Yes, Thai is the 5th hardest language in the world to learn (or something like that).

I started my private Thai lessons last week. My tutor is named Neng. He is twenty-six, graduated as an English major from CMU and now works at an elementary school here in Chiang Mai. He also studied abroad in Minnesota for a year. Basically, he is terrific. He is also a very good teacher.

We started by reviewed the personal pronouns (of which there are a grand total of about fourteen) and the tones. Thai is a tonal language, which means that you communicate not only with words but also with the pitches you use when you say the words. For example, if you say the word "maa" with a high tone it means dog, but if you say "maa" with a rising tone it means horse (or it might be the other way around...) You can see that I need the practice!

Today we worked on sentence structure. SO CONFUSING. I can stumble about in Thai and carry on a conversation but I forgot how complicated everything is. However, Neng is very encouraging and says "Very good!" every time I say something right, with a note of surprise in his voice.

I practiced on my department head; hopefully I didn't say anything offensive. I'm thrilled that what I learned the last time is slowly coming back to me. Maybe by the time I leave Thailand in March I will be fluent! Here's hoping!

*** AFTERTHOUGHT:

I finished my last class today. Three of my classes have their final exam this next Monday. I'm beginning to calculate grades, adding points for participation and attendance. I can't even believe that the semester is almost over and I have been here for almost four months. I know that the next semester will fly by and I'll be back in the US of A before you can say "maa."