Just Clearing Up Some Misconceptions

I've spoken to a few people from home about life in Thailand and invariably they ask me how my Thai is. I say it's getting there and they tell me to say something over the phone. I say a sentence about ordering food, and then they laugh. Yes, 90% of my Thai vocabulary is food-related, but I don't want people to be thinking, "Oh that boy's an eater all right, just listen to him talk about his food."

In truth, right now without a Thai teacher the only time in the day where I am guaranteed contact with Thai language is when I eat. I have to eat three times a day and so I can count on three different opportunities to try out my language chops. The other thing about food words is that there is a very clear relationship to what I say and what happens. I can try out small talk with someone in an elevator, but if we don't understand each other no one might ever know. But if I go into a restaurant and order khao nieaw instead of khao sawy, I will be eating sticky rice instead of white rice. And so it's like a oral quiz, three times a day. If they don't understand me, or I read the wrong thing on the menu, I either get something gross like cubed blood (leuek), or something totally bland because they assume the farang doesn't know what he's talking about. But when I pass the quiz, let me just say the results are delicious. Khao mok gai, khao kaa muu, pat ka naa, muu bping, etc, etc.