6 minutes ago, Oxx said:

 

They don't.  The issue is that foreigner learners are taught to look for the initial loops of the letters.  Once these are reduced (or removed completely) foreign learners struggle.  Native learners use other characteristics to identify letters, such as the height of the central ^ in letters such as ผ and พ, or whether the "neck" is open or closed, as in ข and ช.

 

Doug Cooper's paper (attached to the previous post) is a good guide to these other characteristics.

Interesting.

 

I remember I was taught when writing the letters with loops, to start by forming the loop first. I'm sure Thai kids must be taught the same, as it was pre-printed sheets I used for this, with arrows showing the direction to form the letter.

I hadn't thought about "the height of the central ^ in letters such as ผ and พ," before. That's a very good
point. Thanks.

 

I also have the same problem, and my wife shared with me even Thai can sometimes have a problem with these unique styles. She explained that it is often contextual, with the ability to read the remaining word or sentence ( or a portion of it) will helpful in identifying the confusing letter. 

 

Like others here have said, practice, practice, practice. When outside, I will often ask her to translate a letter or word that is difficult to understand and then attempt to commit it to memory...Getting it to stick inside my brain seems to be the most difficult part. ????

 

Good luck!

2 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

Interesting.

 

I remember I was taught when writing the letters with loops, to start by forming the loop first. I'm sure Thai kids must be taught the same, as it was pre-printed sheets I used for this, with arrows showing the direction to form the letter.

I hadn't thought about "the height of the central ^ in letters such as ผ and พ," before. That's a very good
point. Thanks.

 

I was taught in the same manner, though being left handed, many forms are very difficult to form using the standard arrows, I thus had to learn to adapt and often draw them in the opposite direction.
In my university course as Rajabhat Udon Thani, my teacher, who had often complimented me on my written Thai homework, was shocked to see me do this while using the classroom whiteboard but was amused and happy to see me being able to adapt. I forget her name now, but she had been teaching there 30+ years and an excellent teacher.

7 minutes ago, SimpleMan555 said:

17 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

Interesting.

 

I remember I was taught when writing the letters with loops, to start by forming the loop first. I'm sure Thai kids must be taught the same, as it was pre-printed sheets I used for this, with arrows showing the direction to form the letter.

I hadn't thought about "the height of the central ^ in letters such as ผ and พ," before. That's a very good
point. Thanks.

 

Expand  

I was taught in the same manner, though being left handed, many forms are very difficult to form using the standard arrows, I thus had to learn to adapt and often draw them in the opposite direction.
In my university course as Rajabhat Udon Thani, my teacher, who had often complimented me on my written Thai homework, was shocked to see me do this while using the classroom whiteboard but was amused and happy to see me being able to adapt. I forget her name now, but she had been teaching there 30+ years and an excellent teacher.

 

I can see this going off at a tanget now!

So you're another 'caggy-handed buggar' to use an English phrase! I'm left-handed too.

 

However, I hold the pen the same way a right-handed person does - see pic 2.

From what you've said, I'm guessing you twist your hand and drag it across the page - as in pic 1?

 

I remember kids at school using the pic 1 method always had trouble using a fountain (ink) pen, as their hand would tend to smudge the line above - pic 3.

 

 

Pic 1

 

Pic 2

 

Pic 3

 

19 hours ago, tgeezer said:

This is a case in point, on first looking at this, เป็น is instantly recognizable then สุดประเสริจ leads me to recognize the way that ษ is differentiated from ย in มนุษย์  there is no way that I can read it all in spite of being able to find many other words วิชา กว่า  ย่า ฟูงสัตว์ พัฒนา etc. my Thai is not advanced enough to understand it.  Although I could research it more the stumbling blocks are in ฯ which is not a font problem but a familiarity problem. 
So I "asked a friend" and discover that there are font problems I didn't look closely enough  ฯ is the second component of ฤา meaning หรือ! .   จะ๊ ๆ จ๋ะ ๆ Has no ฯ either. 
I am told that it is poetic and means that we are not wild animals and shouldn't be killing one another so it seems that my task is to now work out how it says that. Thanks for posting.

I have just opened the link in the post starting เป็นมนุษย์สุดประเสริฐ...   and see the reason that nobody was amazed at my ability to read it;  the piece is reproduced in Thai script there! 
 

 

18 hours ago, richsilver said:

I found this to be quite helpful. 

tell thai letters apart.pdf 1021.61 kB · 8 downloads

This link I did open and found it to be making much of nothing. 

He begins by claiming that when a student ventures away from the alphabet primer, which he has memorized so well, the "loops and turns" which form the rules for recognizing letters are nowhere to be found, he then continues with examples which seem to contradict this view. In the first example ด เด็ก in คด is recognizable only because there is no such word as คถ.  Later when expanding on this form inconsistencies appear that would not be apparent if the loops and turns we're not learnt very well. ก ไก่ always has a "beak" but no dot at the base, ด เด็ก has a dot, ถ ถุง has a dot but needs a beak,  ภ สำเภา just needs a dot on the front side. 
These are just letters in isolation which is why I maintain that to recognize the word is more important than the font, as somebody's wife has been quoted as saying in an earlier post. 

 

Khru Naam does a great job breaking down the modern fonts. Helped me a lot.