The problems is you can say "mai" five different ways. Either rising, falling, straight, up-down, and down up. But to a westerners ear it sounds like the same word said five times in a row. It is one of the funniest and most annoying things in the world. Oh and then theres are the long vowels and the short vowels.
Here is a sentence... spelled phonetically for us Americans:
/ \ /\ /\ /
Maai mai mai mai, mai?
"New wood doesn't burn, does it?"
The / means high.
The \ means low.
The /\ means falling or up-down
Crazy isn't it?
Anyways, I start my Thai Culture class on the 23rd of October and I get to learn how to Wai more problely and learn about Thailand. It will be great.
2 comments:
That's awesome you're making the effort to learn the language... That "mai" sentence is so crazy, though!
Glad it's you and not me learning that language. I have enough trouble with the words in Hawaiian when we are visiting there. They only use 13 letters instead of our normal 26. We just got back from there earlier this week. This morning we had snow so I'm going through bad withdrawal and wanting to go back. Have a good week. Aunt Connie
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