Mai Kow Jai

I'd only met one person from Thailand before I went there. He taught me how to say 2 things, 1 of which I remembered how to say but had forgotten what it meant and the other, I'd forgotten how to say it but I knew what it meant.

My first day of teaching in Thailand one of the teachers asked me if I could speak any Thai. I told her I knew one thing and that was mai kow jai. She smiled and said I don't understand and I thought my Thai was obviously erible until a few days later I realised that mai kow jai means I don't understand.

The second phrase was arai wah and I'd been hearing it a lot from my students when I asked them a question. Pretty much immediately I remembered that it means what the fuck? and so I demanded that there would be no arai wah-ing in my classroom. Then I taught the teachers and heard them also saying it. I had to resign myself to the fact that Thai people quite often say what the fuck? whether they are children or adults.