I just put some flash cards for learning Thai characters on my site. Check it out and let me know what you think:

http://bangkokmac.com/thai/Consonants.html

--DP

I have been in and out of Thailand for a few years, when I first arrived I spent two-three weeks studying the language which at least allowed me to say some basic things. In other words I butchered the language for quite a while. What was frustrating was I couldn't keep the sounds in my head for long. I also couldn't seem to remember what the backward ee sounded like. Eventually I picked up Benjawan Beckers series and dropped them onto my ipod and after hearing tones again and things improved, it sometimes got me in trouble as I had phrases that I spoke too clearly for my level. I haven't spent as much time in recent years there and things have slipped, 8 months ago I found myself forgetting very basic words and having to think twice about right and left, but with few Thai people in Toronto I was speaking less and less.

Then I watched Mah nakorn by Wisit Sasanatieng and I laughed and remembered so many quirky things I liked about Bangkok. The subtitles helped bring back some of what I had forgotten. So I decided it was time to get some of the language back and to push further. It's time to learn to read and write.

I wanted to share this flip book which I cut to help me learn the alphabet ,thinking I'd watch it when riding the bus etc. It helped but mostly through hearing the letter name three times, but I found I couldn't break the code so to speak. So I have started sitting down with Thai for Beginners again and this time doing the written component. It's amazing how well this has dovetailed and now after the 3rd chapter things are starting to make sense. It was always frustrating not remembering the vowel lengths and tones but now I can see the word and know. I highly recommend getting an ipod or using the one you have for learning thai, it helps even the most un-musical of us ( you don't see me in a karoke bar for a reason)

http://rapidshare.com/files/113797845/Thai_flip2.mp4.html

(first time I've used rapidshare so let me know if it's not working)

The flip book is a 16 mb mp4 file. The pics are from learningthai.com and the voice is from Thai for beginners. It's only one piece of what you need to learn, to my mind the key piece is time in the saddle. How did you learn to throw a baseball? By throwing it again and again. Watch a kid learn to throw and how many times does it go backwards rather than forwards, well that's how my thai sounds sometimes ; ) But sometimes it goes a good distance and I can feel the right words/tones are there. Those times keep me going.

Props to Meadish and Withnail, Neeranam amoung others for setting an example, I have rarely posted but have followed this site for a few years now. Perhaps this works well with what OliverKlozerof posted

when i was in thailand i eat at roadside hawkers with a lonely planet phrasebook in tow. i knew some words for meat eg chicken but i'm confused. looking at your site and listening to the Thai flip book from rapid share, chicken is spoken as kaw kai rather than what i thought, Kai. so what does the Kaw bit mean then? what was i saying when i pointed to chicken and said kai?

The "Kaw", "Gaw", "Taw" etc are names of the letters based on the consonant sound that each letter contributes. Since the Thai alphabet has multiple letters that contribute the same consonant sounds a method must be used to distinguish the letters from each other. Thus the name is coupled with a word that uses the letter (usually to start the word).

Therefore, ก ("gaw") becomes "gaw gai" the "gaw" letter that starts the word "chicken" (gai). ข becomes "kaw kai" which distinguishes it from the other hard k sound-producing letters such as ค "kaw kwai" or ฅ "kaw khon".

It's kind of like if the English alphabet had two letters named "dee". How would you know if someone was refering to D or the the other letter named "dee"?

I just put some flash cards for learning Thai characters on my site. Check it out and let me know what you think:

http://bangkokmac.com/thai/Consonants.html

--DP

Nice. And although I'm now a Byki user, yours are handy so I've added your flash cards to my Thai resources...

(edited: and if anyone has resources to add, or believe some of mine are not up to scratch, please let me know)

Edited October 15, 200817 yr by desi

when i was in thailand i eat at roadside hawkers with a lonely planet phrasebook in tow. i knew some words for meat eg chicken but i'm confused. looking at your site and listening to the Thai flip book from rapid share, chicken is spoken as kaw kai rather than what i thought, Kai. so what does the Kaw bit mean then? what was i saying when i pointed to chicken and said kai?

Gaw Gai Chicken

Khor Khai Egg

I just put some flash cards for learning Thai characters on my site. Check it out and let me know what you think:

http://bangkokmac.com/thai/Consonants.html

--DP

Nice. And although I'm now a Byki user, yours are handy so I've added your flash cards to my Thai resources...

(edited: and if anyone has resources to add, or believe some of mine are not up to scratch, please let me know)

Nice site and the 10000 sentence bit although in Japanese is a great idea.

Could we put together a thread like the "let's learn one word a day" thread but with sentences.

Anybody seen a chat room i could join in and watch? In thai script for us learners.