Talking Dics Good For Native English Speakers To Study Thai?

[my benny rai]

What about using a Talking Dic to learn Thai, especially the invisible vowels that exist between consonants?

Do Talking Dics transliterate the Thai words into English?

What is the range of a typical Talking Dic?

Cost?

Suggestion of models?

THANKS!

[loong]

The "English Thai Software Dictionary" is fairly good. In Fact is the only one I have seen. Think cost is 450 or 600 Baht. Available in some bookstores in Thailand

[my benny rai]

The "English Thai Software Dictionary" is fairly good. In Fact is the only one I have seen. Think cost is 450 or 600 Baht. Available in some bookstores in Thailand

Does it have the transliteration of Thai words into English?

Is it primarily a English-Thai Dictionary or can it go the other way as well, i.e., Thai-English.

Can you simply type in an English or Thai word and it will pop up with examples, etc.?

[meadish_sweetball]

If no conclusive reply here, why not head over to one of the places where they sell these and ask to try different ones to find out their functionality.

The sales clerks will probably help you. Personally I have never used any of the talking dictionaries so am not qualified to answer.

[loong]

Does Thai to English

English to Thai

Phonetic English to Thai But you have to understand the way they romanise Thai

Button to hear the Thai word (female voice)

It's pretty good, but no good for an advanced student.

[Bottlerocket]

I think you should consider what you want to do with the words. Do you want to learn words for the sake of learning words or do you want to string them together and make intelligible statements and inquiries with them? If you're after the latter, you have have to just bite the bullet and start talking to people. If anything, it's not a bad purchase, but you should consider getting a English-Thai phrasebook as well by either Lonely Planet or Berlitz.

[boxig]

Here are some answers to your questions, relating to two softwares which you can find on ThaiVisa Store.

"Spoken Thai - Dictionary" - You can type English or Thai and get the other language. It has words and sentences in total of 20,000. It has no sound. You can copy and paste the results. The translation gives also phonetic.

"Spoken Thai - Learn Thai" - This is a big package with 11,000 sounds, words and sentences, female voice. It has no Thai script but do have phonetic.

Both softwares can be downloaded for a try and there is no need for a CD.

If you buy any CD in a shop, ask to hear few minutes (they allow in serious shops) and check the detailed content of the CD.

Good luck

[alohatiger]

Mine was pretty good from Carrefour, however, it was less expensive at about 4,500 baht, but it speaks 11 Asian languages.

However my speaker just broke (I travel too much, I guess, and need to take care of my stuff more) and now I'm stuck with only the written version of the target language!

The range is decent at 4-5k baht, but more if you pay more.

I believe a one language device will have more words for the money you pay for it, however.

Good luck! If it were me again, I'd take 2 weeks of private classes to work on pronouncing from transliteration, then just use my cheap 150 baht mini-dictionary with transliteration and forget the 4-5k baht I would have to pay for an electronic device.

The device makes your dependent on it, and you will not need it after a few weeks, I believe. Not only that, it's fragile. The only upside is that my device has only used 1 AAA battery in it since I bought it more than 6 months ago!