Learning To Read Thai

[khaan]

Having learnt the Thai alphabet and vowels I am now in the very early stages of practising to read Thai.

The main difficulties I am experiencing include my inability to quickly resume reading the part of the sentence if I happen to be interrupted. Unlike in English where you can quickly find the word way where you many have stopped reading,in Thai it seems to take much longer find the spot where you temporarily stopped. Also the inability for me to read quickly because the eyes quickly have to decipher the shape of the character buried amongst all the rest even when the print is quite small.

But what I am noticing the most is that unlike in English where your eyes just simply move from left to right along the line you are reading, I am finding the necessity to revolve my eyes around each character to look for vowels and in a split second try to work out to which character they belong because they are all joined together. in other words are they part of the character you are reading at that moment or are they part of the next one? I was just wondering if the experts in this thread consider this to be the correct methodology of reading or if there a simpler more effective way?

Edited November 15, 2011 by khaan

[RickBradford]

I think we've all been through pretty much what you are describing.

The key, in my opinion, is to build up your vocabulary, so that you quickly begin to 'see' words, recognising them without having to actually read them letter by letter, It's amazing how much quicker you get when you can instantly recognize a common word like เพราะ or สามารถ without having to read it letter by letter.

And I don't think there are any short cuts -- you just have to read and read as many different types of material as you can lay your hands on.

[poanoi]

Agree on the necessity of having a large database of words memorized,

without it you can't out-wit the junk

[rgs2001uk]

I think we've all been through pretty much what you are describing.

The key, in my opinion, is to build up your vocabulary, so that you quickly begin to 'see' words, recognising them without having to actually read them letter by letter, It's amazing how much quicker you get when you can instantly recognize a common word like เพราะ or สามารถ without having to read it letter by letter.

And I don't think there are any short cuts -- you just have to read and read as many different types of material as you can lay your hands on.

Whilst agreeing with the gist of the post, which for the most part is true, the one thing I would say is, go from the known to the unknown.

There is no point in trying to run before you can walk, the OP should do the same as he did in learning his own language, and the same as Thai children do, start with simple childrens books.

These books are readily available in all dept stores, large script, well spaced indivdual words, sometimes vowels highlighted.

Look at books aimed for 4,5 or 6 year old children, this will build up your vocabulary and help in word recognition.

Another helpful resource is shopping centres, exit, enterance, fire exit, shop opening hours, then hit the sois, probably the most instantly recognisable Thai shop sign,

ขาย ยา, notices in the sois, house for sale/rent, 3 bedrooms, x storey, xx t/w ,price xxxx.

One thing I used to do was draw a vertical line between words, this helps with tones, also as the OP says if distracted I could easily find where I left off.

Another aid to learning, what hobbies/interests does he have, if sport, read sports magazines, etc etc.

Newspapers are a totally different kettle of fish, abbreviations abound.

For me it was repetition, repetition and repitition, whilst my reading skills are ok, my spelling skills are abysmal.

As you say, its surprising how quickly your eyes learn to recognise indivdual words.

[kokesaat]

I don't think there's much solution other than to practice practice practice. As time goes on, you'll find common words easier to read, you'll find your last place in text after looking up a word in a dictionary, and you'll be able to find random words in a paragraph quickly. But that takes lots of practice.

You might want to try this to see what I mean:

Pick a paragraph of something that you find a bit difficult to read the first time through (since I don't know your reading ability, I can't give you an example). Be sure you understand what it says. Read it a few times. Now put it down, and read it again tomorrow....or next week. In all likelihood, the words that you didn't struggle with the first time around will be automatic.....and the rest of the text will be easier to read as well. At least that's the way it works for me.

[ludditeman]

Thai Karaoke videos give you

1) Thai script

2) Pronunciation (in English letters)

3) Pronunciation (spoken)

I find them very good for practicing my reading, and increasing my reading speed.

[asdecas]

Agree with other responders to the OP - build vocabulary, practice reading so that the brain is trained to recognise the shape of words without having to spell them (I still occasionally have to repeat-scan a word that has, for example, only a single difference, such as a tone marker). At early stages, kid's books and even comics are helpful, as well as reading street signs, posters, advertisements etc. Later, have a crack at Matichon or Thai Rat, or whatever floats your boat.

