About me
About my name
Hello. I am the public face of the LearnSpeakThai.com website. My public name (cheu) is Rian Thai. Whilst in the Western world the name Rian is a nice name of Gaelic origin for a boy or even girl that means king, my name Rian has a different meaning. In the Thai language Rian means ‘learn’. My surname (nahm sa-gun) is Thai. As you may guess this refers to the language of Thailand. So, my public name Rian Thai means Learn Thai. To fully give the name of this website my name should be Rian Poot Thai as the Thai word poot means speak. Unfortunately Google+ has a limit of the length of my name so I am called simply Rian Thai.
As you know the Thai language (pah-sah) is a tonal language with five tones (mid, low, falling, high, and rising tones). The tone of the word determines its meaning. LearnSpeakThai.com courses use a clear tone graphic system that instantly conveys the tone of the word to the reader and provides lessons to teach you how to hear and say these tones correctly. The Thai audio allows you to clearly hear how a word is spoken. It’s part of their ‘See, hear, speak’ system that ensures you learn to speak Thai with the correct pronunciation. Below is an image that shows the tone and meaning of all the Thai words I have used above.
And here is a link to free online lessons that cover the topic of asking someone what their name is.
About where I live and the language I speak
I live in the North East of Thailand which is known as Isaan. This is often spelt in many different ways in English (Esan, Eesan, Isan, Isaan, Esarn, Esahn, etc.) but it is the same place. Up here we speak a different language to the official Thai language of Thailand. The official Thai language is based on Central Thai (from the central region of Thailand), and although it is used in our media (TV, newspapers, books etc.) up here we speak our own language. It’s often described as a dialect but it is far more than that. It’s a spoken language only (it has no official written script), is based on the language of Laos but is now quite different to that (in words used and tones), and although it has many similarities with Central Thai, it is in many ways different to that too. Many farang (we say falang, a word for western Caucasian foreigners, or when we want to make a funny play on words we say bak-see-dah) who come into contact with Isaan people often don’t realize that we are speaking a different language to Central Thai because it can sound very similar. But for instance, our personal pronoun words (I, you, he / she, we, they etc.) are all different and all of our question words differ too (question marker word, what?, where?, when?, why? which?, who?, how?, how much?, how many? how long? etc.). The majority of the words we use in our everyday conversation are different too. If you live in Isaan you definitely need to know some Isaan Thai to understand what is being said by the people around you and to join in our conversations. Fortunately LearnSpeakThai.com has excellent courses teaching Isaan Thai.
Below is an example of how different the language can be using a phrase most falang know. 
For more information on Isaan Thai click the link below:
About why I am happy to represent LearnSpeakThai.com
I’m proud to be the public face of LearnSpeakThai.com. Their courses are relevant, practical and fun. And they understand and respect our culture and way of life, and go out of their way to explain key aspects of how we live and view things to their learners. 
And I'm proud to be associated with a company that produces Thai language courses that their customers are so happy with and appreciate so much. Take a look at the customer feedback and reviews they have receive. So many people who have used other Thai courses say that the LearnSpeakThai.com courses are the very best, far better than other Thai courses and books they have studied with. Click the image below to read some of the very enthusiastic reviews customers have written.
So if you are interested in learning Thai or Isaan Thai you can have lots of confidence in the courses they offer and their approach to teaching Thai. To learn more click through to the home page of their website:
Bye for now!
Well, that’s enough about me for now. Thank you for your interest in me and LearnSpeakThai.com courses.
