The Thailand expat forum for Travel, Lifestyle and Fun.

Bubba

I lived for two and a half years in Trang when I first came here. Not many farangs about and no one spoke English, so if I wanted to have a social life had to learn. Picked up the basics of coversation in Yah Dong bars waving my arms around a lot.

Eventually worked out why what I was saying made sense by consulting grammar books after using the langauge for a while.

Taught myself how to read and write basic Thai with a book called 'easy thai' when I had a skint couple of weeks and a bit of time on my hands.

__________________
tnuc

lozillionaire

I initially learnt it when i was a pro fighter in Bangkok. I was at a very good gym and they didnt have any foriegn guys there so i had to learn pretty quickly. Initially i was taught the very basics and then swear words. After a few months my Thai improved and then i starte dating students who also helped. My missus teaches me some words each day and we speak Thai around the house so i dont forget them. I am trying to learn to read and write Thai at the moment; very difficult.

__________________
AKA fingers_in_pies but stupid enough to forget his password.

ChiangMai noon

honestly, it isn't...really.
if i can manage.

i think the worst thing you can do is to try to remember all the letters and vowels before you start reading stuff.

far better to look at full words and work it out from there, sort of site reading.

BobbyTits

Then how would you know what sounds the Thai letters make ?

How could you possibly even try to sound a word out w/o knowing the intended sound?

I speak Thai like a champ but still am baffled at reading it.

MrG

Anybody had any success with a language learning system called Rosetta Stone? Supposed to be what all the diplomats and govt. workers use to learn foreign languages fast. It's not bad...total immersion, but it would have been useless to me were it not for my wife translating the words/phrases from pictures and recordings. After a few months of daily at it I started to develop a decent vocabulary, then stopped after we visited Thailand.

I also hear (and now believe) that learning the alphabet and language at the same time is the only way to go.

ChiangMai noon

i said all the letters.

there's no need.

if you can speak it then you can start to decipher it.

you know that a hotel is a hotel because it looks like one.
you will also know the Thai word for a hotel is Rong rem.
from there you can work out the consonants used and so on and so forth.

gives you something to do when you are walking around town or stuck at traffic lights and really doesn't take very long at all.

__________________
I often feel that the whole forum is close to bursting with homoerotic frisson.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Texpat

^ agree, but learning the alphabet won't hurt and isn't that difficult.

I used index cards with Thai character on one side and the English pronunciation on the other. Ran through them once or twice a night until I could get them all. Once I knew a character without fail, I removed it from the deck. Took a few weeks. Then, when you start to read things, you realize many of the characters aren't used much.

I look at Thai letters as musical sounds that are bent, like a guitar note, by modifying with emphasis from the right, left, above and below. It's far less straightforward than English.

Once you can look at a sign and recognize the consonants, you begin to realize how the vowels bend the sound to make the word.

ChiangMai noon

maybe not.

for me though after giving up on learning vowel sounds in isolation it was a lot easier to learn in context, especially since a large number of consonants are rarely used anyway.

chinthee

Years ago, when I knew I would move full time to Thailand but was still outside the country, I bought the Rosetta Stone course, studied every day and thought I was the dogs bollocks. After moving to Thailand it turned out to be relatively useless. Same problem as a lot of static language courses - useless phrases, etc..

But it at least is a start. Nothing can beat living in Thailand and using the language slowly building up.

Silent Ninja

I used Rosetta Stone at one point and found it quite useful. You can guess what everything means if you start from the very beginning and slowly make your way through it all.

buad hai

Ah, er, you mean "sight" reading, but you're right, IMHO.

The same way the Chinese manage. Their written language has no phonetic component, yet they learn to read.

After how many decades?

The Gentleman Scamp

It was just a case of 'How do I say this? How do I say that?' but I tired of it early 2005.

Should have continued, I'd be fluent now.

ChiangMai noon

^
I doubt that.

I reckon I'm about 5 years and a lot of hard work off fluency.

I'd put myself at an intermediate level at the moment.

NickA

I actually agree with CMN on this one, it's better to learn how to read words that you already know how to say, than to try and decypher a new word by reading it.

