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[Buckwheat]

Welcome to Rapid Language Learning.

A unique way to learn Thai script quickly.

Please click on their banner and check them out for yourself.

Welcome Rapid Language Learning!!!

[LookSaMoon]

Welcome kha

[genggwaa]

Thank you for your kind welcome. I am the author of Read Thai in a Day and I feel it is a nice touch to be welcomed to the forum in this way

You may be interested to understand the characters in the banner above.

The letters are คาว.

ค is a kgatheuy (or ladyboy) carrying a cactus.

า is someone desperate to pee, saying "aaah!"

ว is a kgatheuy on his head wiggling his legs in the air.

Rather than learning the different classes of the consonants and the complicated tone rules that are different for each class, all you need to know is whether a letter is boy, girl or kgatheuy. Because the images are so quirky, the sex of the letter will be subconsciously imprinted in your mind with no effort on your part.

Working out the tones becomes very easy. Boys and girls are the same in everything, except for singing words. Girls' emotions rise when they sing, but boys and kgatheuys just feel bored (monotonous, flat tone).

Kgatheuys are quite complex creatures. They are theatrical, exhibitionist, uncoordinated and into fetish! You can tell the tone by the personality characteristics of the different letters.

For instance, while the girl in ผ likes to look at herself in the mirror, the kgatheuy พ always looks away to see who is watching him (or her)!

The word in the banner คาว is pronounced khaaw. This is a singing word and, because ค is a bored kgatheuy, the tone is flat.

คาว means 'smelly' or 'fishy'.

The word for 'white' is spelled (and therefore pronounced) differently: ขาว.

ข is an old cackling lady. Her emotions rise when singing, so ขาว is pronounced khaaw? (a rising/questioning tone).

If the same word is spelled with the 'surfing' tone mark (it looks a bit like someone surfing down a wave) it is pronounced differently and has a different meaning. Boys and girls are quite sporty and can surf well, so they go down (falling tone) the wave with ease. (A kgatheuy, however, can't surf at all and gets thrown up in the air by the wave.)

So ข้าว, which means 'rice', is pronounced khaaw! (with a falling or emphatic tone because ข is female).

Happy reading

Gary Orman

Rapid Language Learning

[Edward B]

That just made my day. Got any more? Keep 'em coming. I'm dying to find out who the rest of the alphabet are.

[mangkorn]

That's a very creative system you have devised, and must have put a lot of work into it.

Congratulations, and I wish you well.

Just to compare notes, here's how I learned all the consonants in their respective classes:

(please forgive the transliterations)

Middle Class: Gai Jik Dek Dtaai Bon Bpaak Aang (the chicken pecks the child dies on the edge of the water basin)

High Class: Pii Fahk Toong Khao Saan Hai Chan (the ghost left a bag of polished rice for me)

Everything else is Low Class (including the Sor-Soh, the only "S" sounding exception)

And to distinguish similar-sounding consonants: little circle on the inside = high class; little circle on the outside = low class

Can't say for certain, but I was told that's how they teach Thai children.

Sure worked for me: I learned it all in about five minutes.

Cheers.

[genggwaa]

Hi Mangkorn,

Your approach to memorizing the system of classes is the sort of approach we use in the ebook. These kind of techniques are not new and yet I am continuously amazed that traditional schools don't incorporate this style of learning. Children are still expected to remember things through repetitive study and drills. When what they should really be learning is the HOW to learn and study so that it becomes a form of play rather than 'study'.

I bet children learn a hellava lot more about strategy and critical thinking by playing World of Warcraft then they will ever do at school

Still, I am impressed that Thai schools have an easy way of learning the classes.

The only small criticism I would have of learning the class system as it stands (at least for foreigners) is that it lends itself to ambiguity between class and tone, as they can both be high, middle or low and their is no relationship between the two concepts. The system in the ebook eliminates this ambiguity.

Most foreigners also have trouble recognizing the shapes. So the mnemonic approach tends to work if you already know how to read and can understand some Thai!

Many letters have the same sound and very similar shapes, the only difference being where the little circle is. In the ebook, the little circle on the inside denotes a girl letter, while on the outside a ladyboy.

Girls are all the 'high' class letters, boys are the 'middle' class letters, and ladyboys all 'low' class. The gender of each consonant letter is imprinted subliminally in your mind, so you don't really have to think about it.

[Dissolution]

I'm really interested in learning Thai, maybe I should give this a go.

I'd probably be a lot more motivated if WoW could somehow be tied into learning the script.

Probably Night elves and...

Oops, got distracted by the NEs.