If You Know 5 Songs In The Language,you Know The Language.

[lost_in_space]

That's what a friend of mine told me the other day. There might be something to it. So I'll give it a try.

Can you recommend any songs that would be helpful?

How about artists? I'm not very familiar with Thai music, but some of the melodies seem pretty sappy. And I think I'd like to avoid corny love songs.

I once saw/heard a woman do a Isaan (I think) version of a talking song, it wasn't modeled on rap, but rather seemed to be a traditional kind of music. It was awesome!

[noahvail]

Make the first one the national anthem. Score lots of points for trying it out, and many more once you've got it right and memorized.

My understanding is that you literally do get extra points when applying for permanent residency and you can sing it to the examiner.

[kpmsprtd]

The music you are referring to my friend is หมอลำ (molam). It is traditional, and it is awesome.

Another good music, also good for language learning, is ลูกทุ่ง (lukthung).

A guy runs a real good ลูกทุ่ง and หมอลำ blog at:

http://loogthung.blogspot.com/

[NaiGreg]

1. National Anthem

2. Chang-Chang-Chang (Children's elephant song)

3. Sabai-Sabai (Bird McIntyre; most famous and covered of all Thai pop tunes)

4.

5.

[uppalux]

I recommend

lao soo kan fang เล่าสู่กันฟัง by Bird McIntyre (this has very good meaning and easy to understand).

kon hin kon nan ก้อนหินก้อนนั้น by rose

chao sao tee kloa fon เจ้าสาวที่กลัวฝน by เต๋อ เรวัตน์ (thai 80's pop , you will love it)

wii man din วิมานดิน by นันทิดา แก้วบัวสาย

ther hen thong fah nan mai เธอเห็นท้องฟ้านั่นไหม เจี๊ยบ วรรธนา version

special

klai rung ใกล้รุ่ง by his majesty king in H.M.Blue (this will be hard but sure awesome)

a lot more

[lost_in_space]

Thanks folks. I'm especially gonna check out that morlam style. Amazing that the loogthung website is in English.

[sarahsbloke]

My top 5

Not exactly love songs but failed love songs ..... all very popular with Thai ladies (so well worth the effort to learn)

wasana maa wat - morgan วาสนาหมาวัด - มอร์แกน

rak kon mee fairn - ehsiar รักคนมีแฟน - เอเซียร์

luk sung ter mai tung fairn - krin pimwalie ครีม พิมวลัย - ลึกซึ้งแต่ไม่ถึงแฟน

hua jai mai chi - lin arisara หลิน อริศรา - หัวใจไม่ใช่ก้อนหิน

fairn gep - dakadtairp แฟนเก็บ - ตั๊กแตน

Edited May 3, 2010 by sarahsbloke

[desi]

If you are trying to source some of those songs...

A great site for translated Thai songs: ethaimusic.com

More can be found here: AnothaiDara

The Thai National Anthem is broken down here (includes download): Recording the Thai National Anthem

And of course, YouTube is an absolute goldmine...

[skippybangkok]

Guess " Bor Bor Pen Yang Dor...." would not make the fit

[Tod Daniels]

I would have to dispute the somewhat erroneous information about learning 5 songs and being able to do anything other than sing those 5 songs.

Personally I'd give a pass on the ultra-nationalistic thai national anthem, (as it has few if any 'high-value' words which are likely to be used in general conversation) but to each their own.

I'd also give a pass on any หมอลำ or ลูกทุ่ง music as well. They're usually not sung in central thai (the government approved language). While they might be good to listen to, again you're unlikely to learn 'high value' central thai words, which are very important for a beginner rather than any of the many thai dialects (which last time I checked, aren't government approved ).

I'd recommend listening to contemporary modern rock thai bands like; Sek Loso (เสก โลโซ), Big Ass (บิ๊กแอส), Bodyslam (บอดี้สแลม), Potato (โปเตโต้), Micro (ไมโคร), Ebola (อีโบล่า), even older ones like; Carabao (คาราบาว) Modern Dog (โมเดิร์นด็อก), Asani-Wassan (อัสนี-วสันต์), Stone-Metal-Fire (หินเหล็กไฟ), main stream pop/rock like Palmy (ปาล์มมี่), Bird Thongchai (เบิร์ด ธงไชย) & Nantida (นันทิดา).

