ive been using the thai2nglish.com for texting my girlfriend.in my ignorance i automatically assumed she would understand words like faa-sky etc.

example:she likes sek loso and was always singing som sarn to me.last night i txtd her the first two verses of the song.' Gerd ma mai keree jer krai muen ter,lup fun lamer pahb ter koy lohn took keun' etc.

i wrongly assumed she would understand but she didnt.

Question?what type of language is the above called?

tonight she phoned me up saying "david,what you say about sek loso?"

as soon as i started saying what i had written in my txt,she understood perfectly what i meant.

is this what some members call bar or tart talk?not nice IMHO.

i can get by in some conversations using a mixture of english and the above.

for instance RE the thread som narn naa.i knew perfectly well what it meant,serves you right,i hear thai people saying it all the time.

i admire anyone who is not thai being able to read or write thai script (is that what its called)?i could never in a million years imagine myself being able to do this as im english and i can hardly write a decent letter in english,let alone any other language.

could someone please explain why she or her friends presumably couldnt understand my txt message.nice replies only please.thanks.dave

ive been using the thai2nglish.com for texting my girlfriend.in my ignorance i automatically assumed she would understand words like faa-sky etc.

example:she likes sek loso and was always singing som sarn to me.last night i txtd her the first two verses of the song.' Gerd ma mai keree jer krai muen ter,lup fun lamer pahb ter koy lohn took keun' etc.

i wrongly assumed she would understand but she didnt.

Question?what type of language is the above called?

tonight she phoned me up saying "david,what you say about sek loso?"

as soon as i started saying what i had written in my txt,she understood perfectly what i meant.

is this what some members call bar or tart talk?not nice IMHO.

i can get by in some conversations using a mixture of english and the above.

for instance RE the thread som narn naa.i knew perfectly well what it meant,serves you right,i hear thai people saying it all the time.

i admire anyone who is not thai being able to read or write thai script (is that what its called)?i could never in a million years imagine myself being able to do this as im english and i can hardly write a decent letter in english,let alone any other language.

could someone please explain why she or her friends presumably couldnt understand my txt message.nice replies only please.thanks.dave

The problem with writing Thai in non-Thai script is that it is very confusing and there are many different systems; none of which really seem to get the correct pronunciation. I am not surprised your GF can't understand. Why should she?

Learning to read & write in Thai takes a bit of work but it is not as difficult as it seems. I am Irish so if I can do it so can you; it has taken me five years though. I wish you all the best.

If you are using thai2english, why not text the thai characters? If you can't do with your phone it may be possible through Skype. I don't know for sure, but you maybe able to cut and paste thai text and send SMS to her phone.

thanks garro,i agree it is confusing BUT i did hold my hands up and said i WRONGLY assumed she would understand.thank you

loong,she doesnt have a pc or else skype or copy/paste would work great. im still a newbie to thai ways and language but who knows what the future holds.thanks people.dave

ive been using the thai2nglish.com for texting my girlfriend.in my ignorance i automatically assumed she would understand words like faa-sky etc.

example:she likes sek loso and was always singing som sarn to me.last night i txtd her the first two verses of the song.' Gerd ma mai keree jer krai muen ter,lup fun lamer pahb ter koy lohn took keun' etc.

i wrongly assumed she would understand but she didnt.

Question?what type of language is the above called?

tonight she phoned me up saying "david,what you say about sek loso?"

as soon as i started saying what i had written in my txt,she understood perfectly what i meant.

is this what some members call bar or tart talk?not nice IMHO.

i can get by in some conversations using a mixture of english and the above.

for instance RE the thread som narn naa.i knew perfectly well what it meant,serves you right,i hear thai people saying it all the time.

i admire anyone who is not thai being able to read or write thai script (is that what its called)?i could never in a million years imagine myself being able to do this as im english and i can hardly write a decent letter in english,let alone any other language.

could someone please explain why she or her friends presumably couldnt understand my txt message.nice replies only please.thanks.dave

The problem with writing Thai in non-Thai script is that it is very confusing and there are many different systems; none of which really seem to get the correct pronunciation. I am not surprised your GF can't understand. Why should she?

Learning to read & write in Thai takes a bit of work but it is not as difficult as it seems. I am Irish so if I can do it so can you; it has taken me five years though. I wish you all the best.

