Want to speak a bit of Thai, any advice?

[El Cata]

Are downloads from uTorrent. safe?

 

Yes, if you get the torrent from a verified link site. Piratebay is one of the oldest & best. Of course, I've verified it too.

Edited February 19, 2012 by El Cata

[EM89]

Try watching subtitled television and movies in Thai. It sounds silly but it really helps when you start recognizing words in everyday situations as they're spoken rather than simply reading or listening to a CD.

[pubstud]

Try watching subtitled television and movies in Thai. It sounds silly but it really helps when you start recognizing words in everyday situations as they're spoken rather than simply reading or listening to a CD.

 

Watching movies is a very good way to improve language skills. I used to suggest this to my Thai students - they get a movie they have seen 2 or 3 times in Thai language and watch it in English.

[A1 MAX OUT UBER FANTASTISH]

My next trip to Pattaya is due for September, I would like to learn to speak some basic Thai. Just like ordering in restaurant type of thing.

 

On my first trip last December, I learn a few words and sentences with my bar girls, but I want a bit more than that.

 

Can anyone suggest some books or dvd/cd, is there a Thai language for dummie? I saw some at the bookshop, but was wondering if any PA members had some suggestion?

 

Cheers.

go to dk bookstore or the other english language bookstores. some of the book stores are 98% for thai's. asia books is another english book store. go to the language section. then look at the phrase books for learning thai. and also the dictionaries. i would bypass reading thai and grammar issues, etc. find the transliteration of the thai language into english letters. 90% of those books that have thai words written in english letters are shit. but a few out of a hundred are well done and you will be able to produce a clear sound if you read the thai sound written in english letters. go there with a thai girl who speaks proper thai. which most of the girls do in other cities. here in pattaya many girls will speak a very desecrated form of the beautiful thai language. very very nasty sounding desecration of the lovely thai language. so go with a girl that speaks politely. you should be able to isolate the one by the sound of her voice. it should be soft and she should look clean. better yet try one of the staff at the book store as most of them will be fairly civilized. have them go to the language section with you after you have chosen say 5 books that look good to you and then ask them to say what you show them in the book and then match up the english letters and see if it is written like what it sounds like. without alot of crazy signs and non english letters that you will find in the AUA books. AUA stands for american university abroad i believe. AUA has the worst books in my opinion. extremely bad. look for a book that writes the oo sound with letters oo instead of the letter u. and ee sound with the letters ee instead of the letter i. and the soft a sound with the letter h after the a. stay away from any of the books that puts the letter h after the letter p or t or k or some other letters i can't recall now. example thailand or phattaya or Phuket or khanom. there should not be an h after any of those words. thailand should be written tailand. but maybe in even the good books it may be spelled with the th because that is one word that the book cannot change because it is the name of this country officially. 98% of the books are dangerous to someone wanting to learn thai quickly by bypassing the grammar and bypassing reading the thai language with thai letters but instead reading the thai words and sounds with english letters made into thai words. that is my recommendation to you and good luck to you with your language acquisition. Edited February 24, 2012 by A1 MAX OUT UBER FANTASTISH

[pubstud]

AUA stands for american university abroad i believe: American Univeristy Alumni actually.

 

Agree their books are tough going. Trying to pronounce Thai via phonetic system is so damn difficult. If anyone is serious about learning Thai well they should have a go at getting some basic Thai alphabet reading skills. It's actually rather easy to understand, then when you read basic Thai your pronunciation will be pretty close to spot on.

[r2eady]

I got the 'Thai Learning Pack' from uTorrent.

 

 

 

http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/6210676

 

Everything you need apart from these sites, which are very good for reading & writing.

 

http://www.learningthai.com/index.php

 

http://phil.uk.net/t...rial_index.html

 

Downloading now. Thanks! I have 8 months to learn Thai!

[A1 MAX OUT UBER FANTASTISH]

AUA stands for american university abroad i believe: American Univeristy Alumni actually.

 

Agree their books are tough going. Trying to pronounce Thai via phonetic system is so damn difficult. If anyone is serious about learning Thai well they should have a go at getting some basic Thai alphabet reading skills. It's actually rather easy to understand, then when you read basic Thai your pronunciation will be pretty close to spot on.

thats very true. learning the alphabet is the best way. but if you just want some quick conversational basics then transliteration is the way to go. or you can try the alphabet way. i didnt do it that way but i respect anyone who does it that way and can read the thai words as long as you can speak the language as well. or at least enough for basic conversation in the different categories of day to day necessities.

