Thread: Tips for Learning Thai Language
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11-19-20 10:56 #43
Posts: 1089Originally Posted by Paolo99 [View Original Post]
You might have difficulty with pronunciation anyway. But without the writing, you might end up inventing new words in Thai language that only people close to you will understand but not anybody else. This is how English and other languages were changed in the past. It was a large infusion of foreigners, who didn't speak the language and didn't know how to read and write. And I've seen some Thai people do this kind of thing with the English language, because they've learned it without knowing how to read and write in English.
But you can get more or less perfect Thai pronunciation on your phone nowadays. You just need to install on your phone a free app called Google Translate, which you can find at the link below:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...hl=en_CA&gl=US
This app will correctly pronounce any Thai word that you spell correctly in there. And this app will even translate street signs that are written in Thai language. You just need to point the phone's camera at the street sign and your phone will show you the English translation of what's written there in Thai language. This app has some offline translation capability, if you download Thai language in its settings. But to have its full functionality, you need to have an Internet connection on your phone.
I've tried using this app to see if it will translate sex-words, including words that some people might find offensive. And it does translate such words. But I also found that this app's translation isn't always perfect. So, if you want to be sure that you have good translation, then you should translate from English to Thai and then back to English to see if you are still getting the same meaning in English. If you still have the same meaning, then you can be sure that you have a good translation.
If you use short and simple sentences or phrases, then this app's translation is pretty good.
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03-20-20 05:44 #42
Posts: 2427Anyone out there who dowloaded these podcasts?
https://learn-thai-podcast.com
They had the best non-nonsense no-frills podcasts. There are samples in Youtube under "learningthai". Unfortunately the series is not supported any more. I mailed them for ways of sending the 197 USD to then download all the podcasts, but got no answer. I don't want to gamble my credit card. Sick and tired of sleepless nights over chargebacks.
I don't like ThaiPod101. They're spammers. Most importantly, their podcasts are three quarters filled with ramblings in (thai-accented) English. I remember one of their introductory podcasts about greetings in Thai.
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03-18-20 10:01 #41
Posts: 940Originally Posted by XXL [View Original Post]
Of course you need a native speaker to teach you how to pronounce Thai words, easy to do when you're in Thailand, difficult if you're in your country.
Depending on which country you come from, nowadays you can find some good stuff to learn Thai (books with CDS particularly) and if you don't give up before finishing the lessons you can get a very good level.
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03-06-20 16:34 #40
Posts: 360The sort of women you will meet don't have a very large vocabulary so you don't need to know many words of Thai. Mostly about money is all they chat about.
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03-06-20 05:57 #39
Posts: 2427For learning Thai script
https://activethai.com
Very good site. I hope they continue expanding it.
Spending like 3 months to learn the Thai script BEFORE learning the language is the way to go if most experts are to be believed. That way you can skip the transliteration almost from the start.
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03-06-20 05:29 #38
Posts: 12856Originally Posted by Trillian [View Original Post]
It is my belief though that if the Pimsleur Basics course has taught you well, pronunciation and also basic grammar (which is trivially easy for Thai. No word ending changes), then you are set for self education from various sources. It will be important to get a book to teach you Thai script at some stage, to get at all advanced, but not top priority. I taught myself Thai script from AUA Reading and Writing book. Maybe hard to get these days.
Thai-Eng-Thai Talking Dictionary from Paiboon is very good because you can listen to words pronounced clearly. It has several different phonetic / Romanisation schemes built in. For me I am working on a set of flash cards (for a phone App) in a spreadsheet covering 10,000 Thai words. I know probably less than half of them. Comes from various sources but Belisan and Volubulis are words to search for to find vocab spreadsheets. One might have a top 1000 words as example.
Important to get a Thai teacher at some point to correct the pronunciation mistakes before they set in too deeply. Thai has sounds different to English so we are not good at even hearing them correctly at the early stages. Bad pronunciation of vowels will cause your Thai to be not understandable, where this does not happen in English. 99 % of good Thai speakers needed a teacher to listen to your attempts and correct them. Thai girls did help correct me in early times, but was not easy.
