Great sites for learning to type in Thai

[timmyp]

I've been learning to type at a very slow rate. I got a Thai keyboard a couple of years ago, and maybe practiced for about 15 minutes once a week. It's certainly more rewarding as I improve, and now I'm up to 71 characters per minute. There are a couple of sites that I can thank for my progress, so I want to share them.

This one is a good place to start. It lets you practice certain keys associated with certain fingers:

http://www.thaiedu.net/typing/

It also shows a display of the keyboard on the screen, so you don't have to look down at the keyboard in case you forget where a letter is.

I really like this next one. It gives you a short article, and you type as a tiny race car moves across the screen. You have to know where the common letters are to do this. I always select "Practice", but there is the option to race others. I think the site assigns you to someone else in the world who is typing on any keyboard. I tried racing a couple times, and just lost horribly.

http://play.typeracer.com/?universe=lang_th

My only complaint for the typeracer site is the use of English punctuation in Thai.

I encourage anyone out there who speaks Thai but hasn't yet learned to type to check out these sites!

[AyG]

Rather better in my opinion (and certainly more comprehensive) is http://thai-notes.com

It has a basic trainer that takes systematically through the full keyboard, with lots of practise using real words

http://thai-notes.com/typing/typingtrainers.shtml

a "next level" trainer to allow you to practice typing complete short texts and computes your wpm speed

http://thai-notes.com/typing/typingtrainers.shtml?trainer=TST

and a trainer which allows you to paste your own text for practice

http://thai-notes.com/typing/typingtrainers.shtml?trainer=TCT

There's also a trainer which helps you to type at a steady speed

http://thai-notes.com/typing/steady_typing_game.shtml

And finally there's a typing game for further practice with levels which correspond to the sequence of learning letters in the basic trainer

http://thai-notes.com/typing/typing_game.shtml

[timmyp]

Thanks, AyG! I just had a look at the site, and it's incredibly helpful.

I noticed in the "steady typing game" that it repeats the same pattern? A couple of times it showed the character ว่ with ไม้เอก, so it couldn't be typed it correctly. That is, the game only allows one key stroke for the character, and ว่ requires two key strokes (ว plus ไม้เอก). It's still a cute, helpful game.

I'm just starting to enjoy typing, though I still often hit the wrong key. I'm really bad with hitting the Backspace key instead of ช, stuff like that. I used to force myself to practice for 10 minutes once every few days, but now I'll practice for 10 minutes throughout the day when I'm taking a break from other work on the computer. The site you posted helps keep the exercise fresh.

[AyG]

Thanks, AyG! I just had a look at the site, and it's incredibly helpful.

I noticed in the "steady typing game" that it repeats the same pattern? A couple of times it showed the character ว่ with ไม้เอก, so it couldn't be typed it correctly. That is, the game only allows one key stroke for the character, and ว่ requires two key strokes (ว plus ไม้เอก). It's still a cute, helpful game.

I'm just starting to enjoy typing, though I still often hit the wrong key. I'm really bad with hitting the Backspace key instead of ช, stuff like that. I used to force myself to practice for 10 minutes once every few days, but now I'll practice for 10 minutes throughout the day when I'm taking a break from other work on the computer. The site you posted helps keep the exercise fresh.

It's been a while since I used the steady typing game, but from memory, it pauses two "clicks" for you to type characters with tone marks. Just make sure you type the tone mark and consonant in the correct order.

[timmyp]

It's been a while since I used the steady typing game, but from memory, it pauses two "clicks" for you to type characters with tone marks. Just make sure you type the tone mark and consonant in the correct order.

It just rejects whatever I type. The only character that appears like that is ว่ and it gives me the "you hit the wrong key" sound whether I hit ว or ไม้เอก, regardless of the order. It keeps the letter there for two beats, though, just as you say. It's still a cool program.

[ThaiNotes]

It just rejects whatever I type. The only character that appears like that is ว่ and it gives me the "you hit the wrong key" sound whether I hit ว or ไม้เอก, regardless of the order. It keeps the letter there for two beats, though, just as you say. It's still a cool program.

Sorry. I don't check here very often, so have only just seen your problem. Anyway, this should now be fixed. Perhaps you could let me know if you still have problems?

Thanks.

[timmyp]

It just rejects whatever I type. The only character that appears like that is ว่ and it gives me the "you hit the wrong key" sound whether I hit ว or ไม้เอก, regardless of the order. It keeps the letter there for two beats, though, just as you say. It's still a cool program.

Sorry. I don't check here very often, so have only just seen your problem. Anyway, this should now be fixed. Perhaps you could let me know if you still have problems?

Thanks.

Thanks, ThaiNotes. It's all working fine, including the ones that require 3 key strokes, such as รู้