wrevelate

actually spicy and duck are the same tone. the first letter is different.

spicy - เผ็ด pèt

and

duck - เป็ด bpèt

bottomline is you need a mix of every angle and every method. do the best you can to do it all: tutors, classes, books, movies, friends...every angle

everyone will have their strengths and weaknesses, and flyingsaucersarereal, just because your strengths are being outgoing and talkative(very valuable traits for a language learner), there is no real need to start a post announcing what your strengths are.

if you are working full-time, it will take you ten years to speak professional thai ( if you're disciplined with your study)

just thought i'd make you aware

i would say yes. you can start decoding quite quickly, and you'll read your first word before you know it.

however, getting to the point where you're reading thai children's books at a reasonable comprehension rate and at a reasonable speed takes time and effort.

it's totally worth it though! get in the habit of reading every day and sight reading words is not too far off.

if you want a time scale, i'd say with hard work and disciplined study habits you can learn to read at roughly the same speed as a primary school child.

i've been reading for about 2 hours a day for the past four years and I m roughly at a year 4 level.

it helps to have a thai gf, go to some kind of thai classes, and a private tutor.

i asked my thai friends to help find me some movie scripts. they all recommended me to watch tv lakorns as the scripts are widely available at 7-11 etc.

but to my disappointment, the scripts are not at all closely related to the actual dialogue on the tv episodes.

im still searching...

I would like to find a Thai movie script then print it out, read it, and study it so when I watch the movie I can follow along and pick up more.

The DVD subtitles are not what I am looking for becuase constantly pausing the DVD player is awkward.

Thanks!

thanks very much VocalNeal. very helpful.

Very helpful. Thank very much.

HOw about having children, does it take a long time before a partner can be covered under the healthcare system?

I am 34, teacher. She's 29. High School diploma. Works in a clothing shop.

We are not married, but 95% sure we are going to do that. We have never visited Canada, so somewhat reluctant to get married without her ever having seen Canada, however, I am willing to make that leap if that makes things significantly easier with the migration process.

I have lived here for three years and plan to return in 2 years, hopefully with my partner.

We are working on her English and we plan to enrol her in a one year college course if we can get back to Canada.

We have two years to work with before I move back, so what is my best route?

(pay a lawyer or do-it-yourself? TRV, or PRV? marriage here or there?)

I am so stressed.....

any advice immensely appreciated

i totally relate to the frustrations that accompany speaking thai in thailand, especially bangkok. i speculate that it is the frequency of our voices, and the way we vibrate our vocal chords that throws thais off when trying to listen. even if we do get everything else correct, our voices will project at a different frequency - and correspondingly, require the listener to adjust to the this frequency. this, coupled with the fact they think there's no way in hell that a farang can speak thai, causes them to be thrown off from the get go, and causes a reactionary "what?" or a terribly contorted disgusted face, depending on the person.

My solution which does help a little is to always start off by saying "sawatdi khrap สวัสดีครับ" then waiting for them to respond back with "sawatdi khrap สวัสดีครับ" to prepare them for the ensuing interaction which will be in thai.

that's beautiful. good luck mate.

i want to challenge my brain to think in a different way, from a different perspective.

i want to use everything i ve ever learned: in school, on my travels, while teaching, in relationships, and when playing sports. every tool i can manage to fashion in order to accomplish a feat that is extremely challenging, testing, and difficult, but immensely enlightening, something that calls on the foundation of what it means to be a an open-minded person.

i study every day. im on a mission.

i was looking for the same thing. after completing level one, i couldnt find anything else. but it will be interesting to see if there are any recommendations.

i m always looking for ways that are supplementary to books, and this website was great for downloading phrases and sayings to listen to onto my ipod. http://langhub.com/e...t/section/4/41/ its great free content.

About the tones, if you master correct sentence structure, the tones do become less important. At that stage, incorrect tones can still cause misunderstandings, but it is less likely since the listener has more information available to guess what you are on about.

But that happens at a relatively late stage, and many foreigners never achieve an idiomatic grammar and sentence structure.

At the beginner's stage, when you operate in one/two/three word sentences, tones and vowel length are crucial. So doing the drills to learn them properly from the outset is my best advice.

hi im wondering if you know a teacher or a school who is particularly good at drilling and practising tones and vowels, and pronunciation in general. For the most part i study independently (actually i study at a school on saturday mornings, but the school, i believe severely neglects the importance of smoothing out the accent of a foreigner), and i would benefit from having an experienced teacher or school to help with pronunciation.

thanks

i am so pleased to hear about all the wonderful experiences from everybody.

thank you for sharing your positivity. may the quest continue.

i too study 3-4 hours everyday. i have a lot of thai friends who speak thai and only thai with me based solely on the fact that i ve asked them to, and despite them speaking excellent english. so, they are out there. my girlfriend for example has not spoken english with me in 6 months.

You have to want it so bad it hurts.

