Conversational Thai

[eek]

Cant see anything in the search function for conversational Thai, so new thread it is..

Basically, I find it frustrating that i can understand most of whats being said, but my sentences are disjointed and at times completely incomprehensible! Also, the variety of ways of saying the same thing throws me sometimes. Of course im also thrown when im missing the vocab. I want to speak naturally and understand Thai words at a normal pace of conversation (not text-book overly pronounced Thai. Want to practice regular everyday Thai). I am looking to do everyday scenarios which i may have to learn specific vocabulary for, then have a conversation where i am corrected where necessary. I imagine one-to-one is probably best for this.

Any ideas of where to go, tutors?

Lastly, if possible i would much prefer a native central Thai speaker, rather than northern. I have already picked up a lot of norther dialect and i find that when in Bangkok the pace and accent are different.

Thanks.

[rabo]

Definitely, the order that Thai's use for words and phrases can be less than intuitive for a foreign speaker.

Have you tried tapes? They're a good way to pick up a feel for word order in phrases. You can listen in your spare time and the learning is almost subliminal. Good for tones too, which are often different between Northeastern Thai and Central Thai.

[eek]

Do you have any particular recommendations rabo?

Im hesitant about tapes, but thats probably because i bought a learning tape several years ago and i found it monotonous. Im sure there are tapes out there worth giving a shot, but dont know what ones. Or any really good interactive computer applications?

I had a hunt around youtube, but so far have only found very basic stuff, which isnt helpful. Ive also been looking at Learn to Speak Like a Thai - Thai TV Commercials ..but they are often going too fast for me to follow at a normal rate. Of course..it doesnt help so much with responding. Its the same with reading Thai. I find i can read quite a bit..but impossible to write. Need something challenging but not so difficult that i cant follow. Frustrating trying to find the correct level for me to improve.

[whiterussian]

where are you located? I can recommend a very nice guy, if you would like to meet him, pm me your number. He will cycle into town.

retired lawyer/teacher/hiso connections.. but the most down to earth man I know.

[anselpixel]

I'm in one of the Language Institute courses, but know I'm in need of more focused conversational instruction.

I'm interviewing a private tutor tomorrow, and will let you know what I think.

I have to tell you I'm miles behind you in speaking Thai, but I have an eye for good teachers.

[eek]

That would be great anselpixel, thank you.

whiterussian, i am around nimmenheimen area..thank you.

At this time im going to fill up on more vocabulary, whilst gathering info about recommendations. Thank you to all who come up with suggestions!

[MrBrad]

Here are two very helpful websites. There are related links on each of the following:

Paknam Web

YouTube Learningthai

[Yunnie]

The issue is... even Thai people dont speak completely grammatically correct Thai. They shorten sentences by tossing out the subject sometimes, cause it should already be implied. lol Also the degree of politeness and who you are talking to makes things fussy as well.

As for tones - Central Thai, Northern Thai (Chiang Mai dialect), Northeastern Thai have pretty much the same tones. Its the Accent that throws people off.

I could help if anyone is interested but would depend on time and if mt bike has enough gas to come into town that often. lol

[Lizard2010]

Here are two very helpful websites. There are related links on each of the following:

Paknam Web

YouTube Learningthai

Thanks for the links

[keo]

As for tones - Central Thai, Northern Thai (Chiang Mai dialect), Northeastern Thai have pretty much the same tones. Its the Accent that throws people off.

Northern Thai has six tones. Southern has seven.

A lot of the words which are the same in northern as in central Thai, are pronounced with a different tone, or with slightly different sounds.

And then there's all the words that are completely different in northern.

I love Northern Thai, it's got a lot of character!

[BlackArtemis]

One thing with learning conversational Thai outside of a classroom in the North, I found that when I talked to non Northerners, I would use Northern language but I didn't know it was. The problem I found learning in a class setting was that my Thai was overly formal. I learned the vast majority of my Thai from Thai friends, granted I can curse and talk about sports a lot better than politics.

Try to find a decent sized class that doesn't have a huge amount of time you must sign up for, no use in signing up and then finding out the first week you don't like the teacher and/or style of learning.

Good Luck Eek!

[jsflynn603]

Learning Thai seems like climbing a mountain. There are so many, and varied paths, yet each one can bring you to the top.

Some schools of thought expose you to mere listening for a long time, learning as a young child would. Others bring you directly into the catch phrase arena "hello, how are you," "extra hot spice please," and so on.

But I agree wholeheartedly that speed is an essential key and the slooooooow expression of words does not, I think, make the brain comprehend them when spoken at the seemingly insanely fast rate that we might perceive. Of course for a Thai learning English, the same holds true.

