How Hard Can Learning the Thai Language Be?
Learn a language? No problem, or so I thought. I bluffed my way through four years of high school French. I could speak well, but thought the emphasis the teacher put on those bothersome written accent marks was excessive (and my average grades reflected my nonchalance). However, I could speak French well enough to be politely received when I traveled in France, as long as there was no written quiz after dinner and wine. I was dedicated to learning to speak, read and write the Thai language. It was a haunting melody that I could hum, often off key, but not quite sing aloud, not yet at least. Unlike my faking my way through French, there was no room for bluffing in Thai. The Thai written language doesn’t follow the English alphabet. It is a unique system of symbols that look like loops, lines and squiggles that must be mastered. In comparison, French, Italian and Spanish (the “dining menu” languages as I think of them) at least share a somewhat similar alphabet with English. The fact th
