If you could start learning Thai from scratch...

[GotR1GHT]

I started to learn Thai at age 257 and had no previous experience. I spent many hours (800 plus) just listening to spoken Thai and was not allowed to attempt speaking all that time.

[ahqaf]

i beleive "practise makes a man perfect" so no matter to worry...mind it

[Bikkii]

I would have learnt street Thai and slang at the begginning as opposed to having to learn it from the locals.

Would have saved having to learn Thai twice.

[Ajaan]

I would have learnt street Thai and slang at the begginning as opposed to having to learn it from the locals.

Would have saved having to learn Thai twice.

One should always use the proper form of a language first, then any dialects or slang later. If you can only communicate in one way, it should be the correct way, that way you will be understood by the most people, and not sound like an idiot in situations where slang is inappropriate. Any additional dialects/slang is gravy/extra credit, but should be built on a solid foundation. And one should always learn to read right from the start too (which will help with correct pronunciation).

[dazzle]

I started to learn Thai at age 257and had no previous experience. I spent many hours (800 plus) just listening to spoken Thai and was not allowed to attempt speaking all that time. This is the system used at the A. U. A. school in Bangkok. "Ear training" or "learning to listen" is the key.

I was only 152!

[steveromagnino]

I think your Aunt had some good advice. She probably understood more about cognition than she realized. I know I speak too quickly; perhaps in an attempt to sound more fluent.

When I repeat I usually try to say it in a different way. Maybe it is better to say the exact same thing, slowly and clearly.

(Reminds me of a visit to the hardware store. I asked for ตาปู, but they didn't understand. I tried miming the action of a carpenter pounding a nail with a hammer. Still no luck. I found the nails on my own.)

Yes, my auntie speaks Thai, but not so much English, so it was good when I first moved back as I had to speak almost all Thai. Sadly she didn't correct many of my mistakes, but most of them, so I guess I did ok.

ตาปู is actually ตะปู (so that's the really short vowel sound for the ตะ and then long for the ปู; when you see the ะ it's the aim to cut the vowel sound as short as possible, a short break between the syllables, then the ปู is long vowel sound. ตะ is not an easy sound for a westerner to say, I swear I cannot hear the difference between ต and ด even though I know exactly how to say each. ด is like a D in the word door, dawn, dog. ต you move your tongue from the middle of the roof of your mouth when you say d to instead press your tongue fairly hard against the back of your front upper teeth and you push the middle of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, sealing the airfloor, then push slightly more air through your mouth when you release your tongue from against your teeth and say the ต meaning it comes out as a harder sound halfway between a D and a T (which doesn't exist in English).

It's the same for บ and ป, not easy for an English speaker to say correctly, again (my aunt) taught me the physics so the sound comes out correctly, so even though I cannot hear the difference always between the 2, I get the sound right. บ is easy like bike boy band, you push your lips together gently and gently exhale and the sound comes out. ป is more complex halfway between a P and a B, and the way to say it is to force your lips together so they are rolled onto eachother (rather than just touching) they are holding ALL the air from coming out of your mouth, push about twice as much air through and then release your lips almost like a P sound and s you say ป

I did find that exaggerating the way to say each at first was a little comical but ended up in getting the sound actually correct.

So the word ตะปู is one of the hardest for a western speaker to get right; it is very rare I meet a western Thai speaker who seems to nail a word like this

- the vowel lengths (in English tend to all be medium length, this word needs short vowel then long vowel)

- the ต sound correct (normally comes out as English D which is sounds same to us, but is a multitude different for a Thai listener)

- the ป sound correct (normally comes out as English B which sounds same to us, but again is very different for a Thai listener)

If you know the word hammer ค้อน (long vowel high tone) then the context would be easier, but for sure this is the type of word I would also stumble on sometimes to get myself understood.

And just to put in context, I use Thai all the time in the workplace and am (sometimes) confused for a native Thai speaker (not for long though)...but there are certain words like ตะปู that give me away.

