Thai Language

You are now in Bangkok, you will undoubtedly have heard one "Sawatdee Kha" or "Sawatdee Krab" greeting somewhere in the airport as you were going to your taxi or limosine. The main language here is Thai, and every local here speaks that language. You could get around with English, however, you could be frustrated at times, as the level of English of proficiency is not consistent, so do speak slowly when communicating with the locals.

Being able to speak Thai has plenty of advantages. When you're in a club choosing a girl, you are not limited to ones with with English language capabilities. The girl will also find it easier to have a conversation with you if they were talking in their native language. This will help you understand their stories.

You will find that being able to speak their language would help break the ice. The more you can speak, the better your fun in general. We thought of completing the entire section first before putting it up, but after some consideration, we figured what the heck, we will just put it up so that you can use what is here first and come back for more as more and more words are updated. Currently, no Thai script has been added but will be added shortly so that you can consult with your girl if in doubt.

Here are a couple of recommended books to get you started. Click here for the Thai language phrase eBook (PDF format). You can also pick up some interesting Thai vocabulary in the forum area.

Here's some information on Thai typing, such as keyboard layout and the pangram.

The Thai words can be transliterated in several ways, some have opted to use some International Phonetic Alphabets, some use their own systems and so forth. Our guess is that none of us are linguists or at least not the majority, so we have opted for our own style.

The "ph" representation should not be pronounced as "f" like in "photo". It represents an aspirated "p" sound. The plain "p" alone as in "pla" is to give it a pure "p" sound. We will upload a sound file for you to hear the difference soon. E.g. Phuket should be pronounced as "Poo-ket" rather than "Foo-ket".

Another aspirated letter is the is "k". Note the difference between "kh" and "k". The word "kai" is for chicken, whilst, "khai" is for "egg". Click on the sound bites to listen to the two words. Listen to the word Kai (chicken) and then Khai (egg) a few times until you can distinguish between the two of them. Notice the aspiration in Khai.

One possible difficult vowel is "ng" as in "ngoo" which means snake. You can practice the "ng" sound as in "singer".

A note on the "r" sound. You will hear Thais often pronouncing a word with the "r" substituted with the "l" instead. For example "Na rak" would sound like "Na lak" or "Thee Rak" sounds like "Thee Lak" (some times written as "tilac").

Once you have picked up a few words and phrases, and if you've decided that you want to delve deeper into the language, you will need to learn the Thai script. Being able to read the Thai script will enable you to look-up words in the Thai-English dictionaries, which will help you enlarge your Thai vocabulary.