Night Market and The Sounds of Thai

Last night after dinner we decided to venture out to a Sunday night market that I had heard about; I thought it would be big and crazy, but we were unprepared for just how big. It ran almost the full mile of the inner city, branching out from its main street onto side streets and even into the open lots of schools (of which there are many here). I haven't done so much shopping in a really really long time. Not only does the exchange make everything massively cheap here, I've been delighted to find that I haven't needed to alter the shopping habits I try to maintain at home, finding a surprising number of second hand vintage stores and locally handmade goods, often of natural materials, made with natural dyes, etc. Sarah found a beautiful hand made cotton dress with this adorable little lace color for about $30, would certainly have cost over $100 in the states. My most amazing find of the night was probably a hand woven silk/cotton scarf for roughly $3! It's a thrill to worry more about how much room I have left in my pack than how much money I have left in my budget.

 

 

Chaotic situations do often fluster me enough to inhibit my proficiency in the little Thai that I know. Because Thai is a tonal language (the meaning of words is derived by the inflection, rather than the sound of the word itself) many Thai words contain the same noises, and can tend to sound befuddlingly the same to my Western ears. Example: the "ai" at the end of the word "Thai" is extremely common: chai is yes, mai is no, rai is what, the name of our hotel in Bangkok was Sabai Sabai (Sabai means peaceful, or place of tranquility). To confuse matters just a little bit more, Thais use a kind of "polite word" at the end of many sentences, either to show respect and courtesy (very important here) or to soften a terse statement or question (ex. how much? or where are you going?) For females this word is 'ka' and for males 'krabp' with a very soft bp sound on the end. This sometimes makes the phrases that I have learned swim in my head, as they all end the same way. Thus, in a moment of flusteriness, I sometimes grab the wrong one. At first hello (Sawat di ka) and thank you (Korb kun ka) were the only two I knew readily, and I used the wrong one once or twice, saying hello to the waitress for a second time when she brought my food. Last night I bumped into someone, and instead of saying sorry (kor thot ka), I thanked him (korb kun ka)! But this is getting better, and I'm even starting to be able to hear and produce the tones for words, which fall into five categories: mid, low, high, rising, and falling. I got some good advice before we left, which was that if it doesn't sound absolutely ridiculous to you, you're not pronouncing it right. Thai an incredibly interesting language, and I'm excited to be here long enough that a decent amount may sink in. In the mean time, we've found that a smile, a willingness to laugh at oneself, and a grateful bow of the head go a very long way. For speaking so little of the language, I've probably had the best interactions with people here of anywhere I've travelled.

 

 

Looking forward to more, and to telling you about it!