Believe me, there's no shortage of thai music out there. Most people know almost all Bird and/or Sek Loso's songs by heart; even if they profess 'not to like' Loso (because of his savvy marketing as the antithesis of a 'hi-so person' and dressing in copy jeans, shirts, sneakers etc. )

FWIW; I have found thai songs rely much more on a poetry style of verse, with much more a flowery prose like vocab. In fact; other than the "frozen phrases" which you can easily incorporate into colloquial thai speaking; you're unlikely to learn 5 songs and suddenly be speaking with these people. They (the thais) do find it interesting that foreigners know and/or understand the lyrics of a particularly popular song, but it holds far more value as a novelty than anything really valuable in thai language acquisition.

With that being said; I've probably got 3 or 4 HUNDRED thai songs on my p/c and spent HOURS learning the lyrics, mostly just for fun.

Good Luck.

[Baa_Mango]

good post tod-daniels

[Tod Daniels]

To back up my rather brusque statement about learning thai thru song;

Here is a great reason NOT to learn thai-issan songs; although it is quite possible EVERY frickin' thai in this country knows it by heart;

มันต้องถอน; it roughly translates into “I’m so frickin’ hung over this morning from drinking myself into a stupor last nite that I need a shot to straighten out” (in engrish we call that “having some hair of the dog that bit me last nite ). The artist; ปอยฝ้าย

Now on the flip side (although I've mentioned and posted it before) here's an EXCELLENT reason to listen to more modern thai rock bands.

This song has excellent, very meaningful lyrics. Chang Beer (the sponsor for the bands who perform it) could have easily marketed this song as one which could've been used to heal the giant political chasm which divides the country, (However, in their infinite wisdom Chang instead decided to make it a bull-shit beer commercial, plastering posters on almost EVERY city bus to hawk cheap beer to the masses ).

It's performed by Sek Loso (เสก โลโซ), Micro (ไมโคร), Big Ass (บิ๊กแอส) & Bodyslam (บอดี้สแลม) .

It’s called; คนไทยหัวใจเดียวกัน, roughly; "Thai peoples' hearts are united" (obviously if we are to believe the sponsor, thais are united in their love for Chang beer ).

I found it interesting to note, in the song just before the lead guitar solo, Sek Loso shouts out; ช้างเอาเลย. From what I can glean, this phrase in ancient times was the cry in battle when the infantry troops yelled for the armored war elephants to be charged out on the field.

In today's more modern context I guess we must take it to mean; "Bring on the Chang Beer!!"

Anyway, good luck in your endeavor to learn thai. I didn’t mean to dissuade you in the least, and you can't go wrong trying to learn thai by ANY method(s) which work for you and yield positive results.

[uppalux]

To back up my rather brusque statement about learning thai thru song;

Here is a great reason NOT to learn thai-issan songs; although it is quite possible EVERY frickin' thai in this country knows it by heart;

มันต้องถอน; it roughly translates into "I'm so frickin' hung over this morning from drinking myself into a stupor last nite that I need a shot to straighten out" (in engrish we call that "having some hair of the dog that bit me last nite ). The artist; ปอยฝ้าย

Now on the flip side (although I've mentioned and posted it before) here's an EXCELLENT reason to listen to more modern thai rock bands.

This song has excellent, very meaningful lyrics. Chang Beer (the sponsor for the bands who perform it) could have easily marketed this song as one which could've been used to heal the giant political chasm which divides the country, (However, in their infinite wisdom Chang instead decided to make it a bull-shit beer commercial, plastering posters on almost EVERY city bus to hawk cheap beer to the masses ).

It's performed by Sek Loso (เสก โลโซ), Micro (ไมโคร), Big Ass (บิ๊กแอส) & Bodyslam (บอดี้สแลม) .

It's called; คนไทยหัวใจเดียวกัน, roughly; "Thai peoples' hearts are united" (obviously if we are to believe the sponsor, thais are united in their love for Chang beer ).

I found it interesting to note, in the song just before the lead guitar solo, Sek Loso shouts out; ช้างเอาเลย. From what I can glean, this phrase in ancient times was the cry in battle when the infantry troops yelled for the armored war elephants to be charged out on the field.

In today's more modern context I guess we must take it to mean; "Bring on the Chang Beer!!"

Anyway, good luck in your endeavor to learn thai. I didn't mean to dissuade you in the least, and you can't go wrong trying to learn thai by ANY method(s) which work for you and yield positive results.

Budha!! I love your post , resourceful.

