Jingjok
Everyone who teaches is ครู
kruu
In Thailand ครู is less a job than a relationship. Your Muay Thai trainer is ครู, your dive instructor is ครู, the woman who taught your Thai class is ครู, and they stay ครู for life. Students wai them, carry their bags and bring food at ไหว้ครู ceremonies, and a trainer may scold a fighter like a father. Foreign teachers often find this flattering and heavy at once: parents expect you to care about manners as well as English, and a quiet word from the ครูประจำชั้น carries weight. Using the title back, ครูเอ, ครูต้น, instead of a bare name shows you understand the bond.
Try this today
Address your next Thai teacher, trainer or instructor as ครู + their name.
The words that carry it
Learn this in “Professional domains” →
Your first 90 days of Thai
Culture cards in Jingjok are tied to the words that carry them, each ending in one thing to try today.
- WEEKS 1–2 · SURVIVEGreet anyone, pay, and order food and 7-Eleven exactly how you like it.
- WEEKS 3–6 · SETTLE INGet around by taxi, Grab and skytrain, find anything, and handle your landlord.
- WEEKS 7–12 · RUN YOUR LIFEPharmacy, bank, SIM and apps, how you feel, and a weekend away, all in Thai.
The first week is free.