learning the thai language

Post by **cali4995** » March 25, 2015, 5:02 am

another interesting exercise is street names:

ประจักษ์_______

ศรีสุข_____

ประชารักษา______

จินตคาม______

ทหาร______

p.s. You say you're an amateur prof Parrot , and yet very few can do this

I mean count on 1 hand few

Post by **parrot** » April 8, 2015, 5:30 am

if you're able to read a bit of printed word and want to expand into handwritten, the Daily Thairath cartoons offer an opportunity to follow one particular style of handwriting. The cartoons usually follow the day's political news.
Today's cartoon follows the recent decree that more education isn't necessarily better.

If anyone has questions about the vocab or handwriting style, let me know

Post by **parrot** » April 25, 2015, 8:23 am

Today's Thairath cartoon discusses who's going to win the battle between the EU and the PM.....concerning EU threat of a ban on importing Thai fish. The EU rep is holding a yellow card ใบเหลือง against Thai fishing ประมงไทย while the PM is holding a red card ใบแดง against capitalists นายทุน

If you're interested in learning to decipher Thai handwriting, the Thairath cartoons are a good place to start.....as you'll be exposed to the same sort of handwriting day after day.

Post by **parrot** » July 10, 2015, 10:12 am

Today's Thai Rath cartoon may be of interest to anyone studying written Thai. The dialogue is fairly simple and follows the 'good news/bad news theme'. Several of the vocab words are repeated in the cartoon. The subject is the continuing drought affecting the country. I've printed out the script below. Anyone want to take a stab?

ข่าว ดี และ ข่าว ร้าย ข่าว ร้าย ถ้า ประเทศ ไทย แล้ง รุน แรง อย่าง นี้ ไป เรื่อยๆ

...วัน หนื่ง ก็ จะ เป็น ประเทศ ทะเล ทราย

แล้ว มี ข่าว ดี อะไร

ประเทศ ทะเล ทราย มัก รำรวย จาก การ พบ บ่อ น้ำมัน

Post by **GT93** » July 10, 2015, 2:07 pm

I can read 60% of it without a dictionary but that's annoying as it's not enough to get the meaning. So I used:

http://www.thai2english.com/dictionary/1320392.html

At first I didn't get the last word but when I said it to myself a second time before using the dictionary I knew it because I recall family using that word and my wallet coming out in a couple of minutes. 555+

That word unlocked the meaning for me.

For advanced Thai readers Stickman recently mentioned this site which I think has been mentioned here before:

http://selfstudythai.com/

Post by **parrot** » July 10, 2015, 9:21 pm

GT93 "At first I didn't get the last word but when I said it to myself a second time before using the dictionary I knew it because I recall family using that word and my wallet coming out in a couple of minutes. "

The good news/bad news cartoon is often based on the latest news........in this case, the drought.
I've used the word บ่อน้ำ frequently, because we have one......so it was pretty easy to figure out บ่อน้ำมัน

Keep working at it GT, it's all worth it

Post by **parrot** » September 8, 2015, 12:41 am

I'm nearly 6 months out of Udon, so I need my daily dose of reading Thai exercises to keep my Thai brain cells engaged. Today's Thai Rath cartoon offers an opportunity to practice your non-typed Thai (a good precursor to trying to read cursive Thai):

The title of the cartoon is "speak according to the road map" or as I like to translate it "toe the line (or else)"

In the first frame, mighty mouse is asking (roughly): "If you say this government is more democratic than previous governments, why aren't people free to expression?". Baby mouse is holding a placard saying: "don't silence the people".

The uniformed man (wonder who that is) replies: "Well, you've been told already......you can express your views as long as you follow (talk according to) the road map". Mighty mouse replies "What'd'ya mean follow the road map?"

In the final frame, the leader says, "It means you can เชลียร์, but you can't speak in opposition."

Anyone want to take a crack at เชลียร์ ?

Thanks to Sie (เซีย) at Thai Rath for another cartoon.

Post by **MrFixer** » September 8, 2015, 3:05 pm

Well, can't say I have ever read (or heard spoken) this word before. The use of the garan points to it being transliteration of an imported word so given the context I would hazard a guess at a mangled version of 'cheer'..?

Post by **parrot** » September 8, 2015, 8:20 pm

That's it! ให้พูดเชียร์ได้ = (literally) you can cheer for it (the roadmap)

I looked up the word in a variety of dictionaries.....came up blank. So I used 'old faithful'......type the word into google search along with the word หมายถึง (meaning). In this particular case, as soon as I typed เชียร์, google anticipated หมายถึง, so I didn't have to type it out.
And the first hit was https://th.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%B9%8 ... 3%E0%B9%8C

Post by **parrot** » November 17, 2015, 3:30 pm

Here's the headline:

ฝนดาวตกลีโอนิดส์ 17/18 พ.ย.

It's an event......and if you've never seen it, you should give it a try. If all the juju lines up correctly, it's a sight to be seen.