I catch that ช้างเอาเลย and think like that too

[lost_in_space]

Thanks tod, for that input. I hadn't thought about the dialect aspect.

I think my buddy was engaging in a little hyperbole about the 5 songs thing.

But I did know a singer in a rock band who spoke English very well, he claimed it was from a combination of learning English language songs and not being shy about talking to falangs.

[Tod Daniels]

Not to clutter the thread with videos, BUT. ..

When I first heard and translated this song by Sek Los (เสก โลโช) called เหงาคิดถึงรอ (roughly translated as; “Lonely, Missing You, Waiting”), I got a completely different meaning then when I finally found the video and watched it. .. ...

It shows just how important CONTEXT is in understanding spoken thai. Watch the video, listen to the music and see how much the meaning changes with the storyline added in the video.

I am sorry; this vid has an intro showing Loso working on/and writing this song.. ...

BUT hang in there, the video of the song is after the intro

SPOILER ALERT!!:

This video is SOOO very sad; as it looks like the girl dies at the end (from drinking drain cleaner).

[Tod Daniels]

As AN ASIDE:

If anyone can understand what Sek Loso is saying during the "voice over" when he speaks during the intro, PLEASE translate it and tell me as I am too "sa-tupid" to "under-sa-tand" it..

Which shows how much I know colloquially spoken thai. ..

Umm that would be less than ZERO percent,,, yes?

I think he is sa-peaking Bankokian thai BUT I still cannot understand it, and I've watched the video MANY times.. .

Now everyone can see how LOW my level of thai is. ...

[Tod Daniels]

Unfortunately of all the thai bands I have spoken with in engrish (and there have been quite a LOT);

ONLY Bird Thongchai (who is queer as a 3 dollar bill ) and Sek Loso (who took engrish classes in the UK for almost a year ) can speak ANYTHING resembling coherent engrish.

No one else (except recovering crack whore Palmy, who is half-thai ) can sa-peak anything more than '2-word-engrish' or 'horse-speak' and you can (name your artist here). ...

I hafta say overall; thai bands SUCK at sa-peaking engrish. Yes, maybe they can sing an engrish song; BUT really they suck off stage.

But then again, if you're catering to a thai only audience, who gives a flyin; <deleted>. .. .

[uppalux]

If we talking about this song , I think this song is very important to my life.

these first song (other song , a former that is an opening for him in those first album).

ฉันหรือเธอที่เปลี่ยนไป (whose changed , you or me - songname)

ไม่ต้องห่วงฉัน (don't (have to) care about me)

ไม่ตายหรอกเธอ (It ain't deadly)

these must happen after this (เหงาคิดถึงรอ)song.

this song lyric is telling about .... a man .... who is (I don't know a good word or phrase but his girlfriend break and left him)

and that man pondering about how to convey his feeling , tell her that he love her and care for her.

as I writing , It's a heart broken man's emotion that want to write song ,don't know how. but still do it for his love. the love who left him.

and I want to tell her , that I truly love her , and when she's left , I feel so lonely , lonely make me thinking of her , thinking of her make me wait for her.

-----------

can this do?

but I think , tod-daniels , you're pretty good at thai if you can understand มันต้องถอน (it's all in Issan dialect and hard to understand , I'm thai and still have to open a lyric to know what the f* ปอยฝ้าย is saying!! )

[Tod Daniels]

That is the exact reason I warned the O/P and ALL newbie foreigners NOT to learn thai from songz.

Until you can tell by listening what dialect they are singing in, you're better off learning from a frickin’ text book by about 1000%.

FWIW: I too had to look up the lyrics from that song; มันต้องถอน because I couldn't understand it, after listening to it MANY times.

Finally I saw the lyrics written out, and I could switch out the frickin' Issan (thai-lao) for Central (bangkokian) thai., (but still it was a rough fuc_kin’ slog as it was almost EVERY word)

My advice: Learn songs which are sung in CENTRAL (bangkokian) thai FIRST, then you can do the cutesy dialects. ..

Sadly learning thai from songz any way you play it is a 'tough row to hoe' (an american idiom,;but ONLY if you were dirt poor). …

[bhoydy]

Here's what i can make out from what he's saying, apologies for any errors.

