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Hermanolobo
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I am trying to learn to read and write Thai.
It seems more difficult than cyrillic when I learnt
that but my Russian improved with learning to
read and write.
Has anybody tried Thai and did it take long?
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 4:59 am on Feb. 5, 2003
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seubeu
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It can't be done! JK!
It took me about a month of off and on effort to learn the Thai alphabet (it helps to learn the mnemonic devices, Gaw Gai, Kaw Kwai, etc). You can buy a poster with the pictures on Sukhumvit. Probably another month or so of practise to get the drawing of the characters right. Just a lot of repetition. It's an extreme help with the pronounciation, since the pronounciation is fairly constant and then you avoid the transliteration issue. Go for it.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 5:53 am on Feb. 5, 2003
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Winkelried
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I strongly recommend to learn read/write Thai instead of the (in my opinion) useless phonetic. The effort pays off very well.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 6:18 am on Feb. 5, 2003
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ringthebells
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thats a good one. anybody else in favour??
I ask because I start with my first professional thailesson in two weeks. a private teacher that was recommended to me by this forum.
I am in need for more vocabulary...
rtb
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 6:27 am on Feb. 5, 2003
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Sauron
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The main thing is, you really MUST learn to read Thai and the best way is by repetively writing the 44 Thai consonants and 33 vowels/vocalics. Start small. Learn maybe 5-10 a day. You will need to learn them in dictionary order, else you won't be able to USE a Thai dictionary with any facility.
At first this will seem random and confusing but as you proceed you will start to discern patterns, resemblences between the Thai characters, and then, while still proceeding in dictionary order, you can on the side, start to group characters by similarity and also by sound. Like, all the Kaw's (and yes, learn the nicknames like Kaw Kwai and get the small illustrated texts that Thais use to teach children that way. They will help.
When you can sit down with a looseleaf tablet, and draw the consonants in dictionary order, write the sound in english along with the associated Thai word (like NGAW NGU (snake), give the 'class' of the consonant, and list the value of the consonant at the END of a syllable...Daw changes to Taw for example when appearing in final position...THEN you will know all you need to about the 44 consonanrs.
Then proceed on to the 33 vowels/vocalics.
At this stage you need only to be dimly aware of Tones and tone marks, but you can ignore them till later (when you learn the tone rules, and that is why you needed to learn all the three different classes of Thai consonants because it is the class of the initial consonant plus tone mark if any that determines the spoken tone of the syllable. Eventually you will need to know that to distinguish in the dictionary between the 5 possible identically spelled words differeing only by tone marker (or its absence.)
It is possible to memorize all that in a lot less than months. I actually learned the 44 consonants in order, with nicknames, in 2 days, just before I came here, 15 years ago.
The best book to start with on your own is EASY THAI but, keep in mind that it is incomplete (and will make more sense when you graduate to a harder text and fill in the blanks) and also that its transliteration system is NOT standard and you will have to FORGET it later. Despite all that it is IMO the best icebreaker for written Thai. VERY available at bookstores worldwide.
Thai is almost perfectly consistent, with very very few words that are not spoken as spelled. Compare that to the nightmare riot that is English and Thai is a joy to learn. And I say that as a lover of English, it just isn't consistent at all, and that makes it hard for foreign students to access its treasures.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 7:16 am on Feb. 5, 2003
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Sauron
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If you do NOT learn the written language you will have an awful uphill climb with the spoken language as it contains so MANY sounds that either have no English equivalent (meaning you will have a 'deaf ear to them as your brain tries vainly to turn them into English sounds) or, sounds that are apparently so close to each other that you cannot discern between them. However, once you master the written language you will be well on your way to thinking in Thai and training your ear to hear those "alien" vowels and vocalics and sometimes consonants.
Then one day the clouds will part and the shingles will fall from your ears as from St Paul's eyes on the road to Tarsus (if I remember correctly) and you will cry AHA!
Then you will be ready to tackle tones and start to amass VOCABULARY which is what the bloody dictionary (and requisite dictionary order of letters and marks) is all about.
When you start to recognize regional dialects that's when you know you have really been in Thailand a long time. When you start to understand and laugh at Thai jokes and Thai soap operas you are in trouble!
Then when you start to compose new Thai jokes that Thais can understand and laugh at, you are sick sick sick!
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 7:25 am on Feb. 5, 2003
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bandit
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It can be done, our master BK is a living proof for it! How jealous I was when he was for example able to write TGs names and translated for Pinga the secrets of what was written in one of these night entertainment mags for Thais...
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 10:00 am on Feb. 5, 2003
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Hermanolobo
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I see, (l)see (r)see (f) see (h)see !
I think I have some hard work ahead.
Its bound to be rewarding in the long term.
Thanks Sauron !
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 11:56 am on Feb. 5, 2003
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MrMark
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"Then one day the clouds will part and the shingles will fall from your ears as from St Paul's eyes on the road to Tarsus (if I remember correctly) and you will cry AHA!"
Good analogy, Sauron. Actually, Paul (of Tarsus) was on the road to Damascus when this happened.
But I think all the advice here is good. I have not learned or attempted to learn much Thai at this point, but have spent some time working on Tibetan. My learning of Tibetan has followed a roughly similar path. When a language has sounds without direct English correlates, it is much easier to discern the difference in these sounds when you know the letters that represent them. And you avoid the inaccuracies and misrepresentations that occur with transliteration into the Roman alphabet. I found learning the written language important also as I tend to be very visually oriented when it comes to learning. And learning the letters in that language's alphabetical, or dictionary, order only makes sense.
Good luck on your project, Hermanolobo. It's very rewarding to see some success. I'm still struggling with my project and still waiting for that day Sauron refered to when I can understand it all much more clearly.
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 2:32 pm on Feb. 5, 2003
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Yurune
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Not much to add to Saurons post....but suffice to say learning script makes the language a lot easier....if I ever ask a word I ask for it written...gets over lazy speech, accents..etc in learning how to pronounce properly......then when you can read Thai maps, road signs are a godsend.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 10:07 am on Feb. 7, 2003
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