Learn To Read Thai, Whats The Best Free Online Website ?

[Carlosm]

I've been here a decade and can speak fairly decent level of Thai but i've decided its time to take the next step and learn to read and write it too. As i live out in the sticks i can only do this online so would like to know of any decent free websites that people have used to learn to read and write Thai.

Also would appreciate any tips they learnt along the way as the huge alphabet seems a bit daunting (44 consonants !).

[bytebuster]

First, decide what is your preferred style of study. Primarily, choose between course-based and reference-based. Former assumes that you study a sequence of linked lessons, gradually expanding your knowledge. The latter is very useful if you already have such sequence, but need answers for specific questions.

In first case, I would sincerely suggest signing up to a school. There are many of them, incl. those sponsoring this site, so you will find plenty of information about them.

Among the references, here are several: http://www.thai-language.com/ , http://slice-of-thai.com/

Also, you may enjoy reading several blogs like http://blog.joshsager.com/ , http://www.learnthaiwithmod.com/

[beachyman]

I've been here a decade and can speak fairly decent level of Thai but i've decided its time to take the next step and learn to read and write it too. As i live out in the sticks i can only do this online so would like to know of any decent free websites that people have used to learn to read and write Thai.

Also would appreciate any tips they learnt along the way as the huge alphabet seems a bit daunting (44 consonants !).

Best way for me was brute force memorization, three characters a day. Spend 20 min a day for a month doing that. Low then mid then high consonants. Then start with the online sources it will feel more natural once you have seen them. Otherwise it just looks so confusing. Make them look like pictures in your head based on the sound not the word.

[Delight]

Everyone has a different approach. Everyone has a different motive for learning.

In my view the ability to read vastly improves pronunciation.

I went to school for that specific purpose-to learn to read and write

Apart from getting me started – it proved almost useless

The biggest stumbling block were the vowels

The teacher taught me the way that she was taught

i.e. the regular chart showing 32 vowels

For me it did not work.

( in time I worked out that the best tutor to teach the Thai Language will always be a Farang- Native English who is fluent and knowledgeable in all aspects of the Thai language-Only a Farang can see it from a Student Farang’s point of view-my opinion ,obviously)

When I started working alone the first job was to master the vowels.

I spent a lot of time designing a learning methodology that would assist me .

With this in place the process of learning was rapid and permanent .

Consonants

There are many internet based methods to learn the consonants.

All that I have seen are, in my view ,useless or in complete.(typically they make no reference either to the grouping or the fact that with some consonants the sound changes –dependent on its position in the syllable. Half a story has only limited benefits)

(That said an Apple App entitled ‘Thai Squiggles’ is a very good place to start.)

Tones . I and others contributed to a recent post on this topic.

I am sure that you will find something there to suit you.

Special ห and Special อ cannot be ignored. Info about these features(plus many other features of the Thai language) came to me from Thai for Beginners. This is probably the best book around for this topic (.It proved itself for me –once I worked out to ignore the Vowels and Tone Rules).

(If you want some info on the system that I used for the Vowels-send me an e –mail)

[BKKdreaming]

Whats the best way if you are NOT in Thailand ,

I only know a few words in Thai , I would like to know the letters and numbers in Thai ,

then work on words and short phrases,

But like everyone I will get bored fast if I do not believe I am getting anywhere....

And I am over 50 so its not as easy , OK it was never easy !

BK

[Braddockrd]

My suggestion is to first learn the basics with Thai for Beginners. After that, use Reading Thai is Fun by James Neal, a book that touches on every single nuance of reading Thai, such as ommitted o and a, transposition of vowels, tone change, etc...

As other people said, you should devote 30 minutes a day. In one month you should have been able to memorize all the letters, tones and rules. In my personal experience it takes a long long time to read "at sight", that means, being able to read withough having to go letter by letter. This has to do with word memorization.

Learning to read and write after being able to speak is a serious drawback. You will most probably never be able to read "at sight" because in order to do that you must have learned the vocabulary using Thai script. This is the biggest common mistakes of foreigners learning Thai. Unlike Chinese or Arabic, the tones in Thai are provided by a combination of class of consonants, length or vowels, type of endings, tone rules and tone marks.

[jsflynn603]

Braddockrd states above: " You will most probably never be able to read "at sight" because in order to do that you must have learned the vocabulary using Thai script. This is the biggest common mistakes of foreigners learning Thai. Unlike Chinese or Arabic, the tones in Thai are provided by a combination of class of consonants, length or vowels, type of endings, tone rules and tone marks"

I can understand this point of view, but respectfully disagree. To learn to read I suggest that you download a tiny e-book from 1steasythaialphabet dot com, or easythaialphabet dot com. It costs $20US and if you're poor, wait a few weeks after the free period expires and you'll likely receive a secondary offer of around $12.99. Or just write to Damian Cotter, the author and say I sent you--that might work. (And no, I am neither affiliated, nor do I receive anything ever as any sort of kick-back).

I think this tiny e-book is one of most clever learning aids that I've ever seen and I've said so to the author.

My fiancee has learned English so fast that the urgent necessity for my learning Thai has diminished. I tried leaning Thai by various methods including computer programs and have decided that in reality the only way to learn it is with a Thai teacher. An exception to this, I think would be to do the series produced by AUA's J Marvin Brown. But I'll get back to that a bit later.

Braddockrd is so very correct and to learn to read Thai one must realize that the characters are not Roman characters, like Chinese or Arabic, they are unique. To be able to read fluently I believe that the best way is to utilize the characters and that by Romanization, one is put at a terrible disadvantage.

