I forgot to put this in my post about bowling (find it here) — I love the way languages have their own ways of describing things. In English, we call the ruts on the side of a bowling lane “gutters”, while in Thai we call them “pipes”. There’s an idiomatic phrase used to refer to getting a gutter ball, which translated literally is “clean the […]
A State of Not-Knowing
My Thai language skills are far from fluent, and although many people compliment me on speaking “so clearly”, the breadth and depth of my vocabulary leaves much to be desired. This means that I am often suspended in a state of not-knowing. Example: (Any dialogue in Thai will be in italics) Right now I have a sore throat and stuffy nose, and my voice is […]
I PASSED!
On Friday I found out that I passed my language proficiency exam! I was (and still am) absolutely shocked, because I was not confident about the exam at all – for the full story, read here. Of course I still have a long way to go in my language skills, and I’d like to stay in language school for further study. Still, this is a huge […]
Did I hear what I thought I heard? … Yes.
The other day I was sitting at the Honda dealer waiting for my motorbike to be serviced. A non-Thai man came up to the front and was looking at new motorbikes to buy. The salesperson was trying to help him. The conversation went like this (everything in italics was spoken in the Thai language): Customer: What about this one? What kind of warranty does it […]
Anatomy of a Thai Language Proficiency Exam
For those of you who want the gory details… Saturday November 28 I flew down to Bangkok to take the สอบวัดความสามารถในการใช้ภาษาไทยสำหรับชาวต่างประเทศ or in English, the Thai Language Proficiency Exam for Foreigners. This exam is offered once a year, and I decided to take it now instead of waiting another whole year and having it hang over my head that whole time. I was able to […]