Learning Thai

[Scumbag]

Hi,

 

Ok, trust me when I tell you this, learning to read and using your memory technique or association will cause you no end of problems as you are steering away from the meaning of the letter. To associate ง with diving will only slow down your learning as it is a snake and reflecting the letters ng. If you learn diving and then your in conversation you will struggle when a Thai mentions a snake as you will have to convert nguu from diving back to its original meaning. You do the same with Leaf which you have changed to submarine? Learn the words for how they are meant and also for what they mean and already your learning words you can use in sentences.

 

Thanks, but the technique is working for me. ง does not mean snake but งู does so I don't see any advantage of remembering snake over diving. I am sure that most words containing ง have nothing to do with snakes! It is easy for me to separate what I use to remember something from what it actually means. I have gone very quickly from not being able to read any Thai to being able to recognise nearly all the characters (I have yet to finish the material) and know how they sound. The technique also helps me to remember whether they are low, middle or high class. Similar images are used to remember the vowels, including combinations. I would not have got this far so quickly using rote learning as I would have given it up due to boredom and frustration. We have to use the learning techniques that works best and different techniques work better for different people.

[TK_Knightster]

Thanks, but the technique is working for me. ง does not mean snake but งู does so I don't see any advantage of remembering snake over diving. I am sure that most words containing ง have nothing to do with snakes! It is easy for me to separate what I use to remember something from what it actually means. I have gone very quickly from not being able to read any Thai to being able to recognise nearly all the characters (I have yet to finish the material) and know how they sound. The technique also helps me to remember whether they are low, middle or high class. Similar images are used to remember the vowels, including combinations. I would not have got this far so quickly using rote learning as I would have given it up due to boredom and frustration. We have to use the learning techniques that works best and different techniques work better for different people.

I never said ง was how you SPELL Snake I simply said it is the sound and word associated with it! I read and write Thai fluently so please spare me your lesson on how or how not to write......Good luck in your learning

[Scott Kevin]

Thanks, but the technique is working for me. ง does not mean snake but งู does so I don't see any advantage of remembering snake over diving. I am sure that most words containing ง have nothing to do with snakes! It is easy for me to separate what I use to remember something from what it actually means. I have gone very quickly from not being able to read any Thai to being able to recognise nearly all the characters (I have yet to finish the material) and know how they sound. The technique also helps me to remember whether they are low, middle or high class. Similar images are used to remember the vowels, including combinations. I would not have got this far so quickly using rote learning as I would have given it up due to boredom and frustration. We have to use the learning techniques that works best and different techniques work better for different people.

 

I agree with TK knightster.

 

Scumbag,

 

You said "I don't see any advantage of remembering snake over diving."  and you are correct that most words containing ง have nothing to do with snakes. The key point is that the name of the letter is ngor ngoo, not just ngor. The name contains both the sound and the associated word. If a Thai person spells a word or name aloud they use the full name, like this:

กิน  gor gai, sara (vowel) e, nor noo.

 

If you have questions about writing/spelling/ etc. you can't ask a Thai person about "the diving letter"....you need to call it by it's name which is ngor ngoo. Another example is if you're talking on the phone and need to say the name of a letter, perhaps giving an account number, address, i.d. number etc. The situations don't come up all that often but you should know the names of the letters.

 

If the mental images help you then it is much better to adapt the correct words rather than make up new ones. Since the name of the letter บ is "bor bai mai" (leaf) then picture it as a bin that you're filling full of leaves, etc. Thinking of a submarine might help initially (though I don't see how since it looks nothing like a sub) but it will be confusing later since there are 2 different letters whose real names refer to boats.

 

In the end it's up to you, but I think that as you progress you'll almost certainly reach a point where you'll want to know the correct names so why not learn the right way the first time?

[Scumbag]

I agree with TK knightster.

 

Scumbag,

 

You said "I don't see any advantage of remembering snake over diving."  and you are correct that most words containing ง have nothing to do with snakes. The key point is that the name of the letter is ngor ngoo, not just ngor. The name contains both the sound and the associated word. If a Thai person spells a word or name aloud they use the full name, like this:

กิน  gor gai, sara (vowel) e, nor noo.

