Best Book To Learn Thai Alphabet

[fanciman]

Hello, not much response elsewhere, so i thought i would try here:

which is the best book to start learning thai language by learning to read/write the alphabet?

There are web sites with audio for providing the sounds for each letter, so audio material might not be needed. (Which is the best web site?)

Ideally, the book would be based on a good system of mnemonics to help the learner.

[jdinasia]

try he Thai Language sub-forum .... but the alphabet won't help you if you don't understand the classes etc ... so buy Thai For Beginners ... Benjawan Poomsan Becker

[astral]

Check in your local book/stationary shop.

They have wall charts showing each letter and the object it describes.

The young kids writing books will help you to write the characters.

[fanciman]

The language sub-forum sucks, in comparison to this one; i wrote there about 2 days ago, 22 views, no replies.

Here, within 2 *minutes* I have already had (thanks to you!) a good reply.

Actually, i did look there again, and there is a sticky with some useful links to online pages, which helps answer part of my question.

Why do you recommend that book, anyway?

[Neeranam]

I learned the letters of the alphabet using the kids books - 'gaw gai, kaw kai etc'.

Then I used Pratom 1 Thai books(the books the 7 year olds use), then Pratom 2, 3.

The best book I've seen is a book from AUA - you can get it at Rajdamri centre in Bangkok.

I also saw it in the book shop in the Emporium with the Japanese name.

Study for 30 min every day and you'll be able to read in a 1 month, it isn't hard.

Why anyone who lives here doesn't bother to learn this baffles me. Although I could speak fairly well when I learned to read, my vocabulary and expression improved greatly.

Also save me a few baht - as I can read the menus in those Bangkok restaurants that double price.

I don't have to buy the crap, expensive English newspapers.

[jdinasia]

yes ... 25 baht for a newspaper! That's crazy!

[jdinasia]

anyways ... knowing the alphabet only helps when you know the rules that go with them ....

very complicated iff you want to be able to say what you read

[Neeranam]

jdinasia - did you learn how to read Thai, if so how did you do it?

It isn't that complicated - 1 month and a person of average intelligence can do it.

Most people just think it is complicated, so never bother. I know a guy who has been here 3 years and can't even write his name, or read the bus destinations!

[jdinasia]

Not complicated? ... no not if you don't want to be able to speak what you read correctly!

otherwise it is incredibly complicated

3 classes of consonant with 5 tones .. tone markers do not mean the same thing for each class of consonant

3 classes of vowels that change the rules as well .... not to count the special classes of vowels

2 types of words depending upon the ending consonant .... also change the rules ...

easy to "read"? mostly if you exclude the special classes of vowels that are mostly found in proper names and words imported from Pali... but if you don't understand the other rules you'll never pronounce it correctly

your 1 month claim taken in that light is just silly! The best school program in Thailand gives 300 hours of classes to get people to the "basic" level" of understanding of Thai

[phibunmike]

Hello, not much response elsewhere, so i thought i would try here:

which is the best book to start learning thai language by learning to read/write the alphabet?

There are web sites with audio for providing the sounds for each letter, so audio material might not be needed. (Which is the best web site?)

Ideally, the book would be based on a good system of mnemonics to help the learner.

I use a thin primary school kids book that my 7 year old niece gave me - of course it doesn't explain the pronounciation of each letter in English, so you need another book as well, or to sit down with a Thai for a few minutes and make some notes. I also have a kids VCD of Gor gai, etc., you can buy anywhere - it is often playing at one of the VCD shops just outside BigC...

I find copying out the letters once a day allows learning them much more quickly than long sessions once a week. You can then start to read a surprising amount, but of course as jdinasia said, to learn the pronounciation properly (lower class consonants, dead syllables, etc.) is a much longer project. However, just being able to read the odd item on menus, which minivan goes to Hua Hin, etc., is very satisfying and a good start... IMHO.

[jdinasia]

I concur mike .... but is it READING? only in the most basic way ... but it makes life a HELLuva lot easier ....

the women in the local market all think I speak Thai fluently! (utter silliness ... I just go to shops with written info ... (and all women ask the same 5 questions at first ((same with taxidrivers)) so I always know how to reply!)

[JKD]

There's an old book called 'The Fundamentals of the Thai Language' that came out in the 50's. Not sure if it's still in print but it is available but it is available for download on the net. Highly recommended.

