I Did It!

[hunterdavies]

Hi all,

My first post in awhile since i've been studying pretty hard and reading all the past posts in thai language forum and learning alot just by other peoples questions...well i know the whole alphabet and vowels now and can read basic sentences,at first it seems like an impossible task but now the letters and words are starting to flow and appear to me!

At the ripe old age of 26 im packing up home and moving to Thailand to retire with my fiancee and will be starting a family this year so i thought it would be a good idea to get a headstart on the language before i start school.The more iam learning about the Thai language the more i love it !! I would also like to say after reading other poples opinions in this forum it is refreshing to see other people who come to Thailand to learn and better themselves rather than what everyone else stereotypes the place to be..

So i guess after being on this forum for so long but not saying anything it is about time i let myself be known and expect some questions from me and hopefully in the future i will be able to give new people some of the knowledge i have acquired.

Now for the question-as i stated i have just learnt to read and write my vocab is ..ok..i know how to get around and such but without knowing a vast majority of the thai vocab how do you know when you are reading when one word ends and another starts? How do i not accidently read five words together and think that it is just one?? i guess the obvious answer is learn as much of the words as possible but do any of you have a rule to work with? a method?

Thanks in advance for any answers and happy studys!

[Xangsamhua]

Now for the question-as i stated i have just learnt to read and write my vocab is ..ok..i know how to get around and such but without knowing a vast majority of the thai vocab how do you know when you are reading when one word ends and another starts? How do i not accidently read five words together and think that it is just one?? i guess the obvious answer is learn as much of the words as possible but do any of you have a rule to work with? a method?

Thanks in advance for any answers and happy studys!

When you come here and start speaking Thai daily I think you'll find that your development in vocabulary, pronunciation and literacy will all support each other. You'll know when one word or phrase has finished and a new one started.

What will be confusing is when English words are transcribed into Thai and just pop up unexpectedly. You'll be scratching your head at this strange "Thai" word before realising it's English in Thai script.

Good luck, and well done with your mastery of the alphabet.

[tgeezer]

Thanks in advance for any answers and happy studys!

Most of us learned by the 'throw enough s**t at a wall and some of it will stick' method, but now I see that a little basic structure can be an enormous help in reading. You are supposed to read five words together and if it means something you are ok, you don't call it one word that's all, often there are four or five verbs strung together,eg. ออกไปเดินเล่น If you know the individual words you have it, it cantradicts what I said about structure though doesn't it? but if you know the structure you will feel that both ไป and เล่น are modifiing in some way; ไป and ออก are very similar but ออก contains ไป so you could ditch it, whereas ไป does not have ออก in its definition. ออกเดินเล่น would do just as well. At least if you have spare time you can spend ages talking about what appears to be nothing to some people.

Welcome aboard there are 'lifeboats' available, simply ignore.

[5tash]

How do i not accidently read five words together and think that it is just one?? i guess the obvious answer is learn as much of the words as possible but do any of you have a rule to work with? a method?

Richard W has written an interesting article titled How do I recognize where Thai words begin and end? over at TL.com

[desi]

at first it seems like an impossible task but now the letters and words are starting to flow and appear to me!

Congrats! The first time it clicked, I was at a traffic light in Bangkok and read a sign without much thought. Then shortly after, I was going on the highway and read even more at the toll booth. I was so chuffed!

[hunterdavies]

Thanks for everyone's replies! especially the article on spacing at Thailanguage.com

[Tod Daniels]

Vocabulary is the key, and the more words you can recognize in written form the faster you'll learn to read. I downloaded a file off this forum with the top 1000 thai words in order of frequency, made up my own lists of the most common thai verbs (กริยาปกติ), opposite words (คำตรงข้าม), as well as the ever perilous thai classifier words (ลักษณนาม).

I found once you learn to read it is FAR easier than speaking, as you read silently. Even if in your head you mispronounce the word for rice (ข้าว), at least you know its meaning, and don't confuse it with one of the similar sounding words (ขาว, เขา, คาว, ข่าว, เข้า, เข่า) as they are all written differently.

Good luck, keep at it, best wishes in your endeavor.

