LazyYogi

I had been out of the country for a few years. So since coming back, I was surprised to be finding some gold colored 2 baht coins in my change.

I thought they were pretty pointless.

Then I just recently realized that I've been getting some silver colored 2 bahts.

Whose bright idea was that? They're barely a millimeter bigger than the 1 baht coins.

Who can bother to tell them apart?

I wouldn't say the University area is too far away. You can just hop in a rot-daeng (songthaew) when you need to go somewhere. Only 20 baht if you're not going too far.

But of course it all depends what you spend your days doing in town and what kind of lifestyle you live.

My in-laws live there.

It's a very charming little city to visit every once in awhile.

It certainly has retained much more local flavor than Pai.

But I'd be crazy bored out of my mind if I lived there all the time.

I've never seen any Thai family do Trick Or Treat and I guess people don't celebrate Halloween here.

It's an American thingy. legalised extortion.

It's in name only that there is retaliation (trick or treat). I've never witnessed harm or even threats of harm to anyone. It's fantastic fun for children. After gathering their treats they congregate with others - usually neighborhood kids, and trade for their preferred treats.

Those of you who have never experienced it and wish to use it as yet another opportunity to bash America, carry on. It's beyond getting old. Jealousy and ignorance.

Never seen it apart from in the movies where kids demand lollies and if they don't get them then they throw egss and rocks at people houses. I know it is some form of an American culture and I don't even know what it stands for or celebrates. We in Australia don't have it and it doesn't really interest aussies. No I am not bashing America just saying it is an American thing. We don't celebrate thanksgiving either in Australia and that is not being anti American we just have our own Australian customs and don't need to celebrate another countries.

Trick or Treating in the USA involves kids dressing up in costumes and walking around the neighborhood collecting candy. That is all.

Nobody demands anything, except for our parents demanding that we remembered to say "thank you" at each house.

I think in the old days kids might have thrown eggs or played other "tricks", as the name implies.

But I never witnessed anything like that in real life all my years growing up there, at least not during the actual Trick or Treat time.

Ah, thanks. The super stores it is then.

Does anyone know where I can buy regular tea light candles by the dozens in CM?

All I've been able to find are some fancy carved ones at the Night Bazaar, but they don't burn well and they aren't sold in bulk.

I just want plain white tea light candles for daily use, not for looking cute or as souvenirs.

I think Wat Suthat is quite nice.

Glad you like it. I will probably add more material to it at some point too.

FSI has a list comparing average difficulty of learning various languages for US Americans. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Language_Learning_Difficulty_for_English_Speakers Thai is not in the most difficult category, but is in the next most difficult category, and marked with a *, indicating that typically it is more difficult than the other languages listed in the same category. Do not be discouraged though. It is fully possible to learn Thai, but if you don't have a general knack for languages you will have to work hard. As with any skill, regular and persistent practice will get you there. A little time spent every day is always better than a lot of time spent on some days. Obviously, difficulty for the individual learner depends on several factors, and language learning consists of several skill areas... no easy answers but a little every day will ensure progress.

In that list, why is Thai marked with a *, and yet Lao is not? They are both basically dialects of the same language.

For me, the simplicity of Thai grammar far makes up for any difficulties in pronunciation.

Words never change form. They just get moved around. No freaking verb conjugation charts to memorize!

I just had a new app for the iphone released, which might be useful for some people who want to learn to read Thai.

It's called Reading Thai - Words & Sentences. It is intended for people who have learned the alphabet and want to advance to the next step.

Please have a look: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reading-thai-words-sentences/id442147201?mt=8

If you are still learning the Thai alphabet, then you should definitely check out my first app, Reading Thai.

It is very comprehensive with all the consonants, vowels, extra symbols, and tone rules all covered. As one reviewer said, "Everything you need to learn the Thai alphabet in a simple, elegant format."

Have a look here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reading-thai/id391265783?mt=8

And finally, I also have a talking phrasebook app called Speak Thai Sanuk. A lot of thought went into designing it so that someone using it will sound nice talking to a stranger.

Many of the other phrasebook apps I've seen use language that is not always polite enough.

You can have a look here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speak-thai-sanuk/id403927809?mt=8

Reciting the Pali stanzas below is traditionally considered establishing one as a Buddhist.

Buddham Saranam Gacchami

Dhammam saranam gacchami

Sangham saranam gacchami

Dutiyampi Buddham Saranam Gacchimi

Dutiyampi Buddham Saranam Gacchami

Dutiyampi Buddham Saranam Gacchami

Tatiyampi Buddham Saranam Gacchami

Tatiyampi Buddham Saranam Gacchami

Tatiyampi Buddham Saranam Gacchami

I go to the Buddha for refuge

I go to the Dhamma for refuge

I go to the Sangha for refuge

a second time....

a third time.....

Indeed this is the traditional formula that is usually used for formally taking the Triple Refuge.

If you take refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, then you are a Buddhist no matter what you might call yourself.

If you don't take refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, then you aren't really a Buddhist regardless of what you call yourself.