If it doesnt hurt, work on that, until it does hurt.

then begin logging hours, many, many hours, hour after hour, every single day.

five quick tips from Chris on livingthai org:

ดีๆ basically short for hello

555 This is like saying lol or ha ha ha

แถวไหน Where abouts do you live or using the net from

ยาง (no it’s like typing noooooo)

อ่านะ (what? really?)

อิอิ (hehe)

Hello everyone. I've been browsing this forum for weeks, and I love the terrific threads and helpful information, so today I decided to take the plunge and become an active member.

In relation to the terminology อ่านะ, I imagine it is lazy Thai for อะไรนะ, which does mean What??!!

awesome! welcome to the forum!

i m so glad you commented on อ่านะ because today i was chatting with a very intelligent girl who said that she personally doesnt like when people use it - she said it s like saying yeah. so? so, even tho thais use it, i may stop using it, just to be on the safe side,

Great thread! Can I get a hand with a translation for this please?

คนไม่่มีใจพูดดังเเค่ไหนเขาก็ไม่ได้ยิน

cool. thanks for the compliment. good luck!!

a person doesnt have heart, even if i speak out loud, he/she doesnt listen

Thanks so much!

Any help with this?;

คนไม่่มีใจพูดดังเเค่ไหนเขาก็ไม่ได้ยิน

a person doesnt have heart, even if i speak out loud, he/she doesnt listen

And yes you are correct ดี means good, but in this case it is being used as in the ending of สวัสดี and saying it twice, i.e. ดีๆ

Can you use that in speaking too to say hello?

Is there a shorter version of สวัสดี for a casual greeting in passing?

ดีๆ is just for chatting on the internet

i dont think there is another way to say hello in passing, other than หวัดดี

but you can say what s up to close friends with เป็นไงบ้าง

สูๆ

เราทำได้ แน่ๆ

โชคดีนะครับ

พอล

60sentences to spell-(level 5).doc

60sentences to spell - (level 6).doc

You can get them at Kinokuniya at Siam Paragon on the third floor.

They are fantastic!! and fun!

they have a lot of bilingual books there including the Aesop s fables (both in a series of 10 books with 5 fables per book, or in the big anthology collection books)

you can find them in the Thai childrens books section which is next to the English childrens books section.

There s not a special section for bilingual books though, they are just mixed in with the Thai childrens books, so you need to do a bit of combing through, but it s not hard. i just loaded up with a bunch of books that should do me for the next year. i bought some upper level books as well to set as my goal: a bilingual scooby doo book as well the diary for a wimpy kid one copy in thai and another copy in english.

good luck!

no. study chinese.

if you are looking for personal development, cultural enrichment, and cute little asian honeys, by all means, my friend, join us in the quest.

this tablet plan is beyond ridonkulous. i cannot begin to express my disbelief in the level of stupidity of this scam.

they are not ready in so many ways: software, support, training, curriculum, personnel.....etc

the thing that the govt doesnt understand is that the cost of buying these tablets are relatively cheap, compared to the costs required to create, maintain and improve a tablet based learning program. i guarantee the implementation of this program will be insufficient and the tablets will become nothing more for the kids to do time-killing activities in the classroom. actually i should say half of them, while the students with broken ones, slow ones, and lost tablets sit and stare at the wall - a great life skill for the children to learn, after they are the ones who must cope with the glaring inadequacies of a childish and short-sighted government.

five quick tips from Chris on livingthai org:

ดีๆ basically short for hello

ยาง (no it’s like typing noooooo)

อ่านะ (what? really?)

What the heck! Most of them are wrong. Here are the accurate meaning:

ดีๆ --> means "good". It doesn't mean "hello".

ยาง --> should have spelled as ยัง which means "not yet". The word ยาง means "rubber" (that is used to make an eraser, not condoms)

อ่านะ --> this is a tough one to translate. You use it when you want the other party to compromise. It's strictly spoken language, not written language.

BTW I grew up in Thailand and went to school there for many years.

Patrick

Patrick,

I think you are misguided. It seems you are eager to get on this site and tell someone they are wrong. you should channel your energy into something more positive, like perhaps contributing some tips for chatting that we can use and try out for ourselves.

Now, please let me explain. Yes you are correct that the correct spelling is ยัง, but like chris said it s like saying noooooo and extending the vowel sound making at a long vowel and therefore it becomes ยาง. And yes you are correct ดี means good, but in this case it is being used as in the ending of สวัสดี and saying it twice, i.e. ดีๆ Patrick. And maybe you are correct that อ่านะ can be used in a situation where you want a compromise, but i am 100% sure it can also be used as in saying - oh yeah...? ( in a kind of friendly but unenthusiastic way).

Patrick, i appreciate that you took the time to read this topic, and i dont doubt that your thai is excellent, perhaps you are fluent. in that case i hope you can contribute some chatting tips, i would love to try them out.

เรื่อยๆ, เฉยๆ, ธรรมดา, ก็ดี all mean im doing ok

a few more handy hints to know about ending words:

ไหม = มั้ย = มะ = ปะ