A different appraoch to learning Thai

[bumper]

This has been a battle for me for three years now. I have absloutley came to the conclusion that you have to learn to read to advance. I for one just can't remember all those word given in Thai Speaking classes. No matter how good a teacher is. I got a bit of a taste of how Thai children learn to read in at AUA first thing that very hit really hit home with me. I may be an old git but when it comes to this I'm just like a Thai child. Gave it a shot at another school with a private teacher here we go again 85 new words in a week. Tried to explain thew plan wouldn't listen her way or the highway it was the highway. I had tried their way for three years just didn't work for me.

As luck would have it a neighbor who is well educated Thai man and happened to live in the states for a bit. Was laid off from a local plant where he was the G.M. He had time I needed teacher. He had participated in his childs education all along. So not so far away from it that the didn't remember how it was done.

Really surprised m the first thing he did was find a lesson plan and the accompaning books that went with it. Never have seen that before. So I'm in the first grade now exactly where I need to be. Nothing has cahnged in one aspect still hard work. But can see where it's leading and that provides good motivation .

For the first time I really feel like I can get handle on this, I know I will be reading a descent level in six months, as long as I hold on to my end of the bargain.

It's one hour a day four days week, believe me when you are the only student you have an instructor that keep it on topic for that hour, it's more then enough. Two weeks now I catch myself reading signs in stores . Only been two weeks but I had a lot ground work under my belt before I tried this method. I'm grateful to other teachers I have had in the past. With this added aspect it's finally starting to come together.

Will I be flunt in Thai this year I doubt it but if i can read well I have a solid foundation to build on. It will come with Time. Crazy I'm now reading words I have to look up in the dictionary I have no idea what they mean yet

But they are sticking in Kanoggin much better

[sammyg]

Hi Git I also have a hard time learning Thai although I have not given it that strong of attention.My wife is a former High School English teacher from Nongbualamphu and wants me to just memorize the words.I have told her that I think I should try and read the language first as when you are a child and learn to read.She asks me how I am going to learn to read Thai as it is a very difficult language to read especially because the words continue in sentences.I have a harder problem pronouncing the words than reading them as I can't seem to contort my mouth to say such words as ngu(snake) I believe.It just doesn't come out sounding right and her family says God forbid if I'm being chased by one as I'm in Deep S--t if I need Help!I have never tried the Rosetta Stone thing but think they kind of work on this principle and was wondering if you or any other members have tried it before and how or if it worked for them?I thought since you can move at your own pace and in privacy of your computer it might be advantageous?Im glad you feel you have finally found what seems to work for you and Good Luck with your progress! Thanks,SammyG =D> =D>

[jimboLV]

Hi Git and Sammy! It's good to know that I'm not the only one having trouble learning Thai. My goal was to speak relatively fluent Thia in six months. Well, I'm now on month seven and still can only speak rudimentary sentences, which seems to provide a great source of amusement to the family. I am using the Pimsleur method, I have the 15 CD set and am aout halfway through it. It is good for learning words and sentence structure, but I still can't understand when Thai are speaking to me in normal conversation even though I know some of the words.

Git i think you may be onto something by learning to read the words. I discovered when I was teaching that people have different learning styles. People of my age, who grew up before TV, learn best by text and sound, not visually. I would much rather read a body of text than look at dynamic graphics, flashy videos that last two seconds, pie charts, etc. such as one finds on TV news outlets like CNN. So I think I'm going to make an effort to learn the alphabet. It can't be that hard. My 9 year old nephew loves to show me that he can recite the entire English alphabet, and count to ten and above. If that little squirt can do it, then I certainly can do it with Thai.

I investigated Rosetta Stone, saw some bad reviews on the net, claiming it is full of inaccuracies. From what I saw, it relies heavily on flashy graphics, which might not be best for someone my age.