คือทุกเพลงนี้ผมว่าเป็นเพลงสำคัญมากในชีวิดผม เพลงแรกเฉลิมเธอเปลียนไปไม่ต้องห่วงฉันไม่ไปหลอกเธอนี้มันเกิดหลังที่นี่นะ ลือเพลงนี้มันค่อยจะบอกถึง การคลังพี่ชายทุกที่พี่ชายคนหนึ่งทุกที่ แปปจะทำยังไงให้เขารู้เขารักเรา ตอน(or)ก่อนที่แปลงมันชอบเต็ม เป็นอารมณ์แปปว่าคนอกหักคนอกหัก แปลงเพลงไม่เป็นแล้วก็อยากไป เป็นคนที่เรา...เรารักที่จริงออกไป

I had to listen to it many times to get this and i'm not sure if it's right but thought i'd give it a go. He's speaking Central Thai, but he's speaking quite fast and the music is playing as well so i'm not sure about some of the words and have guessed some. As for translation i'll leave that to someone else as i'm not very good at it. One word i'm pretty sure is wrong is การคลัง but i couldn't find anything else.

Edited May 9, 2010 by bhoydy

[321niti123]

A lot of people say national anthem but the vocabulary in the anthem is quite difficult to understand, esp. if you are not a native speaker

I recomend more nursery style songs or at least slow songs for you to be able to hear the individual words, help with vocab pronunciation and a bit of vocab

definitely no thai teenage pop, you wont be able to understand a thing-not even native speakers understand every word

[farangnahrak]

If you want to learn Thai from Thai songs, start downloading the childrens songs

You'll also find tons of children's cartoons on youtube.

That said, I recommend the alphabet rap song by Da Jim called พยัญชนะไทย

I memorized the Bangkok song - its completely useless but makes a great 'party trick' that impresses everyone . . .

I also find this video really helpful when I'm trying to remember the alphabet in the correct order (I just think of how I saw it in the story)

[azcrilez]

recommend this song.(I think most thai ppl know this song)

there are many version of this song, and this is a rock version by RS singers.

Edited May 25, 2010 by azcrilez

[DavidHouston]

Here are a few for your consideration:

งามแสงเดือน

http://www.hawaii.edu/thai/thaisongs/BeautifulMoonLight.html

ดวงจันทร์ขวัญฟ้า

ตามองตา

http://www.hawaii.edu/thai/thaisongs/frmlook.htm

http://www.hawaii.edu/thai/thaisongs/LookInMyEye.html

ผู้ใหญ่ลี

http://www.hawaii.edu/thai/thaisongs/VillageChiefLee.html

ใกล้เข้ามาอีกนิด

http://www.hawaii.edu/thai/thaisongs/comecloser.html

[Tod Daniels]

Here's one for you "learn the thai language thru song" punditz out there.

เสก โลโซ (Sek Loso) has an new album out called "Sek Plus" (NOTE it is NOT Sek MINUS ). This is evidently a collaberation album with other allegedly famous thai bandz.

On this album there is a song called จ๋า, which has ขัน (Khan) from ไทเทเนียม (Thai-tanium). ..

Other than the incessantly repetitive rhythm, and the ultra-cheesy chorus, it's not that bad of a song. (After all, I like the band KISS for exactly the same reasons ).

Anyway, if anyone can understand the frickin' 'rap break' that Khan does in this song lemme know. I've listened to this song ALL god-damned day! Yet even when the video is full screen, I can't read the lyrics clearly. Guess I am too old!!

The 'rap' starts about 2:26 in the song.

This is what I have so far;

One, two, three, น่ะ โดน โดนเด็ม เด็ม Mama-miya

Oh my God ใช่เลย Senyorita

เธอคือที่มา ทำให้ใจผมน่ะ Dance Fever

Baby wanna Beat ya <--(I guess it can't be 'real' gansta-rap without a reference to beating women! )

ขอหอมหน่อย ขอกอดหน่อย

ไม่ทารุณโหดร้าย และไม่ขอบ่อย

พี่นะทะลึ่ง และก็ตึงตัง

ของเขาแรงพังกำแพงเตียงมันจึงพัง

Any (and I stress the word ANY) help is appreciated!!

I stuck it here in this thread, because I didn't want to make a new topic for such a mundane thing as this.

Feel free to correct it, thanx in advance. .. ..

As an aside; I thought those faggy key-tars went out just after they were introduced, which was the early ‘80’s. Ummm, evidently NOT. ..

FWIW; Those are some HOT thai gurls in the vid, especially the one wearing pearls and the baseball cap!

