Intermission Lesson 1

Let's take a break and learn more of the Thai language dialects. There are four main ones: Northern region, Northeastern region (Esaan), Central region, and Southern region.

Northern dialect has a very soft tone and the dialogs are quite slow-paced. Majority of the people from the northern region are more calm than the rest of the country.  I don't know much about the northern region except that my brother and my dad had spent a lot of time in the area.  We have a property up north that my dad makes a visit at least twice a year or so.  People speak really calmly that you can't really tell when two people are arguing with each other.  I'm sure they too have lots of bad words that you and I don't know about.  It's like a "well-known" rule of thumb that you always learn the bad words before you learn the rest of the language.  Of course, we're not going to get into that.

Northeastern dialect or Esaan has a very upbeat tone. The dialogs are quite "entertaining" when you listen to them. Laos and Esaan use very similar dialect, so if you understand the language, you can travel in both Thailand and Laos freely. The reasons why Thailand and Laos are sister countries are that we look alike, we eat alike, and we speak alike. (Our cultures are similar) Much like how earth and Venus are sister planets. Laos was once a part of Thailand before France took over. I was told by an unreliable source that Thailand is the only country in the world that has never been ruled by any country in the world.  Please correct me if I'm mistaken.

Central dialect has a relaxing tone. What I teach you is the central dialect and it is the main language of the country. Central dialect is easy-going and most people agree that the central dialect is the dialect of the educated people. Of course, I personally think it's cooler when I see a foreigner tries to speak Esaan to me at the restaurant. I don't know much of it, but I'm proud to say that my brother grew up in Bangkok around Esaan people that he can actually speak Laos. 

Southern dialect has a course tone and the dialogs are compressed. We have a joke in Thailand about the fastest Thai dialect (Southern) and the slowest Thai dialect (Northern).  Train is one of the main transportation in Thailand and many are open air.  Basically you'd sit in the train with the windows rolled down and the electrical fans rotating on the ceiling.  It's quite fun!  Anyways, the joke is that, if two southerners sit on two different trains on two separate tracks coming toward each other, the two can yell from across the train and understand each other as the two trains pass.

Southern dialect:
Person 1: Where?
Person 2: Market.

Northern dialect:
Person 1: Where are you going to?
Person 2: I'm going to the market.

If you have been on a train before and have seen how fast the trains pass each other between tracks, you would understand the joke.  It's amazing how languages contribute to our communication Process.  You don't need to be good at something for another person to understand you.  You just need to know it.