Thank you!

Tweet

When my cousin Megan met up with us in Vietnam to travel together for a while, she pointed out a curious fact. Something that we did not notice, and had to laugh at.

Before we met up, we would make the effort of learning a few words in the language spoken of the country we were visiting if we did not already know. When Megan arrived, the first word I taught her was "Cảm ơn", or "thank you" in Vietnamese. She laughed as that was something she was going to ask me then pointed out to us, just how Canadian we were because one of the most important words we felt the need to learn was "thank you", not "help", " where is the bathroom" or such.

Arabic

It is one of the most important words you can learn because those little words will often put a smile on the face of someone helping you in another country. Not only because you are showing them a little gratitude or appreciation but because you took the effort to learn something about them. Yes it is small but we have gotten more than a few smiles from people because of it, no matter how terrible we sound!

How to say "Thank you":
Japanese - arigatou
Malay - Terima kasih
Mandarin - xie xie
Cantonese - M̀h'gōi
Korean - gomawo
Vietnamese -  Cảm ơn
Cambodian - aw khun
Thai - Kob Khun Ka (female), Kob Khun Krap (male)
Burmese (Myanmar) - cè-zù-bèh 
Portuguese - obrigada/o (female/male)
Spanish - gracias
Icelandic - Takk fyrir  

Portuguese

And thanks to you for following our journey :)

~ Christine