Still Can'T Catch What They Say On Tv

[bobthedog]

Hi,

In my mission to learn thai, I think I have done most of the teach-yourself-thai courses, like:

- "Teach yourself Thai" with David Smyth

- "Colloquial Thai" with John Moore

- Linguaphone

My problem is, that there still is a big gap between what I've learned so far, and understanding what is said on Thai TV. How to best fill in the gap? Any of you guys who are/have been in the same situation?

[Jay_Jay]

Grab some clips and store them on your computer - some news clips, but mindless game shows and variety shows actually make good language specimen fodder. Your ears have to be tuned into the sound blocks first. Not an easy thing to do by yourself in the beginning, as you'll probably be trying to separate every word to analyse what they mean. Find some Thai friends that can sit with you and analyse a few minutes at a time. Ask them what they're saying - what the idioms mean - what are other ways of saying the same thing?

Then when they're not there, practice shadowing what you hear. Just mimic everything you hear - the rhythms, facial expressions, the way they breathe, speech rhythms and little 'tag' words they thrown in on the end. Don't try and separate the words and analyse what they're saying. Just get the language into your body.

If you can read Thai script, another good thing is to get into Thai blogs, web-boards etc and analyse what you see in there. You'll see people typing in 'spoken' Thai - slang, abbreviations, idioms etc. It's a written version of what you really here and even though I don't think the Royal Institute would approve of what you're reading, it let's you get a glimpse into what's really happening out there.

If you do this for a couple of weeks, I think things will start to fall into place.

[hiero]

bobthedog - I think if you're at the level where you can pick bits out of TV then check out this:

It's AUA level 5 lessons, there are quite a few with this woman.

She speaks to the students just like she would with her friends and is funny and entertaining. I found watching all 5 of her lessons (5 hours in total) a few times really helped me pick up a lot of things.

See what you think.

Edited June 13, 2010 by hiero

[bobthedog]

Thanks for your suggestions...

Jay_Jay: I might try out that idea of yours. Only thing is, that it looks to be quite time consuming to analyze video clips :-)

hiero: I already knew about these videos, and I have watched them many times already. They are great, and I wish they would make more of them.

[bobthedog]

By the way, I feel I understand much of what is being said in the AUA level 5 lessons, but it still seems to be a far way from actually understanding thai tv :-) Agree?

Edited June 13, 2010 by bobthedog

[hiero]

By the way, I feel I understand much of what is being said in the AUA level 5 lessons, but it still seems to be a far way from actually understanding thai tv :-) Agree?

Yep I agree, but then TV is tough, imagine a thai student who is learning english watching a show like eastenders (in the UK) or some American soap opera set in Boston, there would be so many references to things happening in the news, history, references, strange accents etc etc.

bob - do you listen to thai radio ever? there quite a few news stations that have chat radio also.

[hiero]

Thai films with english subtitles?

it's quite good I find to get a hollywood movie that you have seen before but with a thai audio track over the top of it with english subs.

[HappyInCM]

Someone suggested a while back things like the tintin box set videos as they have thai dubbing plus thai subtitles, so easy to tune your ears. But, I like Jay jay's suggestion too.

I guess the question is whether the issue is understanding words you know already but spoken quickly, words you don't know or weird references - or a combination...

[keo]

Thai films with english subtitles?

it's quite good I find to get a hollywood movie that you have seen before but with a thai audio track over the top of it with english subs.

The reverse of this is quite good reading practice too.

TV is tough, and I find often the sound quality makes it difficult to listen to, not to mention the content of those awful soap operas! There is a good Thai language game show for high school kids, which I've watched a few times, and would like to catch more often.

As said before, chat shows on the radio are a great resource too.

ใจดีทีวี has some really funny videos too... http://www.youtube.com/user/bononstage

[StChris]

Jay_Jay, can you recommend any forums or blogs?

Youtube isn't only great for watching clips, you can also pick up alot of colloquial Thai from reading the comments (which will of course be about the clip you've just watched, aiding comprehension both ways). If the clips are too fast, you can always download them us Realplayer SP and then watch them using VCL media player at a much slower speed. Here's a site with Thai lakorns/soaps with English subtitles, if you can stand it: . If anybody knows where I can find ones with Thai subtitles instead of English, please tell me, as that would be much better for me.

