Saturday, September 12, 2009

Jom belajar Thai

The other day Gooly came back with a shit sheet of homework.

Thai.

*jeng jeng jeng*

First of all, the instruction says to 'cross out' the correct answer. That was peculiar because when I went to Kindie, a cross always indicated wrong answer. Ah well, I supposed it's like "mengundi' - crossing out the candidate you wish to vote.

And then the pictures given were even more peculiar (to me). There were 4 objects. As I was somewhat culturally challenged, I wasn't sure what they were. So I went to my aid, Ada's mom.

*point at picture A*

"Is this a box?"

Err... No.

"A chest?"

No..

"Is there an English word for this...this.... this.. square thing which looks like a box but it's not a box?"

No, no English word, and it's not a box.

"Do you keep treasures inside? Can it be opened?"

No, cannot be opened.. we just put it in the temple. Or for Royal functions, people go on a parade and carry it.

Ahh.... It was an exasperated 'ahhh....'

I was really curious so I went online to check on the Thai writing system. To my astonishment, there will be 44 objects for Gooly (and me) to learn. That is the basic ABC for Thai. While the Roman alphabet doesn't mean anything, Thai 'ko-kai' contains nouns and verbs - each making different tonal pronunciation.

The few objects/verbs making sounds in Thai 'alphabet' that I can remember are:

ko-kai ~ chicken
kho khai ~ egg
to-pah-tak ~ spear
yo-yim ~ smile
yo-yak ~ ogre
pho-phan ~ tray
tho thahan ~ soldier

Tell me, are they random or what? And tell me, aren't ko kai and kho khai the same? Apparently they are NOT!!!

This is an ogre, yo yak, one of the consonants to learn. Their statues are commonly found in temples. They are mythical. How do I explain this to Gooly? Imagine explaining err... 18 lorhon or 8 sin gor hoi to a 5 year old?

And I haven't even point out the 'wormy' ways of writing them. Or some people call it 'taugeh'. They look freaking same to me!!


How can such a puny letter contain a three syllabic i.e. "tor pah tak" word? *scratch head*

I learn that upon graduating from these 44 consonants (I don't know why they are called consonants; they sure don't look like consonants to me), they will combine these words with vowels which make new words.

Do I dare to confuse US with the bowel vowels system?

What the heck.. Let's pengsan together.

There are five vowels which can be combined to produce diphthongs which make another 26 sounds.

HAHAHHAHAHAHHHAHAHAH...

What did I just say? I have no idea.

Oh, and they have no full stops. And no spaces between each word.

*rub hands with glee* I am so excited about learning something so foreign.

Yeah right... Do I have to? I don't, right? I mean, I am not the one going to school. Right, Gooly? You can do it on your own, right? You don't need my help, right?

RIGHT!

14 comments:

rainbow angeles said...

zhuk lei hou wan...

toughcookie said...

omygod.. this reminded me of this one time ok... i was helping my daniel with his homework when he was in std 1. we did almost everything until it came to this jawi homework, or so i thought. i can read jawi no problem but when we started reading the first word, i was stumped. i looked at it many times and couldn't make out the word. i asked him, what's this? he said, this is arab la ma... i was like, oh, arab mama tak tau and he said, 'ingat mama tau everything!'

hehe... a mama should be excused la to not be a pro at everything.

so i told him, bahasa arab belajar sendiri. haha.

tuti said...

japanese looks way easier.
jialat. i would freak out if i'm you. hahahhaa. you KNOW you would have to guide goolypop don't you?

Anonymous said...

a e i o u, bengali love u.

exusmexbkkexbf

Reanaclaire said...

tai sum le.....sorry, pong mmm toe lei..

CY said...

44 consonants? Because alpahabet like CH also one consonant. NG also one consonant so all japalang got 44 lo. Wait till u get into vowels! Buahaha. Lagi teruk i tell ya. BTW, u lap all my books at Jester or not? How come cannot see you?

Sawadee Sinkar said...

ฐานะเพื่อนสนิท อดีตคนรู้ใจแค่เห็นเธอร้องไห้ ทำใจไม่ได้ซักทีจะไม่ถามสักคำว่าใครที่มันทำให้เธอต้องเป็นเช่นวันนี้
ฉันรู้สึกไม่ดี ฉันเป็นห่วงเธอเธออยากให้ฉันอยู่ด้วยไหมอยากให้ฉันอยู่ด้วยไหมเธอ

translation:

esok i makan char kuey teow extra hum.

gooly pening said...

angeles, wan tan meen geh wan? :D ding hai wan tor tor geh wan?

gooly sakit jiwa said...

beskot, oh, so I should tell gooly, bhs thai belajar sendiri.. I add SILA lah.. sounds nicer..:P

Gooly in denial said...

tuti, its in my job specs ke? Teach thai? I dun think so leh.. hehehe.

gooly said...

anon, aeiou, bengali is who?

Gu5 said...

claire, pong ng tou ah? Then mou fan nei kin ngo!

Cy, i also din see you. I wear big hat and bikini, didnt see me meh? :P

Sawadee, nga choy leh?

tasy said...

pls blog in thai from now on...

coffeesncookies said...

hahaha... i saw sawadee's reply. so 'cheong hei'... no appetite to eat any kway teow already lor.. hum or no humm...
btw, how come you are in BKK ? No other options for gooly to study english syllabus meh ?

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