Regarding the origin of this joyous festival, legend has it that there was a god named Kabilla Phrom who loved to bet. One day he learned about a little boy named Thammabal Kumara who, at the age of seven, was able to recite scriptures in public. Knowing of this prodigy, the god would like very much to test Thammabal Kumara’s knowledge.

So, he descended to earth and posed three riddles to the boy, with a wager that if Thammabal Kumara could solve them, the god would give him his head. But if the boy failed to come up with the right answers within seven days, he would lose his head to the god. .
The three riddles were: where did a person’s aura exist in the morning, where was it at noon, and where did it appear at night? The boy pondered over these riddles for six days. Yet he could not figure out the answers. Fortunately, while he was lying in despair under palm trees, he overheard a couple of male and female eagles talking joyfully that they would soon feast on the body of a boy who would not be able to solve three riddles.

They then disclosed the answers to these riddles. Thus, on the day of crucial importance, Thammabal Kumara just repeated what he had heard from the eagles, which turned out to be the correct answers, viz. in the morning, a person’s aura appeared on his face, so he washed it. At noon, it was at his chest; so, he wore perfume there. And at night, his aura moved to his feet; that was why he bathed them.

As he had lost the bet, the god kept his word and cut off his own head. However, the head of Thao Kabilla Phrom was known to have some very strange potentialities: If it should touch the ground, the earth would catch fire; if it should be left in the air, there would be no rain; and if it should be dropped into the sea, the sea would dry up.
To save the earth from any of these calamities, the god’s seven daughters placed their father’s head on a footed tray and carried it in a procession around Mount Sumeru1 before setting it in a cave at Mount Krailat2 with many offerings.

Every new year at the beginning of a 365-day cycle on Songkran Day, the god’s seven daughters took turns to bring out the god’s head and carry it in procession around Mount Sumeru.

The seven Ladies of the Songkran festival are named after the seven days of the week. Each year, Songkran Day will fall on one of the seven days. For example, it falls on Tuesday this year, and the Songkran lady is called “Raksot”. Below are brief details about them:

Songkarn this year falls on Friday, so the Songkarn’s angel of this year is  called “Kimitha Devi”, wears waterlilies behind her ears. Topaz is her gem and bananas are her food. A sword is in her right hand and a lute in her left. She rides on a buffalo

I recently spoke to one of my new students that has spent the last year learning Thai on his own, without any help from a teacher, following a well known course that uses a variety of books and DVDs. When he first sent me an email, I was very excited to get to meet him, I thought to myself,

 ”wow, he must be a genius if he was able to learn Thai by himself after a year of reading books and listening to DVDs”. 

I thought to myself, it will be very challenge to teach a student with so much experience, however when we finally met, It only took me less than 10 minutes to figure out that I would have to start from scratch, teaching him the basics just as I would with an absolute beginner.

The problem with learning Thai from a book, or a collection of DVDs, or even i-phone/-pad applications is that you don’t have anyone to help correct your pronunciation. When you learn new words from a book, you are likely to make pronunciation mistakes in the beginning, and without anyone to correct you, it is likely that you will repeat your mistakes over and over again.

We have all heard the expression “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, “ไม้อ่อนดัดง่ายไม้แก่ดัดยาก” *** this is also true when learning languages. It is actually far more difficult to teach a student that has learned to speak incorrectly than it is to teach a beginner.
 

This student found himself arriving in Thailand after a year of learning Thai at home from books and DVDs, and when he attempted to speak to the locals, nobody could understand him. While he had an extensive vocabulary and he knew what he wanted to say, his poor pronunciation was impossible to understand.

Thai is a tonal language, and if you make just a slight mistake with the tones it can completely change the meaning of what you are trying to say, and nobody will understand what you are talking about.

 
The only way to learn to speak Thai properly is to practice your pronunciation with native Thai speakers. It is easy to find people to practice with if you are living in Thailand, however if you are trying to learn Thai in your home country, you can seek help from Thai people at Thai restaurants or Thai temples. Most Thai people will be eager to help foreigners that show an interest in learning about Thai language and culture, especially Thai monks.

If you are living in the USA, you can use thebuddhagarden.com for a reference

Learning Thai online is not only possible, it is also very effective and not nearly as difficult as you might think. My method of teaching students 1 on 1, using Skype, is a great way to learn to pronounce the tones correctly. After only a few months of lessons, my students find themselves having conversations, with the ability to not only speak and understand, but also read and write.

If you are interested in learning Thai online, feel free to contact me for more details:

***ไม้อ่อนดัดง่ายไม้แก่ดัดยาก máai ón dàt ngâai máai gàe dàt yâak  means

• Transliteration: Mai on dat gnai mai gae dat yak.
• Literal: Young trees are easier to cut than aged trees.
• Meaning: You cannot teach an old dog new tricks.

Keith William/UK

Mr. Kieth William is one of the finest and most clever students I have ever had. I have really enjoyed teaching him!  In fact, we have enjoyed our teacher-student dynamic so much and his learning experience has been so successful, that he came to visit me in August 2011. 

This was Kieth’s second visit to Thailand.  His first trip to the “Land of Smiles” was shortly before he contacted me about studying Thai language. In his first correspondence to me he wrote about some beautiful memories he had from that first trip to Thailand.

