Thai Language issues

[waerth]

Hello,

there is now also a Thai version of the wikipedia encyclopedia at:
th.wikipedia.org

Walter

[AMRivlin]

Glenn Slayden; US citizen, IT consultant, Musician and Thai traveler, had a great resource. www.Thai-Language.com

It was the most extensive website I have found, and pretty close to a Thai web-dictionary. I found it alot of fun, and helpful to improve some Thai phrases I have picked up.

It appears he pulled the site down early this year. It coincides with Glenn pleading guilty to owning and attempting to make a LSD lab in his affluent Seattle, WA neighbourhood.

I would be curious if anyone has any information on this site, or if we can convince Glenn to put it back up.

(If my facts are wrong, appologies to Glenn Slayden. I just viewed the following sites, and thought it was strange a man with the same name, ran my favorite thai-language site.)

http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_020504WAKlsdKC.88ebd2a7.html

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/waw/text_version/press_room/2004/apr/slayden.htm

[AMRivlin]

I am suprised no one has ever visited this site, especially with all the expats in here, I thought this was a perfect site for showing family members/interested people of the Thai language.

Anyone ever use it before its demise?

[The Enforcer!]

Here's one for you really great Bangkokians.

Is there a Thai Language version of the board game Monopoly? And if so, where can I buy it?

The Enforcer!

[ttaaee]

Yes...

I used to play the Thai version of Monopoly when I was younger. It's called "Game Sed-Tee" (millionaire's game). I'm quilte positive that they still sell this game. You can try checking out board game departments in any department store in Bangkok.

[The Enforcer!]

Thanks, will do.

Paul

[AMRivlin]

Not to be the only poster of the thread, but the site has returned in its 2003 version.

Good work Glenn. Check it out... www.thai-language.com

[admin]

An article here (http://typographi.com/000931.php and http://www.clearviewhwy.com/) about Clearview, a special type of font designed to be easily readable on highway signs...

"Faster recognition at increased distances - Improved legibility in a similar footprint"

Does any similar font exist for Thai? Has anyone researched this?

[AMRivlin]

I have heard the word jang used to refer to a lot, but what does "Miss you jang" mean.

Jang as a person, girl or guy?
Jang means alot?

[ncr]

Yes, it's a particle (adverb?) meaning something like "a lot", "so much", "extremely", "totally", depending on the context.

e.g.
im jang (loei) = I am so full
na rak jang = so lovely, very cute

> thus Thai-English miss you jang = I miss you so much.

Hope that helps.....

By the way, why do you write "Isaan" in Thai letters below your name?

[The Enforcer!]

Originally posted by ncr
By the way, why do you write "Isaan" in Thai letters below your name?
and why do they show as gibberish on my machine?

The Enforcer!

[jpatokal]

Originally posted by The Enforcer!
[B]and why do they show as gibberish on my machine?
The forum doesn't specify an encoding, so your browser has to guess, and guessed wrong. (I get my gibberish in Japanese.)

[ncr]

Originally posted by jpatokal
The forum doesn't specify an encoding, so your browser has to guess, and guessed wrong. (I get my gibberish in Japanese.) But you should be able to go to View > Encoding and change it to "Thai (Windows)" or whatever. (If you have a "Thai" computer, that is.) (I mean, one with Thai fonts installed.)

[jpatokal]

Originally posted by ncr
But you should be able to go to View > Encoding and change it to "Thai (Windows)" or whatever. (If you have a "Thai" computer, that is.) (I mean, one with Thai fonts installed.)
Sure. But it doesn't happen automatically, because my browser is set to assume Japanese when in doubt, and the forum's code is not giving any instructions.

[admin]

A reader asks: "you do not know me- but I was reading a forum and I was wondering- what is or what does "Thannon" mean? it is my cousin's name and she wishes to know what it means. if you could be of any service I would greatly appreciate it~ Thank You"

[Yappofloyd]

I may be missing something here but I use Thannon as the Thai word for road. However, given the tonal nature of Thai language I'm sure it has at least a few other more meanings appealing for the counsins name...