Sorry Dave, I meant to add that another problem with using non-Thai text is it is not possible to work out the tone of each word. This is really important for comprehension. Good luck again. There are plenty of excellent resources on the net for learning to read/write Thai

This is known as "phaasaa karaoke".

Yes. 'karaoke' is what Thais call it (so dubbed from the Roman letter phonics used at the bottom of karaoke videos).

Back in the 90s when I spent time on IRC chatting with Thais, they would all use it as most programs back then had no Thai language support.

I see many Thais use it when sending SMS as well, perhaps it is just the karaoke you used looked unusual to the one your girlfriend is used to, but once worked out, they will be able to read and understand provided what is said is 'real thai', i.e. idiomatic... but obviously it takes some practice to learn the system.

cheers garro,i did notice the tonal language.out of the 30 days i just spent in pattaya, we spent 2 nights with my farang friends and 28 with our thai friends.ive been reading your posts last night (sober here in the UK)and youre a funny person.nice one.

Briggsy

i thought you were taking the mick but i copied/pasted phaasaa karaoke and googled it.it came up with 2 sites (nice music on the first) and then realised that you were serious.about languages,i automatically assumed that karaoke was japanese!see how easy it is to be wrong again.many thanks my friends.

thanks garro,i agree it is confusing BUT i did hold my hands up and said i WRONGLY assumed she would understand.thank you

loong,she doesnt have a pc or else skype or copy/paste would work great. im still a newbie to thai ways and language but who knows what the future holds.thanks people.dave

With Skype you can send SMS messages to a mobile phone in Thailand, so she doesn't need a PC or Skype, just a mobile phone. I'm not sure if you can SMS thai characters or not though, but worth a try.

meadish,very informative,thanks.i did notice on the thai2english that there were 5 or 6 options of the same word to use.i wish i could sit her in front of a pc but we never really got round to it.in the last 13 months ive spent 14 weeks in pattaya ,8 of them with 'NOK'.all my clothes are left in her apartment or HONG DAVID as she calls it.we used to have the odd hour or two when we would sit down and go through a bit of written english.i did once go into an internet shop and went onto thai2english and the thai lady cashier RAN over to my pc and asked me to show her what prog i was using.she was chuffed to bits and the next time i went into the shop there were 4 or 5 thai girls all using it!lol.what have i started? cheers,dave

Using Phonics to pronounce thai words into english - won't understand unless they have a good grasp of english and then its still not 100% because of the tones.

I am still in the early stages of learning Thai but I have to say since learning to read Thai I have little tolerance for any form of transliteration and when I see it usually ignore it. This is not out of snobbery, it's just very error prone to try to decipher someone's transliteration even if it is consistent. On a side note I find it looks kind of shabby to say you are good at Thai and then spew a paragraph in transliterated Thai no matter how accurate your grammar and word choice is. (This is not a comment directed at the OP or anyone in this thread.)

I am still in the early stages of learning Thai but I have to say since learning to read Thai I have little tolerance for any form of transliteration and when I see it usually ignore it. This is not out of snobbery, it's just very error prone to try to decipher someone's transliteration even if it is consistent. On a side note I find it looks kind of shabby to say you are good at Thai and then spew a paragraph in transliterated Thai no matter how accurate your grammar and word choice is. (This is not a comment directed at the OP or anyone in this thread.)

I think you are being very harsh here. I personally don't use transliteration but there are many advanced Thai speakers who use it successfully. There are also some native Thais who can't read and write! Whether or not somebody wishes to learn to read and write Thai is a personal choice.

In forums devoted to learning Thai the posts usually contain both Thai script and transliteration so that everyone can benefit.

I have always found that when learning something new a 'beginner's mind' is very useful.

thanks garro,i agree it is confusing BUT i did hold my hands up and said i WRONGLY assumed she would understand.thank you

loong,she doesnt have a pc or else skype or copy/paste would work great. im still a newbie to thai ways and language but who knows what the future holds.thanks people.dave

With Skype you can send SMS messages to a mobile phone in Thailand, so she doesn't need a PC or Skype, just a mobile phone. I'm not sure if you can SMS thai characters or not though, but worth a try.

I haven't tried it with Skype, as I recall they charged for sending SMS to Thai phones. Chikka worked great the couple times I couldn't communicate something verbally for sending SMS's from my PC with Thai script.

This is known as "phaasaa karaoke".

... and there's no standard system for it. some of the karaoke translits are hilarious.