[pubstud]

thats very true. learning the alphabet is the best way. but if you just want some quick conversational basics then transliteration is the way to go. or you can try the alphabet way. i didnt do it that way but i respect anyone who does it that way and can read the thai words as long as you can speak the language as well. or at least enough for basic conversation in the different categories of day to day necessities.

 

Yes, the problem lies in there are just way so many differing versions of transliteration, and Thai pronunciation requires you to be spot on, or pretty damn close to spot to. It all depends on one being a tourist just wanted a few common phrases; or if someone is an expat wanting to really get deep into the language. For the latter I believe getting to grips with the Thai alphabet is a must; it's the only way you can get correct pronunciation.

 

Oddly enough I was teaching a Thai BG to read Thai last night, she's close to being totally illiterate and they're were signs all around us and I was helping her spell them out. She's got kids and even though she didn't go to school herself, I can't understand how she never picked up some basic reading skills when her kids doing their homework.

[rhumandcoke]

AUA stands for american university abroad i believe: American Univeristy Alumni actually.

 

Agree their books are tough going. Trying to pronounce Thai via phonetic system is so damn difficult. If anyone is serious about learning Thai well they should have a go at getting some basic Thai alphabet reading skills. It's actually rather easy to understand, then when you read basic Thai your pronunciation will be pretty close to spot on.

 

Cheers for that, it's a pretty good advice ;)

[somjit]

If anyone is serious about learning Thai well they should have a go at getting some basic Thai alphabet reading skills. It's actually rather easy to understand, then when you read basic Thai your pronunciation will be pretty close to spot on.

 

That's 100% correct. Using phonetic is a waste of time.

[extracta]

If I was to start learning Thai again this is the way I would do it.

 

You can do step 1 and 2 with a book and do not necessarily need a teacher, although it helps.

 

1. Get an audio file and Learn how to say all of the 44 consonants off by heart.

gaaw gai

khaaw khai

etc

etc

 

Get conversational audio files to listen to in your car. ie berlitz, and some books come with an audio CD.

 

2. Learn to write the consonants and which group the consonants are in, high middle low.

 

3. Learn the Vowels, tones and tone marks. I believe that this is way too difficult to do on your own and you will need help.

 

If there are Thai Wat's in your country and there is a Thai Wat near where you live they often run language lessons very cheaply.

Edited April 3, 2012 by extracta

[herds]

If I was to start again the one thing I would have taken a lot more seriously is the tone rule charts earlier on. I suppose when I first started I thought "ahh it all sounds the same, no one will notice" if I don't get the tone right.

[Gadget]

Just had a look on my iPad there's a few decent apps on there, gives you the first few chapters free then you have to pay, look good though.

[Danielvp]

Lonely planet "phrasebooks .......is a book i use and i say them to my thai gf and she tells me how to say it properly

[rhumandcoke]

If I was to start learning Thai again this is the way I would do it.

 

You can do step 1 and 2 with a book and do not necessarily need a teacher, although it helps.

 

1. Get an audio file and Learn how to say all of the 44 consonants off by heart.

gaaw gai

khaaw khai

etc

etc

 

Get conversational audio files to listen to in your car. ie berlitz, and some books come with an audio CD.

 

2. Learn to write the consonants and which group the consonants are in, high middle low.

 

3. Learn the Vowels, tones and tone marks. I believe that this is way too difficult to do on your own and you will need help.

 

If there are Thai Wat's in your country and there is a Thai Wat near where you live they often run language lessons very cheaply.

 

Cheers for that, I'm currently using one of the links posted earlier on this thread, just need invest a bit more time into it...

[kanderson]

May sound silly - but - for me it took months to count to ten and say many many names of fruits, deserts etc..

 

hard words - like money = ngern can be a challenge at first.

 

grape = angoon

 

ng sound

 

then you can tell the ladyboys - mai me ngern

mee ow

mee ow

 

pai loi - damit

[jjscanlover]

Everybody is giving you good advice.

 

I started by just recording the things I could imagine being important to say in my native language

then got a Thai girl to speak those things in Thai and recorded it. Most decent phones will let you do that easy enough.

 

Edit those together listen and repeat them over and over... and they start to gel.

 

gl