My Name in Thai!

ไรอัน

I-R-A-N

I know it seems weird that the "I" comes before the "R", but... like may other languages East of the Atlantic and West of the Pacific, they put their vowels all around the consonants and try to confuse us Westerners who have no concept of this way of writing.

It is really cool though, and today I was talking with two of my friends, Howard and Nipa.  Howard is the chaplain here and is also a farang (word used for white people).  He has been here 5 years now, and has recently married a wonderful Thai-girl.  He speaks fluent Thai and can read and write Thai as well.

He and Nipa, she is one of the Office Workers, was helping me with spelling my name in Thai during one of my free periods.  And I found out there is 8 or more different ways depending on how you would like it to sound.  The beautiful thing about the Thai language, is that it is tonal, which means that you have to be specific in how you say words.  They have added the tones into writing the language, with accent marks, vowels, and tonal marks all over the place.  This kind of stuff confuses most English speaking people because for us we can say a word like five ways, whether our voice is rising or falling or mono-toned.  Just had a thought, I don't think there can be a monotone Thai...  ;)  But this language is totally foreign to me and many other farangs.

You have to say words exact here or it is very hard for people to understand what you are saying.  And that complicates things because there are usually 5 or more words spelled the same way, but with a different tone or inflection on the word.  I will try and find a way of explaining that some other time.  Maybe with some video... I will test out my Thai and let you hear the difference.  Or if you can hear the difference, I have a hard time...

Well, I am going to bed, just thought I would share a little bit with everyone.  Please note that I miss my family and friends!  And know that each one of you comes across my mind at some point during the day or week!  Love ya!