Order food at a street stall in Thailand and, sooner or later, the cook asks you one question: เอาเผ็ดไหมคะ (ao phèt mǎi khá) — do you want chili in that? Your answer says a lot about how long you have been around Thai food. Newcomers say ไม่เผ็ด, no chili. People who have been eating it for years just nod.
That question is how Sawasdee names its levels. There is no “Beginner 2” or “Upper Intermediate”. There are five chili levels, and you move up them the way your plate does.
The five levels
| On the menu | Level | Units |
|---|---|---|
| ไม่เผ็ด No chili | Foundations Pre-A1 | 1–10 |
| เผ็ดน้อย A little chili | Survival Thai A1 | 11–20 |
| เผ็ด Medium chili | Everyday Thai A2 | 21–30 |
| เผ็ดมาก Extra chili | Confident Thai A2+ | 31–40 |
| เผ็ดแค่ไหนก็ไหว Bring on the chili | Independent Thai B1 | 41–50 |
Each level is ten units, and each unit is four short lessons: 50 units and 200 lessons in all, in steps of about four minutes.
Why chili, and not a grade
It is the scale Thailand already uses. Nobody in Thailand asks whether you are A2. They ask how much chili you can take. The labels are not ours; they are the words you say at the stall, and you will use every one of them outside the app.
Your first level name is your first Thai. ไม่ (mâi) means “not” and เผ็ด (phèt) is the word for chili heat. Add น้อย for “a little” or มาก for “a lot” and you have read three of the five levels. The scale teaches you something before the first lesson starts.
It describes comfort, not a test. Nobody fails at chili. You get used to it, a little more each time, and one day the dish that made your eyes water is simply lunch. That is what learning a language feels like from the inside, and it is a kinder picture than a ladder of exams.
What each level tastes like
ไม่เผ็ด · No chili. The foundations: greetings and politeness, all 44 consonants, the vowels, your first words, the five tones, numbers to 100 and a simple self-introduction. Nothing here assumes you have seen a Thai letter before. If the tones worry you, we wrote a separate guide: Thai Tones Explained.
เผ็ดน้อย · A little chili. Survival Thai. Family, ordering food and drinks, the market, prices and bargaining, directions, taxis and the BTS, telling the time. This is the level that gets you through a first trip.
เผ็ด · Medium chili. Everyday Thai. Past and future, how you feel, the pharmacy, the weather, hobbies, invitations, a phone call, your work and your home — and classifiers, the counting words that Thai uses for everything.
เผ็ดมาก · Extra chili. Confident Thai. Comparing, giving opinions, explaining why, “if… then”, polite requests, telling a story in order, booking travel, money matters, and joining in at a festival.
เผ็ดแค่ไหนก็ไหว · Bring on the chili. Independent Thai. Recounting experiences, hopes and hypotheticals, short news texts, switching between formal and informal, idioms, work email and meetings, a full doctor’s visit, and reading real signs and menus. It ends with a capstone: one extended conversation.
Honest about where it stops
Next to every chili level sits a plain CEFR label, from Pre-A1 to B1. We kept those on purpose. The top of the scale is B1: you can handle most everyday situations and hold a real conversation. It is not fluency, and the app does not say it is.
You do not have to start at no chili
When you first open Sawasdee, it asks where you would like to begin. If you already read the script, start higher. It is a soft choice: nothing below is marked as finished, and the first units stay open whatever you pick, so you can go back for anything you missed.
Along the way you earn a stamp for every unit, and when a level is done its page in your passport is sealed. There are no hearts to lose and no guilt, just steady progress. And yes, the scale comes back as a lesson: in the street-food role-play, the cook asks เอาเผ็ดไหมคะ, and this time you answer in Thai.
Pick your chili level
The first units are free. No account required.