พูดอีกที (phûut ìik thii). |
| Ja: So using the different polite terms that we have, some possible sentences are... |
| Ohm: ช่วยพูดช้าๆ ได้มั้ย |
| Ja: "Could you say that more slowly?" |
| Ohm: ช่วยพูดช้าๆ หน่อย |
| Ja: "Please speak a little more slowly" |
| Ohm: ช่วยพูดอีกที ได้มั้ย |
| Ja: "Could you please repeat that?" And finally... |
| Ohm: ช่วยพูดอีกทีหน่อยครับ |
| Ja: "Please say that once more" |
| Ohm: Well, it looks like that's all the time we have for this lesson. |
| Ja: Be sure to check out the lesson notes for more examples and explanations. |
Outro |
| Ohm: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you in the next lesson. |
| Ja: See you next time, bye! |
| Ohm: แล้วเจอกันครับ สวัสดีครับ |
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