English To Thai Phonetic Dictionary

[xerostar]

I need a Phonetic based English-Thai dictionary (Book)

While communicating with my Thai lady, I've found the computer based English- Thai phonetic dictionary to be very handy.

My Thai lady's English is very poor so until she can enrol in formal classes, I depend on the dictionary to help me say things to her in Thai.

(never mind my bad pronunciation ..)

However now I'm going to spend time with her family and I can't depend on having the computer on hand. A book would be much more practical.

Of course this does not help my GF very much. She can use a Thai-English book but since her reading skills are also poor, she is often frustrated trying to find the words she needs.

Since I don't understand a lot of Thai words, communicating is very hard work to say the least.

I purchased a hand-held Dictionary CyberDict8 but it seems orientated toward Thais wanting to learn English. (fine if my Ti lak could read Thai properly ..)

So I'd be most grateful if somebody could offer advice (besides finding a new GF that already speaks English ..)

[xerostar]

Adding to the above ..

I've read about the problems of converting English words to Thai.

It seems that there is no universal code that will convey the tonal qualities

and since there are also many different dialects, one would not find a book that

covers the whole Thai language adequately.

I guess the future for those who want an easier way (like me) is hand held computers that convert speech directly. (as is, I believe, already possible with some european languages).

That said, I think a dictionary of phonetic conversions would be better than nothing. Perhaps one for each dialect?