Mutual Butchering of Language

Our 1 month anniversary of Thai language study has come and gone and while my understanding of spoken Thai has increased my own spoken Thai is, umm, leaving much to be desired. Namely, the correct tones.


Thai is a tonal language. There are five tones in Thai: mid, low, high, rising, and falling. English speakers understand this a little as we generally change our tone when we ask a question, but that's about where our familiarity stops.


When I first took formal Thai lessons it was for one quarter as an undergraduate at the University of Washington. It was the hardest class I ever took and the only class I ever changed from graded to pass/fail. I figured that if there was a remote chance that I did pass, the grade would still be so low that it would bring down my whole GPA. I did manage to pass, barely.


Picture 1: Is this a threat?



The class was only 10 weeks and I spent the first five seriously doubting that there were tones. Language tone deafness. . . miracuously I awoke on the sixth week and finally heard the difference in the tones.


Sadly, the fact that I understand that there are different tones doesn't mean that I remember which one to use when I am speaking.


This results in some bad mistakes. The more vocabulary I learn the more I realize the potential to make mistakes. Currently I am in fear of trying to say that something is beautiful. Beautiful in Thai roughly transliterated is 'suway' said with a rising tone. If you say 'suway' with a mid tone it means unlucky. Thai people like to make things look beautiful and there is a cultural appreciation of the aesthetic. They also (as a general population) take their luck seriously as the majority wear amulets for protection and good fortune. Thus you can see my weariness at trying to compliment someone's handiwork as beautiful for fear of calling them unlucky!

Picture 2: 'miss are we she am you' ????



If there is any consolation in this it is the knowledge that Thai speakers generally have as difficult a time learning English as I do Thai. We have noted this on every trip we've taken to Thailand mostly in the hotel information guides or signs. One hotel welcomed us to try their 'potato sheep' in the minibar (meaning potato chips).


Recently, on an adventure to Big C, the Thai equivilant of Walmart but sooo much more exciting, we perused the clothing section hoping to find shirts that fit me. We eventually did find one in the men's section (hmmm. . . not unlike my wardrobe choices in the states). Anyway during the hunt we managed to find several gems - t-shirts with really confusing English. I can empathize with my really bad and confusing Thai, which I now believe I have license to put on mass produced t-shirts.


Enjoy the wisdom of Big C. :)



Picture 3: Front of the shirt, 'Seriously Inventive Bank Chat Him' HUH!?








Picture 4: Back of the shirt: 'Seriously'












And the winner of the Best Worse English is. . .


Picture 5: (on a notebook cover) This poor tomato is about to get eaten on a hamburger, but his cry of 'Hell me, Hell me' probably won't save him.



Andrea