Reader question: Learn Thai language

Hi,
I also live in the Eindhoven area and have lessons from a Thai lady during the day. If you know of a place where we can practice with a few people, I'd love to be recommended. I've been taking lessons for a year, cheering up in Th and in NL. But speaking and understanding remains darn difficult
Regards, Martin.

Dear Thaiaddict,

– The temple in Waalwijk, among others, gives Thai lessons in groups. Simple conversations are also held there. Another advantage is that you can try something out with the Thai before and after the lessons. Personal lessons are necessary because otherwise no one will correct you if you have the pronunciation and tone wrong.
– Youtube is a goldmine for learning the language. Also many videos with phonetic writing (the sound represented in our letters).
– Learning the Thai alphabet is a bit of a challenge but doable. Then it gets really fun. Read your own texts, street names, etc. and write down your choice menu in Thai.
– Furthermore, learn a lot of words and repeat, repeat, repeat.

The better you get, the more fun it is to continue. Good luck!

Good day. Sawatdee khrap. I totally agree with Thomas. I wrote a lot of words and then learn. Always useful to be able to understand the language somewhat. I myself once started with the phrase guide from Lonely Planet English-Thai. It is also indicated exactly which tone to speak and to compare this with words from English. Course follow of course also very good. Often go to Thailand and if you don't understand something always ask. The more you can speak the better, if you make a mistake they will still understand what you are talking about.
Good luck. Mvg Peter. juice rot *pineapple*
Sawasdee khrap.

Hi thaiaddict,

Everything can be found on youtube. Lots of Thai lessons but also Thai TV series such as 'the Hormones'
Search using thai lesson, thai language, learning thai, etc.
Also various options on facebook, e.g. learn thai with pictures, thai teacher,

Success.
Lilian.

A handy helper for your phone: http://word-in-the-hand.com/thai-phrasebook/

You can do a Thai course through the NHA (beginners and advanced). A few years ago I stranded about 10 lessons before the end (advanced), but I can still speak, understand and read reasonably well (I found writing really difficult, I don't even reach toddler level (Chinese writing is easier, really)). Incidentally, you have to persevere in the beginning (at the beginners part) since you learn words there that you rarely use in Dutch, such as ship propeller shaft tunnel and a whole chapter on how to address the members of the royal family, well. But good luck dude, it's definitely worth knowing some Thai. (PS the Thai grammar is very fine. They don't know verb conjugations so it's: I walk, you walk, he/she/it walk, we walk, you walk, they walk).

Sorry it must be http://www.hasekamp.net/language.htm

Hi Hi:))

Great to read all these comments.

yes with only learning words I don't get to the ultimate goal, in why I want to learn the Thai language.
I am definitely motivated to persevere and the challenge for me is only getting bigger.

Learning the Thai alphabet for the first time has occurred to me before.
Also that it wouldn't necessarily be necessary.
Did pay some attention to it. Chicken, lady boy with backpack in examples and the signs indicate whether t is high or low, falling, ascending tone.
Only my motivation is not optimal in that.

As far as I understand, Thai with sounds is also a feeling and emotion language

Like: ojaa or if you say no with a deep voice and then really mean it.
Because arai or (what) they also say quickly or short.
Or yes and yes or no and no
This also plays a part.

I already know that maa high means something else with low tone.
That's why you can say something else what you actually meant 🙂
So learning alphabet is useful.

I will definitely check out the links page.
see if I can figure it out myself with Thai internet TV broadcast.
If English and German have also succeeded, this should hopefully also work, although Thai is not comparable to German and English.

If I don't get any further there either, I'll still go for a course as stated in a comment above. i thought i would be one of the few who want to master the thai language.

Ultimately, my goal is to learn, in addition to the normal Thai language, that I have a good command of it.
In addition, also “isaan dialect” to learn. Because I love isaan music. Even though I don't understand it. The beat and dancers are very unique and beautiful to watch.
Even though I know that you can go anywhere in Thailand with the normal Thai language.

Knowledge from nid noy to mak mak

Chok dee khrap
Khap khun

I have been living in Thailand for 9 years now, speak, read and write the language, can text and type.
A lot of self-study until I got stuck on the pitches. That is why I have been taking private lessons for 2 years now, and as the first part I learned the diagram of sounds, the high, middle and low sound consonants, ending in a long vowel, short vowel or KDTP, etc. A Thai child learns this from her mother at a young age. My Thai teacher has more difficulty with this schedule than I do, because she only goes by feeling. For us foreigners this is our only fixed point, but you learn as you go! (often making 5 considerations per word!)
Since I was born in South Limburg, I have a bit more feeling for pitches and sometimes you come across the same sounds - awajawa..., just funny. Perhaps the "primeval mother" of Thailand was a South Limburger, who knows, khoen Anna?

Advice: Learn not only to speak, but also to write and read, with the first thing that you use the correct pitch for every word after having explained the meaning, otherwise you will not be understood! It can even happen that the pronunciation is perfect, but that the Thai still has doubts because you are a farang, like "he must mean something else".

To start with, Pimsleur Thai is a course that I can recommend for everyone, you learn to speak in a perfect way. I think there is now also a version where reading and writing is taught.

If I go by my feelings, it will take another 10 years before I can understand everything. Common colloquial language poses no problem, but when it gets a bit complicated... Did you just misunderstand again….!
That is why I can also understand that there are so few farangs who speak the Thai language, even though they have lived in Thailand for many years, but the wives do (by necessity) speak a little English.

Maybe we will move to spain soon! The difference in language is that you can learn 2 words in Spanish in 5 minutes and 5 words in Thai in 2 minutes, of which you have forgotten 3 the next day. That is why I invented the Thai word “Luumheimer”. Even the Thai people around me understand this expression! (luum-ลืม = forget and heimer comes from Alzheimer's)

Martin

Dear Thaiaddict,
if you pronounce the words as you write them in examples, then I can guarantee that no one here in Thailand will understand you. Practically none of your examples can be called somewhat correct and intelligible. For example, if you use “nikla” for time, they will stare at you because it is “nalikhaa”. I know, writing Thai in Latin alphabet, even phonetically is practically impossible.
When I first came to Thailand 15 years ago, I also thought: why would learning Thai be any different than learning another language? I speak and write fluently in Dutch, French, English and German... among which French is a Latin and the other Germanic languages. Wrong thought! First of all, Thai has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with all these languages, not in terms of pronunciation, sentence structure and usage.
The only way to learn it is to use this language in the first place. The learning itself can best be done by a Thai teacher of the Thai language. These people know how to teach someone something, after all it is/was their profession. It is also best to sit with the teacher so that you can see their mouths and thus see “how” they form a certain sound. A big advantage is of course if this person also understands another language, for example English, so that you can ask questions.
Learning to write and read at the same time: opinions differ on that. For some it is a necessity, for others it is not. In my personal opinion it is “advisable”.

A good advice: stop teaching incorrectly, because unlearning is more difficult than learning the correct one from the first time.
Follow conversations and have them yourself: prepare for a long learning time and a lot of patience.

Small anecdote: at a party a farang declared that he spoke Thai well, learned from his tie… used to live somewhere close to Det Ubon and now lives here, Chumphon…only problem: only she understands him and no one here in Chumphon. After a few “Thai” sentences from him we understood: he hadn't learned Thai but Isarn, a mix of Lao and Khmer!