New Method For Increasing Vocabulary Using Tones?

[StChris]

I thnk I may have come up with an interesting way to learn vocab by taking advantage of tones (which is a nice twist, as many people see them as a difficult hurdle to overcome).

Example:

Let's say that you've just learnt that the Thai word for "come" is มา (ma - normal tone). If the then type in the english transliteration "ma" into the "Search Reverse Phonemic Transcription" section of http://www.thai-language.com/dict, it'll give you four words which have that approximate sound in Thai, albiet with different tones and vowel length:

มะ Central Thai prefix syllable for many fruits or plants

มา to come

ม้า a horse

หมา a dog

What you do next is to create a strange mnemonic story to connect the words together. So you could imagine a dog coming towards you riding atop a horse while you throw fruit at it to try to keep it away.

Another example:

You've just learnt the word to study เรียน, and so type the English transliteration ("rian") into the online dictionary. This gives you two words:

เรียน to study

เหรียญ a medal

So you could imagine being given a huge medal to reward you for studying Thai so hard.

This does still leave you with the difficulty remembering which tone each word has, but you could perhaps give each tone a colour, red for high, yellow for rising, blue for neutral/normal, green for low and pink for falling. So, in the first example, the horse coming towards you would be red, the dog yellow, the fruit red and you could have a big blue arrow pointing towards you to represent come. In the second example, your study materials (pen, books etc) would all be a bright blue colour and the medal yellow.

I'm not too sure about the colour coding of tones part of the method, but think that the linking of words with the same basic sound, but different tones using a ceative, mnemonic story might be a good way to kill 2, 3, etc birds with one stone, so to speak.

I'd like to know if anybody has ever tried anything similar, or if anybody uses any other methods as a shortcut to learn Thai?

Any general opinions? I just thought of it today, so I'd appreciate it if anyone pointed out any shortcomings before I start to use it.

[RickBradford]

I think what you say highlights the fact that everyone has to devise their own way to learn Thai, and the more inventive you are in coming up with personal ways to improve your learning, the better and more enjoyable your learning will be.

[Oneman]

...an interesting way to learn vocab by taking advantage of tones

StChris -

That is a brilliant technique!

And it greatly expands upon the classic, word play in Thai:

ไม้

ใหม่

ไม่

ไหม้

ไหม

mai-mai-mai-mai-mai

"New wood doesn't burn, does it?"

I just tried it by using "mother", and following the steps in the OP:

แหม แม่ แม้ แม่

[repeat]

...

maae-maae-maae-maae

Upon my word! Mother provided word endings."

That technique will get lots of use from me.

Thank you, StChris, for posting.

-- Oneman

Chiangmai

.

[StChris]

Sorry for taking so long to reply. I've been having some computer issues.

Let me know how you get on with it. I'll try to add a few more examples now that my PC is uo and runing again.

[AbeSurd]

"I'm not too sure about the colour coding of tones part of the method, but think that the linking of words with the same basic sound, but different tones using a ceative, mnemonic story might be a good way to kill 2, 3, etc birds with one stone, so to speak."

I think the colour-coding bit is the best part of your idea. Reading Thai script with the tones colour-coded would be a huge help to a dumb farang like me.

I'm not wanting to take away from your inspiration, but has no one thought of this before? I just mean that in terms of choosing what colour is to represent each tone? You wouldn't want to go re-inventing the wheel etc etc.

As a Brit I might tend to think of British traffic lights:

RED - high

YELLOW - normal, mid tone

GREEN - low

Then perhaps BLUE for falling (falling from the BLUE sky).

And BROWN for rising (rising from the BROWN earth).

But that's a very British perspective. Your idea for a colour scheme could work easily as well.

- AbeSurd.

[AbeSurd]

As a Brit I might tend to think of British traffic lights:

RED - high

YELLOW - normal, mid tone

GREEN - low

Then perhaps BLUE for falling (falling from the BLUE sky).

And BROWN for rising (rising from the BROWN earth).

Thinking about it again, in terms of the printed word, it would be simpler and more international to have mid-tone as BLACK.

So it would be:

RED - high

BLACK - normal, mid tone

GREEN - low

BLUE - falling

BROWN - rising.