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Home » Reader question » Reader question: How can I text a Thai lady in Thai?
Reader question: How can I text a Thai lady in Thai?
Dear readers,
I also met a nice lady in Thailand.
Her English isn't that good (what's the Thai word for worst?) and my Thai isn't that good either. Okay.
Email contact is going pretty well. I write her a message in English and Thai (with Google Translate and then translate it again to check whether it has all been translated correctly). She emails me back with the help of a translator I think. I'll have to look into that again and that will be my next topic of discussion with her.
Email knows both the Dutch and Thai characters. But my question is really:
Can I text a Thai lady in Thai from a Dutch telephone subscription (XS4all)? So with the Thai alphabet?
When I text myself with Thai letters all I get is ???????? question marks back.
Is there anyone with a solution?
Bedankt,
René
You can log in online with various companies (you must first register your number via the website) and then send messages that way. I do not know which Dutch companies support this, the Thai AIS/12-call can do this.
Translate your text on the computer into Thai, log in to the site of your mobile provider and cut & paste the message (ctrl+C and ctrl+V). Good luck!
Do you have an interpreter to translate the SMS responses back?
I think you should be able to text in Thai characters if your phone supports it, I don't know what kind of phone you are using, but for example with current smartphones you can simply install Thai as an extra language and then you can use that as an input language. I can just download Thai characters on my Samsung S3 and then type an SMS in Thai. If I text myself (Vodafone in NL) then an SMS with Thai characters just comes back.
What Rob says can also be translated into Thai and copy pasted to a web SMS service, but then the disadvantage is that you probably cannot receive if she texts you back if your phone does not support Thai characters.
Texting to Thailand via a Dutch provider is quite expensive, you better use a VOIP client such as Poivy to text.
Or if you both have a telephone with internet, nowadays there are apps such as Whatsapp and Line that can do it for free, you only pay the costs for your internet subscription. (that Voip client can often also be used)
Furthermore, in terms of translation, Google Translate often makes a mess for me with translation, Bing too. If you have anything with http://www.thai2english.com translated you get to see a breakdown of all words so it is often easier to make something out of it. If it's really critical, I sometimes use it http://www.onehourtranslate.com then it will be translated by a human. You sometimes have to wait for that (they do during working hours in Thailand) and it costs a bit per character, but then you are sure of a correct translation.
BA, it indeed has to do with your device and not with the provider. Your device must support Thai. On some devices, you can download languages from the phone manufacturer's website.
Do you know for which devices this is possible?
thanks in advance
[email protected]
Dear BA,
I read in your response that it is possible to send Thai text messages with your mobile, my girlfriend here in the Netherlands would also like to do this. Just called Samasun customer service and they say that this is only possible via a repair point (€ 30).
Could you explain to me how you did this, I downloaded an app that claims to be able to do it but when I want to write a text message I can't choose this app,
Thanks in advance,
Jeroen van Dyke
[email protected]
Addition, the web address above is wrong and must http://www.onehourtranslation.com/ are 🙂
We send text messages using a Thai keybord from Google apps: Arch Thai Keybord very easily on your smartphone. Please note that this means texting/emailing directly in Thai!
But why use SMS? Can you skype on mobile? cheap fast and you only use data from your subscription.
Oh yeah I forgot the link (stupid) but here it is anyway.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.arch.thaikeyboard&feature=nav_result#?t=W10.
My wife use go keyboard for her android device works perfect for thai keypad.
The reader's question was from someone who does not speak Thai. Then all those technology-related suggestions don't seem to help me either.
Skype might be a good recommendation, but I still wonder how the conversations go if she doesn't speak English and he doesn't speak Thai, but I wonder about so many conversations between foreigners and Thai ladies. Gerard Reve has written a book about “The language of love”. That will be it and if you don't understand each other you can't argue after all..
Hello…
Experience tells me that all those translation machines are not correct at all, and that on most messages you send you only get a ” ???? ” gets back… and that the emails you get, which you translate from Thai are completely incomprehensible…
When I was on Skype with a Thai lady, you could clearly see that she was looking at two different screens in the internet cafe, and each time translating the Dutch text to the other screen in Thai… and then she didn't understand half of it of what I was telling.
