Actually this thread is in addition to the one about translations. Hence, I am not sure if the moderators want to integrate this one in the previous one. If so, then it's OK for me. Being on the board now for a few months, I noticed that quite a few of you have either a Thai wife or (at least) long lasting relationships with your Thai girlfriend. I just wonder if and how you learned or try to learn the Thai language. As I usually have not much of a problem to learn a language, I just wonder how you guys did it. I would like to learn a bit basic Thai so at least I can have a little bit of small talk in case, I may visit my girfriend in last 2007. The writing with the different characters is more difficult and I am not so into this. I rather write the Thai using our alphabet, how tricky this may be. Any tip is welcome!

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I have a thai wife and am learning thai. My first piece of advice would be to learn the sounds of the alphabet. I know the sounds but not all of the names of each character, there are alot of them but once you have the sounds it gets easier.

I've used a book called 'Teach Yourself Thai' by David Smyth, its available online from Amazon like most books and comes with 2 cds (Just make sure you order the package with the cds).

I tried to use the book front to back which was slow and was making mistakes on pronounciation so I learnt the alphabet in the reading/writing sections, then read through the reading writing sections learning all the rules and then applied that in the conversational texts. I can talk to a limited capacity with my wife and family and with employees at restaurants etc and I guess its just down to learning extra words now with a little practise on some grammer.

If you use our alphabet for thai words you will find there are from memory 5 different sounds for the word 'mai' and they have completely different meanings, even glai which by different meanings means near & far.

Good Luck with It!

I found having a private lesson for one hour a week the best result for me. I tried both rossetta stone and 'Teach yourself Thai' by David symth which are both good products but the interaction with a Thai speaker who can teach you the right pronunciation really developed my language skills.