[farangnahrak]

If you can rap a single Thai song (correctly), you are by far fluent in the language. I've been trying for years, and it just ain't happenin'. Maybe 2-3 more years of dedicated study . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRudRwLV4eg

[Tod Daniels]

Okay man.. ..

You totally got me on that thai-rap shit. ..

I am WAYYYY too old for that style of music.. .

There is NO way, unless I freeze every screen, and every frickin' phrase, I could ever understand it; AT ALL (and even then maybe NOT)!!

I will now bow down to your superior knowledge of thai.

Believe me (man!) I suck at thai. ..

But thanx 4 the video..

It only shows how far we (as foreigners) must go (come) to actually learn thai. . ..

But you didn't correct my 'rap' from ขัน (Khan) in the โลโซ song, so now you have a -5 for that!!

Some day I wish I can meet you, and talk to you too, but NOT today. . .. (as I am drunk on SangSom!!)

You take care,. na?

[Peppy]

One, two, three, น่ะ โดน โดนเด็ม เด็ม Mama-miya

Oh my God ใช่เลย Senyorita

เธอคือที่มา ทำให้ใจผมน่ะ Dance Fever

Baby wanna Beat ya <--(I guess it can't be 'real' gansta-rap without a reference to beating women! )

ขอหอมหน่อย ขอกอดหน่อย

ไม่ทารุณโหดร้าย และไม่ขอบ่อย

พี่นะทะลึ่ง และก็ตึงตัง

ของเขาแรงพังกำแพงเตียงมันจึงพัง

You did pretty darn good there... here are the lyrics for that part, according to http://www.songdee.com/?p=5593 with my translation alongside:

She น่ะ โดน โดนเต็มๆ Mamamiya // She's gonna get it, mamma mia

Oh My God ใช่เลย Senyorita // Oh my god, that's it, senorita

เธอคือที่มา ทำให้ใจผมน่ะ Dance Fever // You're where I get it, the dance fever

Baby wanna Beat ya  // Baby wanna beat ya

ขอหอมหน่อย ขอกอดหน่อย // Lemme have a little kiss, lemme have a little feel

ไม่ทารุณโหดร้าย และไม่ขอบ่อย // I'm not gonna ask too often, not gonna be cruel

พี่นะทะลึง และก็ตึงตัง // I'm dirty, got my thumper bouncin' around

ของเขาแรงพังกำแพงเดี๋ยวมันจึงพัง // I got the power to break your walls down

I've taken some liberties with a few things, especially in the second part, to try and make it work as a rap in English, and preserve the sexual innuendo. ขอหอมหน่อย ขอกอดหน่อย is literally "Can I sniff your cheek, can I hug you?" but I don't think it's quite so innocent here. For "ไม่ทารุณโหดร้าย และไม่ขอบ่อย // I'm not gonna ask too often, not gonna be cruel" I switched the two parts so 'cruel' goes at the end and rhymes with 'feel' (Well, it sort of does). As for the phrase ตึงตัง, it means "bouncing" or "thumping", and in this case I think it's used in reference to the virility of the singer's manhood--so; "got my thumper bouncin' around".

Song and poetry leave a lot of room for interpretation--I'd be interested to hear anyone else's alternatives.

[farangnahrak]

There is NO way, unless I freeze every screen, and every frickin' phrase, I could ever understand it; AT ALL (and even then maybe NOT)!!

I will now bow down to your superior knowledge of thai.

...

But you didn't correct my 'rap' from ขัน (Khan) in the โลโซ song, so now you have a -5 for that!!

I think you misunderstood my post - I can't rap that! I'm a fast reader, and can read/understand 80% of it on the first viewing, but as for speaking, only like a 3rd comes out my mouth even after practice . . . in other words I need to triple my speed . . . that'll take many more years . . .

As for that Loso rap song, it just wasn't working for me. I couldn't stop laughing after I saw that rapper guy that looks like Kim Jong Il . . . I much better like the Bird-Sek album (Bird Thongchai and Sek Loso) - perhaps my all-time world favorite album ever

In other news, I just saw an Isaan rap song . . . that was just weird . . . the kaen, gold chains, baseball shirts, and dreads . . .

[SongSong]

recommend this song.(I think most thai ppl know this song)

there are many version of this song, and this is a rock version by RS singers.

Oh, I was looking for that exact song! Could someone please tell me the title of it? Thanks a lot!