Learning Thai Script

[MONOCHROMEMAN]

I've a sudden interest in learning thai script. I'll probably just force myself to memorise symbol and sound. Any more interesting ways?

[Barfly]

555. You make it sound so easy! Getting a bit frustrated with each new book using a new system of 'Romanization' for the Thai language, I took a quick look at Thai script.

 

There's a bucket load or consonants, another bucket load of vowels, and a load of special situation rules that I didn't even begin to understand. I don't know if it just me (bare in mind that I've got moderate dyslexia – everything gets spell checked) but so many of those characters look identical to one another even when working really slowly using a key.

 

I'm sure that learning Thai script is the way forward, eventually, but I've decided to go back to the imperfect 'Romanizations' until I've learnt far more of the spoken Thai language.

 

But, hey, that's just me. I'll follow this thread, it's an interesting topic.

 

Good luck with your studies.

[filibuster]

I've a sudden interest in learning thai script. I'll probably just force myself to memorise symbol and sound. Any more interesting ways?

 

You can buy packs of cards with pictures on one side and the pronunciation/letter on the other which are handy for flipping through when you're stuck in traffic etc. I would assume that most decent bookshops sell them - I got them at my local branch of se-ed bookshops.

[aitch]

Mary Haas "the thai system of writing", probably $10 USD on Amazon. 115-ish page paperback. doesn't look like much but don't let that fool you, it's a tough first read. keep at it and it should all fall into place (5th read for me and i still read it about every 4 months to refresh). i pretty much abandoned my english-thai dictionary for my thai-english dictionary after that. when a word jams me up in a conversation, i ask for the spelling. i write it down and show to the speaker to confirm (i have trouble with shortahnd and fonts). Mary Haas has written other books but they tend to be a bit outdated. i do like her student dictionary however.

[Catullus]

I've a sudden interest in learning thai script. I'll probably just force myself to memorise symbol and sound. Any more interesting ways?

 

Have a look at this blog:

 

http://womenlearnthai.com/

 

It's written by an expat woman living in Bangkok and there is a shed load of thai language resources on it...including all the free stuf on the internet.

[Dr.Winston]

The simplest method for learning to read and write Thai that I ever came accross was the small book that came with the old Linguaphone book/cassette tape course. There is another course called linguaphone doing the rounds as CD's/MP3's but this isn't the same one. The one 'fault' was that it didn't teach the names of the Thai letters (Kor Kai etc.)but it isn't necessary to learn the word names in order to be able to read/write Thai. You can learn the names later in order to use them when telling another Thai speaker how to spell a particular word. I found it so easy to learn and you wouldn't believe how small and simply explained the book is compared to others I have seen.

[kansuwan]

Interesting. My Thai Thai teacher took a dim view of the (multi-volume) Linguaphone stuff: said the grammar and vocabulary was so archaic that Thais might think you were mad or taking the piss if you followed it closely. Her analogy was that it was like 1930s Noel Coward English rather than estuary argot.

For survival/situational Thai (with writing), I rate Teach Yourself Thai (+ Cassettes) as a great starting point.

Edited August 9, 2009 by kansuwan

[herds]

I tried a couple ways, but nothing stuck.

 

I stumbled upon a website with a very useful step-by-step page and it all made a lot more sense, where it starts spelling English words in Thai. Within a few hours you should be able to spell words like "cat", "mum" quite confidently albeit phonetically, even if you've not really a Desire to read, just give this 20 minutes, I really recommend it:

 

http://www.learningthai.com/readthai_01.html

 

 

Then I moved onto the alphabet until I could speak and write all the consonants and vowels out by memory, in retrospect this was a little over the top, I had Thai friends at the time that struggled to get remember the exact order, heh. I still hesitate on certain vowels and consonants like ฏฆฑฒ, though these are seldom used.

 

Then just read whatever I could get my hands on.

 

I now regret putting it off for so long, it really isn't that difficult.

Edited August 9, 2009 by herds

[aitch]

Have a look at this blog:

 

http://womenlearnthai.com/

 

It's written by an expat woman living in Bangkok and there is a shed load of thai language resources on it...including all the free stuf on the internet.

