ศาลาชุมนุม

[ahidalg2]

Hi,

my name is Alex. I am moving to Bangkok the end of this year to teach English, and learn Thai. Before I depart, I would like to learn as much Thai as I can. Does anyone recommend a Thai language meetup group in Dallas Texas, or any great materials to start my studying? Maybe a penpal? I speak English, Int. Spanish.

Thank you so much, and yes I am super EXCITED!

Alex

[David and Bui]

Congratulations, Alex,

Try visiting the Buddhist Center of Dallas. See http://www.watdallas.com/.

As the internet has proliferated, so has the number of teachers teaching language via Skype. The cost of these teachers, typically located in Thailand, is relatively modest. Please let us know if you would like to follow up on learning using this facility.

Best of luck in your teaching and learning.

[weezy92]

I still consider myself a beginner, but I have heard several advanced speakers comment that it is best to learn to read/write in tandem with learning to speak. (As opposed to most who learn via English transliteration)

[DonSena]

I still consider myself a beginner, but I have heard several advanced speakers comment that it is best to learn to read/write in tandem with learning to speak. (As opposed to most who learn via English transliteration)

I couldn’t agree more that English transliteration is then worst way to go for a native speaker of Thai in learning a language like Thai. Certain “distinctive features” of another language – like Thai – are not going to be noticed by the non-native speaker of that other language.

For that reason, naturalized citizens from a country where English was not the dominant tongue never, in many cases, come close to learning English, as they try at most “to absorb it.” Their children do absorb it from early youth, as they are able to (and do) internalize it as their own native tongue.
Likewise, native speakers of English will not instinctively hear the difference among any of these words, shown here in transcription:

/khaaw/ ‘stygma’
/khâaw/ ‘rice, food’
/khâw/ ‘(to) enter’
/khǎaw/ ‘white’
/khǎw/ ‘hill, mountain’
/khàaw/ ‘news, information (as news)’
/khàw/ ‘knee’
/kaaw/ ‘glue’
/kâaw/ ‘(to) advance, step forward; (the number) nine’
/kàw/ ‘old (of a thing)’

All of these differ in terms of relative syllable length, syllable tone (or, pitch contour) and aspiration (and non-aspiration) of the initial stop consonant. Since we don’t naturally hear these differences, they must be taught explicitly –- either in writing (as in a book) or orally by a human teacher (or both).

Transcription, unlike transliteration, is capable of distinguishing the distinctive features of any language. The Thai script, while valuable and indispensable, does not quite show everything that influences meaning. At a later stage, you’ll want to learn about contrasts in stress and rhythm that are also meaningfully important.

Of course, the natural tendency not to hear certain distinctive features of another language affects the native Thai attempting to learn English, as well. Final voicing is such a feature of English, but not of Thai. Thais do not instinctively hear the difference between English ‘back’ and ‘bag,’ for instance. Simply changing the voicing of a final consonant in English either produces a completely different word or a total non-word.

[buckjoy]

Like others, I'd advise avoiding tranliterated Thai like the plague. You'll develop bad pronunciation habits that will be hard to break. Buckle down early, learn to read and write....and you'll have a better chance of pronouncing correctly.
You can begin reading Thai in the very first lesson of Maani......no need to learn the alphabet ahead of time...no need to learn tones ahead of time. Maani...reading pdf's, mp3s available on the internet for free.