No to discourage anyone, but in the States the pastor of our church was Thai, his wife was a Filipino. Married 35 years, lived in America 30 years, she still could not speak Thai. Some of my Thai friends who have lived in the States for 10 or 15 years can barely speak English. I have to speak slowly and in short sentences to be understood. But I'm going to give it a try.

Good luck to both of you!

[Irish Alan]

I initially tried phrase books and MP3's but nothing can beat face to face teaching. I think the best way to be understood is to imitate a native as best as you can. Do you speak Thai in an English/US/Australian and in my case Irish accent? The best fahlang Thai speakers I know here are an American and an Aussie. I kid you not but when they speak Thai you would not know their native country. Anytime I seen them they were holding court with numerous Thai females and I thought, "I want to do that!"

I try having a conversation with the beer girls at the night market or with the girl in my local Thai place. It sure beats learning Irish with Sister Patricia!

โชคดีครับ...

[bumper]

Ya yuo have to use it reading reinforces it for me. The Alphabet and vowels are essential and probably the hardest part to learn. I have written them so many time I hestitate to think about it. But on a good day I have them down I agree face to face is best even with what I do I need guidance.

For waht I;m doing now you have to ahve the a basi to strat form the constanents and vowels what sounds the creAte are a m ust. Then yuo can look up words try i use them where you can. I will always spek with an accent being tome deaf doesnl help. But believe it or not I can come closer reading the sound then trying repeat it.

Anyway good luck to all, this is working for me What Irish isn't telling you is he took to this like a duck to water. Whippersnapper =D> =D>

[Michael C]

git, there appears to be a plateau that is reached by those foreigners learning Thai that do not learn to read and write Thai. I have only met two foreigners that had any real fluency in speaking Thai that could not also read and write. All of the other foreigners that I have met that have any real fluency have all learned to read and write. Immersion is the other key, which is exactly what those who did not learn to read and write did for decades. While learning, I would learn more in one month of immersion (staying away from areas and people that could speak English) than I would learn in 6 months of studying. One must also continually practice after learning; I have lost the ability to speak 2 of the 6 languages that I have learned from not using them

[bumper]

Yes I think reading and writing is essential if you want to advance. The moer I do the more comfortable I feel with it. I have been able to get by for some time now. But having a conversation is really a much different thing. All that I did before helps me now, but I will get no further till I read.

It's funny to watch the wife will say something to me in English and I dont really understand here I ask her in Thai and get the right answer

[saint]

i take my hat off to anyone who masters the art of speaking and understanding the thai language , or isaan language . learning any language is pretty much imposible for me . i just seem to get a mental block when it comes to languages . yet i can pretty much pick up anything else quite easily . years ago i tried to learn spanish , as i spent a fair amount of time there , i thought it a good idea . after several lessons , diddly squat . thats with a language that uses the same alphabet as us , all be it 4 letters shorter . so what chance have i to learn thai ? it must be a part of my brain that does not compute . ive also found with age that my short term memory is not what it used to be !!!! this certainly does not bode well for learning a language . i get embarrased that ive lived here so long now , that i still understand so little thai . my wife picked up english in a flash , and has tried quite hard to teach me basic thai , but she may as well be trying to teach me quantom physics , for all the success shes had .

[bumper]

Beleive me it's a lifetime project, just keep doing the best you can. I'm three years onto this now and not close to fluent. So I just keep poking at it [-o<

[Dagnabbit]

I was real happy to see an learning Thai thread emerge. I have been at it for 2 years, more seriously for the last year. Since I am still in USA, and don't have Thai speakers around me (that I know), I have been relegated to self study, and learning the alphabet was the first thing I did. I still get hung up on tone marks and tone rules, but I can read Thai. The problem is, and Git will be able to commiserate, is that I can read the words, but don't know what they mean. No vocabulary!!.. Well, a little but not much yet. I spend time reading thai-language.com forums and they are very helpful, though often advanced beyond my abilities right now.