If you want to break apart the headline.......it's
ฝน ดาว ตก ลีโอนิดส์ (the garan ์ over the final consonant, especially a ส is a pretty good indicator that the word is foreign derived)

You can cheat at http://www.thairath.co.th/content/539718

Post by **parrot** » November 21, 2015, 3:52 pm

Learning Thai would be so much easier if all business signs were like this one.....seen on a facebook page:\

พรีเมี่ยม ยูสคาร์

It seems to be an English speaking trend these days.

My previous post had no takers......ฝนดาวตกลีโอนิดส์ 17/18 พ.ย..........it means, ฝน = rain, ดาว = star, ตก = fall, ลี โอ นิดส์ = Le-o-nids, 17/18 พ.ย. = 17/18 Nov.

Post by **MrFixer** » November 22, 2015, 12:12 am

Parrot, the Leonids one was too easy. I didn't bother responding...

You are right about the trend to transcription of English. I pulled up near a used car lot with a Thai-script banner which transcribed into English as 'Sam's used car centre' ! This was is Ayyuthaya..

Post by **parrot** » November 24, 2015, 3:12 pm

MrFixer wrote:Parrot, the Leonids one was too easy. I didn't bother responding...
You are right about the trend to transcription of English. I pulled up near a used car lot with a Thai-script banner which transcribed into English as 'Sam's used car centre' ! This was is Ayyuthaya..

Yeah, if I included all the western words I know in Thai, I'd be a walking dictionary. Sadly, I'm far from it.

Here's another Good News, Bad News cartoon from Thai Rath. It follows the same sequence.....good news in the first frame, "and the bad news" is asked in the second frame, and the third frame presents the bad news.

In today's case.......it's concerning Loy Kratung.....in Phichit Province. The Thai Rath cartoons are a good way to acquaint you with Thai writing styles.......there are two authors with different styles of writing. It's daunting at first to try to read.....but like with all things language-related.....practice practice practice

Post by **parrot** » December 2, 2015, 8:12 pm

If you're in the market for some professionally done, free, intermediate-level Thai language lessons, try Andrej's newest recordings at
http://www.aakanee.com/thai-illustrations.html
He provides vocab lists, pictures, and mp3 recordings for each story.
This is about as good as it gets when it comes to Thai language lessons......all for free!

Post by **parrot** » December 29, 2015, 8:47 pm

On our recent trip to Chiang Khan we spent the first half hour there looking for a hotel on walking street that had a vacancy. There was no need to stop and ask.....as most every hotel had a sign posted, easily visible from a passing car. Either ว่าง or เต็ม
And that little exercise reminded me of those first small steps you take when you're learning how to read.......like looking at a menu and seeing the word ไก่ or หมู or เนื้อ and realizing you know what the words say. They're baby steps....but those baby steps eventually lead to bigger ones.
You don't need to become fluent in speaking/reading/writing to make your life a tad bit more bearable here....every little bit helps. There's a wealth of material available today on the internet.....free.....mp3, lessons, etc. And last I checked Wiki, there are 1.5 million potential teachers in Udon.
Happy New Year!

Post by **parrot** » February 15, 2016, 2:47 pm

Learning the months in the right order can be daunting........just as it is for a student of the English language to know what month comes after July or before June (thirty days hath September, April, June and November).
Thai months have sort of a code to help you....not perfect, but it works for me:
All months, except February, end in either Khohm (คม) or Yohn (ยน). Months with 31 days end in Khohm, months with 30 end in Yohn. February being the exception, it ends in Pahn (พันธ์).
There are a few other tricks with getting the months in the right order......if anyone is having a problem, pm me.

Post by **Poko** » February 21, 2016, 11:02 am

mickojak wrote:Hi All,
I want to learn Isaan, not Thai, which I believe is Laos language!!!
Any idea where I can get resources for this.
Thanks
Mick

First at all must start from thai first cause thai is base of language but Isan language is local language and adapt some word from thai.Or better you have to commicate with Isan peoles often then you can know some compare like some thai girl cannt read or write english but then can cominicate with foreign from what use to.

Post by **pal52** » February 21, 2016, 4:00 pm

Poko wrote:
mickojak wrote:Hi All,
I want to learn Isaan, not Thai, which I believe is Laos language!!!
Any idea where I can get resources for this.
Thanks
Mick
First at all must start from thai first cause thai is base of language but Isan language is local language and adapt some word from thai.Or better you have to commicate with Isan peoles often then you can know some compare like some thai girl cannt read or write english but then can cominicate with foreign from what use to.

Poko first you must learn to read & write English.
You keep commenting on posts which are at least 6 months old.
This one you have commented on advising to the poster to learn Thai was posted on August 4th 2013.
I would hope he has learnt Isaan by now some 30 months later. [-o<

Post by **faranginUTH** » February 21, 2016, 11:02 pm

poko is doing OK, he or she just needs to use a spell checker thats all.

if poko spoke to us in person speaking very fast and in slangs and issan it would go over our heads.
I give poko credit for trying, in another topic about noodles, I been to the places poko mentioned with a thai friend and they spoke issan and the beef w/ noodles were very good.

its very intimidating to do official business by yourself speaking a 2nd language, I did that the other day at Nongkhai immigration

Post by **Poko** » February 22, 2016, 9:17 am

Thank you koon FaranginUTH ☺