[Zoowatch]

some meaningful Thai songs for people who don't understand Thai

i have selected a few meaningful ones and translated them into English

you have to go to:

http://homepage.mac.com/zoowatch/FileSharing3.html

and download the MP3 and PDF files for music and lyrics respectively.

i hope that you will appreciate some of the songs

these songs, in a way, reflect the Thai people's general attitude to life (the ups and downs of it) and relationships.

____________________________________

so far, the following songs are available:

1. "Live And Learn" by Boyd Kosiyabong (featuring Kamala Sukoson)

2. "Khue Rak Thae" (meaning "That's True Love") by Seven

3. "Kon Hin Kon Nan" (meaning "That Piece of Rock") by Rose

4. "Ruedu Thi Taek Tang" (English name: "Seasons Change") by Boyd
Kosiyabong (featuring Nop Phonchamni and Thi Chaiyadet)

5. "Khae Mi" (meaning "Just Having (You)") by Phalaphon Phonkongseng

Enjoy!

[Zoowatch]

Another song just added:

6. "Mae Phim Khong Chat" (meaning "The Molders of Our Nation") by Orawi Satchanon... (A song written as a tribute to hardworking teachers across the country, especially those who teach in the rurals)

This song is found here (http://homepage.mac.com/zoowatch/FileSharing3.html)

[waerth]

thx unfortunately downloading doesn't seem to work :( . They immediately open in my browser and start to play ... I use firefox

Waerth

[waerth]

Well I found a way to do it ....... but it downloads as xxx.mp3.mp3.zip I than try to open it with winzip and it says illegal archive. I than tried playing it in my Winamp and it just plays ........ weird but it works! Especially the first song was one that I looked for for a long time and number 5. Thx a lot!

Waerth

[Zoowatch]

try using other browsers like MS Internet Explorer...
I have checked all the files... they are working fine

the files are zipped... so you have to unzip it before opening.

[waerth]

Well the funny thing is it plays ...... without unzipping them, though I cannot change file associations :( so I have to force winamp to play them, but they play!

I looked at the other pics on your site and the oil drawings did you make them?

Waerth .....

[Zoowatch]

The song "Live And Learn" was used in an advertisement a few years ago.
It was an advertisement for a Thai insurance company called Ocean Life Insurance.

This advert tells us how real lives have completely changed through the ups and down.
These are real stories...

The advert starts off showing an ex-boxing champion... used to be famous (and rich)... but life changed and now he's selling noodles by the road side.
Yet this guy, Rattanaphon So Woraphin, isn't embarrassed being a roadside hawker... He continues to make a living with integrity, never lamenting that life is unfair.

Then, it shows an orphan who used to live and beg on the street in his childhood... he fought hard with life and pursue as much education as he could... now he's Dr. Amphon Watthanawong, working as a director of a social welfare organisation, helping out homeless children or those from poor families.

Next, it shows Ajarn Phanit Kantamara who had attempted suicide after a storm in her life. Through faith (Buddhism), she now understands life a lot better, finding peace and happiness in life.

Lastly, and the most admirable example is Mr. Chris Benjakul. He was a handsome mix-blood former rising star in the Thai movie industry (he played as the leading actor in many Thai drama serials). One day while he was driving, he stopped to help someone who urgently needed help but was unfortunately knocked down by another passing-by car and became paralysed. His acting career was gone overnight and later (after months of physiotherapy) miraculously managed to walk. Right now, he's a photographer and he still help strangers. More importantly, he remains positive about life...

This ad ended with a simple message saying "no one is born to laugh before crying"... "Understands the value of life... Ocean Life Insurance"

The short video clip can be found here:

http://homepage.mac.com/zoowatch/FileSharing7.html

use Windows Media Player to play this file

[Zoowatch]

Well the funny thing is it plays ...... without unzipping them, though I cannot change file associations :( so I have to force winamp to play them, but they play!

I looked at the other pics on your site and the oil drawings did you make them?

Waerth .....

