Blog with simple lessons

[kriswillems]

May I asked the mod to be so kind to let me promote (only once) a new non-commercial blog about Thai language?

http://learnthaiwithporn.blogspot.com

There's also a facebook group with the same name (Learn Thai with Porn).

(Porn = พร, the name of the Thai initiator of the group)

The site now already has more than 100 short lessons that are mainly focused on spoken language.

It think it's a useful blog for both beginners and more advanced learners.

[Roel]

Thanks Kris. Great find.

[rgs2001uk]

Nice one kris, I like the layout, Thai language used, with a translation to English, along with a transliteration for non Thai readers.

One of the better sites I have seen, no messing around, short and simple, straight to the point.

I knew most of what was being spoken about, but also learned some new words that had the locals in tears as I butchered the lingo.

As you say something for everyone, will spend the next week or so reading the rest of the blog.

Hats off to whoever put it up, also has an excellent command of the English language.

[AyG]

along with a transliteration for non Thai readers

Unfortunately the transliteration uses an non-formal system and is rather irregular and unintuitive.

นิ้ว = níw

อีก = èek

เห็น = hĕn

ประเทศ = bprà-tâyt

คุณ = kun

ลูก = lôok

เฉยๆ = chŏie chŏie

It's a pity she didn't use a formal system such as Haas.

[BKKdreaming]

thanks I will try and understand this one.......

I am just so bad at keeping at it

[kriswillems]

She just copies the Thai text to Thai2english to get the transliteration.

Whatever choice she would make, there would always be people that don't like it.

It's best to look at the Thai text.

Edited May 22, 2014 by kriswillems

[Roel]

along with a transliteration for non Thai readers

Unfortunately the transliteration uses an non-formal system and is rather irregular and unintuitive.

นิ้ว = níw

อีก = èek

เห็น = hĕn

ประเทศ = bprà-tâyt

คุณ = kun

ลูก = lôok

เฉยๆ = chŏie chŏie

It's a pity she didn't use a formal system such as Haas.

I haven't gone through the whole blog it might be irregular but your examples are not. To the contrary:

She uses i for the shorter vowel ิ and ee for the longer ี

e for the เ here shortened by the ็ marker and ay for the longer version

u for the short ุ and oo for the long vowel ู

The last one is actually more accurate than the Royal Thai General System of Transcription that gives for both ุ and ู u although the sound is completely different.

[AyG]

I haven't gone through the whole blog it might be irregular but your examples are not. To the contrary:

She uses i for the shorter vowel ิ and ee for the longer ี

e for the เ here shortened by the ็ marker and ay for the longer version

u for the short ุ and oo for the long vowel ู

The last one is actually more accurate than the Royal Thai General System of Transcription that gives for both ุ and ู u although the sound is completely different.

I didn't say it was irregular, just that it's counter intuitive and there are much better systems out there.

For example, with Haas system, a long vowel is simply a double of the vowel itself (or, in some of her works, adding a colon).

Short i, long ii

Short a, long aa

Short e, long ee

etc., etc.

Simple and logical. It takes seconds to learn, unlike the Thai2English system.

The Poomsan Becker system also shares this virtue. Either system would have been a better choice than the one employed.

[DavidHouston]

Friends,

I know nothing about transcription systems except for the fact that there are more disagreements than their are systems. Since we are taking about a systems-based world, why not eschew Romanization transcriptions entirely and use only sound clips. The advantage is that sounds are universal, and one need not be concerned with the Romanized alphabet, or the Cyrillic alphabet, or the IPA symbols, for that matter. And, the sound clips even get the tones absolutely correct without a further notation system. Even the mechanically-generated Apple sound files are superior to hard-to-read, limited use Romanization transcriptions.

Books are so 19th Century!

[Richard W]

Since we are taking about a systems-based world, why not eschew Romanization transcriptions entirely and use only sound clips.

Actually, we need both. We need a transcription system to known whether the sounds are supposed to be the same or different, and sound clips to know what they are. With just sound clips, one is asking for people to only notice the sound differences that are significant in the language(s) they already know well.

[Taunusianer]

I know nothing about transcription systems except for the fact that there are more disagreements than their are systems. Since we are taking about a systems-based world, why not eschew Romanization transcriptions entirely and use only sound clips. The advantage is that sounds are universal, and one need not be concerned with the Romanized alphabet, or the Cyrillic alphabet, or the IPA symbols, for that matter. And, the sound clips even get the tones absolutely correct without a further notation system. Even the mechanically-generated Apple sound files are superior to hard-to-read, limited use Romanization transcriptions.

David, that sounds like a good idea, but it require to have a perfect sense of hearing. But what would help is a combination about sound and pronunciation. But it will be a lot of work. I have round about 4000 words and phrases in my list. When I start to get all the sounds it will take years, I think.

[kriswillems]

We shouldn't forget that the author of this blog tries to help us completely voluntarily. She's not a teacher and never made any Bath out if it and she spend a lot of free time on it (about 130 lessons now). She's perfect in English and Thai, so it also doesn't help her in any way.

Adding sound files for every sentence would be perfect but it's really a lot of work. Also her blog is hosted on a free blog service with 2 intentions:

- not loosing money on volunteer work

- not getting lost if one day she would get bored of it or she would forget to pay the fee for the server.

Because the blog is hosted on a free service there are technical limitations to what is possible (adding sound for every sentence might be hard).

Being Thai, I am sure she hates all transliterations. She uses thai2english to add them anyway because there's a demand for transliterations and you can copy/paste a whole sentence at once to thai2english to get the complete transliteration.

About the thai2english transliterations being counter-intuitive, that's as very personal thing. What sounds more like อี : ee or ii, and what sounds more like อู uu or oo?

And even if the transliterations would be counter-intuitive for some - shouldn't we be grateful that from the first until the last lessons she uses only one transliteration system in a consistent way, without mistakes?

PS. Here's an interview with her: http://farangcanlearnthai.com/spotlight-wannaporn-muangkham/

Edited May 25, 2014 by kriswillems