Thai YouTube Videos With Thai Subtitles?

[SnakeheadAngler]

Hi folks,

 

   My ongoing study of the Thai language leads me to inquire whether someone might be able to suggest some YouTube channels featuring Thai language videos for which Thai subtitles (e.g. in the form of .srt files) are available.  I have found one such channel already, "Purifilm"; surely there must be others.  After all, deaf people visit YouTube too.

 

   I am able to read Thai (currently translating ลูกอีสาน).  However, I have great difficulty making out the spoken language, especially in real time.  Subtitles allow me to compare what I thought I heard against what was actually said, fine-tuning my ear to the sounds as delivered by different speakers with different regional variations.

 

   I will consider all suggestions, but if given the choice, I would prefer videos in conversational Thai relating to world and local news, cultural topics, and the like.  I have an interest in fishing, as my forum name suggests.  A Thai television drama might fit the bill as well.  While I respect Buddhism, I would rather not delve deeply into that genre, as my ultimate goal is to be able to casually converse with relatives and acquaintances on secular topics.  Political screeds, no matter where they exist on the left/right spectrum, do not interest me.  I am also not interested in materials from "Learn Thai with Our Easy Method"-type sites, of which there appear to be hundreds, almost all of which have some commercial angle.  I'm looking for specimens of actual Thai language, not watered down- "Thai in the wild," so to speak.

 

   Any suggestions would be appreciated!

[tgeezer]

A small start can be made on the underground trains there is a video with subtitles run constantly telling people how to use the facilities.  The problem I have is that there is no time to read the subtitles but If you ride often enough it should be possible to get there in the end.  Station announcements can be useful for pronunciation, I don’t ride often but I listen then compare with the written word and am often surprised to find that my guess was wrong.  วัดมังกร surprised me because I have been saying mangorn when it is mungorn!

Petburi is going to be unacceptable soon because the underground says Petchaburi! 

  Reading subtitles obviously becomes easier as the words become more familiar and rather than rely on videos that aspect can be practised by speed-reading any reading material.  

[SnakeheadAngler]

Hi tgeezer,

 

Thanks for the reply.  I must say that I am specifically looking for YouTube videos, as I do not reside in Thailand and therefore cannot access the train.  Online videos allow me to play and replay content at my leisure, even slowing it down if I wish, so I can acclimate myself to the spoken language.  Since I have been studying Thai for many years, my reading comprehension is advanced enough that I can easily read the written language (except for newspapers, which have a specialized jargon).  The problem is that all of the books I have studied, the novels I have read, etc., etc., are just printed symbols on pages, not accompanied by any sounds.  I have great difficulty connecting the sounds with the syllables, for my listening skills have not been polished.  My ears have trouble distinguishing between long and short vowels, between the consonants ng- and n-, between mid and low tones, and so on and so on.  This results in a bewildering number of possible permutations of what a given spoken syllable might be, with the number of untranslated syllables becoming overwhelming as the speaker continues to talk.  Watching YouTube videos without captions helps some, but progress is agonizingly slow- sometimes I might spend 30 minutes playing and replaying a single minute's worth of audio, trying to figure out what was said.  Access to subtitles allows me to resolve the ambiguities without getting overwhelmed, so that I begin to internalize the subtle (to my ears, at least) differences between different sounds.

[tgeezer]

The MRT has a YouTube channel. Some of the videos have subtitles.  Topics like how to use, accidents on the escalator บันไดเลื่อน . It should keep you happy for a while and you may stumble on other useful content from there. 

[ColeBOzbourne]

Have you searched back a few pages on this forum? I remember resources being discussed but don't know how to find the thread. I'm also not sure how to post a link but will try:

 

The first is www.aakanee.com/thai-recordings.html and it doesn't have subtitles but does have accompanying transcripts that you can look at and listen at the same time.

https://www.aakanee.com/thai-recordings.html

 

Another is YouTube by Pablo Roman and looking briefly I don't see the transcripts, but think I remember from the discussion there were some available. Perhaps you can dig around and find them.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOKPImLWvaffrJv9V5cumhj76EN7jjWok

 

 

 

 

[Nokawou]

Try โน๊ต อุดม some episodes have Thai transcripts and even English transcripts and it is really funny and give you an insight into the Thai thinking. He is very well known and respected in Thailand. I am in the same boat as you and read/write Thai but have problems understanding conversations and will be working hard on it this year.