Nah
those pictures / painting do not belong to me...

[gong sun]

Hi there, I am learning Thai ABC. Even though i have mastered the 44 consonants, I would like to sing the Thai ABC song. If you have it, please send over. Much appreciated!

Gong Sun

[GWR]

The website of one Marcel Barang, who is heavily involved in the translation of Thai Literature to English & French:-

http://www.thaifiction.com/

http://www.thaifiction.com/english/list.html

http://www.thaifiction.com/english/01anthologie.htm

Thai Online Library that allows you to view the Thai text with different formats of interspersed English, French and even Latin translations. Also some English to Thai. Here's a clip from Frank Baum's 'The Wizard of Oz:-

http://crcl.th.net/bitext/

Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's wife.


โดโรธีอาศัย อยู่ท่ามกลาง ทุ่ง ใหญ่ ในแคนซัส กับ ลุงเฮนรีชาว ไร่ และป้าเอ็มภรรยาชาว ไร่

mediis magnis campis Kansae, cum Patruo Henerico, qui agricola erat, et Amita Em, quae erat uxor agricolae, habitabat.

And buying the actual Books:-

http://www.dcothai.com/index.php?cPath=37&osCsid=1653c29d8f4fce963853d98213aa7fbe

[GWR]

Brought to you by Bangkok's Center for Research in Computational Linquistics:-

เรียน ไป ปวด หัว มี ผัว กว่า
Rian pai buat hua - mee pua kwaa!
Studying gives me a headache - I'd rather have a husband!
http://crcl.th.net/sticker/68.gif

[GWR]

If you need to get to grips with some Pali terms still used by Thais:-

http://www.saigon.com/~anson/ebud/dict-pe/

And an English -Pali too:-

http://www.saigon.com/~anson/ebud/dict-ep/index.htm

[Smiaw]

เรียน ไป ปวด หัว มี ผัว กว่า
Rian pai buat hua - mee pua dee kwaa!
Studying gives me a headache - I'd rather have a husband!

[admin]

A reader asks: "Could you please tell me which is THE THAI TERM (romanized) for THE WORD: REGENT(f.e.Srinagarindra,Aditya Dibabha,Sri Suriyawongse). I need this term for my a historical researching about rulers' titles."

[GWR]

A reader asks: "Could you please tell me which is THE THAI TERM (romanized) for THE WORD: REGENT(f.e.Srinagarindra,Aditya Dibabha,Sri Suriyawongse). I need this term for my a historical researching about rulers' titles."

Hope this information is useful:

Poo Samret Rachagarn Tan Phra-Ong.

Thus Phraya Sri Sriyawongse (AKA Chuang Bunnag) - King Rama V's Regent - would be announced as:

Phraya Sri Suriyawongse, Poo Samret Rachagarn Tan Phra-Ong

[ncr]

The Longdo Dictionary (http://dict.longdo.com/?sourceid=Mozilla-search&search=regent) also says ผู้สำเร็จราชการแทนพระองค์ (phu samret rachagan thaen phra ong), as well as อุปราช (uparat), which we have heard before as the term for 'viceroy' - in the form uparacha. (I am not sure if 'regent' and 'viceroy' can be used as synonyms or if there is a subtle difference?)

The thaen phra ong part literally means [ruling] "instead of the king".

[Ahoerstemeier]

The two terms are something different - the regent is acting for the king in case the king is out of country for a longer time, during his time as a monk, or for a king who didn't reach adult age yet. The uparat or vice-king was a second king, a title which was abolished in 1885. The uparat, usually the brother of the reigning king, was also the heir to the throne, and also often in strong competition with the king and trying to get to the throne before the king died of natural causes.

[Ibro]

Could you please tell me which are the words in Thai(romanized)for:COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE ARMY?
Thank you very much.

