The Notebooks: A Thai Lingualicious Treasure Trove

By Warren Fryar, Alan Niles and Chutima TumThamarong

The Notebooks is a first shot at filling a void both in content and methodology helping native English speakers convey whats on their mind. Our approach is different. Rather than teaching Thai words - we start with English terms natural language phrases and expressions which foreigners would like to know how to say with an equivalent register and mood in Thai. So, we reverse engineer the process. Before this book, you probably couldnt say things like You aint got the juice, Thats a slammin shirt, or Hes totally clueless in Thai. Now you not only can, but youll Kick ass (also in these pages) at taking your native English phrases right into Thai equivalents.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479761302

Warren Fryar

Tumthamarong, Chutima: Thai National, owner Somchart Thai Language School, under the Ministry of Education. Previously had worked in setting up production facilities in the food processing industry, with engagements both in Thailand and Japan. A graduate of Ramkamhaeng University, Political Science. Fryar, Warren: 18 years experience in the creation of curriculum and teaching of English language including engagements in Africa, Japan, and Thailand. A graduate of the University of North Carolina, with courses in English, Education, and Socio-Linguistics. Proficient in Japanese language. Brisk, Alan: 15 years experience as a buyer of handmade goods in Thailand. Studied Thai at Somchart school. Undergraduate degree, Philosophy. MBA, Kellogg school.

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by Alan Niles, Warren Fryar, Chutima Tumthamarong.

Written by: Warren Fryar, Chutima Tumthamarong, Alan Niles

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012923021

ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4797-6129-6

Softcover 978-1-4797-6128-9

Ebook 978-1-4797-6130-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 03/25/2013

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

111783

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Dissin’

Chapter 2

Inconsiderate

Chapter 3

Diplomacy

Chapter 4

Negotiation

Chapter 5

Sarcasm

Chapter 6

Personality Disorders

Chapter 7

Cool/Uncool

Chapter 8

Keepin’ It Real

Chapter 9

Chaos

Chapter 10

Situational

Chapter 11

Puttin’ Em On Notice

Chapter 12

Go The Distance!

Chapter 13

Assorted Linquilicious

The Linguilicious Treasure Trove attempts to find Thai equivalents to many everyday English expressions. In fact, since we take the English as the headliner to each chapter, this is a Reverse Engineered approach to Thai language instruction.

When we say Thai equivalents, we don’t mean, for example, that we will translate the English idiom To call someone on the carpet word for word into Thai (unless of course Thai happens to use the same phrase). But we identify Thai language options for conveying the same register.

Most of the current Thai language instruction teaches, Thai, not English. And in fact, referencing the English expressions would not normally be the goal, or expertise of a Thai language teacher who may not have had the exposure to the current English vernacular and current slang.

The experience of the authors with Thai instruction currently being offered reveals that there is a lack of integrated offerings which would teach phrases like WHAT A SPACE CADET!, YOU GOTTA SUCK IT UP!, THAT IS SO PLAYED OUT!, and other expressions which native English speakers want to know how to say in Thai.

The premise of this project is to bridge this gap in the curriculum, by offering situation based examples in which both the native English speaker and the native Thai speaker contribute to, and ideally, perfect the usage, in an English Expressions driven book.

This book cannot replace the valuable content of the classic Reading I, Reading II, Conversation I, Conversation II modules that are taught. But this book stresses how native English speakers really talk and how to express those registers in Thai. You could say it’s a curriculum that renders contemporary English lingo in Thai.

The chapters of the book are being developed into a set of modules that can be taught jointly by a native Thai and native English consultant team. The curriculum would also be suitable for Thai students learning English.

There are some good slang/Idiom books and other resources out there, but the language is constantly changing—so we have made an effort to include new, original entries in this project. We also include some popular terms from sources as diverse as Hip Hop and Ebonics because they have become part of popular everyday English. Our mission has been finding you Thai equivalents that are used by Thai native speakers. Do you know how to say ‘MAN, THAT BAG IS FLY!’ or THAT DUDE/CHICK ROCKED MY WORLD? in Thai? You will soon.

