Rather interesting having a relationship with someone who speaks an entirely different language than you do. There is no "one to one" relationship in words or sounds made while speaking between the Thai language and English. Best I can figure out, the Thai language is rather circular in context, and even the way objects are described are not at all as they are in English. For instance, from what I can figure out from the way Pim says things when she converts them to English in her mind, where I would say "peanut butter sandwich" to her it comes out as "sandwich butter peanut". Which when thinking about it, is probably a better way of thinking about something. Thai seems to describe what it is first, and then the descriptors follow to narrow down more precisely what exactly is being referred to. So there is an elegant logic being applied in the Thai language.
Not that I feel capable of learning the Thai language, however. The Thai language is tonal and inflection based, besides the circular referencing mentioned above. One of her nephews once gave me a lesson in the Thai language by saying a word five times, each with it's own inflection, and each meaning something completely different. Honestly, I could not hear any difference between all five iterations. So, so much for that. I don't know if Thai people have locality accents like we do in America, but Pim did tell me there are local dialects, which might be the same thing, only different.
What makes it really interesting is when Pim will use English words that don't say what she thinks they mean. For instance, one evening she was asking me if we needed to do "darly" that day. Eh? I had no idea what she was talking about. Especially when she bent down to the floor and started picking up stray hairs off of the carpet, thinking she was miming what she was talking about. I could not imagine what it was she was asking me about, because I don't remember us EVER doing that before. Come to find out, she actually meant "laundry". Her picking hairs off of the carpet was just coincidental, but confused the hell out of me. So we laughed about that for a long time.
Another example is more recent. She likes when I get a hair cut and don't look quite so ragged looking. Long hair on a man is apparently not common in Thailand. And apparently not considered attractive. So in the belief she was complimenting me, she has said "You half man". Excuse me? Well, I can't help that...... That happened TWICE, already. Thankfully, what she was really wanting too say was "You handsome." Whew...... But another laugh fest took place those times too. Luckily we have agreed that anything we say that seems to come out being harsh or critical, that it is probably an interpretation error and not actually meanness coming out in words. Much better to just laugh together at things like this than to take offense and get angry over what turns out to be nothing at all. So, when in doubt, just laugh. Probably would work well for straight English too.
Not that I feel capable of learning the Thai language, however. The Thai language is tonal and inflection based, besides the circular referencing mentioned above. One of her nephews once gave me a lesson in the Thai language by saying a word five times, each with it's own inflection, and each meaning something completely different. Honestly, I could not hear any difference between all five iterations. So, so much for that. I don't know if Thai people have locality accents like we do in America, but Pim did tell me there are local dialects, which might be the same thing, only different.
What makes it really interesting is when Pim will use English words that don't say what she thinks they mean. For instance, one evening she was asking me if we needed to do "darly" that day. Eh? I had no idea what she was talking about. Especially when she bent down to the floor and started picking up stray hairs off of the carpet, thinking she was miming what she was talking about. I could not imagine what it was she was asking me about, because I don't remember us EVER doing that before. Come to find out, she actually meant "laundry". Her picking hairs off of the carpet was just coincidental, but confused the hell out of me. So we laughed about that for a long time.
Another example is more recent. She likes when I get a hair cut and don't look quite so ragged looking. Long hair on a man is apparently not common in Thailand. And apparently not considered attractive. So in the belief she was complimenting me, she has said "You half man". Excuse me? Well, I can't help that...... That happened TWICE, already. Thankfully, what she was really wanting too say was "You handsome." Whew...... But another laugh fest took place those times too. Luckily we have agreed that anything we say that seems to come out being harsh or critical, that it is probably an interpretation error and not actually meanness coming out in words. Much better to just laugh together at things like this than to take offense and get angry over what turns out to be nothing at all. So, when in doubt, just laugh. Probably would work well for straight English too.