So, after two and half years in Thailand, I've finally managed to clearly introduce myself to the local people. Yes, one would suspect this mastery after reading Lonely Planet's Thai Language Dictionary or even within my first two Thai lessons, but no, that one is wrong. My Thai friends and neighbor's know me as Blooke. Yes, that beautiful combination of phonemes represent me! Blooke.
Now as a language teacher...or maybe just as a person with hearing capabilities, one immediately realizes that Thai's have difficulty pronouncing l's and r's. Actually, it's not that they have difficulty pronouncing them, they just switch them. So I become Blooke, and my co-worker Blake becomes Brake. Now, call me a little slow, but it wasn't until recently that I decided to conduct a little linguistic experiment (the full paper will be published somewhere by some unknown publishing company at an unknown future date).
Hypothesis: If Thai's can say Blooke and Brake clearly, then they should be able to say Brooke and Blake clearly.
Methodology: In a taxi in Bangkok with my friend's Kristi and Allison, I engage in an introductory conversation with our driver. I've included the transcript below.
DIRVER: What your name?
ME: Blooke.
DRIVER: What?
ME: BLooke.
DRIVER: Nice meet you Brooke!
ME: And these are my friends Klisti and Arrison.
DRIVER: What?
ME: KListi and ARRison.
DRVIER: Sawadee kap Kristi and Allison.
Analysis: It appears pronunciation is not the problem at all, but healing...I mean hearing. You could also check out others' analysis, although I question the scientific validity behind their approach:
http://hlt.nectec.or.th/hlt/administrator/components/com_jresearch/files/publications/ntj.pdf
Implication: So if your name is Lacy Rick Blain, when visiting Thailand, be sure to introduce yourself as Racy Lick Brain.
Good ruck!
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