It may seem obvious, but if you’re going to spend time in the country of Laos, someone will have to translate to Laotian for you when you want something written down. Or, when you want to read some written text, someone will have to translate from Laotian.

Laos is a small, landlocked country in Southeast Asia. There are about 6.7 million people living within its borders now. Even so, you can still find plenty of Laotian speakers who don’t reside in Laos at all.

For intrepid travelers, it’s fairly common to stumble across the need to interpret or translate to Laotian in countries like Cambodia and Thailand. In Thailand, the Laotian dialect is known asIsan, which differs in many ways from written and spoken Thai. Close to 15 million people speak Isan, which makes this form of Laotian more widely spoken and written than the standard dialects you can find in Laos.

While Thai grammar, vocabulary, and culture have merged with Isan in Thailand to some degree, the Laotian roots are still pretty clear. Another place you can find a good amount of Laotian spoken and written down, and the need to translate to/from Laotian, is in Cambodia.

The Lao of Cambodia, who are also referred to as the “Laotian Tai,” live in the lowlands of Cambodia, close to the Mekong River. With Laotian and Thai cultural backgrounds, not to mention the difficult history of Cambodia over the last 50 years, the Lao of Cambodia have had to deal with a ton of cultural, economic, and military pressure. Yet somehow they’ve managed to survive and keep their particular dialect of Laotian alive.

Anyone interested in Southeast Asia might want to know a little something about how to translate to Laotian or how to interpret basic Laotian phrases. As we’ve already seen, the Laotian language isn’t confined to the borders of the country of Laos. A bit of Laotian will keep you standing in good stead while you trek about this beautiful part of the planet.