How To Read Thai ? How Did You Guys Done It ?

[Holysteel]

I came across this website. Learning Thai the rapid way. By RapidLL.

Is his course effective ?

Anyone care to share their experience ?

[craigt3365]

I think this is better over in the Thai Language forum.

Topic Moved.

[arthurwait]

I put it off for years thinking it would be too difficult. I finally gave it a go by learning the consanants starting with trying to learn 2 per day, starting with the easiest looking ones and trying to recall all that I had learnt so far everyday. I think Joh jahn and goh ghia were the first I learnt.

I tried to write them down when I had nothing to do throughout the day.

Soon with the invisble o vowel i could make a few words which helped encourage me.

When I had learnt some vowels I stating reading road signs while stuck in the car. Bang Na being the first one I realised I could read.

It got harder with the vowels and I still can't hear the difference between some of them and I've never bothered with learning tones, which I really should I suppose. I do forget some of the rarely used letters sometimes.

I (and you) should try to remember how to spell every new word I learn as there is 6 t's, 5 k's etc. to know which one to use.

I am very far off reading or speaking fluently, but if you do the same you could learn the letters within 2 or 3 months and at least be able to read words you know.

When remembering them i list them in order of what they sound like in the English alphabet.

Edit: Sorry I just re-read the opening post . No I didn't do that course.

Edited July 29, 2012 by arthurwait

[villagefarang]

I done did it da ol fashun way. Practice an repetition.

[Holysteel]

Should i just memories the alphabet as a very first step first? Or can i just jump across this rapidll guy course ?

I can speak very fluent Thai at the moment.

The only thing i want to mainly achieve is to read as a first priority.

The writing will follow.. What do u guys think ?Or should i write first & read ?

[bangkockney]

Buy some books for children. The ones that let you trace the shapes of the letters.

Also get the children's books that have proverbs, nursery rhymes etc. I found them invaluable as a beginner.

If you need some title names let me know and I'll post when I'm back home.

[hookedondhamma]

Benjawan's Thai for Beginners (if you get through that then you should try taking a look at Thai Reference grammar by orchid press)

[Richard W]

Should i just memories the alphabet as a very first step first?

It's a lot to learn in one chunk. I recommend starting with a useful and simple set of consonants, vowels, and tone marks, say ก ค ง ด ต น บ ป พ ฟ ม ย ร ล ว ส ห อ, the vowels อะ อั อา อิ อี อุ อู เอ ไอ เอา เออ and the tone marks อ่ อ้ and extending from there. Do note the ways of making new characters from old (อา is just the length mark, and is incorporated in อี and อู), and make a chart of systematically laid out consonants available for reference.

As you're fluent in Thai, you can practise from the simple signs you see in the street.

Edited July 29, 2012 by Richard W

[Holysteel]

Hello there Richard. Yeah im fluent only in spoken Thai.

But i cant recognized a single thai alphabet. Only maybe Kor Kai. and thats it.

Still, this is confusing for me. I duno where to start now.

Been thinking of that rapid guy course. Learn Thai the Rapid way.

But i dun seems to find any positive comment on his course. Only negative one. What do you guys think?

I want to double confrm before spending my hard earned money on it.

[mania]

I think you need to just start

How fast is up to you really. Everyone is different.

If you think you can believe in that rapid method & learn *&* retain

13 consonants in 10 minutes well that would be great

Not realistic but great

Instead why not just start & apply yourself?

Try learn 11 consonants. When you get those down cold do 11 more & so on

Next learn the long vowels, short vowels, tone rules & marks & so on.

My suggestion is if you have the time & a few baht

go take a uni course. For myself a structured enviorment is always better.

But even if you go take a course if possible learn at least the consonats before you start as it will help you greatly.

[Surin steve]

When I first started learning Thai the language course gave the option to learn the Thai script along with the sounds I'm glad I did I found it a help once you recognise the letters you can pronounce the words right some sounds in Thai have no equal in English ie. ง = ng ก = kg

[DrTuner]

Rote memorization and repetition. That's how it's taught here and that's how it works, too. A couple of months, 2-3 hours a day should do the trick. Just buy a kookai from any bookshop and start cracking.

[Richard W]

But i cant recognized a single thai alphabet. Only maybe Kor Kai. and thats it.

Still, this is confusing for me. I duno where to start now.