One major thing I am trying to grasp right now is how many small Thai words get heaped together to form other bigger (or newer) words. some Thai that I cut-paste into thai2english.com comes out like "nice heavenly bewildering exciting to meet you he him us them. I we them us are open strength a barrel can box ships hold of wigglies serpents fierce competitors..... etc etc..." The point being that often all those little words were stuck together to form the word that contains the real meaning, so you can easily miss nuances in the real message. and that gam-lang thing stumped me for a long time!! The trials of self study I guess.

I thought it was interesting to read that Americans and Aussies seem to do the 'Thai sound' thing best. (finally ONE thing that I am not at the bottom rung on....) I can say the words starting with NG, but probably because of a quarter century with the filipinos.

Git, or anyone else for that matter, if interested in discussing, or comparing notes, or just trading advice, please PM me and I wold be happy to have a friend with a common interest, especially one who is already over there (you bums).....

Maybe some things will come out from both sides, like the -ing (gam-lang) thing. There must be dozens more that I have not come across, or didn't know it when I did.

I'm very serious about learning. I do not have a natural language learning ability like some folks. I have been reading you guys for quite a while before I registered. It's like I already know some of you (and THAT can be scarey...)

Thanks for reading and I hope to be able to make a meaningful contribution some day to the forum.

ไมเคล

[bumper]

MY sugggestion would be to try to loacate a Wat in yuir area. I know there are some in Texas and Arizona and one in Los Angeles that acrually gives free Thai lessons on Sundays. Sothere is one somewhere around you more then likely.

Thia Visa has a vrey active language thread as well. sure glad to chat anytime. Yes Thai words do have many differenet ne mneaings some of i ha o do with tomes. Others are just word that can be used differnlyy just ot watch the content on the sentence and see which one fits. Yes combined words are common/

Much easier when you have a Thai to explain the differences.

[cali4995]

I've got an incredibly lazy system that almost guarantees lack of any real progress but it's fun. I just
try to learn ONE short word/phrase everyday that can be pronounced in nearly any tone that I can use in my daily life. Today's word is "TOH-BPIT" ( โทรผิด ) as in "wrong number" when girls call you on the
mobile and you'd really rather not talk to them this is a sure conversation ender. enjoy.

[bumper]

Thats the fun thing about it, not forced yuo can as much or as little as you wish.

[mortiboy]

"Kaw toht khap...Pom toh hah phit" That is never said when aThai phones you wrong number!They just hang up!
Pig ignorant I think!

[cali4995]

Aaahhh...Mortiboy reveals he is really an advanced linguist. The polite language in your
example illustrates one of my main stumbling points though. This is "book Thai" often not
the colloquial Thai that people use everyday. And often, they don't seem understand it either.
If it's more than a very few words, the communication seems to lose all momentum? embarrased to
admit I subconciously "mime" almost everything to supplement what few phrases I know?

[bumper]

Here you will hear Thai, Issan an Lao. But if you want to learn you have to start somewhere, the national dialect is probably the best. I promise there are areas in the states that I don't understand what they are saying . People from the UK speak english, I don't but what I do speak is referred to as english. So I really don't see a lot of difference slang phrases are every where.

[Irish Alan]

Yes best to start with the official language of the kingdom then supplement it with a bit of Lao. I bought the book Lao for Beginners, co-written by Benjawan Boomsan Becker.

http://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Buasawa ... 1887521283

[Aardvark]

http://www.byki.com/ You can download Thai from this site. It's good fun and easy to learn if you have a good memory.

[Aardvark]

http://www.byki.com/ Sorry guys the above link is the wrong one

[bumper]

Thanks I will check it out after I get the reading doen LOL I have a terrible memory/ I have a book now that shows all the differences between Thai, Lao and Issan. Bought years ago. Thought I could actually do it. Until you know Thai it just muddies the water, So I have to learn Thai before I can use it properly. I have great fun with this between rides seasons. But October the kid will be on the road =D>