Just Started Learning Thai Script

[OOLEEBER]

Hi Snowleopard and 2004 and all others,

This is my first post and I only found this forum in the last couple of days but already I've copied and printed many pages of your posts to help me learn Thai.

I live in a villiage 30klm outside Sukhothai with very few Farangs and while this has the benefit of me not having much English communication, I'm forced to speak Thai (willingly I should add) it also restricts me from asking questions about the language that seem to crop up faster than the Morning Glory in my pond. This forum is the perfect remedy and I hope to bug you all with many questions in the future. My wife speaks pretty good English but 50% of the time she can't answer (or I don't understand her explanation), no matter how hard she tries.

I'd like to say thank you to all who have posted and given me some fascinating information to work on. I've lived here for two years and I'm ashamed to say that I only started learning Thai script last week. I have limited time ( work and 17 month old twin girls ) so I'm only up to about 20 letters in the last 7 days or so but I love it and already I can recognise letters on road signs etc.. that were for so long so alien to me. It's really a joy and although I'm learning slowly it does seem rather easy. I've yet to learn how I'm supposed to pronounce the letters phoneticaly and include the vowels, which does seem rather complicated and then there's many more rules I believe I must master but at this stage I'm raring to go.

I should point out that I have no linguistic skills, unlike may of the contributors to this forum, and I only discovered what "classifier' meant today (which is pretty pathetic now that I think about it) but I'll plod on and already I've learned something from your postings. I hope that gives you all some heart. Your contributions to this forum are much much more than a medium that satiates your own love of the language. It helps new commers like me and I'm very grateful. I mean that sincerely.

A note to Snowleopard - ( This reffers to a separate thread but I feel it's worthy of note), I thought you were a bit harsh on Richard in this thread. Your response to him was not in-keeping with your usual rapport with everyone else. Unless of course you've had confilct with him before that I've not read so far. But in any case, this is not a jousting arena. I'm sure you'd agree it's not the place for anger or one-upmanship (if thats how you write it) We all know something and no-one knows everything and all information can be priceless to some receipients. (just my tuppence worth and no criticism intended)

Sorry I don't have a funky picture or GIF to go with the username. I'll work on that later.

Anyway, thanks again to all and any links to Thai learning sites will be warmly received.

OOLEEBER is how Thais pronounce my name, can you work it out?

[meadish_sweetball]

Hi... Oliver?

Glad you've joined us, and good luck with your Thai studies. A word of advice here at the beginning of your studies:

Try to get the proper pronunciation down as quickly as possible. If you want to speak Thai really well, this is your first priority - pronunciation involves BOTH the right sounds, AND the right tones.

If you match the wrong sound with a Thai letter, re-learning can prove very difficult once the sound is stuck on your tongue and in your brain. Ask your wife to help you, or some other person around you, preferably someone who has studied a language at university level.

It is not necessary to be an expert in linguistics to learn Thai properly. You just have to learn about those particular features of Thai that are best explained with linguistic terminology. Nobody knows what a classifier is unless they read a book about it or somebody explains it to them. If the discussion here becomes too complicated, do not hesitate to ask for clarifications. I'll be happy to try to explain things in non-formal terms if somebody asks for it, as I am sure others are as well.

[OOLEEBER]

If anyone is offedened by my GIF please let me know

[OOLEEBER]

HI M S,

Thanks for that matey and thanks for the welcome and yes it is Oliver. not so difficullt but you were spot on - Good Man !

And thanks for the the advice on the priorities of the tonal aspect. So far, vocally, it's been the hardest part for me. My brother has a record deal in Oz (we're both from Scotland) and he can sing perfectly but I can't sing for buttons and getting the tonal part of Thai correct has been a word for word excercise for me. Maybe once I can speak thai ok I can sing too - Now that would be something!!!!

I also appreciate your comments on the mai pen rai regarding my lack of linguistic skills and I'm sure you're right. I just wish I'd studied harder at school so I understood more efficiently some of the terminoligy used on this forum to expedite my learning. For a long time now I've wanted to go back to school and learn english properly. Funny how one can have a perfect command of the english language and know so liitle about it. (not that I fall into the perfect category but....).

And.. Thanks again (I'm a very grateful person today) for offering to help with clarification. You're obviously one of the good guys.

Onya matey.

[OOLEEBER]

OK, GIF did not work.

Later!

O