[Hardie]

Once you build up speed, it's a non-issue. I used to read so slowly that I'd forget the thought before it's completed, 555, have to start all over...

[Suranaree]

Hi

You are obviously "light years" ahead of where I am at ..having just recently started. ( is why I am choosing you )..hope you don't mind.

I am doing the Alphabet with children's books, and can read; write and speak ( albeit slowly ) the first 13 characters so far.

Am told that for instance.. Jor Jarn has the meaning of plate...yet they also say just Jarn on it's own is plate....

Do you know the significance of the Jor....does that come into play later..? I suspect it must, but have no idea where and how.

Thanks for your time and congrats getting to where you are at now.

I think we've all been through pretty much what you are describing.

The key, in my opinion, is to build up your vocabulary, so that you quickly begin to 'see' words, recognising them without having to actually read them letter by letter, It's amazing how much quicker you get when you can instantly recognize a common word like เพราะ or สามารถ without having to read it letter by letter.

And I don't think there are any short cuts -- you just have to read and read as many different types of material as you can lay your hands on.

[ludditeman]

Hi

You are obviously "light years" ahead of where I am at ..having just recently started. ( is why I am choosing you )..hope you don't mind.

I am doing the Alphabet with children's books, and can read; write and speak ( albeit slowly ) the first 13 characters so far.

Am told that for instance.. Jor Jarn has the meaning of plate...yet they also say just Jarn on it's own is plate....

Do you know the significance of the Jor....does that come into play later..? I suspect it must, but have no idea where and how.

Thanks for your time and congrats getting to where you are at now.

Same meaning as "a is for apple"

Think ................... "จ is for จาน "

Edited November 21, 2011 by ludditeman

[roly]

I find the movie channels on TV (Star and HBO) are great to read Thai and listen to the English.....usually a bit too fast but now I'm able to nearly read at full speed and I've been learning just on an ad-hoc basis without any formal lessons. It's not as hard as you think and you can quickly learn to recognise the common words very quickly too.

[bifftastic]

My Thai reading skills are coming along, slowly.

I remember when I first started and was sounding out the words using their individual components. Much like I did when I learned my mother tongue, this soon evolved into 'seeing' whole words. Now, 45 years later, English words just seem to 'speak to me' as I scan the page.

Now after about 8 or 9 months, it happens with more and more Thai words, every time I see them they get burned into my memory.

One day I'll be able to read more than a paragraph an hour!

There aren't any shortcuts really, just keep reading.

[playfulxx]

Thai has 44 consonant characters but there are only 21 actual sounds and some sounds thus have more than one letter (" th" has six - ฐ ถ ฑ ฒ ท ธ). The letters are named by adding "or" to the consonant sound and then adding a word which is spelled with that particular letter. This is the significance of the word following the sound of the letter. Every Thai consonant has a unique word that follows which never changes. This ensures that "Jor Jarn" (จ จาน) won't be confused with with "chor chaang" (ช ช้าง). It's necessary to learn both the character and it's associated word. Good Luck in your efforts to learn the Thai Language, everyone finds reading and writing challenging - including many native Thais.

Hi

You are obviously "light years" ahead of where I am at ..having just recently started. ( is why I am choosing you )..hope you don't mind.

I am doing the Alphabet with children's books, and can read; write and speak ( albeit slowly ) the first 13 characters so far.

Am told that for instance.. Jor Jarn has the meaning of plate...yet they also say just Jarn on it's own is plate....

Do you know the significance of the Jor....does that come into play later..? I suspect it must, but have no idea where and how.

Thanks for your time and congrats getting to where you are at now.

I think we've all been through pretty much what you are describing.

The key, in my opinion, is to build up your vocabulary, so that you quickly begin to 'see' words, recognising them without having to actually read them letter by letter, It's amazing how much quicker you get when you can instantly recognize a common word like เพราะ or สามารถ without having to read it letter by letter.

And I don't think there are any short cuts -- you just have to read and read as many different types of material as you can lay your hands on.