 

If you have questions about writing/spelling/ etc. you can't ask a Thai person about "the diving letter"....you need to call it by it's name which is ngor ngoo. Another example is if you're talking on the phone and need to say the name of a letter, perhaps giving an account number, address, i.d. number etc. The situations don't come up all that often but you should know the names of the letters.

 

If the mental images help you then it is much better to adapt the correct words rather than make up new ones. Since the name of the letter บ is "bor bai mai" (leaf) then picture it as a bin that you're filling full of leaves, etc. Thinking of a submarine might help initially (though I don't see how since it looks nothing like a sub) but it will be confusing later since there are 2 different letters whose real names refer to boats.

 

In the end it's up to you, but I think that as you progress you'll almost certainly reach a point where you'll want to know the correct names so why not learn the right way the first time?

How many hours do you think you have spent rote learning the Thai alphabet and what class each of the consonants are?

[Scott Kevin]

Maybe 15? It was so long ago I can't be sure.  It might have been faster if there was a program that used picture flash cards/mnemonics like the site you mentioned but one wasn't available at the time. I think that method is great...IF it used the correct names of the letters.  There is no reason to create wrong associations which you will have to unlearn later.

 

If you disagree with me and think your method is the correct one for you then good luck with it, but I wouldn't recommend it.

[Scumbag]

Maybe 15?

That's probably about twice what it has taken me. I'll stick to this way for a while and if the requirement to know the names of each letter comes up it will not take long to learn them as it will just be another small step.

[Scott Kevin]

So you learned to read and write 44 consonants and 32 vowels in about 7.5 hours?! Sorry, but I don't believe that's possible regardless of the method.

[Scumbag]

So you learned to read and write 44 consonants and 32 vowels in about 7.5 hours?! Sorry, but I don't believe that's possible regardless of the method.

oops I don't know all of the 32 vowels just 21 of the more common ones. You are not the only one who finds it difficult to believe. Here is a testimonial of the method:

 

I wanted to thank you for an excellent

weekend. I asked my Thai teacher today if she thought it possible that

someone with no prior knowledge could learn to read Thai in two days.

She said no. When I read some Thai to her she said, "It's a miracle!!"

This morning I was behind a minibus and was able to read that its route

was Krungthep to Baan Beung!! I was still smiling when I arrived in

Pattaya, so many thanks for the opportunity.

 

..and another:

 

This course was fantastic – exactly what I needed in my quest to learn to

read Thai.  I must admit I was a little skeptical at first, but the

course exceeded my expectations by miles. We were really reading Thai

script by the end of the week and I am continuing to learn more every

day with the online resources and follow on suggestions from the

instructor.  I’ve tried other methods of learning the Thai alphabet but

Gary’s pictures are just what I needed to help me remember.  I highly

recommend this course.

 

Watch this video to learn 13 letters in ten minutes:

 

[Scott Kevin]

Yes, as I said I'm familiar with the site.

 

So add an hour or two to learn the rest of the vowels and maybe 2-3 more to learn the names properly and it's about the same amount of time. I'm also including the tone markers, consonant classes, and the Thai numerals 1-9 in my learning time,  pretty much everything but the tone rules which took another few hours to learn and then dozens of hours of reading to reinforce.

 

I'm glad you found a method that worked for you.

[El Cata]

After 2 years I can speak quite well but my listening skills are poor. I've also learnt to read but still forget some consonants & especially the compound vowels. Once you think you've mastered it you come up against other rules such as for 'ror rua', the modifiers for verb / noun + 'ing' & contrary to popular belief, Thai does have tenses!

[slick67]

Finding good learning material that suits your level can be pretty difficult.

If you can already speak and read Thai, but want to practice listening then you should have a look at this website:

 

http://thairecordings.com/

 

Pick a subject that interests you, and first listen to the soundclip a couple of times to see how much you understand.

Next read the transcript, look up some of the words you don't know, until you can follow the story easily.

Then listen again a couple of times and see if your understanding has improved.

 

They talk pretty fast, so it can be tough at first, but the more you practice the easier it gets.

[Scott Kevin]

^ That's pretty close to the method I'm using, but I use VOA Thai instead of thairecordings.com (which is good but a bit lower level). I listen to it once, then listen to it again pausing and replaying sections as I type it out in Thai. Sometimes I'll have to listen to a line several times before I can guess what they're saying. After I finish I compare my text to the original and make a note of the errors and look up any new words.  If there are any new vocabulary words that I think are worth learning then I put them in Anki. The last step is to listen to it again a few times until I can understand 90%+. I have the audio on my ipod and listen to the completed articles once in a while to review.