Dubbed foreign films can be good because they almost always have the original sountrack, plus a Thai dubbed one, as well as Thai and English subtitles. Plus they're less than 100B if you choose the older ones. I wouldn't be too reliant on these though, as not only does the dubbed Thai seem a bit unnatural at times, but sometimes the subtitles are paraphrased beyond recognition. I'm not just speaking of differences between the English and Thai here, which is understandable, but the difference between the Thai soundtrack and the Thai subtitles. It's almost as if the people who wrote the subtitles delibirately tried to rephrase everything to make their job more interesting. I bought Madagascar and The Jungle Book 2 thinking kids films would be easier than adult films (plus these both have Mandarin subtitles as well, which is a bonus as I'm also learning Chinese), but the subtitle work is awful in this regard. I've just worked through the Dr Zhivago DVD (mini-series, not the film), which seems to be available everywhere for about 80B, and the subtitles and speech match almost exactly. At 3 and a half hours long, it's pretty good value.

[SoftWater]

Jay_Jay, can you recommend any forums or blogs?

Good tips StChris thanks; I've never sat through Dr Zhivago in English, so this might be a good one for me!

A good, easy place to find 'spoken' Thai written down is on facebook. Do a search for some groups, or join Abhisit's facebook page and read all the adulation but you can find lots of links through it and by clicking on random members names and following the sites they link to. You'll have to watch out for the slang (mis)spellings (I think this is what Jay Jay was referrring to about the RID not liking it...), some of which you can guess from context, others are phonetically spelled thai words, and others will drive you crazy because no one will be able to tell you what it means.

For about 2 years I used a site called italki - which is a bit like lang8 - you can find email 'penpals' or 'language partners', use chat rooms, video calls etc. I learned how to type Thai VERY fast this way, and picked up some free language tuition. If you're going to use chat/forums, good idea to get a two-way Thai-English dictionary program on your computer. People soon switch off if you thumbing through the dictionary for too long!!

Edited June 14, 2010 by SoftWater

[StChris]

dam_n, I deleted my Facebook profile a few weeks ago. I find I'm happier without it, but maybe a missed lnaguage learning opportunity. Maybe I could set up a new account under a false name without adding friends and just use it to access the groups etc.

I'd prefer to find some forums to practice on first before I move on to chat rooms ect, until my reading and writing is fast enough. Thanks for the italki link though, I'll start on that in a few months.

[Jay_Jay]

Jay_Jay, can you recommend any forums or blogs?

Youtube isn't only great for watching clips, you can also pick up alot of colloquial Thai from reading the comments (which will of course be about the clip you've just watched, aiding comprehension both ways). If the clips are too fast, you can always download them us Realplayer SP and then watch them using VCL media player at a much slower speed. Here's a site with Thai lakorns/soaps with English subtitles, if you can stand it: . If anybody knows where I can find ones with Thai subtitles instead of English, please tell me, as that would be much better for me.

Dubbed foreign films can be good because they almost always have the original sountrack, plus a Thai dubbed one, as well as Thai and English subtitles. Plus they're less than 100B if you choose the older ones. I wouldn't be too reliant on these though, as not only does the dubbed Thai seem a bit unnatural at times, but sometimes the subtitles are paraphrased beyond recognition. I'm not just speaking of differences between the English and Thai here, which is understandable, but the difference between the Thai soundtrack and the Thai subtitles. It's almost as if the people who wrote the subtitles delibirately tried to rephrase everything to make their job more interesting. I bought Madagascar and The Jungle Book 2 thinking kids films would be easier than adult films (plus these both have Mandarin subtitles as well, which is a bonus as I'm also learning Chinese), but the subtitle work is awful in this regard. I've just worked through the Dr Zhivago DVD (mini-series, not the film), which seems to be available everywhere for about 80B, and the subtitles and speech match almost exactly. At 3 and a half hours long, it's pretty good value.