Best of all is immerse yourself with Thais that don't speak English. That was one of my early techniques in 1991. Ha ha. I improved rapidly at the time. I was forced to.
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02-22-20 02:11 #37
Posts: 27Ask for a more advanced Thai course from Pimsleur
Many of you probably know about Pimsleur, which teaches from speaking and listening, which is how people learn their native tongues. But they only have a beginner level and no plans to produce more. However, if enough people ask for it they'll reconsider. So fill out the form if you want.
https://www.pimsleur.com/request-new-language-program
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10-09-19 06:06 #36
Posts: 12856Originally Posted by Falcon95 [View Original Post]
Last shape looks like a word repeat mark, but shape before that is not really like any letter I can think of.
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10-09-19 06:03 #35
Posts: 12856Originally Posted by Paolo99 [View Original Post]
Guan Dteen literally means irritating or pestering another person's foot. In reality means you are pestering or annoying someone, such that their foot wants to kick you. Ha ha So beware irritating some one so much that they want to lash out with hand or foot. Can be a light hearted expression for anything you say that is irritating or being a smart ass.
Bak is word used for males, so it is almost like Mr but much less formal possibly even flippant at times, and can be used for young boys, even for male dogs, so it is not a respectful term. Used for persons of equal or lower status. Think of meaning something like boy or lad. Heard more often in Isaan I think. Would not use for older men when need to show respect. Certainly do not use for Monks. Monks should be addressed very respectfully like "Than" (sounds like Tun), or "Ajaan" (teacher).
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10-09-19 05:50 #34
Posts: 12856Originally Posted by Paolo99 [View Original Post]
Siaow means a nerve has been stimulated with strong feeling arising. Could be sexual or could be like ice on a sensitive tooth.
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10-09-19 05:48 #33
Posts: 12856Originally Posted by BananaBoi [View Original Post]
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07-12-19 10:29 #32
Posts: 118Thai Word in the Picture
Does anyone know what this Thai word means?
Maybe Mr. Syzygies?
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06-30-19 20:44 #31
Posts: 940Originally Posted by Paolo99 [View Original Post]
There are also some not nice ways to call someone, I suspect that the word "bak" (probably only spoken by eesan girls) put just before the name is one of them (let's say your name is David and the girl call you bak David when she talk about you) but I never found a way to put a definition on this word.
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06-30-19 13:58 #30
Posts: 940Originally Posted by Syzygies [View Original Post]
I also could not say "ngian" (horny) with her.
The definition that I might come close to it would be that "ngian" applies to a girl that is very excited and would like to have sex (applies even if she is alone) and "siaoo" would be an excitement that comes after being stimulated by her partner.
"Hee" essentially means "c*nt" so I would not use it. "hoi" is slightly softer ("clam") and "jim" is softer still (so advisable).
GF uses an Issan expletive "huu daak" (sounds like "who dark" and means "asshole" literally).
"ee dork thong" seems to be calling a girl a "golden flower" but is very offensive. I am not totally clear of the real meaning. Seems to be close to "b*tch". Important to know the danger words and avoid them.
I have to avoid using "dting dtong" which I once thought was a playful word. Seems the meaning ranges from "Crazy" to "Son of a b*tch".
Other very bad words (to absolutely never use) are:
"Ay heea" (addressed to man) or "ee heea" (when addressed to a girl) would have a definition close to "mother fucker, or son of a WG (even though it doesn't literally translate in son of a be*tch but it's a very very bad word).
"ay sat" or "ee sat" , basically translate as "someone who is an animal, or subhuman (very very bad word also in Thai).
The very commonly known "kwaay" to designate someone that is very very stupid.
I agree that I also struggle to put a clear definition on many words.
Another expression that was used a lot before was "top salop salai" with the girl making the gesture (giving a slap on one side of the face and then coming back with the back of the same hand and slapping the other side of the face). I understood it as "slapping one's face" but it was always accompanied by the same gesture even when it was different girls saying it.
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06-22-19 09:09 #29
Posts: 6338I just swear in English. Everyone seems to understand the foul language I use just fine.
Isn't the whole purpose of swearing and bad mouthing supposed to p1ss someone off?