Can Anyone Please Translate This Thai Character (Love?)Letter?..

[djowii]

My girlfriend wrote me this letter when I left.. I probably cannot see her ever again. I cannot read thai, can anyone please translate this for me?..

Edited July 29, 2010 by djowii

[Peppy]

First letter:

To the one that I love who is so far away, will you miss me when we're apart?

Even though we were only together for two weeks, I was so happy to be with you. Whoever you're with and wherever you are, I'll always miss you and love you. We may be far apart and we may not be alike, but I love you. Even if we were only together for a short time, it made me very happy.

If there is a next life, I wish that I can be with you there. Please don't let there be anything that breaks us apart as in this life, don't let there be anything that keeps us far apart.

While you're where you are, please don't forget to look after yourself, since you're someone who doesn't care much about yourself. And don't forget to pick up after yourself too.

I love you forever.

You know, you're the first (Western) man I've ever been with.

I love you, Joey. I'll wait for you for however long it takes, even if you never come back.

(Kiss kiss)

Second letter:

We're as far apart as land and sky, but I've found the person whose heart matches mine and that's why I feel like I feel now. I want you to know what a good person you are. I want to be with you every second. You're the most important person to me. I'll be your baby forever, and love you always no matter how long I have to wait. Someday we'll walk together.

I'll have only you. From today to every day, we'll always have each other. When I have you, it's like I have everything, because you give me true love that I've never felt from anyone before.

Whoever you really are and wherever you're really from, I know I love you and was happy to be close to you, to know that every time I went to sleep I'd see your face when I woke up.

But do you think like me? I don't know. I just know that I love you forever, today or any other day.

I'll never forget you. Kiss kiss.

[Tod Daniels]

To the poster known as Peppy;

Man, that was some in-fricking-credible reading and back translating of what was for me some really tough to read handwritten thai.

Even after I saved the pix on my p/c, rotated them and blew them up so I could read the script, AND knew the subject from the O/Ps initial post; I couldn't make out more than about 60-70% of the words. Most of them were by context or placement in the sentences rather than actual word recognition.

FWIW: At least to me, handwritten thai is a tough row to hoe, even when a thai takes the time to attempt writing clearly . I find it interesting how much a thai character can morph in style from the way its written in a typed font into handwritten thai yet still be totally understandable to almost any thai reading it .

If in fact the translation is correct (which I have no reason to doubt all that much, if any ..); I will hereafter humbly doff my cap and tug my forelock as you pass by, marveling at your ability in reading (and back translating) these two letters.

Id like to hear responses from the other thai language pundits, as I think these letters are a good examples and therefore good practice in reading handwritten thai.

Just one (tongue in cheek) question; Peppy, your not the author of these letters are you?

Edited July 30, 2010 by tod-daniels

[bhoydy]

Ok i just read the first letter there. I had to save it on to my computer, flick it round and upsize it to make it readable. I got all the words by the second reading but it was by no means a fluent read. I couldn't work out what วิว was until i realised it was her name. เธอ is written in such a scribble it's difficult to decipher and there were some words where the tone markers were way out of place.

As for the translation, yeah very good job Peppy. For me, it is so time consuming to translate a sentence. I get all caught up in the different ways to say it and what sounds better, quite often i look in the mirror after an attempt and realise i have grown a beard.

Nice letters by the way, they sound like the lyrics to a love song.

[Peppy]

Todd and Bhoydy, thank you for your kind words regarding my translation.

Regarding the quality of the handwriting, I don't think it's particularly bad. At least, I've seen much worse!

I find it interesting how much a thai character can morph in style from the way it’s written in a typed font into handwritten thai yet still be totally understandable to almost any thai reading it   .  

You could probably say that about any language, though, really. Most of the characters in my English handwriting and printing don't look much like the characters you see in the newspaper, for example, but I doubt you'd have any trouble reading anything I write.

Ok i just read the first letter there. I had to save it on to my computer, flick it round and upsize it to make it readable. I got all the words by the second reading but it was by no means a fluent read. I couldn't work out what วิว was until i realised it was her name. เธอ is written in such a scribble it's difficult to decipher and there were some words where the tone markers were way out of place.

I, too, had to save the files and rotate them (note to OP and anyone else who posts letters like this: post them right side up!). Likewise, I couldn't make out เธอ in the first line, but recognized it by context the second time I saw it. Like I said above, this girl's writing is actually pretty neat, but she does have a very "distinctive" ธ. ธง!

[Tod Daniels]

Todd and Bhoydy, thank you for your kind words regarding my translation.

