Fellow mmt member and friend Matt Lucas has been living in training in Thailand for the past few months. I caught up with Matt a week or so ago at Ingram Gym in Bangkok. I was surprised by how much Thai Matt had picked up, I told him a nice blog post would be the 10 most important words for training like (please stop elbowing me in my face) so here’s his contribution. On a side note Matt’s got an upcoming fight in the next couple of weeks…. Choke dee Matt.
Ten Words to Know for Training in Thailand
By Matt Lucas
Going to Thailand is a big step for most Nak Muay from other countries. While you can do the same amount and level of training at home you won’t get the same cultural experience being in Thailand and you won’t get the same level of training partners.
Preparing for your trip is crucial. On your list of tasks prior to leaving should be to learn some Thai. Learning basic Thai will make you stand out from the rest of the fat Farang (westerners) that you are surrounded by and may land you a Thai girlfriend that doesn’t look like your grandma. Most Farang can’t speak a lick of Thai. If you can have a simple conversation with a Thai person the Thais will think you can not only speak competently, but will also respect you much more.
While you might not have extended dialogue at the gym it is useful to have at least a simple vocabulary. Having verbal emphasis for your actions will help you clean up your technique much quicker. There’s nothing more embarrassing than spending six months in Thailand just to come back kicking like a spazzmatic Tae Kwon Do yellow belt.
Listed are ten key words to know before you go:
1. Jep -Pain. While most of the training, sparring, clinch work, running, etc. will not involve brutal amounts of pain this is a pretty key word to know as you’ll need it for your excuses when you don’t want to train, spar, do clinch work, run etc. Added emphasis is made by repetition. Jep, Jep, Jep (that’s a lot of pain)
2. Tham -To do. Understanding when one is supposed to do something will make you look a little less clueless
3. Nii -This. When the location word tii is added before Nii the phrase becomes here. So tii nii is here. Often you will hear “Tham nii” or “do this.”
4. Dii -Good. You’ll rarely hear this by itself. Most often it is accompanied by the below.
5. Mai -No, not. Mai is a negation word. It comes prior to an adjective or verb. So often you will hear “Farang mai dii.” Or “Westerner no good.”
6. Chok - Fight. That’s what you came out here to do right?
7. Numbers. I won’t list them all here but you should learn to count at least up to 1,000. The numeric system in Thai is simple and worth spending the time to learn.
Neung -1
Seung -2
Saam -3
Sii -4
Haa -5
Hook -6
Jet -7
Bpet -8
Gao -9
Sip -10
8. Mai? -Question word. While it looks like the negation word above this Mai is said at a slightly higher tone than the previous. Additionally it will be at the end of a sentence in order to ask a question. “Tham nii mai?” or “Do this?”
9. Kao Jai-understand. You probably won’t understand, so most of the time you’ll want to say “mai kao jai,” or “not understand.” This phrase can be turned into a question by saying “kao jai mai” or “understand?”
10. Lew, lew -Hurry. This is often said in repetition for emphasis. Your trainer will say start saying this as you gaze at your pasty reflection in the mirror when you’re shadowboxing, or when you kick too slow because you’re hungover from a night of tepid booze and even more luke warm pick up lines.
The above are all transliterations. Learning written Thai takes a while but is worth the effort as most Thai is written and spoken phonetically. http://www.learningthai.com/ is a good site to check out and picking up a copy of Benjawan Becker’s Learning Thai (get the CD as well) will help you out. Her small dictionary is worth picking up as well.
20 responses so far ↓
1 Tong Po // Feb 6, 2008 at 3:34 pm
How do you say, “I don’t want a lady boy?”
Should be helpful for some farangs.
I think living/visiting a place where one can’t speak the language eventually will pick phrases up here and there. Immersing oneself in the culture is probably the best way to learn a language.
2 johnny // Feb 6, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Now my third encounter with this guy…I met him at a smoker at Pacific Ring, then we talked before we fought in fresno (not together- but same locker rm) now i see him on here…small world…cool that youre in Thailand Matt..Good luck..
3 Spydaman // Feb 6, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Nice post Matt, very comical as well. Good luck wit ur fight!
4 Peter Moon // Feb 6, 2008 at 10:18 pm
hahahah….mai ddi TOOT, kkow jai mai?
5 Josh // Feb 6, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Tong Po-
That would be Mai ow katoy.
6 Gusnark // Feb 7, 2008 at 8:26 am
This is a great post, thank you Matt Lucas. It’s always great to see as educational post as this one.
7 Alexander // Feb 7, 2008 at 8:51 am
Tong Po’s comment made me choke on my water, hahaha!
Great post, now I know some of the phrases my trainers are using in the gym.
8 matt // Feb 7, 2008 at 10:09 am
i get infuriated sometimes with the tonal side to the thai language. I’ll quite clearly say something in Thai and repeat myslef three or four times to a taxi driver who just shakes his head and smiles at me, then a thai friend will say exactly the same thing in what appears to me to be in exactly the same tone, then the taxi driver goes…..aahhh ok ok…and the response which i’m thinking, but which i don’t say, is. “I just f*****g said that” ..lol
where is your fight matt bkk?
9 Buakawas // Feb 7, 2008 at 10:39 am
I would like to add on to that list.
1. Hew kao - Hungry
2. Hew nam - thirsty
Oh, do not fight with Fairtex dudes. Most likely you will get whooped.
10 Kristian k // Feb 7, 2008 at 1:10 pm
THanks Matt. Very usefull..
good luck with your fight mate
11 Ernesto // Feb 7, 2008 at 4:50 pm
(please stop elbowing me in my face) hahahahha That made my day.
Need help with one translation:
One round of beers please.
12 Matt Lucas // Feb 7, 2008 at 7:09 pm
The fight is in Pattaya at Thepprasit stadium I believe. A lot of foreign fighters seem to start off there. They have regular bouts a couple times a week. I’ll be fighting a hungarian.
13 Stack // Feb 7, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Best of luck Matt
14 matt // Feb 8, 2008 at 12:55 am
Thepprasit is a good arena mate, better than a simple beer bar venue or similar, i’ve always thought the fighting by foriegners was good a standard there..(not trying to put pressure on you…just fuelling your excitement!!)
15 Khannie // Feb 8, 2008 at 3:07 am
Great post!
I’m heading over for 3 weeks of training in 4 weeks. I’ve just started with “pimsleurs thai” on my mp3 player on my walk to work but wasn’t sure if it would be useful or if I was wasting my time (learning some dutch before going to Holland is a total waste of time for example….hell…most of them speak better English than native English speakers).
Anyway….motivation ++++.
16 Josh // Feb 8, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Ernesto-
That would be “Kho beer perm hai kub tuk tuk kon noi khup.”
17 matt // Feb 17, 2008 at 6:52 pm
what date is your fight?…Im fighting March 6th at thepprasit - 76 kg…(I am soo not ready right now)
18 Matt Lucas // Feb 17, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I fought, and won. I’ll send nopstar the story and maybe he’ll post it. It was supposed to be a 60kg fight. I weighed at least 63, he must have weighed at least 68kg.
19 matt // Feb 17, 2008 at 8:37 pm
well done for winning, yeah they’ve told me plus or minus a few kg is ok down there…..which is nice to know as i eat my third piece of french toast.
20 Gusnark // Feb 18, 2008 at 10:13 am
Great to hear that Matt Lucas, congratulations!
You must log in to post a comment.