 

thanks for the link. so far i like what i see

Edited August 9, 2009 by aitch

[Dr.Winston]

Interesting. My Thai Thai teacher took a dim view of the (multi-volume) Linguaphone stuff: said the grammar and vocabulary was so archaic that Thais might think you were mad or taking the piss if you followed it closely. Her analogy was that it was like 1930s Noel Coward English rather than estuary argot.

For survival/situational Thai (with writing), I rate Teach Yourself Thai (+ Cassettes) as a great starting point.

I wonder if it's the same Linguaphone course he/she was referring to? I bought mine back in the 80's haven't seen it circulating via any of the 'download' routes. The grammar in it is fine.

[Dr.Winston]

I tried a couple ways, but nothing stuck.

 

I stumbled upon a website with a very useful step-by-step page and it all made a lot more sense, where it starts spelling English words in Thai. Within a few hours you should be able to spell words like "cat", "mum" quite confidently albeit phonetically, even if you've not really a desire to read, just give this 20 minutes, I really recommend it:

 

http://www.learningthai.com/readthai_01.html

 

 

Then I moved onto the alphabet until I could speak and write all the consonants and vowels out by memory, in retrospect this was a little over the top, I had Thai friends at the time that struggled to get remember the exact order, heh. I still hesitate on certain vowels and consonants like ฏฆฑฒ, though these are seldom used.

Then just read whatever I could get my hands on.

 

I now regret putting it off for so long, it really isn't that difficult.

Thai has a lot of exceptional spellings just like English. You just have to learn them as you come across them. A lot of the full Thai names come under this category.

[MONOCHROMEMAN]

The simplest method for learning to read and write Thai that I ever came accross was the small book that came with the old Linguaphone book/cassette tape course. There is another course called linguaphone doing the rounds as CD's/MP3's but this isn't the same one. The one 'fault' was that it didn't teach the names of the Thai letters (Kor Kai etc.)but it isn't necessary to learn the word names in order to be able to read/write Thai. You can learn the names later in order to use them when telling another Thai speaker how to spell a particular word. I found it so easy to learn and you wouldn't believe how small and simply explained the book is compared to others I have seen.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I have a KISS type of mind so flashcards appeal to me. I'll get the GF onto that. Weirdly I don't even want to speak Thai, I'm just into scripts at the moment! Amharic is my fave. It looks beautiful.http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/natlang/ethiopic/amharic.jpg But Thailand is where I gravitate to.

 

I've quoted Winston because reading what he said jogged my memory. About 11 years ago someone said the exact same thing to me: said the small booklet was the best thing they'd seen.

 

NB I think the Haas book might on the links page I posted previously

[MONOCHROMEMAN]

http://uz-translations.net/?category=thaibooks-thai&altname=The_Thai_System_of_Writing

 

that's Hass. Free register first.

[aitch]

to write via my pc, i have been using

 

http://www.wandel.person.dk/thai.html

 

i have a thai usb keyboard but apparently i need to upgrade to Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1 32-bit and then download Vista Ultimate x86 MUI Language Packs > Thai Language Pack, to use it (currently using Vista home basic 32 bit)

[herds]

Pretty sure someone else had the same issue and found that you do need the ultimate edition, then the thai language pack should appear in the windows update.

[Dr.Winston]

Pretty sure someone else had the same issue and found that you do need the ultimate edition, then the thai language pack should appear in the windows update.

That option certainly appeared when I updated my copy of UE as well. BTW, the option of installing Thai script compatability certainly came with Windows XP Pro as well. It was on the disc but had to be selected specially upon installation or later.

[aitch]

That option certainly appeared when I updated my copy of UE as well. BTW, the option of installing Thai script compatability certainly came with Windows XP Pro as well. It was on the disc but had to be selected specially upon installation or later.

 

when you upgraded to UE, not too much trouble ? or was it painful ?

 

weighing whether to upgrade or just wait until i get another computer with UE loaded from scratch

[herds]

aitch - depends what you do on the computer but win7 isn't too far away now, so if you were going to buy a new copy of windows or just spend the time doing a new install win7 is quite a lot nicer.