Where/how Did You Learn Thai

[RamdomChances]

Just curious, about how you all learnt to speak/read/write Thai and what your intrests are. (ie spoken, writen, history of the language ect

Have you profesional intrests ie teacher, professer ect

I've got this image of Richard as some sort of Oxford don sitting in a dusty library going through ancient sanscrit texts (sorry rich just joking)

What other languages do you speak?

Ok me

As you may tell languages are'nt my strong point, I was always into maths, science stuff and am a qualified aircraft enginere.

I can do simutanious equations in my head but cant spell it !!

Well my spoken thai is ok and I can make myself understood usually but my thai reading and writing skills are virtually non existent.

I had twenty hours of lessons before moving up to Nakhon Sawan about 2 and half years ago, and just learend as I went along ,out of nessesity really.

I find this board a big help, even thought when Richard, SnowLeopard and Meadish get into their "past progressive non perfect tenses" not to mention some of the "preiphrastic (and modal?) forms". You could all be speaking Swahili.

Oh the same goes for the native Thai speakers how did you pick up such a good command of english.

Anyway cheers now

RC

[Boon Mee]

I've been speaking rudimentary Thai for 25 years now. Took some basic classes at AUA years ago. Don't live in LOS full-time but have TV5 on at home which helps - especially the soaps!

Working on reading/writing now and consider myself to be about the 1st grade level!

[the scouser]

When I was an immigration officer in the UK we were encouraged to learn foreign languages and the Home Office would pay for the cost of the course. That's how I came to study Thai. I attended night classes at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), an adjunct of the University of London, for 3 years. The class was principally taught by an American who was taking his PhD at the college. Martin, if you're a member of this forum then drop me a PM.

Scouse.

[markt]

I also went to SOAS to learn Thai, back in 1991-92.

Teacher was an Englishman named Guy Jackson.

They encouraged the reading/writing of Thai alongside the spoken.

[Johpa]

I started by spending two years at a university under the tutelage of a great Thai professor who used Marvin Brown's old AUA course. At the same time I was taking modern linguistic courses that were telling me that this type of course was useless in teaching foreign languages. So I was always trying to figure out why this somewhat elderly gentleman, as well as his students, had established such a steller repuation using a methodolgy that was being reputed as being bankrupt by devotees of the Lord Chomsky.

But it sure helped to have such a fine professor with a PhD in lingustics and a very small class of 5 people. Today, at the same university, a much younger professor uses more "modern" conversational methodologies to teach much larger classes.

[Richard W]

I first started learning Thai when I acquired a Thai girlfriend in England. She didn't teach me Thai - after we married she admitted that she doesn't approve of husbands understanding Thai. However, a young male Thai friend of hers taught me some rudiments - a few words and most of the letters and consonants. Over the years I learnt the whole alphabet. When we started making annual trips to Thailand, I gradually extended my vocabularly, starting by puzzling out the various notices I came across. I also taught myself from a textbook.

For reading practice, I got myself a bootleg translation into Thai of Kernighan and Ritchies's description of the programming language C, as I also needed to learn that language. (I didn't realise it was a bootleg translation until I compared it to K&R.) It was by reading that book that I learned to split words in Thai text, though I must say that a lot of the splitting is done by recognising words rather than by using the syllable boundary cues.

My first marriage failed, and I acquired a new Thai girlfriend while on holiday in Thailand. Her English was worse than my Thai, so we spoke and then wrote to one another in Thai. This forced a great improvement in my Thai. She joined me in England when we married, but we still mostly communicated in Thai. We have now switched to speaking to one another in English, and my Thai is slowly degenerating.

My accent has never been good, and I wonder if speaking two such different dialects as Northern and Central Thai has helped my wife understand me.

Although I am a mathematician (eking out a living in what is primarily a branch of the Aerospace industry, with no professional use for Thai), I have been interested in linguistics since I was a boy. My attempts to learn my grandfather's language, Welsh, have come to very little. My greatest interest has been in the evolution of languages. As the most natural language to be interested in is one's own (I am English), I was reading up on the ancient Indo-European languages, such as Sanskrit, while I was a boy. My biggest failure in learning languages is in the area of vocabulary - this is sheer drudgery with no patterns to relieve the tedium.

Thus, when I was introduced to Thai, the method of writing came as no surprise. It seemed only natural to arrange the start of the Thai alphabet in a table, by position and method of articulation, as the Indians do with their versions of what is historically the same alphabet and writing system. It was a pleasure to see that this table helped me memorise the classes of the Thai consonants. The vowel combination เอา = /au/ was easy to memorise, for Germanic *au became long <ea> in Old English - compare German Baum and English beam. (This mnemonic for Thai is just a coincidence.)

