Are you speaking Thai now?

My Thai teacher (Khruuu Noi) encourages me to speak Thai as often as I can while at work here in the Bangkok Office. Thai is spoken all the time unless the Thais are speaking to us, so it makes sense.

And when I think about it, why take lessons 2x a week if you don't use it and how better to learn while I'm in Thailand. I will certainly have no practice back home.

Last evening while walking back to my apartment I ran into Khruu phom Noi (my Teacher Noi) after a very brief exchange, I said "See you tomorrow!". She gave me a funny look, smiled and went her way. Today in class she reminded me our meeting on the street and she added "you know how to say 'Phrunii phop gan mai na Krap" - which means "see you tomorrow". "Why you speak to me in English?" I could give no good answer, not even in English.


It is a different story with my Thai friends that I work with every day. I'm not sure they enjoy it when I jump from English to Thai. I can't carry a full conversation in Thai, at least not an interesting one. How many times can I say "I go restroom", "I hungry", "Do you give discount?", "No discount I no buy." So I end up peppering my sentences with Thai words that I know. And that number is approaching 100. But doing that confuses them. They don't know when I'm speaking Thai or when I'm saying an English word they are not familiar with.


So I've devised a plan. I will make the ASL (American Sign Language) sign for the letter "T" when I want to speak Thai.

And they will make the ASL sign for the letter "E" when they want me to return to speaking only English.












The funny part of this is that to make the letter "E" can be difficult for for many people. It is easy to confuse with the sign for the letter "O".


I can hear myself say, "Khawthot (sorry), I didn't know you wanted me to stop speaking Thai, I thought you were telling me my Thai was Outstanding!"