AUA has classes that I hear are good. I'm not sure but I still think that they teach from the works of J. Marvin Brown, and you can go to AUA search "AUA Chiang Mai" and you will find it. They still sell the books and CD's of J MarvinBrown (the cd's/books are hard to find and occasionally you can find them on Amazon) and I think that they are about $100@. I found one by accident once, used it, and was quite impressed. Ideally you need a teacher because when you think you are saying something correctly, oftentimes you are not. I think that the book and CD with an online tutor and Skype would work very well. All of it moves from slow, precise speech, to normal (what we perceive as very fast) speech.

There are many good sites too, do a google search for "learn to speak thai thai-languge" and look especially at the site that has an (-) in it. Then search using: "learn to speak thai thai-languge women" and you will find the "woman" aspect--this site is a virtual gold mine and leads to many, many free sources of lessons, including Thailand's TCU which is "Thailand's Cyber University" which has much open-source, downloadable, (sound-included) lessons, all for free.

Most schemes rely upon various Romanized sound schemes such as สวัสดีครับ equals "saL watL deeM khrapH" [spoken politely by a male] hello; goodbye — "Hello, how are you?" The "L," "M" and "H" (as you know, but some who read this might not) gives us clues to tones, low, mid or high as well as rising or falling.

Personally I've approached this from an entirely different point of view because I have no interest in Romanized transliteration. My belief is that to learn by transliteration, makes the mind go through numerous processes to get to the end result and the effort is counter-productive. I believe that if one learns first the sound of the consonants, then the vowels, then the tone marks, and then the rules of the high/low/middle class consonants, and does this not through transliteration but rather by learning to type thia characters with the mind linking the character to the sound, that eventually the mind recognizes thai characters, and how they relate to each other. The mind then can react automatically by responding (eventually without any perceived effort) with the correct tone. This works in reverse also by hearing a thai word, the mind can respond automatically. Indeed it is slow at first, and I have not been able to find a single copy of the often mentioned free thai tutor program that actually and fully works, which makes learning to touch type thai characters very difficult.

I'm intent upon being able to touch type thai. This is harder than touch-typing English because of tone marks, and vowels that either precede, follow, or surround the consonant. But this combined with automatic assessment by the mind to assign tones, I think will create a strong basis for learning the language and eventually the spoken and heard language. Just yesterday I tried seven level of comprehension tests and was rather amazed at how well I did with assignment of the tone, but I realize that my sound may be a bit off. This of course is more a "reading and writing" approach, but I strongly believe that from this foundation, with adding elemental grammar rules which are oppositional to English: "Nice green shirt" versus "Shirt Green Nice," creates a solid footing, thus freeing the mind to move to learning to speak with a native speaker, or then taking an AUA course.

The singular most remarkable study aid that I have found can be found at many sites by googling: "1stEasyThaiAlphabet" or "60 Minutes to Learn the Thai Alphabet." I find this little e-book to be amazingly creative, though I have spent far more than 60 minutes using it. If interested, do not download it from CNET or another site, find the "home site" so you can download it directly from the maker. It is free for a few days and $30 to buy. But don't buy it, wait few weeks. Most likely a "special offer of $20 will appear," it's worth the $20 but I was hesitant and ended up offering the fellow either $10 or $15 (I can't remember which) and he sold it to me. Dickering is alive and well in Thailand. (BTW: I have no connection or remuneration relative to this site--I just enjoy this creative and helpful book.)

I now can read a lot of thai, and assign tonal values by consonant relationship, by tonal marks, etc. Next I intend to be able to touch type thai characters at about 30wpm. Then when I can do this, I intend to hire a tutor via Skype, and use the purchased J Marvin Brown CD's and books, and use the tutor to move my feeble first attempts at voiced sounds to proper sounds. I will prefer all communication to be done with thai characters, not with Romanized transliteration.

Oddly I know of no school that uses this methodology, and I admit, what works for me may not suit others.

But I suspect that this methodology will bear good fruit for me, and maybe some of this might be useful for others.

Hmmm....คุณเข้าใจไหมครับว่า เขาพูดว่าอะไร?

[msg362]

Try the Thai Language centre on Ratchadamnoern road- 053 277 810, towards the Wat/ police station end, a yellow building just past the crossroads to Wat Chedi Luang, but on the main road on the left. Great 1-1 teaching or small groups, good teachers, great coffee. Very relaxed and wil adapt to your needs.

I've been going for several years, recommended