Posted on 07/30/2015 2:05:13 PM PDT by Red Badger
it’s transliterated colloquial usage !
“it’s transliterated colloquial usage !”
Goo hen mung, coi tay gon mung! I hah roi.
pahsaa Lao fang mai pben
“pahsaa Lao fang mai pben”
Gin som dam sai pla raa, ben, Bo?
I always had a hard time understanding the over-60 farmer crowd out in the villages near the Lao border. Especially when they were chewing a mouthful of betel-nut and lime paste. It was more like a grunt and a red grin. But I found them fascinating and they found me amusing, as I was just a twenty-something.
pben ! gin polamai dee kwa
oh? khun pben tahaan samai Vietnam reu? tengngan kap pooying Thai reuplauw ?
“oh? khun pben tahaan samai Vietnam reu? tengngan kap pooying Thai reuplauw ?”
No, not entirely. Me Peace Corps, 1977. Graduated Virginia Tech in horticulture and didn’t have a farm. So out to the rice paddies in Thailand I went. Had a good time, made friends with a number of farmers. 2 years as a volunteer and a bit more than a year working with Laotian and Cambodian refugees with the U.S Embassy. Mostly with the Hmong refugees in Ban Vinai camp in Loei province.
I did snag a Thai gal. Our 37th anniversary is coming up later this year. We have a new house in Loei that I have to see. Nothing special.
Interesting thing, though. A couple of my mates in my Peace Corps group learned to speak and read and write Thai amazingly fast, like 6 weeks. Others foreigners I met had perfected their Lao dialect. One (who almost became a Catholic priest) could intelligently discuss Buddhist philosophy with anyone, even drunken soldiers guarding the refugee camp. He could get on a phone and fool my landlady (a “Khun Ying”) into thinking he was Thai.
Learning a bit of Hmong language and working in the refugee camp was a trip. They were so far out there ... Seeing long-haired tribesmen coming up from across the Mekong River in the early morning hours and piling up their guns was an experience. U.S. Congressmen came by to visit, as did Joan Baez. Weird stuff.
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