[brooklynmonk]

http://photo.ringo.com/192/192767021RL859798457.jpg

Ancient Thai Art Combines Spirituality with Deadly Fighting
By Antonio Graceffo

“Some people have found their way. Others are looking for the way. I was a fighter once. I hadn’t found the way yet. It is ok. We will search and search until we find it. If people don’t know any better yet, how can we blame them? We have to allow them to search.”
Explained Kruu Pedro Villalobos. Originally from Madrid, Spain, Kruu Pedro had been both a Muay Thai champion and a Theravada Buddhist monk. He left the monkhood to continue his practice and teaching of the sacred art of Muay Thai Sankha.

Muay Thai Sangkha combines the techniques of ancient Muay Thai (Muay Boran) with spirituality, philosophy and Krabi Krabong, fighting with sticks or swords. According to Kruu Pedro, Krabi-krabong dates back to the era of the Sukothai Kingdom, founded in 1238, following the decline and fall of the Khmer Empire 13th - 15th century. By this time, the Khmers, the Burmese, as well as Northern Thailand had developed fighting arts. King Rama I saw the skillful masters of the north and brought them to Bangkok to train the army.

In a small teak house, on a quiet soi, behind Wat Suandok, in Chiang Mai, Kruu Pedro Villalobos, a former Thai monk and professional Muay Thai champion, walks me through his shrine, explaining each of the fascinating artifacts of the Buddhist, Brahman, and Hindu Religion. It is here that Kruu Pedro meditates and prays each morning and each evening. Among his prayers, Kruu Pedro sends thanks up to his spirit teachers, asking them to open his mind so that he might be a better teacher of the Thai martial arts.

“I teach when I can and I follow when I can.” His said in absolute humility. On his website, ancientmuaythai.com, Kruu Pedro has a list of the Ajarns, the spirit teachers who teach him his art.

“This one is Hanuman, the white monkey from the Ramayana.” Says Kruu Pedro, pointing at one of the many pictures adorning the altar. He points to another and says “This represents the five Buddhist elements: earth, water, wind fire and ether.”. I was about to snap a photo of one of the small statues, when Kruu Pedro cautioned me.
“Please, no photos. This statue has a spirit in side.”

“This one was given to me by a cave monk. He is Pra Ubpakut, the doctor of the Buddha and the father of Reiki and all of the healing arts.” Other images included Pra Ganesh, the elephant God of the Hindu religion. Kruu Pedro pointed to a likeness of a fierce warrior. “This is the Tiger King, Prat Chao Sua. He went in disguise to the town and fought in competitions.”

Kruu Pedro explained about one very ancient looking statue. “This was given to me by the father of one of my students. In his family they had been Nak Muay (Muay Thai fighters) for generations. Before they fought, they always prayed before this statue.” Kruu pedro held the statue in great reverence, out of respect for the generations of merit and spiritual energy it contained. “This one has a fighting spirit inside.” He assured me.

To the side of the shrine was a beautiful sword. “I put bone and hair from a famous monk inside of the handle and sealed it with pure silver. Now there is a spirit inside of the sword.”

In order to train with his team, Pedro required I become his student. The next morning, I was to report to him with the following items: 5 white lotus, white candles, 5 jasmine, and 9 incense.

While Kruu Pedro taught me the delicate art of folding the flowers to make them appropriate for the offering, he explained. “I only want to teach good people. I believe that if a teacher teaches a bad student, and that student hurts someone, the teacher gets some of the bad kharma.”

Although no longer a monk, Kruu Pedro follows the Brahman precepts: love, for all people regardless of race, rank or sex, compassion, self-respect, and thinking before you take action. In addition to the Brahman precepts, Kruu Pedro follows the 5 precepts of Buddhism. Don’t kill. Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Don’t take intoxicants. And, don’t commit adultery

Every step of Kruu Pedro’s program is focus on some aspect of self-betterment. Taking a holistic approach to training, Kruu Pedro said, “We train, mind, body, spirit and heart. The mind is trained through meditation and chanting. The heart is made better by surrounding yourself with flowers, candles, incense and water. Helping people, sharing, talking and giving are all from the heart. Muay Thai trains the body. We help the spirit by studying the Dharma and the teachings of Buddha.

