English What Now? is an ongoing series based around the humorous, head-scratching, or just plain amusing English found around Thailand observed and written by Teresa Derr.
Teresa Derr, 134 YinD
“Love” is the one word everyone knows. “I love you” is one of the most common things I hear from people who are trying to engage with me using their limited English. While it can sometimes be uncomfortable to hear (as I wrote about in Pride in Saying NO), given the amount of English I see dealing with love or love topics – I can’t really be surprised that it is one word Thai people can remember.
Cups are the most common places I see references to love. It’s very cutesy and maybe a good reason why everyone can remember the word “love” if they see it as often as I do! Though, I’ll be honest, I’m very glad I haven’t heard anyone call me the “love of their life” here.
While I’ve never heard anyone use the word “romantic”, I see it on almost as many mugs as I see “love” on cups. Perhaps it gets remembered less frequently because, as I’ve observed, mugs are saved for special occasions, and don’t get looked at nearly as often.
But, no matter how many times they see the word “love”, there are always places where misspellings happen! Perhaps it was because they don’t usually put it on socks.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Regardless of how many times I hear it, love in all its forms remains an important part of life, and I’m glad there are people at site able to express it in my language as well as their own.
Sticky Rice 
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