We landed in Bangkok on our way to transit to Bali. At the coffee shop in the wee hours, I was chatting up the lady who was cleaning up the place. I asked her “How do you say Thank You in Thai?”. She said “Kop Un Kha”.

Excuse me if I got this completely wrong – spelling wise. I was desperately trying to learn the pronunciation. While not totally accurate, I think I got most of the pronunciation. The rest, I expected the Thais to look the other way just because I was trying their language as a foreigner.

Next stop, Natasha wanted to pick up some gifts for her friends. After choosing some stuff, the girls stepped outside the shop waiting for me to finish paying for it. As I mentioned before, it was very early in the morning. The checking out counter was empty. In fact, two young ladies helped me thru the process.

At the end, to impress them, I came out with my knowledge of the language Thai in its entirety – “Kop Un Kha”!!! I even put the flair at the end like I had heard the cleaning lady do.

The response was not exactly what I expected. You could see that they were bemused by my Thai. Not above learning, I asked them – “Did I get it wrong? How do you say Thank You?”

What I learnt was that I was absolutely perfect in my words and delivery. If I were a girl!!

Apparently, it matters whether you are a boy or a girl when you say Thank You in Thai. I believe I was to say “Kop Un Kup” (with the same flair in the end). Or something like that.

In college, every 101 course was easy for me. It is the 102 that got me.

Not much has changed from those college days.

🙂 🙂 🙂