“A student doesn’t have to tell me he wants to improve. I can see it.” He went on to say, “My teachers taught me never tell people what to do. You teach by example.”

Pedro realizes the students live complicated lives, in a modern world. He doesn’t expect them to shave their heads and go cold-turkey on all of their indulgences.

“Step one is stop doing bad things. Step two is improve slowly, slowly.” He said, simplifying his philosophy.

“I don’t care if a student’s Muay Thai is good or bad. I only care when he comes back to me and says, Kruu, you changed my life.”

For the most part, Pedro’s students weren’t professional fighters and had little or no interest in becoming professional fighters. They were university graduates in their late twenties and early thirties who worked professional jobs in their home country, saving their money to come and train with Kruu Pedro.

Why would anyone subject themselves to this type of suffering?

Pedro explained that first his students learned martial art for self defense, health, and self-respect. “Later if he wants to fight pro, ok I can train him. Fight and win ok. Fight and lose ok. No problem, just do your best.” Once again, Pedro stressed that the motivation to train must come from inside, not outside. “You shouldn’t fight for money and winning fights. You fight to win life. We train to create a family and to support each other, which is so important in the world today.”

Kruu Pedro allowed me to get into the ring with one of his leading students, a 1.95 meter tall behemoth, named Titan. Titan followed the precept of compassion, and never hit me hard, although he could have killed me. After only a few months of training, Kruu Pedro’s students had achieved a level of fitness and technique which many fighters will never achieve. The reason for their success is simple, good fundamentals. When I closed on Titan, he was all knees and elbows. When I tried to make distance, he was all kicks and leaps.

I have fought in about ten countries, but Thailand is one of the few countries in the world, where the national sport is fighting, brutal, hard hitting, bone-wracking fighting. And the Thais, in general, are some of the best fighters, pound for pound in the world. Thailand is one of the few countries where an 18 year old boy, 65 Kgs, will be matched with a heavyweight pro from Europe, and win.

The obvious question I asked Kruu Pedro was, why?

“A unique gift which the Thai people posses is a tremendous respect for the teacher. Spirit teachers, angel teachers, help to open the mind and help to develop their respect for the teachers and they learned more.”

Kruu Pedro was quick to point out that he didn’t dislike the MMA or K-1. “Some people have found their way.” He said. “Others are looking for the way. This is the same for teachers. If there are teachers looking for the way, I don’t interfere. I was a fighter once. I hadn’t found the way yet. It is ok. We will search and search until we find it. If they are teaching MMA or they are teaching everyone, including bad people, but they don’t know any better yet, how can we say they are bad? How can we blame them? We have to allow them to search.”


Antonio Graceffo is an adventure and martial arts author living in Asia. He is the Host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” The Pilot episode, shot in the Philippines, is running on youtube, click here. The Monk From Brooklyn - Kuntaw in the Phillipines Antonio is the author of four books available on amazon.com Contact him Antonio@speakingadventure.com see his website www.speakingadventure.com

[brooklynmonk]

http://photo.ringo.com/240/240158511RL914669932.jpg
Boxing Till Fluency
By Antonio Graceffo

