Learning To Read/write Thai

[bipbip]

Hi,

I have decided to learn how to read/write Thai. Improving my speaking skills will have to wait a bit, since I'm stuck in farangland at the moment

How will you recommend that I start out?

I know most of the alphabet and can read a few simple words. My initial plan is to read Manee and Friends and complete the exercises there (http://www.learningthai.com/books/manee/index.html), but what else can I do/what should I do afterwards.

I will be able to spend 3 x 2 hours every week on Thai reading/writing, but please keep in mind that I have no teacher at hand.

Thanks a lot.

[siamesekitty]

Manee and Friends is good. The whole www.learningthai.com site is fantastic. However, for me, I've found that I learn better with a book than online. My reading and writing was with the real "Manee and Mana" series they use in elementary school. I believe it is out of print now, and there is a "Geng and Gla" series in its place. If you live somewhere where there are some good bookshops or a university that has Thai courses, try looking for a Thai book there.

It would be rather difficult to learn without a teacher, though not totally impossible. If there's a university where you live try taking a look at their website to see if there's any Thai courses. It'd be much better if you could enroll in a short beginner's course or at least have a tutor to help with the fundamentals. Otherwise it will be very confusing, as there are many grammatical and pronunciation rules that are difficult to understand.

[Murf]

I used the 'Thai for Begginers' by Benjawan Poomsan Becker as a self study...

I found it very very good.

But due to motivation (lack of) i studied for 40 hours with a Thai tutor. Now i can read far more Thai than i can understand. But i do tend to read everything during the day i see, (being in Thailand it's pretty difficult to escape Thai writing) shop signs, where busses are going, billboards... etc...

If you have learned the alphabet consanants and vowel clusters than it shouldnt be too difficult now...

Took me months to get the tone rules fixed into my brain, i still strugle with that!!

[tgeezer]

Hi,

I have decided to learn how to read/write Thai. Improving my speaking skills will have to wait a bit, since I'm stuck in farangland at the moment

How will you recommend that I start out?

I know most of the alphabet and can read a few simple words. My initial plan is to read Manee and Friends and complete the exercises there (http://www.learningthai.com/books/manee/index.html), but what else can I do/what should I do afterwards.

I will be able to spend 3 x 2 hours every week on Thai reading/writing, but please keep in mind that I have no teacher at hand.

Thanks a lot.

I hesitate to say this but here goes; I have been learning Thai for 'donkeys years' and have just discovered that a lot of my communication problems with strangers(freinds have adjusted to me) is due to length of vowels. Much is made of tones, and this is maybe the easiest to pick up but vowel lengths when you are without a teacher I should think are most difficult. Seeing words like เพร่อะ or เดิน there is a temptation to make longer words, longer sounds, not realising that they are, as in this example, the same vowel and sound duration as ก็. I am also English from the South and now rather than making short vowels, I assume that I naturally speak 'short' and instead put the effort into the long vowels. I have the Mana Mani books and loads of others but in addition to this I think a good grammer book is essential, 44 letters, 21 vowel symbols, 32 vowels de-mystifies the whole lot and would have saved me a lot of blind-alleys. This book of course clears up almost all questions; and creates a few new ones which more advanced books maybe solve. The book I have is from Chulalongon University Teaching Demonstration School(sic.) and has five reference sources, there is always disputed info., Primary level 4. Ten years old but still on sale at Bh40.

[Tod Daniels]

A site I used to teach myself to read was;

www.teachthai.com.

While it is simplistic in its animations of a book or a pen talking in english to a girl about the thai language, it is VERY understandable. It covers the consonants individually, all the vowels, and the tone marks. There is vocabulary, reading, and it has tests you can take as well. It was instrumental in starting me down the road to being able to learn to read. I took pages of notes from the lessons, and you can pause the program to make it repeat a sound or word. The site does require you to make a user name and a password, but keeps track of your hours logged in to see your "investment". All in all I found it a great resource.

Benjawan Poomsan Becker is probably the most well known thai language author out there. Albeit not necessarily for her skill as a writer teaching thai, nor for her less than easy to read transliteration or what is for me too small of thai font in her books to read easily. She is however a marketing genius and her books are hawked by every bookstore in the glorious "Land 'O Thais" and on nearly every website which offers thai language resources. I am not downing her for making money, as that is what businesses are supposed to do, and she certainly is well known. I found the books not all that helpful. Your mileage may vary. The sound files were useful in getting the tones, and vowel length.

