One of the problems with living in Thailand is that it’s so easy to get by without being very skilled in the Thai language, a mistake that many expats make. To provide some inspiration, we are very happy to be talking to Rikker Dockum, a researcher and Thai language scholar, who will be joining us every month on the Bangkok Podcast. Rather than standard ‘word of the day’ type lessons, Rikker will be chatting with us about the mysteries of the Thai language, tips for learning it, secrets to using it, and his experiences navigating a culture where fluency by a foreigner in the local language will likely be met with wide-eyed stares of anyone you meet.

On this first episode, Rikker tells us what methods helped him most as he learned Thai, how it's helped him adapt, and a few funny stories about the reactions he's received.