What language is spoken in Pattaya?

Central Thai is the official language, written in a 44-consonant script that you can comfortably skip learning to read on a one-week trip. Most of the people serving you in Pattaya grew up in Isan provinces like Udon Thani and Buriram, and among themselves they speak Isan, a dialect close to Lao. You'll hear it in the open kitchens around Soi Buakhao, over the hiss of a wok and the dull thud of a pestle in a clay som tam mortar. Call a papaya salad 'saep' instead of the Central Thai 'aroi' at a Buakhao stall, and the cook will likely grin and ask which province you learned it in. For 7-Eleven counters, hotel desks and any government office on Pattaya Sai Song, stick to Central Thai.

English in Pattaya follows the tourist money, so it's strongest along the coast: on Beach Road, Second Road and Walking Street, bar staff, massage-shop owners and hotel receptionists handle it comfortably, and many add a Russian or Mandarin phrase for the tour groups. Jomtien is a different story. Along Thappraya Road and Jomtien Second Road, menus and condo-rental boards are often in Cyrillic first, because Russian visitors arrive in numbers from November. Go inland to Thepprasit Night Market, which runs Friday to Sunday, or to the morning market in Naklua, and English drops to prices and pointing. There, under the smoke from charcoal-grilled moo ping, the Thai below earns its keep. Grab drivers are the exception anywhere in Chonburi, because the app does the talking for you.

The baht bus is where your few words of Thai earn the most. The blue songthaews looping Beach Road and Second Road charge 10 baht a ride (about 30 US cents at 33.55 baht to the dollar), so climb onto the hard metal benches without a word, since diesel exhaust drifts in at every stop anyway. When you want off, press the buzzer in the roof, then hand your coins through the driver's window. Name a destination before you board, though, and the driver will likely treat it as a private charter at 100 to 200 baht, so learn the Thai numbers to ten instead. Saying 'sip baht' confirms the shared fare with no haggling. Tone matters in Thai: 'mai' shifts meaning with every change of pitch, so pair 'mai phet' (not spicy) with a small wave of the hand.

Skip phrasebook Thai in the bars on Soi 6 and Walking Street, where staff speak a tourist pidgin ('same same', 'you come back, okay?') and answering in kind is faster than anything formal. Your Thai pays off at temples. At Wat Yansangwararam, about 20 km south of Jomtien, a quiet 'sawatdee khrap' with a wai (palms together at chest height, head slightly bowed) gets you a nod from the monks, though women should never hand anything directly to a monk and should set whatever they're offering on a cloth or a table instead. Wherever you are, end every request with 'khrap' if you are a man or 'kha' if you are a woman. That one syllable turns 'how much?' at a Naklua fruit stall from a demand into a polite question.