The reading primer referred to by another poster; Manee & Friends, on the www.learningthai.com site is good. Its been a while since I was there; but last time I looked at it there was no way to disable the transliteration which appears below the thai. Unless you exhibit very good control it is too easy to simply read the english transliteration. I finally did find ALL the books here in thailand from a retired thai school teacher and they were very valuable to my learning.

I use www.thai-language.com as my primary resource for looking up words. It now has transliteration that can be switched off so unless you click on it you don't automatically see it, forcing you to actually 'read' thai. It has pretty good sound files in three different voices. Aside from the female voice which drags out words so much even thais laugh at the pronunciation, they are very good. It also has example sentences, and other resources on the site. I use www.thai2english.com second, as it has less sound files, but often more specific words and a transliteration system which can be modified to what ever you're most familiar reading.

When I was back in the US I bought a software program put out by Matthew Courage not available here called; Thai Interactive Language System which I found very good I also bought a copy of Rosetta Stone from MBK which is also a good resource, but NOT something I would recommend for a beginner.

There is a wealth of information out there on learning the thai language, and each person will like or dislike a method based on their own ability to learn.

Writing is a horse of a different color; simply as there are so many ways to make the same sounds in thai using their alphabet. I commented the other day to a thai; IF I wanted to make an easily understood alphabet the FIRST thing I would do is to have; 6 'T' sounds, 5 'K' sounds, 4 'S' sounds, and 3 'P' sounds. They thought it was too funny as they'd never heard it explained that way before. Learning to read, or really recognizing frequently used WORDS, not just being able to sound them out letter by letter is key in learning to write. Then again, even thais have difficulties spelling words they don't use colloquially or in an everyday context.

Another thing I will add; I found my reading and writing ability went up immeasurably when I taught myself to type (or really transcribe) thai from a typing program which let me put text files into the program as lessons. I was able to recognize words quicker and get the simpler words down by typing them again and again. It is a free program called Thai Typing Tutor, and uses some of the stuff from both Glen Slayden's site; www.thai-language.com as well as stories from the www.learningthai.com site.

I am going on over three years here in the glorious "Land 'O Thais", but only started studying the language seriously about a year ago. I still speak thai like a foreigner (and probably always will). I have found ONCE a thai has their ears switched to 'thai mode' (something they don't always do when faced with a foreigner) they seem to understand me easily. Often I will mention to thais I converse with that I speak thai similar to the way they speak english; not clear, with improper word order and with incorrect pronunciation of some words. That usually elicits a chuckle. ..

Sorry this was a long post; good luck, keep at it, and don't get discouraged.

[meadish_sweetball]

Hi,

I have decided to learn how to read/write Thai. Improving my speaking skills will have to wait a bit, since I'm stuck in farangland at the moment

How will you recommend that I start out?

I know most of the alphabet and can read a few simple words. My initial plan is to read Manee and Friends and complete the exercises there (http://www.learningthai.com/books/manee/index.html), but what else can I do/what should I do afterwards.

I will be able to spend 3 x 2 hours every week on Thai reading/writing, but please keep in mind that I have no teacher at hand.

Thanks a lot.

You don't mention why you have decided to learn Thai, and what you plan to do with it?

I assume you are planning to move here later? Do you have a native Thai speaker around, or know somebody through the Internet, that you can ask questions about pronunciation and so on?

Where do you hope your studies will take you?

Is it mostly the challenge of learning a new language that drives you, is it the will to communicate with Thais in everyday life, or is it being able to read Thai news, literature, is it because you will be transferred to Thailand through work later?

Answering these questions first is a good idea, that way it's easier to tell you how to plan your studying and what material to recommend.

[tgeezer]

Hi,

I have decided to learn how to read/write Thai. Improving my speaking skills will have to wait a bit, since I'm stuck in farangland at the moment

How will you recommend that I start out?

I know most of the alphabet and can read a few simple words. My initial plan is to read Manee and Friends and complete the exercises there (http://www.learningthai.com/books/manee/index.html), but what else can I do/what should I do afterwards.

I will be able to spend 3 x 2 hours every week on Thai reading/writing, but please keep in mind that I have no teacher at hand.

Thanks a lot.