Apparently, his first experience had all happened by chance as he originally had plans to go to Cambodia.  However, his flight took him first to Bangkok.  While there, he met 3 friendly Thai locals who offered to take him around to see some of the country.  Feeling very impressed by these people’s kindness, warmth and hospitality, he decided to cancel his trip to Cambodia and spend all of his 3 weeks holiday in Thailand!

As he went on to tell me, Kieth’s first experience in Thailand was a great one and very fulfilling.  It was so great in fact, that it immediately sparked a desire in him to return and to learn more about this mystical country. However, while he was here he realized that language is the key to unlocking a deeper connection with Thai people and Thai culture.  He enjoyed the people he met here in Thailand so much that learning Thai was something he felt he simply had to do. 

For all these reasons, it seems that destiny brought Kieth to eventually find me. Ever since that fateful trip, Keith has been working very hard with me at Passa Thai. He has always put his all into each lesson and even his homework. Finally, after 4 months of intensive lessons, he took a month long trip back to Thailand.  He brought with him a great deal of enthusiasm to practice his Thai in a real Thai environment.

When I first saw him here in Thailand he was quite shy as usual, but I found that to be very cute!  While he was here we got together a few times. Just like during his Thai lessons, I found him to be very pleasant in person as well.  His intelligence and wisdom has caused me to feel very fortunate to have him as my student.  I learned so much from him!  So, if I may say, thank you for choosing me, Keith!  Teaching you was such a reward that it keeps me going and doing my best for all my students!

ps. Kieth, thanks also for the present! It took me a couple of weeks to find the surprise inside it ;)

Emil Vohlert, Denmark

One of my successful Thai language students after 93 lessons with me. It has been 3 months since he relocated to Hua Hin,Thailand where he is attending a University. He has chosen to study in Thai rather than English.

He came to visit me in Chiang Mai during the school break and his Thai has progressed tremendously, I was amazed how much he has learnt on his own.

This is it..the best way to learn Thai is to be in Thailand. All you need is a strong foundation in Thai language then you can pretty much build anything on top.

I have become his พี่สาว pêe săao (elder) sister and he has become my น้องชาย nóng chaai (younger brother)

พี่ Mia & น้อง Emil

visit Emil interview at

http://www.youtube.com/user/learn2speakthai?feature=mhsn#p/u/0/nLcNdA849u0

I love my job, full of surprises, here is one of them :

One day, one of my students tried to impress me with the new word he learnt over the weekend.

He said, “You will be so proud of me, Mia….I learnt a new word last weekend”

I smiled and excited, “อะไรค่ะ??” (à-rai ká : what??)

he looked so proud and said…..

“ ผม มี แฟน “ pŏm(I : for male speaker) mee  fan (boyfriend, girlfriend) : I have a girlfriend

“เขา มี บ้าน”  kăo(he or she) mee bâan (house or home) : he/she has a house

“คุณ มี ความสุข” kun(you) mee kwaam soòk (happiness) : you have happiness (literally mean you are happy)

Then he said “I looked up more words then came up with this last sentence..actually I loved it when I was in Thailand…..ready???”

“ผม ขอบ ขี้ ช้าง” pŏm (I) chôb (to like) kêe chaáng (elephant)    

I laughed (of course not out loud) then tried to pull myself together and gently explained……

“Well, what you need in this sentence is ขี่ (kèe) with low lone…..it means to 
ride”

“BUT what you said was ขี้ (kêe) with high tone…..its changed the meaning”

He was lost for a second….I could see he was thinking very, very hard

“What you meant to say was I like to ride an elephant…right???” I said

“Yeah??????” he replied (he still did not get what was wrong)

I held back my laugh and said ”BUT what your sentence means….I like elephant Sh*t!!!! ”

 (Forgive my French)

He laughed at his mistake then quickly said   “Well, I think I need more fiber”

I simply said ” Now you know why Thai pronunciation is extremely important “

Vocabulary

อะไร               à-rai              what     
มี                   mee               to have or has
ชอบ               chôb              to like
แน่นอน           nâe non         absolutely, certainly
ผม                 pŏm              I (for male speaker)
แฟน               fan                boyfriend, girlfriend
เขา                kăo                he or she
บ้าน               bâan             house or home
คุณ                kun               you
ความสุข     kwaam soòk      happiness
ช้าง               chaáng          elephant
ขี่                  kée                to ride
ขี้                  kêe               shit or poop

Sentences

ผมมีแฟน               pŏm mee fan                   I have a girlfriend
เขามีบ้าน               kăo mee bâan                 he/she has a house
คุณมีความสุข         kun mee kwaam soòk      you have happiness (literally mean    you are happy)
ผมชอบขี่ช้าง          pŏm chôb kèe chaáng     I like to ride an elephant
ผมชอบขี้ช้าง          pŏm chôb kêe chaáng     I like elephant poop

ps. Thai don’t use ขี้ kêe as swear word.

FYI : Sh*t is one of my favorite swear….please dont tell my students!

Time to practice…..

The guy is ridingขี่ (kèe) an elephant..while the elephant is ขี้ (kêe) pooping