When I chanced upon Li's Handbook of Comparative Tai in a bookshop on Sukhumvit Road, I snapped it up immediately. Amongst other things, this improved my understanding of how the consonant and tone systems of the Tai languages and dialects relate to one another.

[Spee]

Just curious, about how you all learnt to speak/read/write Thai and what your intrests are. (ie spoken, writen, history of the language ect

Got interested in the language after meeting my Thai fiance' a little over 9 months ago. Start learning some basic phrases and tonality from her and her friends. Picked up the self-study bug after that, using some software that I bought and also some of more highly recommended books available from Amazon. Will begin attending UofL SOAS beginner class in October. Goal is to reach and eventually pass the "terminal 2's" on the fluency scale. Long term goal is to be able to know the Thai language well enough to be able to use it to help teach my fiance', her daughter and her family better English through translation. Also would like to know the language well enough to be able to conduct business in-country. Good thread!!

[bina]

as i child i was required to learn yiddish!! and ashkenazi (religious type) hebrew; when i moved to israel, 'twasn't the same language but i am a verbose person and also inquisitive so i listen in on people conversing , learn the syntax, the 'lilt' and pronounciation, even the woman's versus man's way of speech.... radio, songs, tv... they all helped. i also collected vocabulary in many languages: worked with a dog that only understood latvian; learned amer. sign lang. (my sister is offfical translator for the deaf); russian (lots here in israel); some arabic of course; .... its fun to communicate and not be left out, especially when you are hungry and want to eat more of that yummy something....

while in israel, thru my work at the petting zoo, i had a thai employee; so we spoke pidgin thai/hebrew, a combo that many people here speak due to the large amount of thai workers in agriculture. a week ago i took a few workers to an other moshav and there was a 'little thailand' -- at leatst 200 workers liveing in area, thai flag, music, food, shop and pub and 90% men, so my guys refused to let me out of the car (dont want trouble). but they always proudly introduce me as the lady hua naa falang that speaks thai and eats like one. I've learned however that i also have to dress the part ( woman boss fancy clothing, and not my usual goat work clothes) when i go anywhere with them. speaking with people i am unfamiliar with is always more difficult but improving slowly and often i just nod, smile and understand nothing, and after, ask friends to explain.

sompong, my worker for the last two years, spoke no language other than nonghkai thai, so i bought a good dict. and started talking with him by pointing and mimicing him. my thai is very 'masculine', chou na (countrified) and probably not polite as 13 men no women means i hear and am exposed to 'guys hanging out after work' thai. plus all the different dialects. the moment they realized that i was serious in learning, they take the time to teach words, expressions etc..and as they get drunker, they tend to repeat themselves a million times so i learn eventually.

my children BTW have also picked up some words, know how to wei properly, can eat issan style and my son plays a mean takrow!!

[sabaijai]

Peace Corps language training for three months in Chainat, Mahasarakham and Hua Hin, followed by two years of working alongside Thai language teachers in various parts of Thailand, interspersed with Thai language 'refresher courses' every eight months or so before the two years were done. Two of the ex-volunteers from that PC group are now Thai citizens, one teaches poli sci in Thai at Chula; I'm lagging behind.

Back to university (UC Berkeley) for a master's degree in Asian studies with a concentration in Thai language, which meant three more years of Thai language study (packed into two years, I had a lot of energy then), mostly studying Thai classic literature and poety, along with translating selected columns from Siam Rath daily. This was followed by two years work as a Thai translator/interpreter, my biggest clients being the City of San Francisco and State of California, doing mostly court-related or medical-related translating and interpreting. I was a simultaneous court interpreter for a couple of headline heroin-smuggling cases in Sacramento in the early 80s, pretty exciting at the time.

I've spent most of my time since then living in Thailand, and since then it's been all personal study, eg reading Thai literature, magazines, newspapers, viewing TV and cinema, spending time with Thai friends. Not to mention living with a Thai woman, with whom I've never conversed in any language but Thai, for the last four years.

Other languages? I taught myself Lao about 12 years ago, have spend a lot of time in that country and my Lao is now probably about 60% as good as my Thai. The Lao make up for the other 40% by understanding Thai very well ...

I heard a lot of different languages being spoken when I was growing up, as my father worked for the US government and the family travelled extensively. I lived in France as a kid and attended French schools, studied more French at college. Today I mangle spoken French badly, but understand written French sufficiently well enough to have passed my graduate exam in French without having to study beforehand.

I also had to pass an exam in Sanskrit, which I studied for two years at uni, for my MA. In addition I took one semeseter of Pali, which is basically, as the Sanskritists like to say, 'idiot Sanskrit'. Studying Pali and Sanskrit was really helpful for my Thai, sort of the equivalent of the boost the study of Latin and Greek might give to a serious student of English. Esp written Thai, which contains so much P/S vocabulary.

