Thai Language From Kroo Ae

[MTLae]

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

[pwills]

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.

[MTLae]

<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

[eric67]

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.....

[mangkorn]

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."

[Jeddah Jo]

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

[MTLae]

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