[meadish_sweetball]

I second the recommendation to get the AUA books for reading and writing.

Neeraram's time frame seems optimistic to me, maybe because we do not have the same criteria for what "reading" is, or because he is a real language prodigy - I have never met him so I don't know.

In contrast, when I studied Thai it took our university class 6 months to get to the stage where we were able to take up a Thai text and read it with proper sounds and tones (stutteringly, slowly, and with a few mistakes, but it was reading).

If you do not really make an effort to aqcuire the proper sounds with the Thai letters when you are learning them, you will do yourself a disfavour in my opinion. It is always better to do it proper from the start then to leave it half-finished.

[Khutan]

I am not trying to flame, but, can we have some shop names and proper locations of these shops.

I have been up Ratchadamri Rd probably 7 times this week (The U-Turn at the Petchaburi Rd end is a killer), and I could not see any shops that sell these books.

I am motivated, I have a 5 year old learning at school and my wife is a Native speaker. So I want to do it.

Or can I suggest we get a group together, and support each other through the learning, I am sure we can find a local Thai teacher who would love 200B an hour for a bit of regular O/T

What about it ????

[Rikker]

There's an old book called 'The Fundamentals of the Thai Language' that came out in the 50's. Not sure if it's still in print but it is available but it is available for download on the net. Highly recommended.

Please do tell where it is available for download. Is this หลักภาษาไทย that we're talking about? From my experience, there are at least two "classic" books with this title.

[Guest endure]

There's an old book called 'The Fundamentals of the Thai Language' that came out in the 50's. Not sure if it's still in print but it is available but it is available for download on the net. Highly recommended.

Please do tell where it is available for download. Is this หลักภาษาไทย that we're talking about? From my experience, there are at least two "classic" books with this title.

http://www.thai-info2004.com/the_language_thailand.htm

[Neeranam]

Again, the AUA book is really good. Honestly I learnt to read in about 1 month, studying every day for 30 minutes with it.

I had learnt the letters before using the "gaw gai" books though.

[falang74]

Here is my take on learning Thai.

First a little background. I am married to a Thai and have spent around a year in Thailand. Before I tried to learn Thai I could understand maybe a hundred or two words for every day survival. I bought Bejawan Poomsan Beckers book and got completely confused by the rules. My wife hates trying to teach me because I am the type of learner who needs ask's alot of questions and likes to clarify.

Fast forward. I decided to leave the military and returned to the University of Hawaii at Manoa for Asian/Thai studies. I am neither and idiot or brain dead, in fact, I am on the Dean's list and have received an internship a national scholarship and other recognitions. Still when I came to my first Thai class I was at the same level as the rest of the beginners except for a head start on some vocabulary. We used the AUA text Mostly reading and Mostly writing and Beginning Thai from Australian National Univerity.

Spanish is easy, Thai is hard...........but only at first and it get's better. Where I have most difficulty is with tone rules and certain irregular situations which are coming and will pass in time.

I now after 9 months of study 1 hour 5 days a week am starting to see the light, things are getting easier. Thats 160 total hours plus my home study. That's not alot of time. It did require someone to answer questions and explain intricacies of Thai language.

So to each his own, but if you live in Thailand and don't even bother thats sad.

For some resources:

Thai alphabet calender, if you make sure and learn the tone when learning the letter and it's corresponding figure it might help when you later need to apply tone rules in figuring out the spelling of words. For example (sorry no Thai font on this comp) Gah Gai the first letter is mid tone the letter is mid and the word is mid. Try and remember this when you learn it.

Consonants: http://www.hawaii.edu/thai/materials/images/thail.gif

Vowels http://www.hawaii.edu/thai/materials/images/thaiv.gif

Besides the calender the Thai website at my school has some other resources; songs, Thai fonts, and more.

Thai language site I support and hope others will, it's a nice resource

http://www.thai-language.com/dict/

You can buy the kids alphabet song CD's at Panthip or any Big C.

Gotta run, I will try to add more soon.

Aaron

[poorfarang]

How much is the AUA book? Im in samui, is it possible to get it or a copy sent here?

[Rikker]

I don't know if the AUA books are in print in Thailand. They're not readily available in the U.S., though. I'm looking to pick up a set in decent shape. On the online used book stores ones in poor shape are around 10 bucks each and nicer copies are $60 for the set.