Edited January 13, 2014 by steveromagnino

[Ratsima]

ตาปู is actually ตะปู

Your post explains perfectly why I've given up.

If I hear an Australian say, "I pahked the cah in the cah pahk", I know that he means, "I parked the car in the parking lot".

But, when the Thai hardware store owner hears me say ตาปู he doesn't have the wherewithal to figure out that I meant ตะปู. I mean, how much of a leap is it? How many products does he carry that sound like ตาปู? My guess is that there is exactly one and that it is ตะปู. Why doesn't he have the brain power to figure out what I meant to say? Why doesn't he have the courtesy to give it a shot? Why does he simply dismiss what I've said instead of making an effort to figure it out?

I'm a lazy, sloppy, careless person. Thais expect perfection of pronunciation. I'm never going to get there.

It's over.

[steveromagnino]

Thai is a single syllable language (for the most part). So it is a lot harder to contextually fill in the gaps, plus unlike English Thais have (except in Bangkok where there are quite a lot of thai speakers) yet to hear a lot of Thai that is outside the regional accents....resulting in a bit of an expectation that the word is said correctly because there are so few syllables to join together.

Honestly, if I heard you mispronounce it, I could make the mental leap to get to what you wanted by the context (hardware store, so you are not wanting crab eyes for instance) but given the way I have hear so many farang speak to Thai shop assistants (rattling off a list of things in English often using brand names, then getting frustrated and losing their temper when their list is unable to be understood).

For what it is worth, I had to repeat almost every single thing I wanted to say in USA when I lived there, because of my accent, so I am not sure it's so different.

Which is why, even if you have given up, perhaps a small way to reduce your frustration is get a handheld eng-Thai dictionary, and carry it with you in the car; when you need to buy something you can use that to do a translation on the spot or point and show - it makes doing certain things a lot less frustrating.

[antimedia]

Do same as before, give up after a few lessons and have a cold beer then move to a rural area and learn while drinking lao khao with the locals. Worked a treat, at least we all understand each other, don't have to worry about bloody tones and pronounciation when you are pissed.

Edited January 14, 2014 by antimedia

[kennypowers]

Although I learned adhoc, I am pleased I did. I learned from Thai people, mainly one Thai friend who I'd hang out with most days. This really helped me with proper pronunciation, and I learned to speak using Thai that Thais use on an everyday basis. I eventually enrolled for a school and found that there were people who were supposedly more advanced that me but struggled to understand Thais when they spoke to shop staff or in social situations, and struggled to be understood. The school was useful and I did learn better structure and did advance, but I left and continued to study at home with the help of my partner.

There's a really useful post called Fluent in Thai in 3 Months here: http://www.thethailandlife.com/fluent-thai-3-months which reinforces my view that the key to learning efficiently is to use different tools to keep the learning experience fun and interactive; books, software, Youtube, music, etc.

Immerse yourself in the language, but most importantly get out there and speak with Thai people. Learn to speak like they do because its them you need to understand what you're saying!

[kevindorian]

here is a new review of that Thai Pod 101 course as well, might check it out

http://learnthaireviews.com/thai-pod-101-language-program-review/

[Tchooptip]

So, yesterday I'm cycling in the boonies and stop for lunch. The proprietor of the restaurant asked me what I wanted.

I replied: "หมูทอดกระเทียม".

The proprietor gave me a puzzled look and said, "ข้าวผัด".

Well, no.

But, this is the story of my life with Thai. No one ever understands.

I keep trying, every single day, but make pretty much zero progress.

(And, yes, I eventually got my garlic fried pork, but it took many stabs and an especially tedious exchange clarifying that I wanted pork, not chicken.)

Possible he was from Myanmar?

"normally" most Thais should have understood at least with the context in a restaurant, chicken "or" eggs OK, but moo is far from kai even with the wrong tone.

[max72]

I would take much more time to learn tones properly,thai is a tonal language and it depends on tone and vowel lenght if you're gonna be understood or not.

If thai is non-tonal language i would probably be fluent already.