Just google a couple of words like คิๆๆๆๆๆ and you'll find a slew of hits.

For what it's worth, I've idiomatically translted subtitles myself for episodes of my TV Show เหนือชั้น 1000แปลก and made them available on youtube.

[StChris]

Thanks Jay_Jay

[Peppy]

My problem is, that there still is a big gap between what I've learned so far, and understanding what is said on Thai TV. How to best fill in the gap? Any of you guys who are/have been in the same situation?

I think understanding TV is one of the trickiest things in any language, but the level of difficulty does depend on the programs you watch.

If you enjoy following current events and have enough vocabulary in this area to read Thai newspapers to some extent, you may find watching news programs a good place to start. Of course you won't understand everything, but if you've already gone through the newspaper before you turn on the TV, you should have a good idea of what the major stories will be, and have some kind of expectations about what you'll hear.

Another fun way to practice listening is to watch soap operas. Channel 3 and Channel 7 have two hours of soaps every night from 8:30 to 10:30. There's always three different soap operas running on each channel at any given time: One will be on Mondays and Tuesdays, another on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and the last on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Each soap usually runs for about two to three months before it finishes and is replaced with a new one. The actors always speak clearly, with perfect enunciation and intonation (unless they're maids or servants from Isan), and the stories are very formulaic and predictable. It will still be difficult at first, particularly if you start watching in the middle of a story, but it will help if you have Thai company who can explain the characters and their motivations to you--preferably in Thai, to keep the immersion factor high. Watching a soap with Thais is great fun--some people get quite involved in the story (or อินกับเรื่อง/in gap rueang, as they say--literally, "in with the story"), and everybody will chip in with commentary on the actors' and actresses' dramatic abilities, the depravity of the villainess, and predictions about what will happen next (this one's easy, since most follow the same general plot outline--if you've seen three, you've seen them all).

The hardest kind of show to follow, in my opinion, is anything involving comedy--sitcoms, variety talk shows, skit shows etc. A large part of the dialogue will revolve around wordplay, which means all kinds of unexpected, out-of-context and off-topic ideas will be brought into play. I still don't understand every word when I'm watching these kinds of shows.

It may be hard work to understand anything at all on the TV at first, but if you start off by watching the news and soaps for a few hours each day, I think you'll see some great improvements in your listening abilities after a couple of months. Good luck!

Edited June 15, 2010 by Peppy

[OxfordWill]

I find TV very difficult too. I really have to concentrate. If you want a bigger challenge, tune in to the parliament sessions.. boy, that'll kill an afternoon dead.

[hiero]

I tried watching a film called "see prang" earlier, it's pretty famous in thailand. Jeese, it kicked my ass, pure teenager talk all the way through.

[bhoydy]

Well, the World Cup is on, so if you like football there's about 6 hours of Thai tv everyday where you can pick up phrases like ชนเสา - hit the post.

[Murf]

Cheers for the link StChris... Nice one

[klons]

"If anybody knows where I can find ones with Thai subtitles instead of English, please tell me, as that would be much better for me"

This site has Thai music. They have the lyrics in Thai script and transliterated that you

can read while you play the song. It’s not video but better because you don’t have to read off a screen.

This song is called "rak" by Infamous.

ในความกังวลสับสนวุ่นวายในชีวิต


nai kwaam gang-won sap-son wun waai nai chee-wit

Read more: 1660 - รัภ(rak) - Listen to Thai Music ฟังเพลงไทย เนื้อเพลง เพลงออนไลน์

Also in case you missed it, this link was posted a few weeks ago. Frog outside the coconut shell videos with Thai Script subtitles.

´Ù·ÕÇÕÂé͹ËÅѧ ´ÙÃÒ¡Òà ¡º¹Í¡¡ÐÅÒ Âé͹ËÅѧ ´Ù·ÕÇÕÍ͹äÅ¹ì ªèͧ 9 - TV Online

[cdnmatt]

I'm pretty much at the exact point as you. Here's what I did:

How-To: Watch Movies In Thai, With Thai + English Sub-Titles - Thailand Forum

Bit of a process, but it works! Now I have a couple excellent movies that I really enjoy in Thai language, with both, Thai and English subtitles at the same time.