Regarding the quality of the handwriting, I don't think it's particularly bad. At least, I've seen much worse!

You could probably say that about any language, though, really. <SNIP>

That could possibly be due to the fact that at least english (and maybe more languages) have a 'cursive' font (one that we all learn in school), as well as a printed one. I can sign my name in cursive, but that's about it (unless I want my handwriting to look like someone in 3rd grade ); for everything else I print (yeah, I know a tough slog for taking notes in class ).

Thai has no upper/lower case, no cursive, only one style; errr thai (I think ).

I can read stylized thai fonts commonly used in advertising MUCH easier than I could read this handwritten thai .

By stylized, I mean when "ร" looks like an "S" in engrish, "ค" looks like a traditional thai "ก", and the "P's"; พ,ผ, and Fs; ฟ,ฝ are virtually indistinguishable from one another except for a TINY line inside or outside of the letter itself. ..

Certainly very good reading practice; especially if as Peppy says, this wasnt a particularly bad representation of handwritten thai.

Edited July 30, 2010 by tod-daniels

[DavidHouston]

Does anyone know if the Thai academic community has made an attempt at a standard Thai cursive script which could be taught in schools?

[zzaa09]

Does anyone know if the Thai academic community has made an attempt at a standard Thai cursive script which could be taught in schools?

That would be nearly impossible to attempt, less direct. All written linguistic for, like Thai, will allow for individuality as it is seen and comprehended.

[AjarnPasa]

Does anyone know if the Thai academic community has made an attempt at a standard Thai cursive script which could be taught in schools?

Going slightly off topic here .. please forgive...

That's a good question David. I have been trying to find a handwriting scheme from which to learn, but beyond the join the dots book for early learners there doesn't seem to be anything.

In English schools there are a number of handwriting schemes, both cursive and non-cursive which help build legibility and fluency/fluidity (while allowing for the individual flare to which zzaa09 alludes). If anyone knows of one, please tell.

[SoftWater]

I have been thinking about this on and off for a long time, and had the following idea, though I've yet to try it. First one to get any good samples please post the jpegs!

Ask any native speaker to write the whole alphabet out by hand quickly, then to write down a couple of sample sentences (I wonder if there is a Thai equivalent of 'The quick brown lazy fox...' that uses all the alphabet in one 'sentence'???).

This should give you some good samples of how handwritten forms differ from the 'dotted-line' printed ones. Then study it and practice it. If you can get more than one person to do it even better, because you can notice the similarities in letters like ช ข ต and so on.

The problem you will have with this idea is that 99% of people will try to make it too neat. A possible solution is to try it on kids and make it a game - who can write the Thai alphabet the fastest! Who can write this sentence the fastest - then you might get something both natural and a variety of samples.

Edited August 1, 2010 by SoftWater

[Tinkelbell]

djowii,

May I ask, is your g/f Laos or Khmer ? Please take no offend ?:jap:

Some of her writing on consonants and vowels were different from central Thai - BKK ( where I was born and raised.)

Peppy, you did an excellent job on translating those letters. I agree with the poster who said it sounds like a love song.

[Hardie]

Some of the better hand-written Thai I've ever seen... Yeah, it sounds a LOT like a love song...

[Tod Daniels]

While this is more than slightly off topic as far as the O/P's first post; I believe the question was more than answered by 'Peppy' , and now the topic has veered slightly into different forms of handwriting.

I found this paper quite a while ago (maybe actually off this very forum) . It talks about the key traits in thai and what a thai looks for in predictability of other letters when faced with a new font. It also remarks how difficult it is (or was, given this paper is from 1995) to use OCR (optical character recognition) programs to clearly 'read' thai.

Interesting paper really with tonz of examples.

It's titled; "How Do Thais Tell Letters Apart" by Doug Cooper

Thai Font Paper.pdf

FWIW: This paper mentions an AUA textbook which has a BIG "R" on the orange cover called "Reading and Writing Text (mostly reading). I dug it outta the pile o books I have and it does have examples of handwritten thai, in fact the entire book is typeset in a handwritten thai font style. It also goes over the various 'morphing' thai goes thru when written quickly versus written carefully. Quite the interesting read too. It has different versions of some text written by men and women all in handwritten thai.

Anyway, sorry this was off-topic, and I hope you find the paper of interest.

(BTW: It is totally used without permission from the author, as I ripped it off the internet, but hats off to him for a very good read... )

Edited August 2, 2010 by tod-daniels

[djowii]

she was from the north, actually from myanmar, but lived ni thailand for 3 years, chiang rai province.

Thanks a lot for translating! sorry for responding a bit late

pretty intense letters o.o