We couldn’t include all possible translations for each entry. Advanced readers may call up other valid renderings. If a complete synonym lists were our goal, we would have written a thesaurus. Again, this book is more a point of departure, than a final arrival. This is a work in progress, and we hope this first edition will someday give rise to a more advanced second edition.

The story of The Notebooks begins at Khun Chutima’s Thai language school.

Alan attended the school and always brought a notebook chock full of phrases and questions.

Chutima had her own notebooks. She brought dozens of English phrases to the table from various farang movies that she watched.

Note: Farang is a collective term referring to westerners. For the purposes of this text, quotation marks are used depending the context.

Chutima and Alan filled notebooks with linguistic delicacies from a variety of Thai and English sources. In their study sessions, Alan and Chutima debated their goodie’s connotations, ultimately finding undiscovered Thai-English pairs.

The contents of those Notebooks is what gave rise to the book you are reading now.

Alan and Chutima were joined by Warren on the project in 2012. If they brought the Notebooks to the table, Warren brought the Linguilicious. His background in Socio Linguistics, has resulted in valuable contribution. We hope you enjoy the book.

IS THE BOOK FOR THAI OR ENGLISH SPEAKERS?

Both native Thai and English speakers can benefit.

WHAT LEVEL STUDENT SHOULD USE THIS BOOK?

Beginner to Advanced. The book is designed to be used in conjunction with the help of native, or highly proficient speakers.

WHAT CRITERIA WAS USED TO SELECT THE WORDS?

Originality, verified usage by Thai native speakers, and absence of translations in forums, dictionaries, blogs, and books. We left hundreds of words and phrases on the cutting floor because they did not conform to our criteria.

CONVENTIONS:

Phonetics: While the book does need to be used with a native or highly proficient speaker, we offer the following tone key:

(h) = high tone (l) = low tone (m)= Middle tone

(r) = rising tone (f) = falling tone

Phonetics indicating short/long vowels are not provided.

We have changed the names of any people, places, situations, or entities. Any similarity is coincidental.

You’ll note that in each chapter we repeat the same marker that: From this point on—even with the pronunciation key—beginners will need the help of a Thai language speaker. This is done so that students who are not yet reading the Thai script will not be surprised that they can’t go further without assistance.

Caveats: The book is for principally for amusement. Since language is very context specific, the content should not to be used for any business or critical personal applications without consulting a professional translation service.

Caution: Human communication involves a complex of elements—words spoken, tone of voice, body language etc. While the book can introduce you to these words, you must exercise care in using them to be sure that you are saying what you mean.

In the unlikely event that you don’t get the result you had anticipated, you do agree to hold the Authors harmless. (How’d we know she’d slap you?)

CHAPTER 1

DISSIN’

1: TO ‘DIS

We examine some Thai equivalents of this American slang term: ‘DIS’ meaning to Disrespect, To Insult, To Dismiss.

From this point on—even with the pronunciation key—beginners will need the help of a Thai language speaker.

TO ‘DIS (Disrespect): ไม่เห็นหัว (f)mai (r)hen hua

Literally: Not-See-Head. In Thai culture, the head is seen as a lofty (high) thing. To Not even see someone’s head is tantamount to ignoring their importance. The idea is that you’re not even acknowledging the other person or their feelings/rights/honor.

A guy is planning to marry a girl. In a traditional setting, he should approach the parents first and proceed through several steps of a proper courtship (including dowry). He hasn’t even asked for her hand from the parents. Doing it like this—It’s a total DIS to the folks!

ไม่เห็นมันจะไปสู่ขอฝ่ายหญิงกับพ่อแม่เลย

ทำแบบนี้เป็นการไม่เห็นหัวผู้ใหญ่

The opposite of ‘Dissin’ would be to SHOW RESPECT. Using the same Thai phrase just without the negative, reverses the meaning. Here’s an example of Seeing the head which shows an act of deference and honor.

A group of teachers in a school invite students into the teacher’s lounge without asking the principal. The principal reprimands them:

Next time if you’re going to do something (like that), SHOW SOME RESPECT.

ทีหลังจะทำอะไร ให้เห็นหัวกันบ้างนะ

A ‘DIS (Offense) คำสบประมาท (m) kahm (l)sopramat

Carries the sense of insulting someone’s honor or integrity.

"The taxi driver quit his job to refute the