 

I neglected writing/typing for a long time so it's by far my weakest skill. Doing this also really helps with listening since you can easily see your mistakes when you mishear something.

[slick67]

^ That's pretty close to the method I'm using, but I use VOA Thai instead of thairecordings.com

I tried listening to VOA Thai a couple of years ago, but back then it was way too fast and difficult for me to follow.

Also what was written sort of followed what was being said but it wasn't a 1 to 1 transcript. Is it still like

 

I think I'll give it another go, see how far I get this time

[TK_Knightster]

I agree with TK knightster.

 

Scumbag,

 

You said "I don't see any advantage of remembering snake over diving."  and you are correct that most words containing ง have nothing to do with snakes. The key point is that the name of the letter is ngor ngoo, not just ngor. The name contains both the sound and the associated word. If a Thai person spells a word or name aloud they use the full name, like this:

กิน  gor gai, sara (vowel) e, nor noo.

 

If you have questions about writing/spelling/ etc. you can't ask a Thai person about "the diving letter"....you need to call it by it's name which is ngor ngoo. Another example is if you're talking on the phone and need to say the name of a letter, perhaps giving an account number, address, i.d. number etc. The situations don't come up all that often but you should know the names of the letters.

 

If the mental images help you then it is much better to adapt the correct words rather than make up new ones. Since the name of the letter บ is "bor bai mai" (leaf) then picture it as a bin that you're filling full of leaves, etc. Thinking of a submarine might help initially (though I don't see how since it looks nothing like a sub) but it will be confusing later since there are 2 different letters whose real names refer to boats.

 

In the end it's up to you, but I think that as you progress you'll almost certainly reach a point where you'll want to know the correct names so why not learn the right way the first time?

100% CORRECT!

[Scott Kevin]

I tried listening to VOA Thai a couple of years ago, but back then it was way too fast and difficult for me to follow.

Also what was written sort of followed what was being said but it wasn't a 1 to 1 transcript. Is it still like

 

I think I'll give it another go, see how far I get this time

 

I quit using VOA for the same reasons, then I found this site: http://www.selfstudythai.com/

 

It has about 40 VOA Thai lessons and he has made changes to the Thai transcripts if necessary so they match the audio.

[alithinos]

 

oops I don't know all of the 32 vowels just 21 of the more common ones. You are not the only one who finds it difficult to believe. Here is a testimonial of the method:

 

I wanted to thank you for an excellent

weekend. I asked my Thai teacher today if she thought it possible that

someone with no prior knowledge could learn to read Thai in two days.

She said no. When I read some Thai to her she said, "It's a miracle!!"

This morning I was behind a minibus and was able to read that its route

was Krungthep to Baan Beung!! I was still smiling when I arrived in

Pattaya, so many thanks for the opportunity.

 

..and another:

 

This course was fantastic – exactly what I needed in my quest to learn to

read Thai.  I must admit I was a little skeptical at first, but the

course exceeded my expectations by miles. We were really reading Thai

script by the end of the week and I am continuing to learn more every

day with the online resources and follow on suggestions from the

instructor.  I’ve tried other methods of learning the Thai alphabet but

Gary’s pictures are just what I needed to help me remember.  I highly

recommend this course.

 

Watch this video to learn 13 letters in ten minutes:

 

Great video.. Thx

[slick67]

I quit using VOA for the same reasons, then I found this site: http://www.selfstudythai.com/

 

It has about 40 VOA Thai lessons and he has made changes to the Thai transcripts if necessary so they match the audio.

Thanks kikenyoy, it looks like I will have even less spare time now

[DonTheJeweler]

I quit using VOA for the same reasons, then I found this site: http://www.selfstudythai.com/

 

It has about 40 VOA Thai lessons and he has made changes to the Thai transcripts if necessary so they match the audio.

 

Had a quick look and at seems like a great resource for intermediate/advanced learners. Great to have the sound and script to follow.

 

Thanks!

[Ba Ba Bluie]

Thank you BigBill340 for your post. The Classroom one!