Learning Thai,Questions For Everybody

[Dariozg99]

Hello everybody. Im 24y.old,well i started to learn thai about 6months ago when i started to live here(in pattaya).99%percent farang expats here that i talk to have no intention to ever learn thai,for me its completly different as i have no intention to live here for the rest of my life(now its good for buisness:-P),i think later i'll be moving with my wife in her home in nakhon sawan province where i'll be using thai much more..Sometime is hard to believe that most expats live here for 10,20,30y. and cannot have basic conversation in thai with somebody or even with his child(seen this MANY times).For me its really fun and interesting to learn thai,but its a long road ahead for me for achieve fluetness,but im sure my life will be very different when i reach(i hope) my goal of speaking,understanding,reading thai. Everybody who is learning thai,doesnt matter begginer,intermediate or advance please write and give some advices for those who are trying to learn too:-) 1) Approximately how much words do you know in thai?

2)What level are you? (beggin.,interm.,adv.)

3)What was(is) your studying technique?

4)How long did it take to reach some sort of fluetness

1.Till today i have vocabulary of about 4200 words.I know exectly because i keeping record in notebook of every word i learn:$.I try to learn 50 words a day.I was trying to learn 100words a day for 1week but it was just to much.Im pushing myself to learn thai 3,4hours a day and repeating those and previousely learned words.Its very hard to memorize those words i learn every day but only important is to repeat every day.Now from this 4200words i think about 80% of these words i will know meaning if you wake me up in the middle of the night.

2)i think im somewhere about advance beginner or maybe even a lower intermediate

3)My studying technique is very simple but im not sure is it a very good one.I started from book for beginner(understand 100%) from Benjawan Becker,but already finished intermediate one(understand 100%) and advance(understand only 50%).After that i bought english to thai cd which contains about 4000words with pronunciation and translation.After that i started learn words from dictionary,basicly every word i know in english i try to learn i thai.I hope in 3,4month i will have vocabulary of about 7,8000 words.My reading is "ok":-S,i can read and understand something.I like to read from tv karaoke thai music like fan tv music station which i admit improved my reading quickness(and singing).I love thai songs,learned couple of songs like my favourite from bigass named 'fun'(which mean dust).Im also going to language school 4hour a week,but i would say learning by myself and with wife is what is really improved me in this 6 months.My VERY BIG weekness i that im not talking thai often,only when i order food or something basic,but i cant have intermediate conversation about something.I have to start talking thai but always "keep forgeting". My writing is terrible,i can only write name and couple od words more.I concentrate more on speaking,reading,understanding

4) Like i sad have to pay more attention on speaking thai i think if i had learn words parallel with speaking i would be on higher level now

[dean999]

It's ok knowing word after word after word, but can you put them into a sentence and be understood?

If your teaching yourself, how do you know your saying the words correct? I say things from a book to my wife and she just looks puzzled. I have also repeated something my wife has said. I said it sounded the way she said it but she said i sounded wrong.

I'm not trying to put you down or anything. Thai is, as you know a tonal language and if you are not talking with locals, how do you know your right.

The advice i have always been given, learn to read Thai and then you can pronounce words correctly. I would also say, practice with locals as much as you can.

Good luck.

[poanoi]

As you have already recognized, both data base & structure are vital.

I recommend going to a school to get the latter right from start, -it is hard to re-learn once you got set.

[benbear]

Sorry lads but I think Dariozg99 is learning Thai in the best way, sounds to me your Thai is very very good.

If you can read Thai than you are speaking it well, for sure.

1) Don't speak English (I think this is your mother tongue) to Thai people, make mistakes, learn from them, use your ears

2) Go back to the start, when learning words read the Thai not the English

3) Watch Thai T.V, very hard at first

4) Your at an advanced level already (sounds like it to me) be proud not scared to use this wonderful new skill

A really good website for learning thai is learningthai.com, it's free and really cool

Edited November 29, 2011 by benbear

[kokesaat]

My only advice concerning your comments about learning Thai would be to stop worrying about the 99% of expats who don't take the time to learn the language. No matter how much you dwell on that, it won't improve your own Thai language ability.

Keep plugging along....and welcome to the 1% club.

[Dariozg99]

Yes thats the big problem for me,i can understand every word in sentence but i cant understand whole sentence what mean..so i trying to learn sentences more,its its going very well.And you are right,tones are most important,this why basiclly every word i write in book i ask and write how to properly speak it..Its very hard to learn but im gonna be proud if i be in that 1% later:$

[Dariozg99]

Thank you for the website learningthai.com,this is what i look for-sentences

[ChristianPFC]

1) Approximately how much words do you know in thai?

About 1200, which I learned during the last twelve months (starting from zero, learning to read and write as well during this time)

2)What level are you? (beggin.,interm.,adv.)

I think I'm still a beginner.

3)What was(is) your studying technique?

I use material that comes with a recording. I read first and translate, then read and listen, finally listen only.

4200 words in 6 months is amazing! I'm in Europe, so I have less exposure and less time to learn Thai, only one hour per day. My writing is good, as I write all words I learn several times.

Do you use flashcards to learn new words? I't my method, I use flashcards for words and for entire sentences and translate from German (my mother tongue) or English to Thai. I have about 2000 flashcards for Thai at the moment, I make them myself on the computer.

To give an idea about fluency: I found a list in the internet that listed all English words (well, about 50,000 of them) starting from the most common to the least common. I checked on a part of that list how many English words I know and interpolated to an isolated passive vocabulary of 24,000. I call it isolated passive, because the word is not in context and I test if I can translate the word from English to German. Many of these words I wouldn't use in speaking or writing. This allows me to express myselft almost fluently on forums like this, often native speakers are not aware that English is foreign language for me.

I tried to do the same for French (test how many words I know), but the problem is I can't find a list that has more than the most common 10,000 words. A further problem is to get a list that sort all verb forms under the infinitive. So I can only guess that I know 10,000-15,000 French words which alows me to read novels and newspapers almost fluently.

Edited December 7, 2011 by ChristianPFC