Learning Thai

The other day I needed to find a store called Carrefour. It's basically like Super Wal-Mart (or whatever you call the Wal-Mart with a food section). It was too far for walking so my friend told me to take a taxi. He explained that I should tell the driver to take me to "Callafo" since they wouldn't understand if I pronounced the store "careafor". So, I flagged a cab and told the driver I wanted to go to "Callafo". He didn't understand, so I said it again, a little differently knowing that asians sometimes confuse l's and r's. "Carrafo", I said. Still nothing..."careafor?" nope not that either. Back to "callafo". He looked at me and said "caw-fo?" ummm...Yes? maybe? So I told him in Thai the street it was on and he laughed and took off driving. I wasn't sure I was going to end up in the right place but he kept laughing and repeating my pronunciation of "callafo". He then taught me that the correct pronunciation of "carrefour" is "caw-fo" and continued repeating my pathetic version of the store name and laughing! It made me laugh. But I still didn't know if he knew where I was hoping to end up.

It wasn't until we pulled in front of the store that it was confirmed to me that he did indeed understand where I wanted to go...phew! I entered the store and began my shopping. As I was wandering around I listened and laughed to myself as the advertisement playing over the loud speaker repeated over and over again "caw-fo". Who knew that "carrefour" should be pronounced "caw-fo"? That's one thai word i'll NEVER forget! :-)