Bangkok Blogger|Tales from Thailand

Reading Thai isn’t as hard as it first seems and although I’ve only just started it definitely seems worth while.

Not only will you be able to read menus and street signs but you will be able to look words up in the dictionary and know how to pronounce them without relying on the the dodgy transliteration or karaoke Thai.

I think it is a more accomplish-able task than learning to speak Thai as you can never learn all the words and phrases but at least with reading, once you have learnt how to read you can then read all words. Knowing what they mean is another thing though!

If you are like me and have been putting off learning to read Thai this website might be just the thing you need to get you going:

• http://www.phil.uk.net/thailand/learn_to_read_thai_tutorial_1.html

Phil teaches you a few letters at a time and then shows you some words using those letters so you can get reading straight away. This is a much better way to draw people into reading Thai as opposed to making them learn all the letters first. This way you can start seeing results early on.

Can you read Thai? How did you learn? Leave a comment to share any tips or resources that helped you.

If you’ve got an Apple Iphone, Ipad or an Ipod touch and are not yet fluent in Thai this free Thai language app might be right up your soi. The Speak Thai app was released in September 2010 but I’ve only just discovered it.

Apart from being free it has a few nice features that separate it from the rest of the free Thai language Iphone apps and some of the ones you have to pay for. It was developed by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and although they get a bit of stick from time to time they seem to have done a pretty good job with this teach yourself Thai language app.

It has over 2500 words and covers the usual topics most Thai language books or software applications tend to focus on such as shopping, eating out, travel, doctors and hospitals and numbers to name just a few.

The phrases are written in English, Thai script and transliteration and you can chose to have them read out by a man or a woman. You can add phrases to your favourites so they can be easily accessed when you need them.

I’d say this was almost as good as the Ipood Iphone app which you have to pay for except that with this app you cannot see a list of all the individual words so could not use it as a dictionary, just a phrase book.

As it is free it is definitely worth a look and as speaking Thai is so focused on the pronunciation, being able to hear the words and phrases spoken is invaluable.

To find this Thai language application search for ‘Speak Thai EN’ on the Apple app store in Itunes.

Let us know how you get on!

After a few lessons and some attempts at self-teaching I have decided to start taking proper lessons and have enrolled at a Thai language school.  We are having two one hour lessons a week which should help us get more familiar with the language.

After the first two lessons we’ve realised how little we know!

Going to have a go at learning to read the Thai script in my own time too as it would be good to be able to read all the signs and menus.

This Thai alphabet soundboard looks like a good resource for learning the names of the letters.

Same Same, But Different

I’ve seen the above slogan on quite a few t-shirts worn by the Thai folk and wondered if it might be some joke about Thais trying to speak English.  After a quick Google search I found out that I was right and it refers to Tinglish which is a mutation of English spoken by some Thai people.  Here are some examples that might help you better understand Thais speaking English:

• same same (similar, as usual) and same same but different (seems similar but different in some ways);
• open/close the light (means “To turn on/off the light”);
• no have … (means “there is no …” or “I do not have a …”);
• I send you to the airport (means “I will take you to the airport”);
• I love you too much;
• I’m not pretty sure (means “I don’t know”);
• I have ever been to London;
• I’m interesting in football (means “I am interested in watching/playing football”);
• wash the film (means “develop the film”);
• I very like it (means “I really like it”);
• I’m sad when my mother angries me meaning is angry with me;
• I used to go to Phuket meaning I have been to Phuket before;
• take a bath referring to taking a shower;
• “Do you know how to eat this?” referring to food with taste that may be unfamiliar, or food requiring special eating method (such as wrapping it in lettuce) that may not be known to the listener;
• I play internet (I go on/use the internet);
• “This is suck!” means “This sucks!”;
• omission of pronouns and of the verb be;
• use of present tense + “already” instead of past tense

Stolen from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinglish

Anyone got any photos of signs in Tinglish?

Before coming to Thailand we had a few sessions with a Thai tutor to try and pickup some basics before we arrived in Bangkok.  We had about 6 lessons in total and thought we were doing ok but once we got here we realised just how hard the language is to speak and understand.  In my four weeks here I’ve hardly spoken any Thai except ‘hello’, ‘thank you’, ‘how much?’ and telling the taxi driver the address I want to be taken too.

Hopefully we can arrange some lessons soon and get learning Thai.  It really would be a shame to be out here for a few years and not pick any up.   There are lots of Thai language schools out here but I think a few of us will get together and hire a private tutor for one or two sessions a week.

I have a Thai phrase book which comes in handy but as Thai is a tonal language it can be hard to know how to pronounce the words.  I think I will get a few CDs and listen to them in the background from now on and hope some of it sinks in!

Here are some links to some Thai language schools in Bangkok and some Thai language websites if you are interested in learning the language:

• AUA Thai Language School
• Nisa Thai Language School

Here are some Thai language books and CDs that should help you to learn to speak Thai: Thai Language Instructional Books & CDs