MicahJohn

The other day on the porch I learned a little about the Isaan language. Specifically I learned that it is more a collection of Lao-Thai variations, than a distinct language. Villages 5 km apart will say things quite differently. They will use different words, different word order, etc. So much so, that some central Thai who have lived in this area for a long time cannot understand Isaan from certain villages. They can understand Lao from across the border (it is more standardized, thanks to being a written language), but they have difficulty understanding the language spoken in the next village over.

This site is worth checking out. They have the recordings of the New Testament available free in 296 languages (including Thai and Lao (Lao is very similar to Isaan, the local language here in Ubon)).

Last night my neighbor asked me to help his girlfriend translate something from English to Thai. It was an article on osteoporosis. I quite frankly don’t know many of the Thai words used to talk about osteoporosis.

As I was slowly crawling my way through the first paragraph of the three page article, my neighbor kept bringing me different things to eat and drink. First was a sleeve of Oreos. Next came a soda. After a few more minutes, honey coated bananas, then to top it all off a bottle of honey. The bottle is no smaller than a liter.

I finished none of these edibles any more than I finished translating the three pages about osteoporosis. When we had all decided that the Micah-as-translator approach was not the best option, I was asked to take the Oreos, the soda, the bananas, and the honey with me. Excluding the soda which I finished, they are all now in my refrigerator. Ants make keeping anything edible anywhere but in the fridge nearly impossible.

สบาย:comfortable. สบาย ๆ: chill, relax, take a deep breath, easy going. (ๆ is a repeat sign. สบาย ๆ is read สบาย สบาย)

That’s without looking in a dictionary, so it may be a little off.

Translation aside, today was a reminder that living here in this country it’s best to be able to face things and just think สบาย ๆ. (This is probably true anywhere in the world). This afternoon I had a test scheduled for my some of my students. Today at the flag pole it was announced that there would be no afternoon classes. These schedule changes regularly occur without any warning. As far as I can tell the Thai teachers are just as unaware of the changes ahead of time as I am. (I do not say “just as surprised by . . .”, merely “just as unaware of . . .”).