ศาลาชุมนุม

[Nacho63]

Hi, so basically its time to finally put my arse into gear and get learning Thai for real, I am half british and half thai who was born in Uttaradit but have lived all my life in England, unfortunately I wasn't brought up bilingual and my parents have really made too much of an effort to help me learn Thai (understandable) but I'm trying to learn by myself with youtube's help. After are recent family holiday I realized how much I love the country, and I would love to work and live in Bangkok or somewhere like Rayong (Pattaya is only really holiday material for me).

Think I've numbers, I understand that learning the Thai alphabet is the best way to get to grips with the language? I'm 18 and starting uni in Bristol for Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation so I'm hoping to juggle that and learning time in my free time. I have the motivation and I hope I can learn lots of thai from this forum and if anyone can give me tips on learn thai that would be great

[David and Bui]

Nacho,

Welcome to Thai-language.com. We are pleased to hear that you are returning to learn your "mother tongue". We welcome you to come by and visit us and keep us informed about hour your studies are going, both in school and in the Thai language. We also encourage you to use whatever material you find on this site which can help you with your language skills.

Best of luck to you.

[sabaii2014]

Hi, so basically its time to finally put my arse into gear and get learning Thai for real, I am half british and half thai who was born in Uttaradit but have lived all my life in England, unfortunately I wasn't brought up bilingual and my parents have really made too much of an effort to help me learn Thai (understandable) but I'm trying to learn by myself with youtube's help. After are recent family holiday I realized how much I love the country, and I would love to work and live in Bangkok or somewhere like Rayong (Pattaya is only really holiday material for me).

Think I've numbers, I understand that learning the Thai alphabet is the best way to get to grips with the language? I'm 18 and starting uni in Bristol for Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation so I'm hoping to juggle that and learning time in my free time. I have the motivation and I hope I can learn lots of thai from this forum and if anyone can give me tips on learn thai that would be great

Hi Nacho

My Thai is pretty basic so perhaps I am not the best person to give advice but I believe you are correct about the alphabet. I had real difficulty learning Thai until I took the plunge and started to use the Thai alphabet. There is no standard romanisation of Thai (well, I think there is officially is but no one uses it?) so authors of Thai learning material will often just adapt it to their own accent. My first attempts were disasterous because, despite living in Britain, I still perceive written english in my native American, and the first books I used were written in "Received" Oxbridge English - this led to some interesting embarrassing moments on my first trip to Bangkok ! I have found it takes as much effort to learn each author's own peculiar phonetic rendering as it does to learn the Thai alphabet so you might as well learn it. Despite regional variations, it will at least be consistent.

There are a number of websites out there which describe how to "become fluent in ANY language". Growing up I learned several languages either in my environment or in school and then recently I've had to learn >5 new languages in <5 years - I think the advise offered on those sites is useful, pretty consistent and it applies to Thai as well. It includes, as a first step, learning the pronounciation and alphabet before proceeding. I have found this to make the process much easier and more relaxing.

But, even before that, I personally found that learning the sound and flow of the language helps even more. You probably already know and feel comfortable with it but if not, YouTube has a number of great Thai movies and, if you can stand them, Lakhorns (soap-operas). YouTube also has a number of language lessons for learning the alphabet and pronounciation. In addition, there is a short 30day beginning Thai course available from Pimsleur (I got mine from amazon uk's audible) that you can play on your way to uni everyday. Each lesson is 30min and you just listen and speak (no reading and writing until the end) - it's great for getting into the flow and feel before proceeding with more formal learning. (I don't sell any of these things - I'm just recommending what worked for me; but I think if you buy things from links in this site it will help them maintain it so please do that if you can).

The other resource I always get is a good dictionary. The electronic version of Paiboon's Thai dictionary is amazing - at least the iPhone version. You can type in either English, Thai Script or romanised Thai and get the result. It's expensive - about £17 - but the best resource I've invested in yet.

I hope this helps and I wish you good luck in your studies of Thai and Sports Medicine.

With metta,

[Toffeeman]

I have found it takes as much effort to learn each author's own peculiar phonetic rendering as it does to learn the Thai alphabet so you might as well learn it.

This is very good advice for anyone starting out in Thai and something I wish I had done when I first started. I wasted a year learning 'karaoke' Thai and then got frustrated with other books or websites that used a different method. Learning the alphabet was a big step forward.