Getting to know the local Thais is one of the most beneficial things you can do in Thailand. The easiest way to go about it would probably be the ability to speak Thai. Once you open your mouth and throw some simple Thai phrases out, your life becomes so much easier. Prices on things automatically get cut in half, tips for the best places to eat, shop, and visit get thrown your way, and favors of free gifts, food, rides etc... seem a daily occurrence.
By now, you're probably in awe of the fact that I can speak Thai and carry on full conversations... so I'm sorry to disappoint, but the experience is not coming from me. I was traveling with my friend Caleb who has been studying Thai for the past year, so I got to be behind the scenes, witnessing this phenomenon. Well, I suppose it's not really a phenomenon, it's actually probably quite obvious but I must tell you, Thai is NOT an easy language to learn. It's a tonal language which can make things difficult since one word can mean 5 very different things depending on how you pronounce it.
Since Thais tend to give farangs (foreigners) a much higher price than their fellow Thais, being able to speak their language opens many doors since they assume you can understand them and have been in Thailand for a while, therefore knowing the correct prices of certain items. I'm planning on learning a few simple basic phrases and I definitely have to learn numbers. I think that learning to actually read Thai would help the most since a lot of prices are given in Thai and the English equivelant is much higher... but us stupid farangs wouldn't know better... =)
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