Avoiding more spelling mistakes.

Peasants

This important historical word should not be spelled peasents, as it sometimes is in Thai English. In former times, peasants were workers on small farms. The word peasant has its origins in a French term for people from the countryside. The older French term was païsant, and now the word used in French is paysan. It is not necessary to remember these French origins to spell the word peasants correctly. It may help to keep in mind that peasant is one of the many English words ending in –ant. This ending refers to a person or thing that does a specific thing. Among other words ending in –ant are applicant, migrant, tenant, propellant, antioxidant, antidepressant, defendant, contestant, combatant, vagrant, and deodorant. An applicant is a person who applies for something, often a job or admission to a university. Deodorant is used by people who wish to avoid odors, or unpleasant smells. Yet it is not even required to put the word peasants among other words ending in –ant. You can also use a trick, by telling yourself that peasants must see lots of ants when they are at work. This idea can help remind you of the correct spelling. It is also worth noting that in recent years, the term peasants is no longer considered acceptable for people who live in the countryside or work on farms. Over the years, the word peasants also was used as a slang term meaning uneducated people, or even stupid people in general with uninformed views about things. So it is not appropriate to refer to peasants in a paper about labor conditions in the countryside today, as we sometimes see in Thai English. Instead, it is better to use such terms as farm laborers, rural workers, or other similar words.

The lifestyle of peasants in Medieval England was extremely hard and harsh.

Peasants worked the land to yield food, fuel, wool and other resources.

Joined by other villagers from all corners of the southeast of England, the peasants decided to march on London in order to plead their case for a better deal.

Integrated and Integration 

Sometimes it can be risky to spell words the way you think they are pronounced in English, because the way you think they are pronounced may not always be correct. The words integrated and integration should not be spelled intergrated and intergration, as they sometimes are in Thai English. While the letters inter- begin many words in English, they should not be used to begin these two words. In a word, the letters inter– usually means among or between. Words such as international, interscholastic, and internet should be familiar to all. Yet integrated and integration do not belong to this category of words. Instead, the word integrate derives from a Latin word, integrare, meaning to make something whole. Anyone who took a basic course in mathematics will recall that an integer is another word for a whole number, or a number that is not fractional number. If we integrate something, we take something that was in different parts and put them all together into a single part. In more recent times, integrate can also mean to end segregation by race, as in the American South, where African-Americans were separated by law from others in schools and other public places. That is why the word disintegrate refers to something that was once in a single piece, but has started to fall apart. Or reintegrate, meaning something that was once put into a whole, and is being done so again.

Thailand has increasingly become an integral part of the world economy, but the degree of regional integration of Thailand has been more pronounced in Asia.

In 2015, Thailand integrates with the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), though general Thai awareness of the AEC previously seemed minimal.

Thailand’s leading PR company, Vivaldi public relations Bangkok agency, provides integrated PR and events for top regional firms and the best global brands.

We are celebrating the inauguration of the New Krungsri following the successful integration with BTMU Bangkok Branch.

Identification   

In a comparable way, in Thai English we sometimes see the wrong spelling indentification instead of the correct identification.  As we know, indent is an English word, meaning when part of a text, such as your thesis or academic article, is set further in from the margin than the rest of the text. Indent can also refer more generally to when something is shaped in a way that goes further in than the rest of it:

The Gulf of Thailand is one of the major coastal indentations of Southeast Asia.

Even though indent is correct when used in the right places, it should not be confused with the word identification. Originating with the word identify, identification means to see one thing as the same as another thing. Later, the word identification also began to mean a sense of being like or even being the same as another person, determining the identity of someone or something, or something that shows your identity:

All individuals, whether foreign or Thai, who work in Thailand or have taxable income must apply for a taxpayer’s identification number.

Large snake database help travelers identify dangerous snakes.

Our gated campus requires ISB parents and ISB teenagers to wear their ISB identification while on campus.

We’ll begin with a warning — not about snakes, as the majority of those are pretty harmless – but about our identification abilities.

Identification of a flavivirus isolated from mosquitos in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Illinois, Minnesota

These American states should not be spelled Illionis and Minesota, as they sometimes are in Thai English. Because of American history, a number of states were named after the Native Americans – formerly referred to as American Indians – who lived there before they were largely exterminated by settlers from Europe. To add further confusion, sometimes the way the state names are spelled is the way Europeans thought a Native American name sounded, not the way we would write the same name today. So place names are extremely difficult to get right all the time for non-native English speakers, and even some Americans have problems spelling the names of states where they have never lived. The best method is to rely on a Google search, which in one second will tell you what the correct spelling is. The key point is never to think you know the spelling of some distant American state, British city, or any geographical location, including the Romanization of some places in Thailand. Just as you would check with Google to make sure you are writing the name of a distinguished ajarn correctly in English, since users of Thai English are more familiar with writing the same name in Thai language. If you make this Google search process a routine habit, used every time you must write such a name, then far fewer errors will occur in theses and academic articles. Also keep in mind that people are proud and sensitive about the places they are from. If someone from Illinois or Minnesota wrote about visiting Bhongcoot, the capital of Tiellund, you might think the person was not educated. Or maybe the person is not respectful, not bothering to get the spelling right for Bangkok, Thailand. To avoid making a similar impression, Google every such place name that you must write. For those interested in the origins of words, it is not necessary to learn such stories or history, but Minnesota comes from the language of the Dakota people, a Native American tribe. It was the name for the Minnesota River, meaning clear blue water or clouded blue water, since minne means water and ta means blue in that language. In Minnesota, there are a number of place names with similar origins, such as the important city of Minneapolis, where the Native American words for water was linked with the Greek word for city or polis. Minneapolis means water city. The origins of the state name Illinois are far more confusing. In that area, French settles arrived first and gave names to things, which were then adopted by English-speaking settlers, whether they wee correct or not. Illinois was a French way of writing a Native American language word, ilinwe or irenweewa meaning he-who-speaks-the-regular-way. This term was used in The Illinois Confederation, also called the Illiniwek or Illini, around a dozen Native American tribes who once lived in the area. In their own language, these Native Americans did not call themselves Illinois, but Inoka, the meaning of which has been lost to time. When French colonizers decided to spell the name ending with -ois, this was because many French words end in –ois, not because this really resembled the way the Native American word sounded. Yet this messy word origin is not as disturbing as the tragic story of systematic elimination of Native Americans from the lands they once lived on.

(all images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)