Reading road signs and other things around you also helps as well as reading the Thai transliterations of foreign shops and places. I've heard people trying to learn the myriad of tone and pronunciation rules and getting bogged down by it all.

Once you have the basics you can pick up childrens books which have both Thai and English. Cover up the English, then try to read the Thai with the help of a Thai-English dictionary, then check your translation against the one in the book. Before long you'll be reading Kafka and Dickens.

cali kid

Fuck me....... You learned from news?? Shit, one thing I dont mind bosting about a bit is my Thai and I bet I can speak it better than at least 99.9% of expats but I have a really difficult time understanding the news. Words jump out quite often and I can understand every word said in some sentences but they just speak too damn fast.. You have TIVO or something?

Yeah right.... As long as nobody but yourself needs to understand what the hell you're talking about... I would strongly recommend that you dont practice Thai by yourself as it is very highly unlikely that you would be able to read the phonetically spelled word and then repeat it in a manner that would be understood by Thais. Then when you realize that you have been saying it wrong all this time it becomes a pain in the ass to remember to say correctly.

About a quarter decade given you are diligent.
Absolutely...
I have been here for six and dont know if I would be considered a fluent speaker, probably not, but am not far off.

And how many different Thais in the course of a day do you ask how to say something? ( I say different because there are always different ways or opinions.

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes..
Questions questions questions questions questions questions questions.....

Ask questions, ask everybody questions, the taxi, bus, boat driver, waiter, waitress, bartender, cashier, that guy standing next to you, anybody. Its not like you're nagging the same person over and over again, unless we are speaking of the bartender.
Hear it from a Thai if you want to know. Then repeat it to them 2 or 3 times to check. They will smile and nod there head and may even throw in a extra, but thats usually just confusing anyway.

Speak speak speak speak speak speak speak speak speak...

As soon as you learn something, use it. Even if it doesnt make much sense in the situation, when you are corrected it will just carve it deeper into your memory (I did this constantly just so that I could be corrected because I realized it really helped and it was a good laugh sometimes)..

You got to get out and be exposed to the language in its everyday use. I am sure that classes, more than books, would be good preparation for speaking Thai outside and would greatly aid you if and only if you did in fact get out and use it daily.

See above.....
But the first thing I needed was a reason that I would be reminded of everyday.. (It came in the form of black skirts and white shirts)..

I have never taken any classes, listen to any CDs or read any books.. I was lucky enough to be thrown in to a uni where I was the only foreigner and the first American to ever attend.. (Ramkhamhaeng Uni. Intl prgm.) Yes that is a unique situation but it only gave me the opportunity to ask more questions, which you can do anywhere in Thailand where there are people as long as you dont mind.

And seriously, use new words in the wrong situations and be corrected to see how easily you will remember the word next time..


Oh yeah, and i cant read a single word of Thai, or even write my own name so i dont know anything about that.

__________________
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
Albert Einstein


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

The Gentleman Scamp

Another reason I stopped is that I don't have a Thai Mrs and never really did and though a little Thai is useful for taxi driver smalltalk, you don't really get any thanks for it.

Enough to let the con artists know you are savvy is sufficient.

cali kid

^^ Are you serious? Is that all the use you see for Thai? Well thats ok... If you did speak Thai very well as you might if you hadnt stopped asking those questions you would see many more huge doors opening. And smaller ones on the front of the non English speaking Uni. girl's apartments.

cali kid

I rest my case...............

Ban Saray

I found it profoundly difficult to learn and speak, mainly becuse i have about 70-80% hearing loss in both ears thanks to my service days.
I am proficient now, but unless Thai's know my accent they cannot understand me well - my tonal speech is crap.
My daughter shamed me into learning to read and write, I went really well and it was a lot easier to pick up once i put my head down. But like all things i lost my motivation once i could read most of the alphabet and write my name, there seemed little challenge left.
My wife was absolutley no help whatsoever, she has no patience with a near deaf student.
My daughter is a gem, we converse more than my wife and I do in Thai.

It is compulsory to be able to speak it to get your Residency Book, and I managed that OK, plus a basic written test. The only ambition would be to go for citizenship, but that would be like getting a diploma in being stupid, pigheaded and just plain lazy.

Don't see the point in that!

buad hai