For instance hello = สวัสดี = saw (low) wat (low) dee (high tone)

Usually classes teach by changing the Thai characters with its marks into a Romanized form. I think this puts the human mind at a distinct disadvantage because the speaker must translate the Thai character to a secondary Romanized character or character set and then create the sound. It's rather like building a box and when changing the size of the nails, one places the hammer back into a sealed carpenter's box, only to retrieve it again later-- why bother, it's just too difficult.

I was very frustrated with the Thai "alphabet" and though I tried I could never quite "get it," until I did two things.

First I found this tiny book and second, within all versions of Windows one can set your keyboard to type Thai characters properly, including sub-script and super-script marks.

I recommend that you buy this wee book and spend about ten hours until you can sound out words and to this day my fiancee is still sometimes taken aback that I can properly sound out Thai words, including words she does not know the meaning of correctly. (Note: Though correctly is certainly neither fluid nor fluent).

Spend ten hours with this book and you will be able to read though any Thai would laugh and then would likely admit that ok, you are correct, but you would speak the word with proper tones, but it would still sound rather stilted.

Then, what I suggest, for those who might be interested (or do this first--it does not matter) is download the free Thai Typing Tutor, search for "Thai Typing Tutor" and "Bangkok Library," it is a free download. Again you can do this first, you do not need to know sounds to transcribe, but I think it is better to know the sounds because as you type your brain will associate the sounds with the characters. This free program might seem not to work on occasion but it does work, it just takes some effort to figure out what you're doing wrong when something seems not to work.

Then simply start to learn to type these strange marks (or marks that have sounds in your head). Get to the point where you can type fairly fast and fluidly. Fluidly typing in Thai, I would guess would be about 20 words per minute, which might translate to about a rate of 40 wpm if you type in English. Typing in Thai is slower because some characters are modified with tone marks which indicate hi/mid/low tones, and marks that shorten or otherwise affect the sound and yes, the Thai keyboard can type one character in several ways: the main character (letter) or the character plus one or more modifying tonal marks.

At any rate if you get to where you can transcribe (whether you know the sounds associated with the markings or not) at a rate of about 20 words per minute (or about 100 characters/marks per minute) then if you haven't already, use the e-book to be able to "sound out" the words that you type.

Now you have left Romanized "abc's" in the dust--for you they no longer exist! For you กะซวก becomes what we'd type "ga" (low tone) "suaak" (falling tone) but for you now, there is no translation into and out of English--the sounds simply relate to what we now see are strange marks and these marks tell you the sound to make, and tell you if the sound is short or long, or if the word contains low, mid, high, rising or falling tones.

If you do this, you are no longer an English speaker translating into Thai, you now have a Thai language mind--and the marks, once strange, tell you, rather straight-forward how to make the sound. But as correct as you are--you'll still get laughed at, but......you'll still be understood!

Now, assuming that you know the tones and their rules by spending about 10-20 hours with the e-book; and you have now learned to transcribe Thai at a fairly fast rate (note: a fast rate forces the brain to actually create neural connections whereby the connection to the sound by the character with its mark(s) = "a sound;" to type too slow and your lazy brain will attempt to translate in and out of Romanized translation--the trick is to force the brain to NOT translate!). Now you can properly read and make correct sounds, albeit without much smoothness, fluidity or style.

If you wish to go farther I would suggest then getting AUA Language Center's Thai Course: Reading and Writing by J Marvin Brown. There are two books one is Reading and the 2nd is Writing. You can buy these books (I think) by searching using the following terms: "J Marvin Brown + Thai Course + Cornell University" (You are looking for Cornell University Press) but the google search will usually find one of the books and lead you there.

Do NOT buy one of J Marvin Brown's books from Amazon or any other bookseller UNLESS you have a guarantee that the binding is flexible. These books were printed back in the '60's and most from booksellers other than AUA or Cornell will be that old, even if "new." From my experience the glue has lost its flexability and you will end up with hundreds of loose pages.

By the way, J Marvin Brown has an entire set of books to learn Thai AND accompanying excellent (unfortunately) cassette recordings. I do not think that AUA or Cornell has plans to turn this excellent set of sound recordings into a CD/DVD or MP3's but you can get the entire set through interlibrary loan, and there are inexpensive (~$25) devices that allow you to play each cassette, and output the sound to an MP3. Here in the US the store Staples has such a device.

I do not believe that you can become a competent Thai speaker without a Thai teacher just by using this suggested methodology, but if you use this methodology I suspect that given a Thai teacher, you will be able to, since you now have a competent foundation, learn extremely quickly once you have a competent teacher to teach you the nuances which are so important.

Note: Any 'ol Thai person does not a good Thai teacher make! Teaching a language is a skill and only those who really have made a good effort in learning to teach a language will excel at teaching it.

Oh, by the way, AUA has several locations in Thailand at Chiang Mai, and at Bkk and perhaps others--you can buy these books from them there too though I do not think that they have the cassettes.

Edited March 31, 2012 by jsflynn603

[Delight]

BRADDOCK RD said

'. To learn to read I suggest that you download a tiny e-book from 1steasythaialphabet dot com, or easythaialphabet dot com. '

Opinions clearly vary.

In my opinion it is terrible.

The point of giving the Thai consonants individual names is so that Thai people can communicate with each other when clarifying spelling.It is a vital part of the system and just as valid for farang.

This system does not refer to the names .

Clearly who ever designed this process has little understanding of Thailand or its language

Also

It is ,to its credit, a unique (if flawed )approach-but it seems to me to require just about the same amount of effort that is required for the more conventional process.

The approach to learning the Thai Consonants is the same as eating an elephant -a bit at a time.