It's difficult without knowing more about you. If you have an interest in languages, I recommend skimming through Mary Haas's book, legally available on-line at http://eric.ed.gov/E...?accno=ED089536 . (Reference got from http://womenlearntha...ai-online-free/ .) There are three problems with it:

a) It's more a reference that a step-by-step guide, and that is why I suggest skimming it, just to understand how Thai writing works. (Having even half-heartedly studied an Indian language in an Indian script would give you a good idea, but I don't get the feeling you have.)

It might go over your head. You might need to consult Wikipedia for some of the terms, and that still might not help.

c) The quality of the copy is bad, but you can supplement some of it with other materials.

For other materials, it depends whether you have easy access to a computer and storage on it.

I suggest you print out a copy of the coloured table at http://www.thai-lang...tion-consonants . It would be best if you printed it in landscape. You can cut the table out and stick it in a word processor - Word, OpenOffice, LibreOffice or possibly even Wordpad. Ignore the annotations in brackets, and ignore the two consonants labelled only with 'kh'. They are not used to write (proper) Thai. You may well want three copies of the table.

I suggest you also print out the first table at http://www.thai-lang.../ref/consonants . This is not arranged to reveal patterns in the language, but it gives the sounds of consonants at the end of syllables. (As you will know, Thai distinguishes consonant sounds more at the beginning that at the end of words.) You may wish to add the final sounds to the phonetic organisation chart.

Print out http://www.thai-lang....com/ref/vowels .

You now have a key to the elements of Thai writing. For tones you can use http://www.thai-lang.../ref/tone-rules and http://www.thai-language.com/ref/tones, or pick the information up from many other places.

For practice at reading, I suggest you go through the Fundamentals of the Thai Language by Stuart Campbell and Chuan Shaweevongs, e.g. at http://www.lyndonhil...i/CONTENTS.html, pick out the words in the vocabularies composed only of the consonants, vowels and tonemarks I listed in an earlier post, and see if you can make sense of them. Start at the beginning of the book, where the words are simple. There are versions that can be downloaded as a single zip file, but the last time I saw one you had to use the fonts packaged with it. The link here may not be stable - so far as I am aware, it is still in copyright, but it seems no-one knows how to contact the authors or their heirs.

Edited July 29, 2012 by Richard W

[ThailandDenmark417]

I came across this website. Learning Thai the rapid way. By RapidLL.

Is his course effective ?

Anyone care to share their experience ?

Learn2speakThai dot net

That's the only thing you need. She'll do the job. Learn how to read and write as quickly as possible, it'll help your pronounciation tremendously

[Johnniey]

Benjawan's Thai for Beginners (if you get through that then you should try taking a look at Thai Reference grammar by orchid press)

That is not so good. I learned with AU A book . 30 min every day for a month. Easy.

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Thaivisa Connect App

[FritsSikkink]

Why don't go to school and get a private tutor. If you are fluent in Thai you should learn it very quickly.

[Holysteel]

Why don't go to school and get a private tutor. If you are fluent in Thai you should learn it very quickly.

Because sub consciously, i seems to mentally shut down & refused to listen to a Thai teaching me. This happened with my gf. She keep shooting out words unsystematically and expects me to understand it. They dun understand how our foreign minds works..

I prefer getting teach by people who are on the same wavelength as me. Thats is, a foreigner have mastered the language.

[Holysteel]

And also. I dun understand why thai letters are all sticked together with no spacing at all ..

Try reading this english version below without the spacing !!

InSanskrittheanusvāraindicatesthattheprecedingvowelbenasalisedInthaithisswrittenasanopencircleabovetheconsonantNasalisationdoesnotoccurinThai, thereforeanasalstopisalwayssubstituted:e.g.ตํtaṃispronouncedasตังtangbyThaisanskritistsIfnikhahitoccursbeforeaconsonantthenThaiusesanasalstopofthe sameclass:

Now try the version with the spacing :

In Sanskrit, the anusvāra indicates that the preceding vowel be nasalised. In Thai this is written as an open circle above the consonant. Nasalisation does not occur in Thai, therefore, a nasal stop is always substituted: e.g. ตํ taṃ, is pronounced as ตัง tang by Thai sanskritists. If nikhahit occurs before a consonant, then Thai uses a nasal stop of the same class:

Now which is easier & makes more sense ? Lol......

[Richard W]

And also. I dun understand why thai letters are all sticked together with no spacing at all ..

The Thai would have more spaces than the way you wrote the English. Roughly speaking, normal Thai uses spaces where English uses punctuation marks. If you look at the serialised stories in a magazine, e.g. Cheewit Rak, you'll find the text significantly broken up by column boundaries, ellipses (...) and quotation marks. The dialogue also has plenty of question and exclamation marks, though not as many as the cartoons. The breaks normally occur at word boundaries, though Thais isn't as clear as English as to where word boundaries are.