[everydaysthesame]

if you havent done it already take the time to learn the tone rules. really helps with reading and especially writing. the tone rules are quite dificult to learn but really worth doing. search on this forum and youll find some good advice for learning them.

[Murf]

เว้รรี กูด, เนา คัมส์ เดอะ หาร์ด ปาร์ด

[hunterdavies]

Thanks EDTS and Murf!

Now i gotta learn the tones and classes yayyy

[hunterdavies]

oh yeh and buy a thai keyboard somewhere in sydney.....

[Kaojai]

Reading Thai is fun by James Neal

http://www.dco.co.th/product_info.php?products_id=918

...is a great source of information on things like "syllable borders," "compound vowels," clusters"and "seeing tones." It includes a "font portfolio" so you can see Thai letters in about 10 different fonts. There's also a set of flash cards, but I haven't found them in a shop yet.

Well worth the B450.

[5tash]

oh yeh and buy a thai keyboard somewhere in sydney.....

Stickers?

[hunterdavies]

Thanks kaojai! i think i will be buying that one now!!!

5tash i didnt know there was such thing... easy to find?

[jdinasia]

How do you know when one word stops and another starts? Experience.

If you really "get" the rules you know syllables and where they start/stop but the longer words .. well vocab and experience are the key.

(I am to the point now where I do not read each symbol/letter but instead see the word as it stands (or syllable) and that just comes naturally --- as in English .. you don't see C - o - k - e ... you see Coke)

Edited January 25, 2009 by jdinasia

[5tash]

5tash i didnt know there was such thing... easy to find?

This is where I purchased mine from.

Thai/English alphabet stickers

[Maestro]

…I downloaded a file off this forum with the top 1000 thai words in order of frequency…

A link to that file is given in this post in another topic:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?s=...t&p=1032080

--

Maestro

[sabaijai]

Thanks kaojai! i think i will be buying that one now!!!

5tash i didnt know there was such thing... easy to find?

Thai-English keyboards are very cheap here in Thailand, recommend waiting till you're here to buy one. Forget applying your own stickers, they fall off. Logitech produces a good one for less than 1000 baht.

Congratulations on learing to read Thai. I'm even more impressed you're retiring at age 26

[hunterdavies]

Thanks sabaiijai, think i will wait untill im back.. just a pain in the ass i cant post in Thai at the moment

oh yeh and retiring at 26 i had to dodge alot of bullets and not dodge some for that privilidge (if u get my drift)

[5tash]

Well, the stickers I bought for my keyboard one and a half years ago are still firmly stuck. Another solution is to print out a copy of a Thai keyboard layout and use it for reference. That should keep you going until you arrive in Thailand.

[hunterdavies]

Nice, thats quite handy 5tash thanks!

[Lithobid]

Keep Going! all the luck to you!!

Lithobid

[ShugNorris]

At the ripe old age of 26 im packing up home and moving to Thailand to retire with my fiancee

Nice one on getting there mate, I'm getting there with the reading but it's more finding out what the actual word means in Thai once I've read it! heh...

Err, more to the point though, how the hel_l did you manage to retire at 26? Any tips? I'm 23 now...

- Shug

[hunterdavies]

Well u gotta be happy with that shug your younger than me!! I've got the same problem now i can read nearly everything but i just dont know what alot of it means? unless i already know the context of it!

Now i have also found that being able to read the Thai script (instead of romanization) makes it easier to remember more vocab for some reason....so im glad i have taken the time to learn all the letters and vowels and etc etc!

As for retiring? myself and my fiancee were smart and lucky enough to build and finish our house up north while the dollar was strong but it also helps when you put your ass on the line for a few years over in the middle east and save a nice little egg! Now i can just study and train all day

Edited January 27, 2009 by hunterdavies

[keo]

Another solution is to print out a copy of a Thai keyboard layout and use it for reference.

I made something similar myself...

I just open the two image files on my computer and put them side by side at the top of the screen, while the window I am typing in sits below them.

However, with typing Thai regularly I find that I am starting to be able to sort of "touch type"!

โชคดีครับ

Edited January 27, 2009 by keo