Learning Thai

"Sa wat dee, ka." (Hello) "Sa bai dee, mai? Ka?" (How are you?)

The greeting spoken by our female Thai teacher, Tuk every day. Males end their sentences with krap. If you mean to ask a general question, like "Is this a mango?" you need to put a mai at the end. This was the beginning of our instruction on Thai sentence structure.

Our classes began January 6 and have continued from one to three, Monday through Friday, since then.

We are supposed to study an hour for each hour we are in class. Tuk doesn't give us separate assignments for homework, we are just supposed to go over what we learned in class. Tuk, is lively and expressive and makes the class fun. She drilled us in the 9 vowel sounds plus their s

ix combinations and the 5 tones the first week and a half. She has also given us a lot of vocabulary and some sentence structure. I have tried speaking some Thai to different people and am learning by trial and error :/.

There are now nine of us since a Scottish man joined mid week. Now we have 5 English speakers (4 American) 2 Frenchmen, 1 Mexican, and one Swede. Gary doesn't sit on

that side by himself. Mn, J, and I all sit over there. Ta sat in the center until this day when she moved on the other side of Cn.

They have been interested in the Thai flash-cards I have been making for myself from the vocabulary.

The reading and writing course is a separate class that they don't let people take until after the second reading course, so they ask me if I am taking that class. I explain that some friends gave us some materials to learn Thai from so I could begin to work on some reading and writing. It helps me learn to write the words and see them written along side

pictures to suggest their meaning. Very slowly this is helping me recognize words written on signs. So far this has mostly been noticing when they are spelling an English word with Thai letters.

I am also finding out that they have silent letters, sometimes marked and sometimes not, that their letters change sounds sometimes, and lots of letters make the same sound. With a few words I don't see how they get the word they say from the letters spelling it. Ough (as in doughnut) well, it iz likely noe tougher than English that weigh.

On the day we were learning numbers, we exchanged phone numbers for practice and to have contact numbers if we couldn't make it to class. Friday, as Gary and I walked to class, my phone started "ringing". It was the first time someone besides Gary had called me, but I knew the sound was my phone since it was in the holder in my back pack strap that was across my chest. I answered it to find the Scot, Mn, from class calling. He wanted me to tell Tuk he wouldn't be in class because he was with his friend who was in the hospital recovering from an emergency appendectomy. He assured me that the procedure was over and that his friend just needed to rest. He had tried to call Tuk, but couldn't get through. I didn't think to say I would pray for his friend, but I did after I hung up. Gary saw later he had a missed call from him. Before class I tried to tell Tuk about Mn all in Thai. I did ok, with her help, until I got to hospital and the emergency appendectomy.

At break that day Cn talked to me about a masseuse he went to talked to him about "that book" I gave him, the New

Testament. He said he would try to go back to that masseuse. I couldn't quite hear him or understand through his French accent. Next week I will try to ask him more about that. I am glad he is interested in talking about it and praying that God will be guiding him to His truth and protecting him from harm in the process.

During class we often share information about ourselves as part of practicing use of the language. We have also asked each other why we are in Thailand during the break and while waiting for others to finish an exercise. Ta has come for a year to volunteer with NGOs. She was amazed when I told her we would be staying for most of the rest of our lives.

Please continue to pray for God to show His love through us to the people in the class, and for Cn and his search for the source of Truth.

:J