A problem… we express ourselves completely differently from the Thai, and that gave rise to Babylonian confusion of tongues…
I know several women in Thailand who speak English and French very well, and then there is no problem, but if you know someone in Thailand who does not, like most, it is quite a job to make yourself understood…
I just received an email from Khon Kaen, it read as follows: “… ???” Yes, then you know…
I've been looking for a good Dutch-Thai..and Thai-Dutch translation machine for quite some time... but can't find them... and it's hard to hire a professional translator to translate every email you want to send...
In short, it remains quite a job, and a book by Gerard Reve won't help that... let alone do it with your smartphone...
I once downloaded an English-Thai translation program, so I am very proud to send messages to Bkk ... it turned out that they simply did not understand anything there ... they asked me in English: "what do you mean???"
But yes, it is also difficult, if necessary even with sign language, I have a friend who is deaf, and we also understand each other :-).
Rudy…
I have no experience with texting, but I do have experience with sending emails. A friend of my friend wrote the emails for her and translated my emails (by phone). That friend has internet at work. She was paid 500 baht a month for it at the time.
Now I live in Thailand, so that is no longer necessary. This could also be the case with texting, but then the Thai partner must of course know someone who can do that for her and whom she can trust.
Moderator: please answer the question, or don't respond.
.
For anyone looking for a good translation machine; http://www.pluk-in.com/thai
This site translates from Dutch to Thai and also has a Thai screen keyboard,
if you can't find the site; then google “pick thai”
The site provides good translations, you can also have the words pronounced. My Thai wife also uses it for Dutch words she does not know and according to her it is almost always correct.
Regards,
Lex K.
@ Lex…
Hello…
I have the site you refer to: http://www.pluk-in.com/thai, tried, and the translation function does not work, neither in the top left where you can translate a word, nor in the function to translate a sentence or text ...
I may be doing something wrong, but I don't think so… I have sent an email to the relevant site, and am now waiting for a reply…
However, it would be nice to finally find a good translation engine that “correctly” reflects what we actually mean.
That would allow us to communicate with a lot of people in Thailand who don't speak English or French…because I think most of us have that problem…
Rudy…
We also use that site often. Unfortunately not perfect because he doesn't know some words or you get too many results back, then the site cuts off the number of possible answers after about 20 words. Sometimes you can still find the translation by adjusting the input.
If the word really does not appear on pluk thai in the database, then it is http://www.thai-language.com/dict recommended. Here you can also translate whole pieces of text from Thai mbh “bulk lookup”.
In combination with online communication applications (online SMS, mail, Facebook, Skype, other instant messaging services such as Yahoo, What's App, Line, etc.) you can easily copy translations back and forth (press Cntrl+C key simultaneously) and paste ( ctrl+V keys simultaneously). By the way, it's also fun for yourself and the Thai if you write some words and sentences in Thai. Be careful that you don't get a whole waterfall back at once (especially because dictionaries and translation programs are not as good and fast as a human translator). 555
@ Lex
Hi Lex…
This is the answer I got from the translation site you referenced…
Bye Rudy
> but the
> translation engine does not respond, neither in the top left nor in the
> translate sentences…
Indeed say! Thanks for your feedback.
I'll forward your message to the tech — who's on vacation right now.
> am I doing something wrong
Anyway, the top left is just for words. Do sentences not work there? Then it's right: it's a dictionary.
This is what I get with these commands:
http://www.pluk-in.com/thai/index.php?q=belg&m=woord
Regards
Sunisa
So like I said: it's really not easy to find a good translation site… and even the search function at the top left for words, as mentioned above in the post, doesn't work…
Rudy…
Hello Rudi,
I just tried it and it just works for me, indeed he doesn't do whole sentences, but if you are a little familiar with the Thai sentence structure then you will come a long way with the necessary cutting and pasting work, I will send regularly e-mails to Thailand in this way, translating into Dutch is another problem.
If you compare it to Google or Bing or Babylon, this is indeed not a translation machine, in the sense of the word, but I've never been able to have a Thai mail translated properly into Dutch, look what kind of mess they make every now and then of making it with, for example, plain English into Dutch, which also contains the raging constructions, and then Thai is a much more difficult language to translate.