The ALG method (Automatic Language Growth) of language learning, concentrates on listening, and says the student will speak when he is ready. Last month, when I was in Surin, I needed to speak Thai everyday, but it was very difficult because so many people were speaking Khmer. I got confused and never used a complete sentence from either language. Maybe I wasn’t ready yet, or maybe the situation was just too difficult.
The last three weeks, I was working in Chiang Mai, and needed to speak Thai. I was working in a Thai environment, where people honestly didn’t speak English. My listening, of course, is much better than it ever could have been, thanks to ALG. By getting people to relax, and speak to me in Thai, as they would speak to each other, I am able to get better stories, and better, less self-conscious information. Even if I don’t understand everything they are saying, it is better for me to have people rattle on in Thai, and I will catch what I can. This is essentially what happens in an ALG classroom. And now, because of the program, I am comfortable with this. At the end of the day, I am recording these conversations anyway and can always play them back and get them translated later if I need to.
It is hard to convince Thai people that you can understand Thai but cannot speak it. The concept is hard even for westerners, but in Thailand, where abstract thinking doesn’t exist and where innovation is discouraged, they only measure your linguistic ability by your ability to talk, not listen. To get people to talk to me in Thai, I had to speak just enough to convince them I could speak the language, without speaking so much that I tripped myself up.
It began slowly, with broken sentences and isolated words. After about a week, I was coming out with enough appropriate language, that people would say “Wow! You do speak Thai,” and then comfortably rattle on with me as if we had known each other for a thousand years.
Normally in Thailand, if you speak any Thai at all, you receive an empty compliment, “Oh, you speak Thai so well.” Then the people continue speaking to you in English. If they continue in Thai, however, then I take this to be a bit more sincere.
With my boxing trainers, I really needed them to speak to me in Thai. First of all, there is a limited amount of language which repeats, daily, and which I would eventually master if they would speak to me in Thai. I don’t need to answer back, only do what they tell me to do. But when they try to speak English, I often have no clue what they are asking of me. And when they are forced to speak English, the things they teach me are limited by their vocabulary and fluency. Which means, they actually teach me more things when they are speaking Thai. 90% of the time I can understand them from body gestures, movement and intuition, so, as ALG teaches, most of the communication is non-verbal. But they wouldn’t even attempt this communication until they falsely believed I was fluent in Thai.

Example: Antonio throws a kick. The teacher says in broken English, “turn your hip into it.” After the teacher is led to believe that I understand Thai, he says, “raise up on the toes of your base leg, and bring your weight forward.” He never made that correction when we were speaking English because he lacked the vocabulary, and he was afraid of losing face.
When the teacher is calling combinations he will use numbers, combination one, two or three. But when he is speaking Thai, he invents new and more complicated combinations, which he lacks words for in English. At this point, for most trainers, the things they would know how to say in English aren’t very helpful for me, since their English is more basic than my Thai.
Example: The teacher says in Thai: “I want you to blah, blah, blah, your left arm, two times.”
The blah, blah, blah is the part I didn’t understand. When I tell the teacher I don’t understand he says in English.
“I want you to blah, blah, blah left two.” The blah, blah, remained in Thai because he didn’t know it in English and I didn’t know it in Thai. We are actually worse off in English than we were in Thai.
Miss communications and misunderstandings can occur between two native speakers of Thai. In that event, the teacher doesn’t suddenly try to explain in English, a language he is 10% fluent in. Instead, he explains in Thai. And this is my struggle, getting them to restate or explain in Thai. Now that I can fool them into thinking I understand, I can get them to restate in Thai. Often, on the second or third explanation, and using intuition and non-verbal, I can understand.
To keep things going smoothly, I pepper my listening with chai, chai, chai, and kaboom, and kap, kap kap, kao jai, kao jai. Occasionally, I ask an incredibly obvious question just to keep the conversation a two way street.
Not just in boxing, but other friends I met through my work just felt more comfortable talking to me in Thai. Luckily, we aren’t doing surgery or sending men to the moon, so it is ok if I miss some of what is being said. Each of these conversations is like the ALG classroom.
The first trap many foreigners fall into is that when they hear from every Thai person, “Oh, your Thai is so good.” They stop trying to learn, because they think they have mastered the language. At worst, they are hearing a polite, automatic response to a foreigner speaking Thai. At best, they have mastered the art of the daily routine of ordering in a restaurant or telling the taxi driver how to go.
The next trap is when you reach the point I am currently at. You can sit and listen endlessly, and understand enough to occasionally make an appropriate comment, or ask a question. This fools the listener into believing you have understood most of what was said, when in actuality, you have only understood 10 – 20%.
Such as, your Thai friend tells you a really long story and at the end, all you understood was that the story was about rice. That is not effective communication.
The answer is, you need to keep going to school.
After sparring the other day, my Muay Thai teacher and I were sitting with a Japanese fighter named Riki. Riki is married to a Thai girl and has been living in Bangkok for five years.

