I had hoped I'd have an edge. I hoped my basic conversational Thai (albeit very rusty) would flood back into those dark empty spaces in my brain, taking me to a level of fluency rarely seen in one so new.
I was so wrong. Thai hinders me! Sure, I am remembering words that are similar in Thai and Lao and some are even the same. But the sentence structure, grammar, the accent, the verbs, the tones... Aaarrgghh.
Intensive
Which reminds me... apparently you can tell the future by reading chicken guts.
Our teacher, Sonexai, bless his little cotton socks, is patient and encouraging and tells us constantly that we are correct and very good at pronouncing things. He is lying of course but we appreciate the effort.
"tik tong!"
It's not helping (for me) that Marteen and Croalar (as they are now known) are freakin' brilliant at languages. I think they are cheating but I can't work out how. After five short sessions they are already ordering food in restaurants and haggling with tuk tuk drivers in Lao. Sure, they have been known to end up with offal laap instead of actual food (oops, hang on, I think that was my fault) but they are zooming along the road to a little village called Fluent. Today they even seemed to understand what present perfect and past participle tense is (or maybe they were faking?).
This actually makes sense to me now
Still, despite these challenging and difficult circumstances, I am coping. I break into Thai now and then but most Vientianese can speak Thai (from watching too many Thai soaps on local TV!) so I'm making myself generally understood. The pained look on some waiter's faces seem to ask "please give up and just order in English," but I forge on. (It's my Kip, Ralph).
Important vocab
Some words are exactly the same except for the tone... and the fact that they mean totally different things. Mak gieng means oranges; mak gieng also means rose apples. Confusing.
And the transliteration of the words changes with each publication. Sonexai writes chao, the LP writes jao and I write what I hear... jow. I'm illiterate so what I write doesn't matter (I tell myself) as long as I can repeat the words in a way that is (even remotely) recognisable.
It's draining on my already busy brain. Although I should be memorising lists of fruit and vegetables right now I am far happier to tune out and watch TV. Even Criminal Minds is preferable.
I think my head might be full.
Pop gahn mai. Kop Jai.
You're a better man than I, Gunga Din. Learning languages is hard if you aren't 3 years old. Learning non-Euro languages is even harder.
ReplyDeleteFull marks for effort.
Are you finding that people to whom you speak in Lao are responding to you slowly and loudly as if you're mentally enfeebled?
I wish they would, Jeff. I'd then have half a chance of understanding something.
DeleteMeanwhile I continue to seem and feel enfeebled.
I remember thinking my teensy tiny bit of Mandarin might help when I started with Japanese in high school ... and finding, as you have, that the similar sounds and same-but-different meanings and even scripts tended to make things harder!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely lots of points for even attempting. I bet you're much better than you're letting on. ;-)
ບໍ່ມີຜັກບົ່ວກະລຸນາ - did that make any sore of sense?
ReplyDeleteRemember, when in doubt go to google translate
Hi, I am a friend of an imminent Red Cross volunteer. He referred me to your blog to see what fun you are all having.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with learning Lao. I was attempting Thai when I was in Thailand and Cambodian while working in Siem Reap. I was always given the look that you received from waiters. :).
Oh, please ignore the name here. It's not mine. I don't have an account myself but i used to write a blog under my cat's name. Her name was MoMo and she is now an angel in kitty haeven.