Hi Everyone!!!!

I am Kroo Ae from "My Thai Language School". As all of you know that I am a Thai teacher. Now I am doing research about Thai Language

"What foreigners think about Thai Language? Is it difficult or easy to study? If it's difficult why so?

I would like to know your opinions and suggestions.

I am appreciate for all of your answers and Thank you in advance for helping.

Nice Day,

Kroo Ae

Hi Everyone!!!!

I am Kroo Ae from "My Thai Language School". As all of you know that I am a Thai teacher. Now I am doing research about Thai Language

"What foreigners think about Thai Language? Is it difficult or easy to study? If it's difficult why so?

I would like to know your opinions and suggestions.

I am appreciate for all of your answers and Thank you in advance for helping.

Nice Day,

Kroo Ae

Hi Kroo Ae,

Personally I find the "tones" the most difficult. I find the language very interesting, like English it is an amalgum. Thanks for asking.

<br />

Hi Everyone!!!!<br />I am Kroo Ae from "My Thai Language School". As all of you know that I am a Thai teacher. Now I am doing research about Thai Language <br />"What foreigners think about Thai Language? Is it difficult or easy to study? If it's difficult why so? <br />I would like to know your opinions and suggestions. <br />I am appreciate for all of your answers and Thank you in advance for helping.<br /><br />Nice Day,<br />Kroo Ae

<br /><br />Hi Kroo Ae,<br /> Personally I find the "tones" the most difficult. I find the language very interesting, like English it is an amalgum. Thanks for asking.<br />

<br /><br /><br />

Dear Pwills,

Thank you for your answer, It's very helpful. I will try to come out with the better solution that might make it's easier for the foreigners to learn Thai.

Nice Day,

Kroo Ae

Some things are easy when learning Thai, other things are (very) difficult.

Difficult:

-the tones

-the alphabet

-particles and classifiers

-constructing sentences (often very different from western languages)

-having to learn every single word (in western languages a lot of words are similar, so often you can guess the meaning in another language even if you don't know the word)

Easy:

-no conjugation of verbs

-no articles, no singular/plural of nouns etc.

-once you have learned how to read Thai, it's (usually) easy to figure out how a word is pronounced from how it's written (unlike english for instance).

I'm sure there are more, but these I can think of from the top of my head.

Hope this helps.....

Most difficult: the imprecision of Thai pronouns. Some pronouns can be first, second or third person, and singular or plural - it's maddening!

It's very difficult to know the antecedents, which are often not mentioned, when reading articles or following speeches and conversations.

If you don't believe me, here is an excerpt of a letter from a highly educated Thai person who works with the language everyday as a professional translator:

"Recent speech by Khun Samak Sunthorawet on NBT was fascinating. He uses the Thai pronoun "than" in a series of sentences. In those several sentences "than" could mean "he [Gen Anuphong], they [the emergency committee], I [samak]." While he mentioned that the emergency committee was set up and that he appointed Gen Anuphong to lead it. Then Mr Samak recounted to his listeners: "Than told Than that Than could not do this. [use force to disperse protestors]" ..etc.. Who told whom? It was very disorientating to the listener."

Most difficult: the imprecision of Thai pronouns. Some pronouns can be first, second or third person, and singular or plural - it's maddening!

It's very difficult to know the antecedents, which are often not mentioned, when reading articles or following speeches and conversations.

If you don't believe me, here is an excerpt of a letter from a highly educated Thai person who works with the language everyday as a professional translator:

"Recent speech by Khun Samak Sunthorawet on NBT was fascinating. He uses the Thai pronoun "than" in a series of sentences. In those several sentences "than" could mean "he [Gen Anuphong], they [the emergency committee], I [samak]." While he mentioned that the emergency committee was set up and that he appointed Gen Anuphong to lead it. Then Mr Samak recounted to his listeners: "Than told Than that Than could not do this. [use force to disperse protestors]" ..etc.. Who told whom? It was very disorientating to the listener."

I agree, I once had a conversation with a person who constantly used the pronoun "เขา" (he/she) to describe someone's actions. I just assumed they were talking about their friend. It turned out the entire conversation she was using เขา to refer to herself in the first person.

I am nowhere near as good at Thai as you guys but that really flummoxed me

Some things are easy when learning Thai, other things are (very) difficult.

Difficult:

-the tones

-the alphabet

-particles and classifiers

-constructing sentences (often very different from western languages)

-having to learn every single word (in western languages a lot of words are similar, so often you can guess the meaning in another language even if you don't know the word)

Easy:

-no conjugation of verbs

-no articles, no singular/plural of nouns etc.

-once you have learned how to read Thai, it's (usually) easy to figure out how a word is pronounced from how it's written (unlike english for instance).

I'm sure there are more, but these I can think of from the top of my head.

Hope this helps.....

Dear Eric67,

Your answer is very helpful, thank you very much. I think most of foreigners have problem about tone because in Thai language we pronounce words in different tone which is in different tones have different meaning too.

I am very appreciate in your answer and good luck in learning Thai any questions you can ask me. It's my pleasure helping you

Nice Day,

Kroo Ae