On one side of the door, the rich smell of sweet, spicy food and the calm of Buddhist devotion; on the other, the strangeness of a new land. When Ira Sukrungruang was born to Thai parents newly arrived in the U.S., they picked his Jewish moniker out of a book of “American” names. In this lively, entertaining, and often hilarious memoir, he relates the early life of a first-generation Thai-American and his constant, often bumbling attempts to reconcile cultural and familial expectations with the trials of growing up in 1980s America. Young Ira may have lived in Oak Lawn, Illinois, but inside the family’s bi-level home was “Thailand with American conveniences.” They ate Thai food, spoke the Thai language, and observed Thai customs. His bedtime stories were tales of Buddha and monkey-faced demons. On the first day of school his mother reminded him that he had a Siamese warrior’s eyes—despite his thick glasses—as Aunty Sue packed his Muppets lunch box with fried rice. But when his schoolmates played tag he was always It, and as he grew, he faced the constant challenge of reconciling American life with a cardinal family rule: “Remember, you are Thai.” Inside the Thai Buddhist temple of Chicago, another “simulated Thailand,” are more rules, rules different from those of the Southside streets, and we see mainstream Western religion—“god people”—through the Sukrungruang family’s eyes. Within the family circle, we meet a mother who started packing for her return to Thailand the moment she arrived; her best friend, Aunty Sue, Ira’s second mother, who lives with and cooks for the family; and a wayward father whose dreams never quite pan out. Talk Thai is a richly told account that takes us into an immigrant’s world. Here is a story imbued with Thai spices and the sensibilities of an American upbringing, a story in which Ira practices English by reciting lines from TV sitcoms and struggles with the feeling of not belonging in either of his two worlds. For readers who delight in the writings of Amy Tan, Gish Jen, and other Asian-Americans, Talk Thai provides generous portions of a still-mysterious culture while telling the story of an American boyhood with humor, playfulness, and uncompromising honesty.

Learn the basics of Thai quickly and easily! Easy Thai is exciting and helpful for beginning Thai Language students and anyone who needs a functional day-to-day grasp of colloquial Thai. An excellent resource to learn Thai, its twelve chapters cover practical and useful conversation topics such as introductions, telling the time, directions, ordering food and shopping. Each chapter opens with a dialogue that introduces the new language in context and contains: Vocabulary lists Grammar notes Sentence patterns Exercises Notes on culture and etiquette. All dialogues, vocabulary lists, and sentence patterns are rendered in Thai script, romanized Thai, and English. In the comprehensive, concise introduction to Easy Thai, you will understand how to pronounce, read and write the Thai language. A bilingual dictionary at the end of the book gives translations for approximately 1,000 common words in both Thai and English. Downloadable audio provides sample conversations by native Thai speakers, helping you to practice authentic pronunciation. Easy Thai contains everything you as a beginning language learner need to know about the basics of Thai, making you a more effective communicator from the very first lesson without having to resort to long, dull, expensive courses of study!

The Gold Standard for Authentic Thai Cuisine In this showstopping collection of must-try Thai dishes, culinary mastermind and bestselling author Jet Tila opens up the world of his Thai heritage for today’s home cooks with recipes that are authentic, accessible and ultra-craveable. Jet partners up with Tad Weyland Fukumoto, longtime friend and fellow chef, to channel their years of Southeast Asian culinary prowess into mouthwatering recipes, such as Street-Style Basil Pork, Glass Noodle Stir-Fry, Hung Lay Northern Pork Curry, New Thai BBQ Chicken, Fried Tilapia with Three-Flavor Sauce and so many more. They’ve tirelessly perfected these recipes to ensure that their flavors, techniques and quality rank number one across the board—the true gold standard. With dishes ranging from tantalizing classics and popular street foods to unsung heroes spanning the regions, this cookbook is your one-stop guide to the rich culinary traditions of Thailand. Jet also presents an exciting collection of plant-based takes on popular dishes to welcome everyone to the table and show the range of possibilities in the modern Thai kitchen. Fire up your wok and get hungry for 101 of the best damn Thai dishes you’ll ever have.

Stuart Jay Raj has developed a suite of hand and body signs, glyphs, colourful stories and exercises that will help learners of Thai lay down a new linguistic and cultural operating system for their mind and body. Rather than awkwardly superimpose a new language over the top of the pre-existing non-Thai sound and meaning system of your mother tongue, Cracking Thai Fundamentals will teach you to think about language, culture and meanings, produce meanings, speak, read and react in Thai in a way that much more resembles the way Thais think about and produce their language themselves.

Thai is a fun language to learn, the problem is most learning materials are costly and make language learning too complicated. We've created this book which aims to make language learning simple. We teach you language patterns and grammar structures which can be used to form your own sentences.

The first book to provide a broad coverage of Thai legal history in the English language.

With only a few hours a day for less than 2 weeks, you'll be able to decrypt the mystery of the curious Thai characters and start reading right away guaranteed. Read Thai In 10 Days is a comprehensive Thai learning course including sound files so you learn how to pronounce words correctly from the start.