Reader submission: 'Ambassador misleads Ronald'

Ambassador Joan Boer was disappointed when he received his book 'The Thai language, grammar and pronunciation' from Ronald Schütte on Friday 13 February. The ambassador, who likes a joke, paused for a moment to increase the tension. And then the high word came out: 'Your book is 4 years late, I would have liked it sooner'. 

If that isn't a nice compliment to Ronald, who spent a year translating and editing David Smyth's widely used English book 'Thai an essential Grammar'.

The book, published last year, clearly meets a need. Of the edition of 400, 250 copies have already been sold. And when the remaining 150 copies have also found their way to expats, business people working in Thailand, and tourists, a second (revised) edition will follow. Ronald is busy with it.

Bert Cesar, Executive Director of the Netherlands-Thai Chamber of Commerce, was the second hotemetoot (with apologies for the choice of words) to receive the book. Also at the embassy, ​​because that's where he has his office. He promised to encourage people interested in Thailand to study the language. He already does that himself, although he admitted that he could not remember the names of the months.

The third – no, we no longer use the word – Dutchman who received the book was Henk Savelberg, who recently The Oriental Residence has opened, a restaurant that evokes memories of his culinary delights in the Netherlands, which earned him a Michelin star.

Savelberg immediately bought a second copy for the store, when he has nothing to do (as if that sometimes happens), and Ronald enjoyed the amuses on offer. (See also Thailandblog 19 Dec. 2014: www.thailandblog.nl/eten-drinken/topkok-henk-savelberg-bangkok-video/)

The book can be ordered via Ronald's page; www.slapsystems.nl, as well as for sale at the Geographic bookshop 'Pied à terre' in Amsterdam. Price: € 29,95 excluding shipping costs).

Finally, the opinion of a connoisseur of the Thai language, Tino Kuis. He wrote the following about it: (Thailand Blog August 12, 2014):

Tino Kuis reviews 'The Thai language, grammar, spelling and pronunciation', the first Dutch textbook and reference work for the Thai language. He's excited.

'The Thai language': ideal for beginners and advanced students

Until recently, students of the Thai language had to rely on English textbooks. This has many disadvantages: rendering the pronunciation of Thai in English phonetics was often difficult for the Dutch reader, the grammatical terms were not always clear and the English text was sometimes an obstacle.

That problem has now come to an end. Ronald Schütte translated David Smyth's popular textbook, Thai An Essential Grammar (Routlegde, 2014), into Dutch. This book has gone through ten reprints since 2002. In addition, Ronald Schütte has enriched the book with additional material such as writing exercises.

The English version has long been my favorite reference work. It is clear, accessible and complete. All topics can be easily searched through the extensive index. The example sentences in the Thai language are appealing and simple, and are closely related to everyday use. It is therefore both an ideal book for the beginning student but also proves its value for the more advanced.

Good rendering of the pronunciation

I am particularly impressed with the way in which the pronunciation of Thai, where the tones and vowels are the most important element for a good understanding, is presented in the book.
As with any language, the help of a native Thai speaker is essential at first, but the good way in which the pronunciation is presented in this book will allow the reader to master it independently after some time.

Other features of the book are:

• Overview of important elements such as interjections, the expressions of emotions so important in the Thai language, sentence examples (many), negations and quantifications;
• Chapters on Pronunciation, Speaking Guidance, Expressions and the Thai Writing System;
• Overview of the phonetics used, completely new and adapted to the Dutch speaker.
• Explanation of the used grammatical terms.

Good reference work

This book is a good reference for advanced students of the Thai language who will always discover new, additional and corrective things in it. For the beginning student, it can be very helpful, if not necessary, to use it alongside other textbooks. 

I recommend everyone who wants to learn the Thai language to buy this book. This applies to young and old, because a person is never too old to learn a language.

Tino Kuis

On the website www.slapsystems.nl/ contains sample pages and further details of the book.