Thai for Dummies

This is Kaew our language tutor and Shelly at the local coffee shop "Wawee" where we meet for our thrice weekly lessons. That means lessons three times a week. We initially picked this coffee hang out for its tranquil environment with birds chirping and the soothing sound of their rock waterfall. Not to mention they have great coffee and they are experts at IV's to get the caffeine in just that much quicker. We take turns each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I mangle the language for 2 hrs first to warm Kaew up and then Shelly gets to hurt Kaew's ears for an additional hour.


I started learning to read and write in Thai months ago and now Shelly is just starting to learn. I feel her pain and frustration at the start of learning how to read and write. I know it seems crazy, but they do have rules in their language. Just getting a grasp of those rules is the fun part.

In the Thai language they have 44 consonants and those consonants are divided up into classes. High class, Mid class, and Low Class. This is important because each class has specific tone markers attached to it and this shows you how to pronounce the word. The names of the consonant classes (high, middle and low) are completely arbitrary. For example, a low class consonant can generate a high tone and a high class consonant can generate a low tone. Neat, huh!!!! There is an algorithm that you can follow to decipher how to pronounce a word in a easy to follow manner. Oh, sweet innocent Brett, so trusting, so loving. I would almost rather have shards of glass in my eye.






Oh, hey look here is the Thai bible! It is a great book and does explain things in simpler terms which is great for a simpleton like me. Just to let you know there are 32 vowels and 4 tone markers in Thai. Every Thai syllable starts with a consonant. Although the consonant sound comes first, the vowel may be written before, above, below, after or around the consonant depending on the vowel. Also the Thais have no breaks in between words so it is one continuous stream of letters. That is why it is so crucial to memorize where the vowels are located because that will help you know where a word ends or begins. Ahhhh...... good times!
You probably can't tell in this serene picture of two people having a conversation and enjoying some smooth rich coffee, but Shelly's brain is actually imploding at this moment.


There are some pluses too, it's not all negative. For one thing there are no verb conjugations in Thai, we just add time markers. There are no articles like(a, an, the). There is no verb "to be" with adjectives, so she is beautiful would be "She beautiful. I like this one the best because it fits my Cro-magnon mentality. "Me go store", "Me like food"
This is a page of reading exercizes from the "Thai bible" and astoundingly Shelly and I both can read and understand them. I guess there is hope for us after all. Of course it takes us a couple of hours to read one page, but we can do it.
Ahhhh.... learning languages. Thai has been an extremely difficult language to learn mainly due to the tones. Thai language has 5 tones (mid, low, falling, high and rising). The same word can be spoken with 5 different tones and they mean completely different things. For instance (Mai) could be mile, new, no/not, ...,right, and silk depending on the tone you use.
So, sometimes it's frustrating when you are talking to someone and you know you are using the right word, but they keep looking at you like you have an arm growing out of your back. Some people can't seem to figure out what you are trying to say because of the wrong tone used even though the context is clear.

Even though I'm complaining about the language I do love studying Thai with Kaew. We have good days and bad days when it comes to language, but we are going to stick with it since we know we will be here a long time and we think it is important to really know the language. Maybe when the girls have another year under their belt they can tutor us. It's just a thought.

Sawat dii khrap gap choke dii na khrap
Love Brett

Oma and Opa's visit to Thailand

Welcome to Thailand! We met Oma and Opa at the airport on July 5th and shuttled them to our humble abode. They were very tired and needed to rest. Acacia and Anna were absolutely excited to see their Oma and Opa! Anna for the last few days kept asking in the mornings "is Oma and Opa here yet" We had to keep reminding her that they will be here soon. Finally, the day arrived.


The girls greeted Oma and Opa Thai style, with fragrant leis placed around their necks. We still can't believe they are here. The first few days we took it easy on Oma and Opa so they could get used to the time change. We had a lot of fun activities planned for them and the girls couldn't wait.



We visited a Tiger sanctuary on the outskirts of Chiang Mai. They have adult tigers and cubs that you can pet for a 15min period.How awsome is that!! If all that petting gets you hungry they have a restaurant that surrounds the tiger cage and you can eat while watching the tigers. I wonder if that is really a good idea having food served around tigers?

This is the market just outside our moobaan (neighborhood). We shop here quite often and sometimes the girls get free fruit from one of the vendors. So I guess they can buy things with their good looks. I always thought that was a myth about buying things with your good looks. I think it only works with little blond cuties.

Girls day out for tea and scrumpets or something like that. This is a nice tea house on the banks of the Ping River. Shelly, Oma and Acacia enjoyed a relaxing tea and had a great time.


Oma, Opa and the girls enjoying a day out in Lampang which is a sub district just south of Chiang Mai. They saw temples, rode a water buffalo driven cart and took a cruise on the river.


Oma, Opa and Acacia visiting Daddy's work at the Church of Christ in Thailand AIDS Ministry (CAM) office.

"Khum Khantoke" is a touristy dinner show with traditional Thai dancers, music and fun. It is a great place to get your fill of Thai food and enjoy and entertaining show.
They do dances from all the regions in Thailand and from various hill tribe groups.
The girls loved the show and hammed it up for the Thai performers. The girls were dressed in Thai attire, which illicited oohs and ahhs from the Thais. This was one of the last nights in Chiang Mai for Oma and Opa and we wanted them to see traditional Thai dancing.
Acacia and Anna love imitating Thai dancers like the one you see here. I hope someday they show a real interest to actually learning Thai dance.




Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!! The beautiful islands in Thailand!! This is Railay Bay in Krabi. Oma and Opa met us here after they took a 4 day tour of the temples in Cambodia. This was a nice place to do nothing but relax, which Shelly is quite aptly demonstrating here. Good technique Shell!!

The beautiful beach and limestone mountains that surround the Krabi Province. This place was picture postcard perfect. If you look closely that is Oma,Opa and the girls playing on the right side of the picture

The major form of transportation around the islands are these long tail boats. You have to be very careful where you sit because they rock side to side very easily. The girls loved riding in the boat looking at the craggy rock formations all along the coast.
Acacia and Anna enjoying the scenery!!!
Acacia holding the sun so that it wont set and we can enjoy a longer day. Thanks Acacia!
I went on my own one day to a secluded bay that was a haven for rock climbers. I had to traverse a steep rocky trail to get here, but it was worth it.
Opa and Anna playing in the sand.
The girls having a great time on these swings. I was going to try it, but I thought I would break it. So, no go for Daddy!

Anna and Oma enjoying the wonderful pools. They actually had two pools. The one where Anna is by herself is right next to the beach and the one with Oma and Anna together was right next to our room. Cool, huh!
A crabs eye view of the beach.

BANGKOK! This is a view from the temple "Wat Arun" or the "Temple of Dawn". The river is the Chao Phraya which snakes throughout Bangkok. The temple is crazy steep to climb and can be a little scary.

Oma,Opa and myself riding a "tuk,tuk" to the Grand Palace. This was Oma and Opa's first "tuk,tuk" ride. Congratulations.
Anna, looking at all the ornate fixtures and Buddhist images. Some people were taking pictures of her instead of the temple.



The largest reclining Buddha in the world.
The amazing temples at the "Grand Palace" This place is a must see!!!
Oma and Opa standing in front of a golden Chedi. I don't know if it is real gold, I doubt it. Man, is it shiny. It almost blinds you looking at it with the sun reflecting off it.

We had a wonderful time with Oma and Opa and wanted to thank you for creating such fun memories with us. We all miss you and love you very much. Thank you for everything. Love the Faucett Family

"MUAY THAI"

I was invited by a fellow missionary friend to see a typical Thai cultural event "Muay Thai", which means Thai kickboxing. My friend Andy has lived in Thailand most of his life as a MK (which is short for missionary kid). His parents have lived here as missionaries for 40+ years. Andy, needless to say, speaks fluent Thai. If you were to talk to him on the phone you would bet your life that you were talking to a Thai. When we bought our tickets Andy did the talking and every person he talked to would just start laughing and telling their friends to come over here and listen to the farang (foreigner) speak Thai. We got our tickets and took our seats in a small kind of run down rickety stadium. There was a good mix of Thais and Farangs here to enjoy the show. They schedule 12 bouts of fighting with weights ranging from 41kg to 75kg. The show began as every event in Thailand begins, with everybody standing up during the King's song to pay homage to the King. After everybody has taken their seats the action begins.
There is traditional music that is played during the fight with musicians playing cymbals, bells, drums and a salor (kind of a crude violin). When the fighters enter the stadium to fight the musicians start playing. The fighters will then enter the ring and do their ancient rituals of dance and prayer in the ring. Each fighter will pray to each corner of the ring and bow solemnly. They actually spend quite a bit of time on this, which was interesting. They head to their corners and get rubbed down with oil and are ready to fight. If you've never seen Muay Thai, it is brutal. They can use knees, elbows and feet to inflicted punishment on their opponent


Every fighter's dance is similar, but with their own unique variation to the ritual dance and prayer.
It was fascinating to see the way each fighter performed his dance and prayer.

These young men were not playing around, you could hear the thwack of a foot against a rib cage or the head and see the welts afterwards. They would also get each other in a head lock and both fighters would knee each other in the ribs. All this while rolling around on the ropes. The lighter weight guys were lightning quick with both their fists and their feet. Unbelievable balance and stamina was the name of the game.
Each fight was 5 three-minute rounds. In between rounds the fighter would get a vigorous rub down and be stretched like a gymnast.

Ringside was home of the raucus Thais who were betting on who would win. It was like the floor of the stock exchange with money changing hands constantly. They were a loud, boisterous bunch and created the atmosphere that I anticipated seeing with the smoky haze and gambling.



I don't care who you are, thats gotta hurt!!!




One minute you're kicking somebody in the face.
The next minute you are getting knocked on your butt.
Why yes, I WOULD like a knuckle sandwich!!!
This Farang was in the heaviest weight class of the night at 76kg. He was actually a tough cookie.

He was able to trade punches pretty well with his opponent, but was not as good as the Thai was at kicking.

Looking at this picture you would never have guessed that the farang had won the fight, but he did in the 5th round with a knockout that kept the Thai on the canvas for several minutes. They actually brought a stretcher to carry him off. He eventually got up on his own and stumbled out of the ring. The blood on the farang's face is from a strategically placed elbow from his opponent.

It was approaching midnight and we were on fight number 7 of 12 fights. We were all sweating from the packed stadium and the humid night. We decided that we had seen enough and headed for the exit. We talked all the way home about what an exciting night it was.