What prevents the transition to separating words by spaces may simply be the non-use of the comma. Without the use of commas and spaces, simply adding extra white space for word boundaries would make Thai more difficult to read for those who are literate. I suppose one could try narrow and wide spaces, as you may see in some handwritten material. Material for those unfamiliar with writing also tends to have inter-word (or inter-syllable) gaps. It has been recommended that some minority languages have inter-word spaces - people are less fluent at reading minority languages, as speakers who are functionally literate tend to read Thai. Furthermore, long education seems to suppress the inter-word spaces.

[FritsSikkink]

Why don't go to school and get a private tutor. If you are fluent in Thai you should learn it very quickly.

Because sub consciously, i seems to mentally shut down & refused to listen to a Thai teaching me. This happened with my gf. She keep shooting out words unsystematically and expects me to understand it. They dun understand how our foreign minds works..

I prefer getting teach by people who are on the same wavelength as me. Thats is, a foreigner have mastered the language.

A good teacher will do it systematical. That your gf can't teach doesn't make Thai teachers bad.

If you refuse to listen to Thais i wonder how you got fluent in Thai in the first place.

[Holysteel]

Why don't go to school and get a private tutor. If you are fluent in Thai you should learn it very quickly.

Because sub consciously, i seems to mentally shut down & refused to listen to a Thai teaching me. This happened with my gf. She keep shooting out words unsystematically and expects me to understand it. They dun understand how our foreign minds works..

I prefer getting teach by people who are on the same wavelength as me. Thats is, a foreigner have mastered the language.

If you refuse to listen to Thais i wonder how you got fluent in Thai in the first place.

So you are calling me a liar ? Is that what you meant ?

For speaking & pronunction. I do listen to them all right. But on how to read. Answer is no. I prefer listening & taking the advice of a foreigner.

[FritsSikkink]

Why don't go to school and get a private tutor. If you are fluent in Thai you should learn it very quickly.

Because sub consciously, i seems to mentally shut down & refused to listen to a Thai teaching me. This happened with my gf. She keep shooting out words unsystematically and expects me to understand it. They dun understand how our foreign minds works..

I prefer getting teach by people who are on the same wavelength as me. Thats is, a foreigner have mastered the language.

If you refuse to listen to Thais i wonder how you got fluent in Thai in the first place.

So you are calling me a liar ? Is that what you meant ?

For speaking & pronunction. I do listen to them all right. But on how to read. Answer is no. I prefer listening & taking the advice of a foreigner.

No liar, just stating that you would learn more from a good Thai teacher.

It is very hard to learn to pronounce some words correctly in Thai if you can't read it.

The officail English translation on road signs e.g. isn't always correct.

[Delight]

Just a few of points that may help with the vowels.

1. From a speaking point of view you only need to learn the LONG vowels. Speaking the SHORT vowels is essentially the same as the LONG –just make it short (and low tone).
   

Your gf will help with the speaking of these vowels. Learning

the correct ‘mouth ‘position is vital.

1. Any book shop will supply a chart of vowels. Considering vowels 9 thru to 24 . Remove -อ- and its SHORT pair. A geometric pattern can be formed from the remaining 14 vowels. i.e. Simply adding –ะ- to the LONG vowels gives the SHORT vowel symbols.
   
2. Be aware that 3 pairs of vowels on the list of vowels 9 to 24 are 2 basic vowels which are merged to form a diphthong.
   

The symbol for the basic vowels features in 2 of the 3 pairs .

1. It certainly helped me to select English words that have the Thai vowel embedded in them. In spite of the fact that this approach for certain vowels is imperfect (some Thai vowels such as อื do not feature in English). It still helped.
   

For the 1^st 4 vowel pairs I selected the words

FATHER SEE SMILER (smile) SUE

The next 7 pairs I chose:

MAY FAIR GO BURN NEWER (smile) MAFIA SEWER (kiss)

The words in brackets are a guide as to the shape of your mouth

.

Remember the Thai vowels are absolute. The way that they are spoken never changes –and of course the name of the vowel is the sound of the vowel preceded by the word สระ sà~​rà

The foregoing does not cover the whole position -but it may help you

[numnut65]

Hi Holysteel

I bought the rapid thai course it's ok and not too expensive and would recomend it,but there's lots of free stuff out there,thai language .com for one,u can learn everything about the alphabet and how to read and write thai,and there's a great book, reading thai is fun by james neal. But i'm curious about how u can speak fluent thai and u don't know anything about the alphabet. How did u do it?