Having also spent a fair amount of time in Mexico, and having studied at university and at intensive residential courses in Mexico, I speak conversational level Latin American Spanish and can comprehend most written Spanish.

Studied Mandarin intensively in the 80s, travelled a bit in China and Taiwan to reinforce the lessons, but have forgotten most of it. Was once conversant in Malay-Indonesian, having lived for in KL for awhile in the late 80s, and having worked in Indonesia on and off in the 80s, but like Mandarin that language has pretty much evaporated from the brainpan.

About three years ago I studied beginning Burmese with John Okell here in Chiang Mai, excellent course but I'm afraid I haven't kept up my studies much. Getting old you say? Could be ...

Thai is the only language I truly feel at home in, other than my native English that is. Formally I've probably had the equivalent of about four years of instruction, everything else has been joyously informal.

[theCatat]

Picked up the self-study bug after that, using some software that I bought and also some of more highly recommended books available from Amazon.

sorry to butt in, but could you please share the name of the software and the books you are working with?

thanks

cat

[Laulen]

What is the best way for four friends and me to learn Thai in Oxfordshire, England?

Our wives are all Thai and although we understand some of what they say, we cannot read or write Thai, and know little of the grammar or any new words.

Is there a book, CD-Rom, or some software that could help us? What about a local Thai teacher?

Hope you can help.

Many thanks in advance...

Laulen

My Webpage

[meadish_sweetball]

I won't go into as much detail as the rest of you, but here it is:

Three years of Thai university studies - 2 years half time, and one year full time. Some linguistics. The rest is actual experience.

[Richard W]

What is the best way for four friends and me to learn Thai in Oxfordshire, England?

Our wives are all Thai and although we understand some of what they say, we cannot read or write Thai, and know little of the grammar or any new words.

PM me with your e-mail and I can give you a copy of 'Fundamentals of the Thai Language' that I found on the web a few months ago. It has, alas, since disappeared from the web. It's available in two versions - Windows help file, and a set of web pages. They display badly on one version of Mozilla (because of some extraneous characters), but they display well in IE 6. (I suspect this is actually a black mark against IE.)

Of course, your wives might not approve!

I take it you are keeping your eyes out for Adult Education courses. They sometimes happen.

[OxfordWill]

What is the best way for four friends and me to learn Thai in Oxfordshire, England?

Our wives are all Thai and although we understand some of what they say, we cannot read or write Thai, and know little of the grammar or any new words.

Is there a book, CD-Rom, or some software that could help us?  What about a local Thai teacher?

Hope you can help.

Many thanks in advance...

Laulen 

My Webpage

I half-live in Oxford and will happily translate for you and your wives for a small fee!

Failing that, I will lend you my books.

[The Gentleman Scamp]

Just curious, about how you all learnt to speak/read/write Thai...

Who teach you!!

I learned in a very unorthodox way but always from various Thai friends and teaching them the odd English phrase in return.

I first learnt to say to Yuk-Tuk drivers that my legs were not broken and that I was quite capable of walking.

I wanted to learn obscure words that only very advanced farangs would know which obviously had it's set backs.

I knew the Thai word for hovercraft before I could ask for the bill.

I'm ok now though, not bad, heading towards fluent... Passable.

[Paleface]

I learned the hard way. Never had a book or ever been in a classroom.

From day 1, it was 1 word at a time. "What does krap mean? I hear that word alot.".

I would ask someone to spell my name and learn 1 letter at a time.

Its a hard way to learn and I wish I had, had access to a language school.

[RamdomChances]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Some good posts I really liked bina's and sabaijai's stories, (nice pics bina) and was supprised how much I have in common with Richard!! (aircraft industry, Welsh ect)

Where are you paleface?? If you are in rural thailand, it should be possible to talk with a local english teacher and get some private lessons. I'm thinking of doing that for the reading and writing side.

Oh we seem to be missing a certian sweadish big cat come on snowy share with us

[Paleface]

Random,

Im in Issan. You should hear that dialect!

My wife has done well teaching me for the past 25 years however its been difficult as she didnt have any formal education. (she was born crippled and wasnt able to go to school).

I did meet a university lecturer about 2 years ago and we have morning coffee together. We are teaching each other, although it seems Im doing most of the teaching. Its great that he can explain things my wife isnt able to.

Ive only been reading for 2 years, but its opened up a new world for me. Who knew all those signs really said something!

Im quite content with my current level of speaking and Ill just keep plugging along.

[RDN]

I went to Inlingua, Chid Lom, bkk. Expensive, one-to-one teaching. But I need to keep practising. Listening and understanding I find hard. My teacher and g/f think my written Thai is very good, but only because I write so very, very slowly. And I can't understand much of other people's writing. Practice, practice, practice!