Yesterday was the first time the three of us had a lengthy conversation in Thai, as equals. I was able to participate the whole time because we were talking about Muay Thai, K- 1, and other forms of fighting, which I am familiar with. So, the conversation followed my intuition and expectations, and I appeared to be a competent speaker and listener. I know that if we had been talking about anything else, I would have been much less prepared. Again, this is the trap of confidence through familiar situations.
I discovered Riki’s Thai has huge, holes in it. The teacher asked Riki why Sumo wrestlers are so fat. Riki wanted to say, “Because they eat five times per day.” He kept saying the number five in Thai, but didn’t know how to say five times. Instead, he switched and said “They eat soup for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two more.” But he used the English words for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Riki lives in Thailand and functions all day. Obviously, Thai people aren’t speaking to him in Japanese, so he is using Thai to communicate, but at what level is he communicating? And, if this is how he speaks at the end of five years, he probably won’t change at the end of eight or ten years.
Another interesting point was that at times, Riki and I got so excited, talking about our favorite fighters in K-1 and Pride, that we were talking a mile a minute, in Thai. We understood each other, but our teacher was completely left out. Possibly he was left out because our pronunciation was so bad, that he as a native speaker couldn’t understand us. But the real problem was cultural. I realized that Riki and I, Japanese and American, were much closer culturally, than either of us were with the Thais. We are both from developed, first world countries, with good education systems. We had watched all of the same fights on TV and had opinions on them. For the Thai instructor, Brazil, Jiu Jitsu, even the K-1 was a blurry foreign mix which he had only experienced as legend.
For the Japanese and Americans, our scope is global. We can comfortably talk about fighters and martial arts from Brazil to China and Korea. For many Thais, the entire world outside of Thailand is just Farang. The Japanese also internalize a lot of foreign words, sport words and names, they just write them in Japanese script. This meant that when we talked about the names of martial arts or the names of countries and fighters they were close enough in both of our languages that we knew what we were talking about.
This experience drove home, once again, that communication is non-verbal. It is more cultural than linguistic.
And, although it may not be the best way for everyone, martial arts is an awesome way to learn a foreign language.
Antonio Graceffo is an adventure and martial arts author living in Asia. He is the Host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” The Pilot episode, shot in the Philippines, is running on youtube, click here. The Monk From Brooklyn - Kuntaw in the Phillipines Antonio is the author of four books available on amazon.com Contact him Antonio@speakingadventure.com see his website www.speakingadventure.com

[GWR]

[Q] From John McWilliams: “I am an engineer and have used the word ..... 'nitnoid' all my professional life, but I’m not sure if they are real words. ........... A nitnoid is a small mechanical device of little importance as in, ‘that nitnoid keeps the belt tight’. Any help?”

[A] ..........

Your other word, nitnoid, is clearly also American slang, though it’s new to me and there’s nothing in any of my books to tell me its origin (the earliest example I’ve found is from 1992, but it clearly must be significantly older). There are references to it online that suggest it can be a niggling small matter of no consequence, or something that’s nit-pickingly frustrating, or a pedantic person intent on squashing the life out of some subject by considering every detail. This suggests a derivation from nit plus the suffix -oid to indicate something of a given nature (plus, to be nitnoid about the matter, an interpolated n to make it easier to say, and perhaps a trace more humorous). Examples include “he has written a book chock full of nitnoid detail”, and “this man is a nitnoid perfectionist”. A rare example in print appeared in the Atlanta Constitution in September 2001: “We need to appreciate every moment we have with each other and just be nicer and not get lost in the nitnoid frustrations of life.” Interestingly, though this is clearly in the same ball park as your example, none of the instances I’ve found have quite the same sense.

It was confidently said by many subscribers to derive from the Thai nit noi, meaning “just a little”, with the suggestion that it was brought back to the USA by servicemen returning from the Vietnam war. I can’t find evidence to directly confirm or deny this one, though the gap between the Vietnam era and the first appearance of the word might count against its being the source.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bli2.htm