Hello or Sawadee Kha

February 27

I’m in Thailand to visit another friend of mine from the University of Warwick. Lek and I lived in the same flat there, but her course was about teaching.

I stayed with Lek’s family, which gave me a rich understanding of daily life in Bangkok. Initially Lek was worried about me because her family knows little or no English. I reassured her that this was I was experienced in spending time with families that don't speak the same language. At this point I have learned two ways to make families feel comfortable with me in their home. First, I smile a lot. It quickly conveys that I am happy/ok/friendly. The other trick is to eat whatever they serve me. Lek’s two brothers speak some English so I also got a guy’s perspective on life in Thailand.

I surprised myself during the first meal. We had rice and a number of dishes, family-style, and I was given a spoon and a fork. (Knives aren’t usually used.) My immediate response was to look for chopsticks. I didn’t want to eat with a spoon and fork because that would feel weird. And then I realized just how strange that sounded.

The first morning I got my own personal Thai lesson. Like in Chinese, Thai has a number of tones. I was able to pick up on the tones pretty well after living in China, but Thai has one additional tone. Lek covered the basics first like “good morning” and “how are you?” She wanted to teach me practical phrases so she quickly moved into bargaining strategy phrases. We were going to the market that afternoon, so I had to learn the following :

-How much is this? (Tao rai kha)

-Can you discount? (Lad dai mai kha)

-You are very beautiful/handsome/kind. (khun suay/lor/jai-dee mak kha)

-More discount please. (Lod iik noi kha)

Lek make it clear that I had to be very careful when I pronounced “suay” because I could insult the person by mistake with the wrong tone.

It was quite hot at the market, so we enjoyed coconut juice and coconut ice cream with coconut jelly and peanuts. It hit the spot. We spent the afternoon exploring the market. One women got so flustered when I started complimenting her in Thai to get a discount. On the way home we also stopped at a local market for food. I also was able to watch a woman make the spring roll wrappers that we would be making that evening. The other advantage of staying with a family is that I got my own personal cooking class. I learned how they make fried rice and spring rolls. I also learned that it is a sin to tell someone to hurry up when they were eating. I like that rule.