Avoiding spelling mistakes. 

Thailand     

One of the challenges in writing English as a foreign language is to make sure that we are always alert for possible errors. Sometimes we use words so often or see them everywhere, so we feel that we can relax when we are writing them. Perhaps we do not pay as much attention about their spelling as well do with words that are less familiar. As a result, we may sometimes spell wrong words that are extremely familiar. One example is the word Thailand, which is sometimes seen spelled wrong in Thai English as Thiland. Naturally all Thais know how to spell the word Thailand. The problem may be that they know it too well. Paying attention to all spellings is especially challenging when we feel confident about it. Especially in writing theses or academic research, we should take extra care when writing over-familiar words. Students and ajarns in the Faculty of Physics, for example, might do a spell check just to be sure that they have spelled the word physics correctly. Almost all the time it is spelled right. Yet on the occasion when it is wrong, imagine the effect of someone who is trying to present serious new research in the field of physics, who spells the word physics wrong. Readers will realize of course that the author is writing English as a foreign language, and they will not immediately assume that the writer knows nothing about the subject. Still, it is a better strategy not to expect that the reader will be sympathetic with errors. It is always a good plan to take special care to try to get things right. Why would someone write the word Thailand as Thiland? Human error is always a possibility. Typing familiar words too quickly without paying proper attention can lead to this problem. Also the fact that the vowels are located in the middle of the word Thailand may add to the difficulty. No one, however careless, would spell the word Thai wrong as Thi. That is because the moment it is typed, everyone can see that something is missing. Yet the vowels in the word Thailand can sometimes get lost in the word. As long as word begins and ends correctly, then we may not pay enough attention to what is happening in the middle of the word. For that reason there are also frequent examples where writers of Thai English also spell the word Thailand wrong as Thialand. There are also cases where the word Thailand is spelled wrong as Thaland. Once again, all Thais know how to spell the words Thai and Thailand, so this is not the issue. Instead of approaching the matter as a question of how to spell a word, it might be more productive to look at strategies of how to avoid making this type of mistake. What are people thinking when they spell the word Thailand wrong as Thiland or Thialand or Thaland? Leaving out a letter or transposing letters is always easy to do when we are not paying full attention. Since we are confident about how to spell the name of the Kingdom, naturally we do not take as much care as we might with some other words. Without thinking carefully, we might think that since the letter a in the word Thai is silent, and we only hear the vowel i, then the letter a may be left out. The word thigh, for example, has the vowel i after the letters th. Even so, most words in English that end with the letters hi do not have the sound of the letter i that we expect in the word Thai. Some examples include:

gnocchi

hibachi               

kimchi

mariachi

piroghi

sushi

• Gnocchi are thick, small, and soft dough dumplings made in Italy from semolina, wheat flour, egg, cheese, potato, breadcrumbs, cornmeal, or similar ingredients, with flavorings of herbs and vegetables.
• A hibachi is a traditional Japanese heating device, consisting of an open-topped container designed to hold burning charcoal. In North America, a hibachi is a small cooking stove heated by charcoal or iron hot plate used in teppanyaki restaurants.
• In Korean cooking, Kimchi is a side dish made from salted and fermented vegetables, usually cabbage and Korean radishes, with seasonings including chili powder, scallions, garlic, and ginger.
• Mariachi refers to a small, strolling, Mexican band of trumpeters, guitarists, and violinists.
• Piroghi are filled dumplings in Central European cooking made by wrapping dough around a savory or sweet filling and cooking in boiling water.
• Sushi, as we all know, is Japanese food consisting of rice with vinegar and seafood or vegetables.

All of these words have some association with food and cooking. They also all end with the sound ee. The word Thai clearly requires the letter a, otherwise it might be pronounced the way these words are. In all of these examples, the letter combinations of h and i result in a vowel sound ee and not the letter i. On the other hand, we have many instances where words which end with ai, as the word Thai does, have the long i sound that we expect in the word Thailand. These include the words

assegai

banzai

bonsai

samurai

Shanghai      

Since not all of these words may be familiar to the writer of Thai English, it is worth pointing out that

• A weapon in Africa, an assegai is a pole, usually a spear or javelin made of wood and pointed with iron or fire-hardened tip, that is thrown.
• Banzai is a traditional Japanese exclamation meaning ten thousand years of long life.
• Bonsai is a Japanese art form made by growing miniature trees in containers.
• Samurai were military nobility and officers in medieval and early-modern Japan.
• As we all know, Shanghai, on China’s central coast, is the country’s biggest city and a global financial hub.

All these cases of words ending with the letters ai that produce the sound of the letter i are derived from non-English speaking countries. This suggests that for native English speakers, it is also unusual to see a word that ends with the letters ai and is pronounced like the letter i.  The only way to be more confident with the spelling is to become more familiar with it. To remember these sounds from the letter combinations, we might invent some sentences, where the meaning is not important. Grouping the words together helps us to associate them with one another. If we know how to spell one of them, we will be reminded of how to spell all of them:

The Thai tourist posed for a selfie next to a bonsai tree in Shanghai.

The Thai samurai yelled “banzai” before picking up the dangerous assegai.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)