[Holysteel]

Hi Holysteel

I bought the rapid thai course it's ok and not too expensive and would recomend it,but there's lots of free stuff out there,thai language .com for one,u can learn everything about the alphabet and how to read and write thai,and there's a great book, reading thai is fun by james neal. But i'm curious about how u can speak fluent thai and u don't know anything about the alphabet. How did u do it?

Hi numnut. Learning to speak Thai was all right for me. I do not know what was the reason too. But i guess it was bcos it came naturally from living here many years & hanging out with the Thai people. And i hang out alot. I will sometimes even hang out around with the Thai whiskey guys gathered around in their nightly drinking session sit in a circle formation. Just for the fun of it.

U have to keep asking questions. What is this? what is that. how do you call that? You must have the sincere determination to learn.

Thirdly, get a Thai partner. If you do not have one yet. Get one. It will help tremendously with your language learning. Especially when both of you get into a fight or a quarrel. You will be amazed how quickly u learn Thai by quarreling. All the ai sud ai heir ai yet mae wlll all comes out. LOL...

Well. Thats how i learned to speak Thai mainly at the beginning . But i also do take the initiative to pick out those Thai songs that i like. I translated the lyrics into english also into 'par sa karaoke' & try to analyze it, but i will ignore the thai characters.

For example : Tur Ja Roo Bang Mai ?? Wah Jai Krong Row..Mung jeab chum..~~~

Meaning : Do you ever know ?? That the hearts of ours.. are painfully hurted~~

Something like this. You dun have to get a 100% spot on, on why this is this this is that. Just try to catch on. & Dun try to break it down like a scholar. It will just makes things complicated. Well at least for me.

Just go with the flow..& memories one word at a time, like a baby: Nam is water, Bird = Nok, Dun want = Mai Aw etc etc etc

And yeah. Get a Thai partner. It will help alot.

[DrTuner]

And also. I dun understand why thai letters are all sticked together with no spacing at all ..

Try reading this english version below without the spacing !!

InSanskrittheanusvāraindicatesthattheprecedingvowelbenasalisedInthaithisswrittenasanopencircleabovetheconsonantNasalisationdoesnotoccurinThai, thereforeanasalstopisalwayssubstituted:e.g.ตํtaṃispronouncedasตังtangbyThaisanskritistsIfnikhahitoccursbeforeaconsonantthenThaiusesanasalstopofthe sameclass:

Now try the version with the spacing :

In Sanskrit, the anusvāra indicates that the preceding vowel be nasalised. In Thai this is written as an open circle above the consonant. Nasalisation does not occur in Thai, therefore, a nasal stop is always substituted: e.g. ตํ taṃ, is pronounced as ตัง tang by Thai sanskritists. If nikhahit occurs before a consonant, then Thai uses a nasal stop of the same class:

Now which is easier & makes more sense ? Lol......

Believe it or not, I had no major difficulties reading the first one. Once you get the hang of it, most languages use syllables and the brain does learn how to spot them. It's the same in Thai, there's a limited number of syllables. Through sheer repetition the imaging algorithm within the neural network called the brain will adjust. The learning process might be unpleasant and slow, but unless there's an actual brain defect, it will eventually work.

As mentioned before, the novels you can buy from 7/11 have spaces. As do cartoons, which I prefer to use for learning. Nothing like a few aliens being butchered by the resident mad professor to help in learning to recognize words. Available in every bookshop.

[deesquared]

I used a private tutor. I studied 3 days a week, 1 hour each day. We used kindergarten books at first and then moved up to first grade, etc.. Using this method it is possible to be able to read and write Thai in a matter of months.

[Holysteel]

Okay. I think im starting to get the whole rough idea now. And had been making some progress.

Where is the list. Where they group all the similar looking Kor Kai together, similar Ngo goo together etc etc etc ?

[FritsSikkink]

http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Thai/maanii/menu/default.htm

[Richard W]

Where is the list. Where they group all the similar looking Kor Kai together, similar Ngo goo together etc etc etc ?

If you mean Doug Cooper's paper, there's a scanned in photocopy at http://sealang.net/s...oper1996how.pdf and another version, with a Thaivisa cross-reference, is available via http://homepage.ntlw...hai_preface.htm . The list of look-alikes at http://www.decodeunicode.org/en/thai is being worked on - the ง ngor nguu จ jor jaan อ or aang set is currently missing.

For the phonetic grid of the consonants, I've already given you the relevant page in thai-language.com in this thread.

Edited August 5, 2012 by Richard W