learningthaiforthaibls

[learningthaiforthaibls]

An update of sorts

It's been a while since I posted anything here, but in that time I actually managed to learn Thai to a decent enough level. By decent I mean I managed to translate Love Stage! into Russian merely by ear and sometimes crying at google.

I want to proceed with this blog, especially after seeing there are actual people here.

So. I guess, you can ask me anything about the language/learning/sone particular things that are of interest to you it or just scream at me about our favourite shows.

[learningthaiforthaibls]

I've thought about that as well, but finally decided to do the math. In short, Tutor would be Ae's senior.

In Why R U Tutor is a second year student, while Tharn and Type have been together for at least a year by that time, so they are of the same age.

Now Type is clearly older than Ae who is a first year student during LBC. The question is, how much older is Type. He is either a second or a third year student by then, bc Techno is in charge of the team and Tar is finishing his education abroad. At the end of TT Tar was only planning to go, so it makes Type at least a second year, but I'd bet on the beginning of the third year.

If Type is a third year in LBC​ while Ae is a first year, then Tutor is a third year.

So yeah, we get a devilish older Saint and younger adorable one.

rip everyone in that uni who is attracted to men

OKEY BUT.......

I was having an insomniac episode last night and suddenly my brain started to connect shit,,,, hear me out

in Why R U episode 1 we see TharnType interact with Zon, making him think that he's inside the novel but I think it's quite obvious (u can agree with me or not) that Tharn & Type were just his seniors on college (hence why Zol knew about them and shipped them) and he just never payed attention to them.

NOW, THIS IS WHEN MY MIND GOES WHOOSH ¿

IF Tharn & Type go to the same college as the Why R U characters.... BUT... we all know that TharnType happens in the same college as Love By Chance.... does that mean that Tutor and Pete go to same college as well?!?!??!?!?!?

and most importantly, since Ae is an engineering student as well.... does that mean that Ae and Tutor are class partners?!?!??!?!?!

thank you for coming to my sleep deprived TED talk

[learningthaiforthaibls]

Ugh, this was an exciting prospect, so I went to check, but sadly no. Pete's name is written like พีท, with a T on the end, not พีช

But that would've been sweet for sure

ALSO something I noticed this time is that when Ae uses Pete laptop to get his homework and sees Pete's post about him and love and bla bla whatever... the name in his Facebook profile is Peach

so... IS PETE'S NAME ACTUALLY PEACH???? WERE WE LOST IN TRANSLATION ALL THIS TIME??????? cause i feel like I've been lied to 💔

[learningthaiforthaibls]

The Lanka Joke

Okay, here I am again to share some Knowledge™ because I've found this joke to be absolutely delightful when the most basic context is provided.

In ep. 9 of En of Love we see this line:

FYI, Tossakan is the name of a demonic king from Ramakien, Thai national epic based on Hindu epic Ramayana. Tossakan is a green-skinned giant with ten faces and even more limbs and was based on the similar character Ravana from Ramayana.​ Who is considered to be pretty evil.

And he was a king of the Kingdom of Lanka (if I'm not mistaken, it's site is identified with Sri Lanka). As far as I know, the plot of Ramakien involves Tossakan stealing Rama's wife and Rama fighting him.

So yeah, if you want something from Tossakan, you pretty much have to walk into Kingdom of Lanka.

P.S.​ Praram (or Pra Ram in some transcriptions) is actually the name of Ramakien's protagonist who is an incarnation of Vishnu.

A+ children naming.

[learningthaiforthaibls]

Hello! I just recently started getting interested in Thai, I absolutely love the script and I think it sounds so amazing! But I've been struggling with finding good resources.. do you have any suggestions??

Oh, sweet!

Yeah, I do have some suggestions for you and for others who are starting out in Thai.

1. I cheer for learning the script from the beginning, even though it's pretty hard. If you know the script, you can figure out how exactly the word sounds and even the right tone for it.

I personally started out with free apps teaching you the script and when I somewhat grasped the basics, I moved on to learning vocabulary, picking up the rest of the writing system on the go. The thing is, there are lots of consonants producing the same sound and some of them pretty rare and you can learn them later, when you encounter them.

I'd say you mostly need this part of the alphabet to start out, at least I did and then gradually mastered the rest.

Also there's a very nice video explaining final sounds and how to write things.

https://youtu.be/pXV-MzO4Acs

2. When you're comfortable with writing, there's this set of rules that helps you to figure out the tone of the syllable. It looks intimidating, but learning that is really rewarding. For example, it's explained well in Poomsan Becker's Thai for Beginners.

3. General recommendations. There are some good books:

Thai​ ​for​ beginners​ by Benjawan Poomsan Becker

Colloquial Thai

Living Language Spoken Word Thai

All of them come with nice native audio.

Then there's Thaipod101 on YouTube and their own site, they have some free podcast lessons.

I really like some courses on memrise for vocabulary with audio, up to this moment I've been learning my vocabulary through memrise. There are some courses closely following Thai for beginners, so it works perfectly for me.

And also I try to watch a lot of native content with subs on YouTube and pick some things up that way.

[learningthaiforthaibls]

I cackle each time memrise asks me about engineers in Thai

[learningthaiforthaibls]

If I'm not mistaken with the translation, the last phrase in the preview is "I like you too" said in Pun's voice.

I just realized that not only does nott and pun wear the right clothes on the preview of ep 5 that match this photo

but also the preview ends with a very quick shot of pun on the roof and what I am basically trying to say is that there is a very high chance we are getting a kiss next week and my heart is about to explode

[learningthaiforthaibls]

I have my issues with some of BohnDuen moments in the series as well, but I just wanted to point out that Duen shows his affection quite significantly, just not in a very obvious way. He isn't comfortable with some of the common ways of showing affection (like kisses or being sweet with each other in public) but he makes some meaningful gestures instead.