About texting, this is possible if you have a mobile phone with a Thai keyboard, but if you do not know the Thai alphabet well, it is not possible.
Regards,
Lex K.
@ Lex…
Hi Lex…
The translation machine did not work for me, and it must be that something is wrong, given the surprised reaction of the lady of the site in question, which I pasted in my previous message.
I have several friends in both Bkk and Khon Kaen, and almost all of them are university educated, and master both English and French, so no problem there…
It will be different if I try to decipher a message that they send to each other, for example, and then it is about ordinary daily facts... and that is where it goes terribly wrong.
Bing is the worst translation machine of this, there is absolutely no rope to be tied to the translation into Dutch, and Google is not much better…
So dear Lex, to stay with René's topic and question: I really wouldn't know what to do with a smartphone with a Thai keyboard…
That's why I don't quite understand your comment: if you don't know the Thai alphabet well? I believe that if you master a foreign alphabet, you have no problems making yourself understood in that language?
I speak and write Dutch, English, French and German fluently, but if tomorrow you hand me a smartphone with, for example, Chinese characters, and you tell me that they are Thai characters, I may see that the shape of the characters different, but that's it...
To give René an idea: and there he scores a point because of a translator, look on youtube for “girlfriend for sale part 1″… the title suggests otherwise than what the documentary is actually about, but you see that there a young woman looking for a foreign boyfriend appeals to the only woman who speaks English for miles around, and also the only person with a PC, and believe me, we haven't had those big buckets of screens here for fifteen years …the documentary consists of six parts, and leaving aside the fact that the young lady is looking for a farang, you see how incredibly large the language barrier is.
The moderator is not going to let this message through, because it is not an answer to René's question, but I have to be honest: I don't know either... I had two girlfriends in the Isaan, and with poor English they could make themselves understood, but when you came to the family, it was for those people as if you came from another planet, and you literally spoke “Chinese”… conversation impossible… let alone with a smartphone, and a Thai keyboard on top… I really wouldn't know how to start with that as a Belgian or Dutch person
Rudy…
Dear Rene
To begin with, the translation sites are only suitable for translating single words. The best option is to teach yourself Thai - by which I also mean reading and writing. I did it myself. I do use lexitron every now and then. This is a dictionary for your PC and is Thai English -English Thai. If you have little or no command of Thai yourself, I think it might be worth using google translate in combination with lexitron. Don't expect too much from this, but maybe it will help you. When I send sms I use skype , you can text very well in Thai, and .Cost is less than mobile phone
greetz
Harry
Hello…
I don't know… just chatted for an hour with a Thai friend in Bkk, she has a Masters degree from Mahasarakan University, by the way, they made me a member of their private group there, because they like to chat with someone from abroad to sharpen their language skills… so she speaks very good French and English… but she prefers to chat in “Franglais” so English and French mixed up…
And that's where it starts… she makes comments, which I feel are inspired by personal feelings and emotions… emotions that we don't understand, and therefore we can't answer… they have a completely different capacity to empathize with what we have, and well-intentioned answers are often completely misunderstood, resulting in answers and questions that you don't know what to do with at all... and then what on the other end of the line the answer " ????" yields…
To stay on topic for a moment... what do you do with a translation machine that only translates words, it may even be sentences. If you don't speak Thai, and you don't know anything about Thai sentence construction? How do you make yourself understood in their ears? Want to learn the Thai language? Well, that's easier said than done...
Experience has taught me that if you literally translate a sentence from Dutch into Thai, they often don't even know what you're doing there, and you only get the answer: hahahaha... or: "i like" while they don't even know what you mean… you always get “i like” as an answer…
Ok, my chat friend is now working on her thesis French and English, and now she asks me questions that I really can't answer… not because I don't understand her, I speak French and English fluently, but because I just don't understand what they I mean, and then she gets angry because I don't know a conclusive answer to her question, for the simple reason that I don't even know where she wants to go next… which in turn creates frustration on her part…
So the comment made here in a comment above: just teach yourself Thai… yes, that is possible… I have a friend in Pataya, who has been taking lessons there for two years, and can now express himself in Thai, but say you do it with your smartphone... the applications are there, but whether you are understood on the other hand, that is a completely different matter, and given the answer you often get, a big question mark...
Rudy…