Definitely the first piece of advice would be to avoid picking up more and more words if you can't master the tones, because it's a waste of time.

Tones are part of the language and you can't learn any Thai avoiding them.

It's not only a waste of time, but learning Thai words without the correct tones, it can make a great damage, because after awhile (weeks, months, years...) it will be harder to correct your Thai in the proper way.

Better to insist in tones rather than picking up more words ....these can come later...

everything will be easy when you can master the tones in the proper way.

[GotR1GHT]

I would take much more time to learn tones properly,thai is a tonal language and it depends on tone and vowel lenght if you're gonna be understood or not.

If thai is non-tonal language i would probably be fluent already.

Definitely the first piece of advice would be to avoid picking up more and more words if you can't master the tones, because it's a waste of time.

Tones are part of the language and you can't learn any Thai avoiding them.

It's not only a waste of time, but learning Thai words without the correct tones, it can make a great damage, because after awhile (weeks, months, years...) it will be harder to correct your Thai in the proper way.

Better to insist in tones rather than picking up more words ....these can come later...

everything will be easy when you can master the tones in the proper way.

That's exactly a mistake what i made. I was reading thai book like it was written in english(reading without knowing tones).Soon i realized how big mistake i made.Good thing i'm still young and can start learning all over again

[bow]

Biggest mistake: I didn't even try to learn the tones. I thought that they would come naturally, without having to study them. They did not.

Did I get anything right ? Yes, I started on Thai reading and writing from day one. Using the Thai alphabet, of course.

[sms747]

I would go back and ask the Thai teacher out who first taught me Thai.

Not a bad idea

Edited February 20, 2014 by sms747

[umbanda]

I would have not bothered to start at all and instead would have put more effort into improving my Spanish.

BUENO. SI TU QUIERES NOS ENCONTRAMOS PARA CONVERSAR

[SailingHome]

I would have not bothered to start at all and instead would have put more effort into improving my Spanish.

BUENO. SI TU QUIERES NOS ENCONTRAMOS PARA CONVERSAR

S-o-c-k-s :-) (if you get that, you speak Spanish ;-)

[lalitv74]

I would suggest you that if you can speak Thai now, you have to begin at reading. You should learn it with Thai people and use Thai language in your class. The Thai reading book will edit your sound of pronuciation through rehearsing exercises. Those exercises provide your chance to correct your tone sound because of listening. You cannot think that if you can pronounce maa mha ma ma...aaa maha, you will acheive the combination of complex vowels and consonants. Most of foreigners at first cannot speak Thai precisely. But after they are able to read and have a chance to communicate in it for a while, their tones come close to Thai people. The important problem of learning is because learners are too aware of their tone accuracy so their fluency is very slow. They think that Thai people may not understand in what they say but if they are not hurry when speaking and try to speak long enough, Thai people must understand. Then, they can edit the sound through their litsening.

[mok199]

..........................................................................................................................................i have spent 12 years learning on my own i consider my self advanced and read and write well......my advice is.......forget learning this rediculous language.....take up the violin or the piano,harp,banjo,flute,saxaphone....anything.....just walk away from the idea learning this language will help you.....IT WILL NOT...

[danphuket]

..........................................................................................................................................i have spent 12 years learning on my own i consider my self advanced and read and write well......my advice is.......forget learning this rediculous language.....take up the violin or the piano,harp,banjo,flute,saxaphone....anything.....just walk away from the idea learning this language will help you.....IT WILL NOT...

I would argue with that. If we talk about practicality, what is more useful, playing a musical instrument or being able to speak to 55 million people in their own language?

If you talk about aesthetics, again, Thai is a way to understand culture. I , personally, find Sanskrit letters elegant, and sounds melodic and soft; Thai mindset rather amusing.

Speaking this language helped me in numerous occasions: government offices, police, businesses (especially in Phuket Town, where almost no one can speak English). Obviously it also helps to bargain prices down, to find what you want in the supermarket, find friends, etc.

Having said that, as it is not an international language, Thai has significant value within the borders of the country, and not as much in other countries.