Where do I start?

[KhunBN]

I'm keen to learn how to write the Thai language and I have a few questions in mind:

 

1. Is learning the Thai consonants a good starting point in learning to write Thai? I.e. Practice and remembering all 44 consonants before proceeding to the vowels.

 

2. Is there a trick/tip for me to remember how to write Thai consonants? Or do I have to keep writing the same consonant repeatedly to remember them?

[rhythmworx]

 

[Sattphalat]

Start to read (and write)at ones you have learnt a few letters. Memorizing 44 letters without anything to hang it on is inhuman an hardly possible.
Eksamnpe:
บ้าน - ban - house
Tre letters one word
Now you are able to read and write thai


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[ezzra]

 

In this country, it's a big help if you can have even a beginner abilities

to read Thai, most importantly, learn to speak Thai, can't stress enough

how useful is to be able to communicate with the locals....

[KhunBN]

3 minutes ago, ezzra said:

 

In this country, it's a big help if you can have even a beginner abilities

to read Thai, most importantly, learn to speak Thai, can't stress enough

how useful is to be able to communicate with the locals....

 

Yes, been travelling here very frequently and my current level of understanding of the language is at the stage where I'm still only able to understand bits and pieces of the words they say when they're having a conversation.

 

I'm hoping to move on to the next stage of speaking fluently and writing/reading, it'll certainly be so useful for me to communicate with the locals here on a business or personal purpose.

[Oxx]

In my opinion, best to tackle it in a structured fashion.  Perhaps this (free) course is what you need:

 

http://thai-notes.com/reading/index.shtml

[Richard W]

There is very little point in learning the 2 letters that aren't used (ฃ kho khuat, ฅ kho khon), and the 5 letters ฎ do chada to ฒ tho phuthao are fairly rare.  The letters ฌ cho choe and ฆ kho rakhang are also quite rare.  That gets you down to 35 straight away.

[Oxx]

8 minutes ago, Richard W said:

There is very little point in learning the 2 letters that aren't used (ฃ kho khuat, ฅ kho khon), and the 5 letters ฎ do chada to ฒ tho phuthao are fairly rare.  The letters ฌ cho choe and ฆ kho rakhang are also quite rare.  That gets you down to 35 straight away.

 

ฮ and ฬ are also pretty rare - both less frequent than ฎ.  (As percentage of all consonants, the figures are 0.06%, 0.03% and 0.09% respectively.)

[tgeezer]

I like children's books. The ก ไก่ picture books for learning the consonants by rote and along with that there are many little stories which allow you to learn how sentences are put together plus some vocabulary at the same time. You can ask any Thai speaker for help because they all know this stuff.
T-L.com is a good site with masses of information in English if you want to take that route.


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[carlyai]

For me, there is a best place for learning Thai and that was/is AUA in Bangkok, near Lupini Park.

Depending on your IQ, you can learn to read and write without listening and speaking, but the natural process of learning a language, like when you came into this world, is listening, speaking, etc.

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[tgeezer]

I learnt to read there, a couple of classes per week for three months. Are you doing the course where the teachers do role playing and you pick it up like that? They were just starting that and first impressions from students was that it was expensive and slow.


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[carlyai]

I learnt to read there, a couple of classes per week for three months. Are you doing the course where the teachers do role playing and you pick it up like that? They were just starting that and first impressions from students was that it was expensive and slow.


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We may be at cross purposes here, but caryai here answering to op.

So at the Àua I went to...you had the natural approach and the structured approach.

I'm pretty slow with an ìq of about 0.5 and didn't see the natural approach as anything...like the poster said....slow.

But the DR who designed it meant you to start as a little baby and progress...hence the natural approach. Works if you have time.

I've got a go for dinner as SWMBO says so.......so combining the natural approach and the structured approach, to me is the way to go.



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[tgeezer]

Same place Dr. Marvyn Brown was the linguist who started that course, I didn't do it. I just wanted to learn to read so that I didn't have to learn two languages, the phonetic Thai and the Thai Thai.


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[carlyai]

Same place Dr. Marvyn Brown was the linguist who started that course, I didn't do it. I just wanted to learn to read so that I didn't have to learn two languages, the phonetic Thai and the Thai Thai.


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So you definitely have a high IQ, as I've noted from your posts.

He was a nice quiet guy. Got to know him on one of our AUA outings on a raft trip for 3 days where we watched Thai movies and were supposed to talk only in Thai. Years ago, but I'm still friends with some of the people from AUA.

I did the natural and structured approach as well as the reading and writing. Just wish I'd kept up with it.

tgeezer...did you have that beautiful, dark, pok faced teacher for the reading part? Love her, so patient.

Only saw her get angry once with a German on the reading course who said the Thai language was crap.

For a little girl....she sure dished it out. [emoji4]

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[tgeezer]

It sounds as though you were a real student at the AUA, 'field trips'. I took the 'budget' option 'pay as you go' I can remember one lesson only where the techer tried to convince us that when he said ป and บ they were different.


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[Oxx]

6 hours ago, tgeezer said:

I can remember one lesson only where the techer tried to convince us that when he said ป and บ they were different.

 

Did he/she succeed?

[tgeezer]

No, he did not succeed.


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[tgeezer]

Has anybody worked out the difference between ป บ or like me, do you just know which letters are in which words ?




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