But you forgot to change the words in a couple lines. It should be:

Buddham saranam gacchami

Dhammam saranam gacchami

Sangham saranam gacchami

Dutiyampi Buddham saranam gacchami

Dutiyampi Dhammam saranam gacchami

Dutiyampi Sangham saranam gacchami

Tatiyampi Buddham saranam gacchami

Tatiyampi Dhammam saranam gacchami

Tatiyampi Sangham saranam gacchami

I go to the Buddha for refuge

I go to the Dhamma for refuge

I go to the Sangha for refuge

A second time I go to the Buddha for refuge

A second time I go to the Dhamma for refuge

A second time I go to the Sangha for refuge

A third time I go to the Buddha for refuge

A third time I go to the Dhamma for refuge

A third time I go to the Sangha for refuge

Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation

by Thongchai Winichakul

An interesting look at how "Thailand" came to be. I also had the pleasure of taking a couple courses from the author at the University of Wisconsin several years back. He's a great teacher and person all around.

Buddha denied the existence of a self or soul.

This was what distinguished Buddhism from other Indian philosophies.

He did not teach "reincarnation" of a soul into a new body.

He did teach "rebirth" of a new being due to a chain of cause and effect from a previous being.

The attachment to the apparent existence of a self or soul is what continues this chain of cause and effect of beings from life to life.

นี้ is never by itself as a subject or object because it's just an adjective. It needs to be modifying some noun or classifier that represents a noun.

นี่ on the other hand is already a type of pronoun, so it can stand alone.

I think it's better to translate both of them as "this" most of the time. So your sentence นี่คือดอกกุหลาบ would be "This is a rose".

That way you don't confuse "(this thing) here" with "here (in this location)".

I've just released an iPhone app for learning Shan. It's called "Speak Shan".

It is just for speaking, so it displays a phonetic spelling for each phrase.

It has audio of a native Shan speaker saying each phrase.

If anyone is interested you can check it out here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speak-shan/id416312730?mt=8

The only real system to make it easier to remember which of the many "TH", "KH", "S" letters etc. to use is to have studied Sanskrit before studying Thai.

Sanskrit has a wider range of sounds, and all those letters were originally pronounced differently.

So then you have to be able to recognize the Sanskrit roots that the Thai words are based off of, and it is easier to remember the correct spelling.

If you want to learn to read the Thai script you might want to check out an app that I made: Reading Thai

.

เลฟตี้

Which would probably get pronounced as "Lep-dtii" by a Thai speaker.

"Lefty" doesn't have any silent letters, so there's absolutely no reason to include ์ above any of the letters.

<SNIP>

However low class consonants can carry rising or low tones by simply adding ห หีบ in front of the leading consonant with the low tone also requiring ไม้เอก. LIKE THIS หนาว rising tone cold<SNIP>

Thanx for that info;

That was actually covered in a part of the book called “ห leads a word starting with a low class consonant”.

As for as myself; I took it to mean that the word actually starts with a silent but most definitely a ‘hi class consonant’; ห, compelling it to follow hi class toning rules.

I left it off the chart, much like the 4 ย words which อ 'leads' (อย่า, อยู่, อยาก & อย่าง) which again to my understanding means those words start with อ compelling them to follow middle class consonant toning rules.

If my understanding of it is off the mark lemme know.

And thanx again for the feedback!

That's the exact same understanding I have, and your tone rules look good.

You can actually consolidate the rules a little by using the terms "live syllable" and "dead syllable".

"Live syllables" includes non-short vowels and sonorant finals.

"Dead syllables" includes short vowels and stop finals.

On another note, you mentioned in your OP that this is your first iPhone app. I would like to congratulate you to having written a useful app, and get it approved and listed in the AppStore!

Thanks. I had no real programming experience before this, so I was quite amazed myself that I was able to endure all the technobabble induced headaches and actually put this thing together. I actually have another app I just released called "Speak Thai Sanuk". It's a simple talking phrasebook, which I did price lower since it's in more direct competition with other apps.

For the people who like free stuff I just released a lite version of my app. This one is called "Read Thai Alphabet".

It only covers the 44 consonants, and it has some ads, but its FREE!

I was reluctant to download your main app for $4.99. I have previously downloaded apps for $0.99 just for the fun of it, though. You might want to reconsider your pricing plicy.

I did download your free app, and it seems you know your stuff.

I'm sure you can take it from here. Otherwise, please ask.

It has been selling well enough at 4.99 that I believe the price is justified. I briefly experimented with lower price points, and there wasn't a large increase in sales. I think there is just a limited number of people who own iphones and are seriously interested in learning to read the Thai script as potential customers. The people who are really interested will pay, because after all, it's still cheaper than a book with all the same info would be. I tried to make the full version so that people who use it will be able to recognize all the consonants and vowels, and be able to internalize the tone rules so they can look at any line of Thai writing and be able to sound out each syllable with some accuracy.

I put out the free version just for people who were more curious about the letters of the alphabet. I wanted to at least be able to put some accurate information out there since all the other alphabet apps I saw were either missing letters, had bad pronunciation, didn't give information about classes, had horrible phonetics, etc.

I'm bumping this thread up mostly to kindly ask anyone else who has downloaded my app to take just a minute to give it an honest review in the iTunes AppStore. Or at least just click to give it a star rating so others will know that it has some value for people who want to learn Thai.

@tod-daniels

I agree my sentence is not something very natural sounding. It was more an attempt to translate as word-for-word as possible.

And I'd also agree that for the first two examples there are other ways to phrase the sentences without using "sam-rap" that might be more natural, just that grammatically it is possible to use "for" in the sense indicated.

By the way:

This is samrap (for) you. OK

What is that samrap (for)? OK

How long have you lived here samrap (for)? The word "for" doesn't translate in this case.

"khun aa-sǎi yùu thîi-nîi naan thâo-rài láeo"

you live/dwell here long how much? already

I can confirm that it's an excellent book for grammar.

Although it does use a rather odd transliteration method.