Best Book For Learning To Read Thai?

[Tod Daniels]

In an earlier post in this thread I mentioned the books about thais learning english written by Andrew Biggs.

I just finished the one called "Methods to speak english like a foreigner" or in thai "วิธีพูดภาษาอังกฤษเหมือนฝรั่ง". It is both an easy read and carries a LOT of the same information foreigners should take to heart after they have a basic grasp of the language when they want to speak thai.

He outlines 10 'rules' and then expands on them with anecdotal stories, and his ever present and pretty humorous writing style.

Here are his rules to speak english;

กฎข้อที่ ๑ ลืมกฎซะเถอะ - Forget the rules

กฎข้อที่ ๒ ขอร้อง... พูดผิดเหอะ - Please make mistakes

กฎข้อที่ ๓ ห้ามแปลตรงตัว - Don't translate

กฎข้อที่ ๔ ใช้ภาษาแบบง่าย ๆ - Keep it simple

กฎข้อที่ ๕ กรุณาพูดช้า ๆ หน่อยได้ไหมครับ - Could you please slow down?

กฎข้อที่ ๖ ทำตัวสบาย ๆ - Relax

กฎข้อที่ ๗ ฟังแล้วเลียนแบบ - Listen and copy

กฎข้อที่ ๘ เดา - Guess

กฎข้อที่ ๙ ต้องให้เวลากับตัวเอง - Give yourself time

กฎข้อที่ ๑๐ อ่าน อ่าน และก็อ่าน - Read, read, read

The last one;

แถมอิกกฎหนึ่ง หาเพื่อนฝรั่ง - One more rule; Find a foreign friend

Now seeing as these books are geared towards thais learning english and they have english examples of sentences etc, they're not all that hard to read and/or get the gist of what he's going on about.

My reading is far and away my strongest thai language skill; (after that comes my typing in thai, NOT written, but typed, and then at a distant third is my actual speaking ability ), yet I was able to read the book, talk to my thai friends concerning the subject of the chapters, and even read aloud some of the more humorous stories for them (much to their amusement at my terribly toned thai ).

You may have to look up some grammar specific terms (I know I did, as I had no idea that วลี was 'a part of a sentence', nor no matter how hard I tried could I even begin to pronounce the word; ทัศนคติ (that-sa-na-kha-dti) or know it meant 'viewpoint' or 'point of view'), but I do now ! For the most part, I've found the books quite easy to get thru even for a hi-basic or low-intermediate reader like me.

When I read, I like to go to places where air-con is free as it’s NOT free in my apartment. It throws almost every thai who sees you reading a book like this for a complete loop.

Evidently they don’t see too many foreigners reading a book, written in thai, about the subject of how to speak english like a foreigner. It's been a definite conversation starter on more than one occasion, and a good ice breaker.

[Baa_Mango]

Anyone know where to find the speak Thai like a Thai books/series by Poomsan Becker? I've seen her other books (ie beginner, intermediate etc) but not these ones.. Book stores in BKK have them ? And are they any good? With definitely check out the Andrew Biggs books