How do you learn the meaning of each word that you've memorized?

[DA3NDORPHIN3]

So basically i have vocab of about 3000 words+correct tones that i've memorized(took me about 4 years,i don't have much free time).

But what is annoying is that so many of this words i can't put in a context when i'm speaking.So basically from 3000 words i probably use less than 50% of it.

So how do you guy learn words by its meaning so you can know how to use it,by reading books,magazines,newspapers and watching movies,shows and basically any thai related stuff?

I guess i could start learning meaning of each word that i have but that would took A LOT of time just for doing that

[thaichalina]

Well i hope learned those 3000 words from the word frequency vocabulary(most used words),which is probably the best way to learn RIGHT vocabulary,instead of just going through dictionary or books and learn that way.

If you did that then the next step would be reading a lot of books,watching thai movies/programs.Without doing that it's very hard to be better in thai and knowing what word to use

[JimmyTheMook]

Maybe by using them in context when speaking to people in Thai.

[tgeezer]

Gosh I can't imagine why anybody would learn words out of context. It is better in my opinion to learn words as you need them, you can guess or look them up.

I came upon one this morning: กินนำ้เห็นปลิง it's a descriptive verb meaning รู้สึกตะขิดตะขวงใจเหมือนจะกินนำ้เห็นปลิงอยู่ก็กินไม่ลง A feeling of ตะขีดตะขวงใจ same as you intend to drink but see a ปลิง in the water so don't drink.

So you can guess that ตะขีดตะขวงใจ is a feeling that an unpleasant outcome prevents you doing what you want to do. and that ปลิง is something you would not want to drink.

Could be an insect.

I did look it up and ปลิง is a water snake.

I still don't know more about ตะขิดตะขวง actually means and never will know unless I look it up or it crops up again, when I might be able to refine it's meaning. If I look it up I will only get some English word which will probably work but won't be the same.

Just out of interest I have just looked up กระขิดกระขวง and it proves to mean embarrassed, bashful, in the TL.com dictionary.

The RID even mentions ขวยเขิน อับอาย etc. which on researching mean ขายหน้า all backing up embarrassment.

I took the saying from a secondary schoolbook, so either the book is wrong or there is a wider culteral divide between Thais and me than I thought. I wouldn't describe the way I feel as a result of drinking water containing a forty cm. mildly poisoinous snake as embarrassment!

Of course the answer is that Thais study English a lot more than they study Thai and once a word has been given an English meaning you can forget any traditional Thai meaning, or that is how it seems to me. Frustrating since I tend to use formal Thai books.

[GotR1GHT]

it's not the end of the world if you know some words without knowing to use them or put them in a context.Just read thai books a lot,watch thai programs and movies and you'll get them.

[GotR1GHT]

forgot to add to my previous post,if you've actually(like it has been said) learned vocab by frequency vocabulary from chulalonkorn university etc. you can use most of the words in a context already.Most of the words there people use very often.That's why i love frequency vocabulary,you learn words that most of the people actually use every day.It's much better to learn that way than going and learn words from general literature.

Edited January 22, 2015 by GotR1GHT

[CaptHaddock]

I write practice sentences using recently-learned vocabulary and have my teacher correct it during our one-on-one class. Yes, it takes a long time to learn the correct context and usage that way, but it's the best way and the only way to know if you are using it correctly since most Thais won't correct your mistakes any more than most Americans would for English. It is always the case, even for your mother tongue, that you recognize and understand more words than you can use correctly.

Unfortunately, the online dictionaries, at least those that I am familiar with, do not provide information about context and usage, although dict.longdo.com does supply some examples. There is no Petit Robert or OED for the Thai language.

[Aforek]

...and that ปลิง is something you would not want to drink.

Could be an insect.

I did look it up and ปลิง is a water snake.

ปลิง is a leech ; reading a lot ( even notices of goods you just have bought ) is very formative , the best way to increase one's vocabulary , write them somewhere and regularly learn them by heart; write all the sentence, so you know in which context to use it ; speaking with GF helps a lot , too, for use the words in the right context !

my dictionnary is " New se-ed's English-thai thai- english dictionnary " and I like it

Edited January 30, 2015 by Aforek

[tgeezer]

...and that ปลิง is something you would not want to drink.

Could be an insect.

I did look it up and ปลิง is a water snake.

ปลิง is a leech ; reading a lot ( even notices of goods you just have bought ) is very formative , the best way to increase one's vocabulary , write them somewhere and regularly learn them by heart; write all the sentence, so you know in which context to use it ; speaking with GF helps a lot , too, for use the words in the right context !

my dictionnary is " New se-ed's English-thai thai- english dictionnary " and I like it

Thanks for leach, I only know that it is something which you wouldn't want to drink, I put snake in case ปลิง wouldn't be acceptable to some people. I think that even if I could read Latin it might not help to distinguish between the three ปลิง, two of which are water animals. ทาก is also translated as leach and resembles the Latin for ปลิง ๒ .

[Johpa]

How do you learn the meaning of each word that you've memorized? Well there are several competing academic theories attempting to answer that question, all of which are better at dealing with insomnia than providing a satisfactory answer.

[Gsxrnz]

Do what the Thais do to English. Murder it. Use all the words you know in whatever context you think will translate, and let them correct you.

As to tones - it's a load of <deleted> handed out by pseudo intellectual native English speaking tuggers. Unless you're addressing the nation on national TV and need to nail the Rrrrrrrrr's and Lllllllll's and the alleged 5 tones to the point of breaking the listener's eardrums, street Thai reverts to mid tone in 80% of cases and is taken in context. However, word stress in sentences is largely discounted by most Falangs and is rarely mentioned when discussing the language. Pay attention to sentence stress.

Speak confidently, slur your vowels, fudge your consonants, focus on stress, use all the words in your armoury, and be able to order coffee (or eggs) in the complete knowledge that they can't tell the difference between a K and a G if their life depended on it.

[MAJIC]

Surely you have Dictionaries in Thailand,where you can look up each word,and it's meaning?