I hesitate to say this but here goes; I have been learning Thai for 'donkeys years' and have just discovered that a lot of my communication problems with strangers(freinds have adjusted to me) is due to length of vowels. Much is made of tones, and this is maybe the easiest to pick up but vowel lengths when you are without a teacher I should think are most difficult. Seeing words like เพร่อะ or เดิน there is a temptation to make longer words, longer sounds, not realising that they are, as in this example, the same vowel and sound duration as ก็. I am also English from the South and now rather than making short vowels, I assume that I naturally speak 'short' and instead put the effort into the long vowels. I have the Mana Mani books and loads of others but in addition to this I think a good grammer book is essential, 44 letters, 21 vowel symbols, 32 vowels de-mystifies the whole lot and would have saved me a lot of blind-alleys. This book of course clears up almost all questions; and creates a few new ones which more advanced books maybe solve. The book I have is from Chulalongon University Teaching Demonstration School(sic.) and has five reference sources, there is always disputed info., Primary level 4. Ten years old but still on sale at Bh40.

If anyone had read this they would have seen that the Thai is complete nonsense, it seems that all I can manage from a grammer book is more confusion!! it should read เพราะ เดาะ ก็

[DavidHouston]

I recommend the three-volume practice set "หัดอ่านภาษาไทยแบบใหม่ ฉบับสมบูรณ์" by Sai Sunthorn. Each volume is 50 baht.

[aanon]

Hi,

I have decided to learn how to read/write Thai. Improving my speaking skills will have to wait a bit, since I'm stuck in farangland at the moment

How will you recommend that I start out?

I know most of the alphabet and can read a few simple words. My initial plan is to read Manee and Friends and complete the exercises there (http://www.learningthai.com/books/manee/index.html), but what else can I do/what should I do afterwards.

I will be able to spend 3 x 2 hours every week on Thai reading/writing, but please keep in mind that I have no teacher at hand.

Thanks a lot.

I hesitate to say this but here goes; I have been learning Thai for 'donkeys years' and have just discovered that a lot of my communication problems with strangers(freinds have adjusted to me) is due to length of vowels. Much is made of tones, and this is maybe the easiest to pick up but vowel lengths when you are without a teacher I should think are most difficult. Seeing words like เพร่อะ or เดิน there is a temptation to make longer words, longer sounds, not realising that they are, as in this example, the same vowel and sound duration as ก็. I am also English from the South and now rather than making short vowels, I assume that I naturally speak 'short' and instead put the effort into the long vowels. I have the Mana Mani books and loads of others but in addition to this I think a good grammer book is essential, 44 letters, 21 vowel symbols, 32 vowels de-mystifies the whole lot and would have saved me a lot of blind-alleys. This book of course clears up almost all questions; and creates a few new ones which more advanced books maybe solve. The book I have is from Chulalongon University Teaching Demonstration School(sic.) and has five reference sources, there is always disputed info., Primary level 4. Ten years old but still on sale at Bh40.

If anyone had read this they would have seen that the Thai is complete nonsense, it seems that all I can manage from a grammer book is more confusion!! it should read เพราะ เดาะ ก็

i had just seen that myself. without wanting to confuse the issue, it's also worth mentioning that ก็ is generally pronounced with a long vowel, like ก้อ, though in faster speech it often gets shortened.

anyway, your point is spot on - vowel length is very important in thai. english has the distinction too [eg. in australian english: cut vs. cart], but it's is used much more in thai. a vowel chart and a tape (or someone to practise with) can be invaluable.

all the best.

[bipbip]

Thank you for all the replies. They are really usefull.

You don't mention why you have decided to learn Thai, and what you plan to do with it?

I assume you are planning to move here later? Do you have a native Thai speaker around, or know somebody through the Internet, that you can ask questions about pronunciation and so on?

Where do you hope your studies will take you?

Is it mostly the challenge of learning a new language that drives you, is it the will to communicate with Thais in everyday life, or is it being able to read Thai news, literature, is it because you will be transferred to Thailand through work later?

Answering these questions first is a good idea, that way it's easier to tell you how to plan your studying and what material to recommend.

My wife is Thai, but she is quite busy at the moment, so she haven't got time to teach me - although she might be able to correct a mistake or two once in a while. It's just that I have more freetime than her, so I thought I could use my time on something useful.

I do of course hope ending up being totally fluent, but who doesn't Right now I think the most important thing is to be able to communicate with my wife's family, but since my wife haven't got so much time I thought it would be a good idea to focus on reading/writting first (I'm also very much a visual learner, so it will definitely help me if I can read properly).

[aprilsky]

Hi,

I'm Thai and I'm a new member.

When I was in primary school I used to study Thai from Manee and Friends book. And when I finished that grade, only a year after, this book was no longer use in education. It's the classic one.