Also yeah, please note, that Thai people in general are very affectionate with friends in public, but they are pretty discreet about their love.

Duen​ expressed himself through flowers numerous times by now. That rosmarine for starters. Or the rose plant in the pot from the last ep. Just think about it, this was his last promised​ flower for Bohn and he chose to give him a rose that can live and grow for years and decades.​ Just like a relationship. I read it as a message that he wants to keep everything going and you can't change my mind.

Also you can see that when Bohn is really upset or angry, Duen always does something to keep their relationship going or make Bohn feel better. When it's serious, he quits fooling around and shows his affection with actions.

Or there were small tidbits of Duen's imagination or him bringing drunk Bohn home and staring at his lips. He's emotionally invested, he is. Yeah, I'd love to see him communicating it better, but you can't deny that he values Bohn and their relationship.

And yeah, the rest of the time Bohn and Duen play those endless games with pouting, shying away and whatnot, but most of the time you can see that they enjoy it. Sure, there are times when they overdo it and hurt each other and it's honestly painful to watch. But I have high hopes for them, because when it comes to real issues, they learn how to communicate and go out of their ways for each other.

I get people’s problem about Duen not being affectionate with Bohn, but I want people to remember how their relationship started and how much time they’ve known eachother. I am going to compare them with other couples, so if that irritates you then please do not read.

Well first, Duen punched Bohn the first time he saw him. They also only started interacting because Bohn made Duen buy him flowers. It was also stated in the recent episode that the flower Duen gave Bohn was the last flower he needed to give to Bohn. That means it’s only been a month since they’ve known each other. A MONTH. That’s why I understand why Duen might be hesitant when Bohn tries to initiate anything. But again, you agreed to be his boyfriend, so you kinda have to do boyfriend things.

You could say “well ramking and tharafrong met even later but they’re progressing more than Bohnduen” and you wouldn’t be wrong ( I’m excluding Mekboss because both have 1. Known each other for a while and 2. Both have had feelings for quite sometime).

Ram caught King’s attention and they slowly notice and fall for each other. It doesn’t happen as fast as Bohndeun. Tharafrong are similar in that they are slowly falling for each other while Bohnduen jumped straight into their relationship(And let me just say, while I wouldn’t just jump straight into a relationship, if you do that’s fine. You do you). The other two couples are also learning the more they get to know each other. Like King learns that Ram doesn’t like children and Frong learn that Thara is a dork. Bohn and Duen don’t have this. They are stagnant and their relationship is not moving forward.

This is just my interpretation of why Bohnduen feel off, so you don’t have to agree with it. And I also want to say that I do love Bohnduen. Bohn is a pouty baby who deserves the world and Duen is cute and oblivious. I just want them to progress and grow into a relationship I can root and be excited for.

[learningthaiforthaibls]

also I wanted to share that the word King calls Ram in the series, นิ่ง​ (ning, you can hear it pretty easily yourself) is not as much a cool boy but the following

[learningthaiforthaibls]

Okay, I wanted to scream a bit about this moment.

The thing is, in Thai language people often omit pronounces and other parts of the sentence when the subject/object are clear from the previous context. And in Thai none of the words change grammatically, including verbs, so you can't really tell anything by the word alone: there are neither tenses nor suggestion about the doer of the action or anything else. Like for example in Russian in sentences "I like you" and "I like it" the verb changes its form drastically and you can infer from the verb alone a lot of information. But that's not the case in Thai. You can tell nothing.

Why this is important? Because in this dialogue Ram actually says that he likes King. Or, at least, his reply is ambiguous and works perfectly as two different sentences.

King states​ that Ram smiles, so he must be liking it [the music]. He uses verb chop (chawb), to like. With this verb you can like something or like someone in a romantic way, it works well with both.

Ram pauses and looks at King and replies with a single word, "chop" again. In Thai it sounds natural without pronounces, and King with his eyes closed takes it as "I like it [the music]". But we, as viewers, get a completely different context, so Ram's "chop" for us reads clearly as "I like you" and as a response that yes, he smiles, because he likes King.

And context is extremely important in Thai, so that's the sweet gay tea for today.

[learningthaiforthaibls]

NAMES IN MY ENGINEER

I wanted to share what I know about the meaning of some of the names (nicknames) we have in the series, because it gave me so much serotonin each time I discovered some of these things.

Duen (short for Duennao) - ​เดือ���​หนาว​ - means "month" ("Cold month" for full name)

Daonua, Duen's sister - ดาว​เนื่อ - is a "northern star", I find it devastatingly cute, especially with how well their names go together

Bohn - บ่น​ -​ means "to complain" (insert his pouting face here)

Mek - เมฆ​ -​ is a "cloud"

When Duen calls Frong Pi'Yim he actually calls him something like "Mr. Smile" and that's why he came up with that name in the first place.

Bonus: Lay Talay (he played King) has a name that actually translates as "sea", ทะเล​ (Talay).

[learningthaiforthaibls]

สวัสดี​ค่ะ​ Sawatdee kha!

Hi everyone, I've finally decided to make a blog with a purpose of it being a Thai langblr where I can also post some interesting things about the language as I come across them or how I see it's being used in Thai dramas.

For starters I want to make textposts about the interesting and cute meanings of some names in bl dramas and about the pronounces you can hear in dramas, but I'd be glad to hear to some of your requests. Maybe there's something that interests you about the language or the learning process (I'd say I'm entering the lower intermediate level now) or the things that caught your interest while watching dramas.