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Old 25-04-2008, 18:51
PhuketonBudget PhuketonBudget is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Ireland
Posts: 42
I'm learning thai. I just started today, ive been doing it for about 1 hour in work and im picking it up easy enough, i quite like the language. What i have done is the following.

Printed out lists of commonly used words and their thai words.
Rules in thai language.

I just keep re reading over them, and then i write some english sentences down on paper and try to write the thai for them. There is also a thai woman who works in our canteen, so today im planning out a conversation with her and i'll go down and talk to her.

I came up with the following, this is without reference so it may be wrong

Hello, how are you
Sawadee khrap, sabbi dee mai?

(a rule i picked up, mai used at the end of a sentence = question, but used before a word like mean no, i.e chai = yes, mai chai = no.)

Then i'll say

I'm hungry, are you hungry?

pom hue, koon hue mai? (pom = i hue = hungry - koon = you, mai at end for question)

If she answers no for example (mai chai)

Why are you not hungry?

koon mai hue tom mai?

(koon = you, mai before the word hue for hungry = not hungry (tom mai = why)

Then if she is impressed i will tell her i started learning today

whan nii pom rein (whan nii = today - pom = i rein = learn)

I think doing it this way as opposed to learning single phrases at a time is the best way to build your understanding. It gives you a better insight into the language.
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