OK, so learning Thai has been a lot of fun. You can't really see the board in the picture, but our Beginning Teacher Khruu Too (pronounced kroo dthough) is writing words phonetically on the board for us.
Thai is a language that uses symbols for its written Language. Leaning the symbols will be difficult and will take a lot of time. So, someone years ago, using mostly English letters, created written letters for Thai phonetics. However, there are some sounds that are in the Thai Language that the English language doesn't have, so those are letters we've never seen before.
So, in the process of having to learn to read the written form of phonetics, we also need to speak, and write so the teacher can evaluate if we are understanding what we have learned. Below is a picture of Khruu Too trying to hold back a laugh while trying to read what I (Cheryl) wrote. I drew a picture to try to explain what I meant - but it obviously didn't help. :)
Even though the lessons are VERY difficult - we have enjoyed our Thai class very much. Khruu Too speaks very good English and has done so much to help us at the market, teaching me (Cheryl) to cook Green Curry & Garlic Chicken, some of our families favorite Thai dishes, as well as interpret for us occasionally. She has become a very good friend and is a new Christian as well. We have had many opportunities to share and encourage her in her faith! We pray that we may have many more!
