In Thailand without knowledge of English
As statistics showed, many are afraid to go to Thailand due to ignorance of English. In vain, because the usual school program is quite enough. If you know the hundred words and several phrases, you will feel confident. Because the Thais themselves do not speak in the language of Bairon, as the poet himself. They have a common Taiglish, to which you still need to get used to.
Do Thais understand our?
Official language in Thailand Thai. In popular tourist sites, hotel staff, restaurants, cafes, bars, shops speak English. Some of them understand individual our words. This is especially true of Pattaya and Beach Patong, Karon, Kata.
But you should not compare Thais and, for example, the inhabitants of Turkey. The latter are quite well understood by the our language, the Dolmush driver in Alanya is able to entail the requests of the girl to stop at a certain stop. And this is not a joke, but the reality I watched two years ago. Thais has everything otherwise. our language gives them hard. Mostly in our, immigrants and businessmen working in Thailand and businessmen: Pakistanis, Indians, Nepalese, Koreans.
If you see that the Tapet does not understand you, you should not try to pronounce our word louder and in syllables. It is likely that he just does not know the our language. Capture a our-English phrasebook with me, it will be easier to explain with him. Do not rely on our-Thai phrasebooks. Those that I saw in Moscow will die errors, and it is not always possible to pronounce the transcription.
Lie in the restaurants of Thailand menu in our?
Food and restaurants are an integral part of the culture of Thailand. It is difficult to present a place in the country, wherever at least a small cafe. In the provincial towns of the menu usually only on Thai. The same applies to small home restaurants in Thai areas of popular resorts. If at least a few foreign tourists would already be credited to the institution, the owner will translate the menus to English. Prices in the menu in different languages may differ. The lowest – in the Thai menu, higher – in English, and the highest cost of dishes happen in the menu in our and Chinese. Such a difference is found not in every restaurant, but it should be kept in mind. Therefore, knowledge of English is power and opportunity to save on food.
In the resort restaurants that at least somehow try to attract tourists, there will definitely be a menu in our. Another thing is what kind of our! Masterpieces, type "Fried Vasily", "Tom yam zhob", "Whiskey with coke", can meet very often. If you do not know English at all, but Thai our do not understand, choose the menu with pictures.
In various regions of Thailand there are always network restaurants MK, Black Canyon Coffee, Sizzler, Fuji, Shabushi. Their menu with colorful pictures, and sometimes even translated into our. Network restaurants are located, as a rule, in shopping centers: Central Festival, Robinson, Tesco Lotus, Big C. In any case, for ordering in the Thai restaurant, you can use my list of popular dishes.
How to explain with thais without english?
No under the hand of a dictionary or a phrasebook? Use gestures. Thais always try to understand you and make every effort. The only conditions: do everything with a smile, not to raise the voice and not annoyance if you do not understand. Thais trying very hard, bring patience.
An excellent assistant to communicate with Thais will be the Google Translate application for iPhone and smartphone. It works even offline. Download the app, install our and Thai dictionaries, as in the picture above. Enough to write a word or phrase in our, establish a translation from our to Thai and show local residents. If you turn your phone to a horizontal position, as in the picture below, the text will be reflected on the screen with large letters. In addition, you can always click on the speaker icon to hear the desired word or phrase. Do not write long vessels. Phrase "Please bring me sugar" enough to replace the word "sugar", And Thais will understand you. Latin transcription may not coincide with pronunciation. In my example "sugar" Thai sounds "Us Tang", You will hear it if you click the speaker icon.
Another magic function of the Google Translate application – inscription recognition. It is almost useless for the Thai language due to many different fonts, and for signs in English you will be useful. Click the camera icon, take a picture of the text and run the word recognition. You will be given more or less understandable translation. This application is an indispensable assistant to communicate with Thais.
In Thai, there are no stress as such. There are only short and long vowels. In addition, Thai tone language. Due to the combination of tone and longitude, the vowel appears. In the overwhelming majority of cases "Emphasis" On the last syllable: City Pattaya, Province of Krabi, Catá Beach. With foreign words sometimes it happens to adapt to Thai manner: Store Store – so called Central Festival (Central Festival) or Savan – so-called mini market 7 Eleven (Savan Elevant). If you see that the Tapet does not understand any geographic names, play with the emphasis, try to say the word with different colors.
I hope that scattered some of your fears about English. Thailand is open to all. My mother taught in school German, and dad – English. It was all over 45 years ago. And they coped perfectly without special knowledge of English, can go to the store, clarify the road, order food in the restaurant. As they say, tongue to Bangkok will bring. Have a nice trip.