[bobthedog]

Glad to see I'm not the only one having difficulty understanding what the say on thai tv. Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I will go for the Lakorn with subtitles for now :-)

[midnightjay3]

Me too. I find it so hard to catch up with what the movie characters are saying, although my Thai friend told me to frequently listen to Thai movies so that I can polish and add my Thai vocabularies. In the end, I develop a terrible headache trying yo understand it.

[klons]

I'm pretty much at the exact point as you. Here's what I did:

How-To: Watch Movies In Thai, With Thai + English Sub-Titles - Thailand Forum

Bit of a process, but it works! Now I have a couple excellent movies that I really enjoy in Thai language, with both, Thai and English subtitles at the same time.

I came across this site in a roundabout way through this forum.

:: ThaiSubtitle.com :: ÈÙ¹ÂìÃÇÁ«ÑºäµàµÔÅÊÓËÃѺ¤¹ä·Â, Translate Movie Subtitles English into Thai

It will work well for me as I am still unable to read SRT or SSA files. At the subtitle site I can get the Thai from the translate column, open and read it.

Putting subtitles on video looks a bit too technical for me try.

[bobthedog]

It may be hard work to understand anything at all on the TV at first, but if you start off by watching the news and soaps for a few hours each day, I think you'll see some great improvements in your listening abilities after a couple of months.

Do you have personal experience practising this way, and what were your results? Thanks!

[Parvis]

It may be hard work to understand anything at all on the TV at first, but if you start off by watching the news and soaps for a few hours each day, I think you'll see some great improvements in your listening abilities after a couple of months.

Do you have personal experience practising this way, and what were your results? Thanks!

I started listening to Thai News and some culture programs (not Soaps) approx. 2 months ago. I do feel my comprehension (and probably pronounciation) has improved - but I am still far from understanding most of it. I tried listening to the "ALG method" on U-tube before that - but I feel the sound is poor and just could not hold my interest - beyond the initial "novelty".

I continue to self-study - at present with "Thai for Advanced Readers" (Penjawan Becker) - and in combination with listening to Thai News I feel I am making "fairly rapid progress".

I do believe listening to Thai News etc. etc. has merit - but it should not be the only "study method".

Edited June 24, 2010 by Parvis

[klons]

I’ve been using the grab an audio clip method for several months and am quite pleased that it is working very well for me. It is pot luck what clips I grab as I haven’t figured out how to monitor what I’m recording nor what the broadcast schedules are for talk, news etc. I usually go through them line by line and am not reluctant to cheat using audacity, If the talk is just too fast for me, I will slow the speed by 25% and increase the pitch by the same. This makes it sound normal (to me) just slower. Then after that I can pick it up at real time speed.

Trying to identify every single word I don’t recognize, is a waste of time for me because if I don’t hear them exactly right I may never find them. New words I hear quite clearly, I will take a minute or 2 to try to identify them. If sucessful I add them to my audio vocabulary lists of which I now have many.

As far as I’m concerned, comprehension is more important than speaking but I do give them both equal time. What good is being able to talk, if when trying to speak to a Thai your’e like a deer in the headlights when they answer you back. I don’t talk much in my native tongue anyway, so I don’t expect to become a chatterbox in Thai either. Overall I’m pleased with my progress and can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

(I've also been through Beckers beginner, intermediate, speak like a Thai 1,2,&3, Mary Haas Spoken Thai, Benjamen Moore, and am currently reviewing 6 months worth of advanced real conversations from learnthaipodcast.)

[StChris]

klons, how are you finding learnthaipodcast? I use a podcast called Chinesepod to learn mandarin and would love something similar for thai.

[hiero]

The alg level 5 stuff on youtube is great imHo, I love the women who talks for those lessons, quick, clear and real thai. Highly recommended.

[hiero]

klons, how are you finding learnthaipodcast? I use a podcast called Chinesepod to learn mandarin and would love something similar for thai.

learnthaipodcast is pretty good as it's mostly all 'real' talking thai. The only thing is the lack of explanations to the sentences.