Learn the Basics of the Thai Language

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Sean Graham. On behalf of Expert Village sponsored by goturnkey.com. In this segment, I'm just going to teach you a little bit about the Thai language, the basic Thai. Let me first of all give you a couple of tips about etiquette in Thailand. One, never touch anybody's head. Like this. Never do that. Two, never point the soles of your feet towards anybody. This is disrespectful. Okay, restaurants. Two basic pieces of Thai for the restaurant is Ko Du Mehn Nu Kup. That means I want to see the menu. Ko Du Mehn Nu Kup. And at the end, after you finish eating, you want the bill, you just say Check Bin Kup. Check Bin Kup. If you come to the country, come with a smile on your face. You'll be surprised; everybody here will smile at you and be very respectful. Keep your voice low, don't shout. Sometimes here can be very frustrating, so you sometimes want to shout. Okay, basic Thai. Thai for I is Pum. I, Pum. I want, pum ow. Ow is want. Pum ow, I want. You, Kun. Kun, you. Saying hello and saying goodbye is Su A Di Kap. Now a man in Thailand will always say Kap. A lady will say Kah. Now the reason you say Kap, and you usually do it after everything you say in Thai, is it makes the sentence polite. If you just say Pum Ow, that's an aggressive way of saying I want. When you say Pum Ow Kap, that means you're making it very polite. So always use the word Kap. Thank you. Thank you is Ka Pun Kap. Thank you, Ka Pum Kap. Ka Pum, thank you. Kap is polite. Some basics for direction. Go straight, this is very useful for a taxi. Go straight is Trong Bi. Trong Bi, which is basically translated straight go. Bi means go. Trong means straight. Si is left, and Qua is right. Si is left, Qua is right. If you are in a taxi, you want the taxi to turn left, you say Bi Si, go left. Bi Si. Bi Qua, or Trong Bi. Now in the market, when you want to buy something, you want to know how much. You say Tao Ri. Tao Ri means how much? Tao Ri, Tao Ri. Now if the price is too high, once they tell you the price, you want them to bring the price down, you say Lot Noi Krup. Lot Noi Krup. Means reduce a little please. Let's go on to numbers. Okay, from one to ten. Num, Shong, Tham, See, Har, Ock, Jet, Bet, Gow, Sit. One more time. Num, Shong, Tham, See, Har, Ock, Jet, Bet, Gow, Sit. Okay for numbers beyond ten, it's very simply is Sit Ette, eleven. Sit Shong, Sit Tham, Sit See. And so on. Okay, there are just a few basic Thai words that you can begin to learn before coming to Thailand. Thank you."