Phuket Thailand

Nanook · #1 14-12-2006, 17:16

Actually this thread is in addition to the one about translations. Hence, I am not sure if the moderators want to integrate this one in the previous one. If so, then it's OK for me.

Being on the board now for a few months, I noticed that quite a few of you have either a Thai wife or (at least) long lasting relationships with your Thai girlfriend. I just wonder if and how you learned or try to learn the Thai language.

As I usually have not much of a problem to learn a language, I just wonder how you guys did it. I would like to learn a bit basic Thai so at least I can have a little bit of small talk in case, I may visit my GF early 2007.

The writing with the different characters is more difficult and I am not so into this. I rather write the Thai using our alphabet, how tricky this may be.

Any tip is welcome.

Khob khun kap mak.

LivinLOS · #2 14-12-2006, 18:43

Thai is hard !!!

I picked up a smattering of conversational Dutch and bits of German.. Found Euro languages ring in the ear better.. these tonal ones I have REAL trouble with..

I have used the Pimsluer linguaphone sets.. And the Ben Becker books.. Still really piss poor..

ub2yoo · #3 14-12-2006, 18:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nanook

Actually this thread is in addition to the one about translations. Hence, I am not sure if the moderators want to integrate this one in the previous one. If so, then it's OK for me.

Being on the board now for a few months, I noticed that quite a few of you have either a Thai wife or (at least) long lasting relationships with your Thai girlfriend. I just wonder if and how you learned or try to learn the Thai language.

As I usually have not much of a problem to learn a language, I just wonder how you guys did it. I would like to learn a bit basic Thai so at least I can have a little bit of small talk in case, I may visit my GF early 2007.

The writing with the different characters is more difficult and I am not so into this. I rather write the Thai using our alphabet, how tricky this may be.

Any tip is welcome.

Khob khun kap mak.

Despite all the common books mentioned already, I find it very hard to learn without actually speaking it. As soon as I'm at my wifes home back in the sticks of Surin, I have to listen and speak and I learn a lot in only a couple of days. Not many speak english there, so I'm very concentrated to hold any conversations. Progress made every day.

As soon as I'm back in the UK...nothing, no progress what so ever.

I guess to really learn a language like Thai, you will need to be in that country.

If even LiL has problems with that and he lives there, that tell's you something how hard it is.

ub2yoo · #4 14-12-2006, 18:56

On a encouraging note, learning the Thai script is actually more easy than you might think. And once you got some basics you're surprised how much you can read and understand once you're back in Thailand. And it's good fun too.

So, I really would suggest to go ahead and learn the script first, I think that's the best start.

ub2yoo · #5 14-12-2006, 19:05

There's that guy (I think he's from Australia) every day on Thai TV with his show called : One minute of English (or something like that).

He introduces one basic english phrase every day (only 1 minute

. The Thai I've seen love that a lot.

And my god, he speaks really really good Thai. I'm well impressed with him and just think by myself, it can be done

Nanook · #6 14-12-2006, 19:11

Thank you very much Ub2yoo and LivinLOS for your valuable tips.

Actually I already have a book with some basics which I once got from a Thai girl here long ago, but didn't use it anymore after I stopped seeing her. Now it is become more interesting for me though.
I just thought the more experienced of you might have better ideas. So that's why the thread.

ub2yoo · #7 14-12-2006, 19:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nanook

I just thought the more experienced of you might have better ideas. So that's why the thread.

Actually, I'm very surprised that there's no ongoing "live" thread (similar to the sexy lady picture thread

) about Thai language on this forum.

Who's the best Thai speaker on this forum ? And would he/she be willing to lead that ?

Dodger · #8 14-12-2006, 20:25

Do not try to learn Thai from a book at home unless you have a thai with you that can teach you the pronunciation, I know they try to get the sound by spelling phonetically but it is nothing alike when you try it on your own. Lived here 9 moths and had tirak teach me 3 new words everyday. Then realised if they are words you are not commonly using you forget them too quickly.

Pay a thai teacher to come to our home 2 times aweek for 1 and half hours of lesson, she then gives us another hour homework and also a page of sentances or words to learn before the next lesson. In 6 lessons so far my Thai has improved 100 fold, I can understand quite a bit they say, speak much more than i realised and most important to me can now put sentances together for myself not jusy those I have learnt parrot fashion.

Even after saying all this I think it will take a good couple of years to become fluent. Also interestingly I am being taught to speak perfect/proper Thai and not Issan dialect or slang. Just got back from Bangers were I was showing off my Thai to mum, sisters and family etc and they were impressed but mostly because I was speaking such good quality (upper class) Thai, R's are pronounced as a rolling R not a L, many different replies rather than the common terms used locally.

magnusvv · #9 14-12-2006, 20:49

In the past I had been learning new words and small phrases from my wife as we speak a mix of Thai and English at home. That has worked well for me to be able to get by asking for basic things and kidding around with people. Also that taught me the basics of proper pronunciation.

Now lately I've become more interested in learning the language more thoroughly. I've just started learning the alphabet, a few letters at a time and getting the sounds/understandings down through my wife. Its been a mix of the Benjawan Poomsan Becker book Thai for Beginners and Thai-Language.com for reference.

I think most of the difficulty for people comes from a lack of desire to learn. I think with a set of weekly lessons or a classroom setting it really could be a piece of cake. Especially if one used it on a daily basis at home or something as well.

LivinLOS · #10 14-12-2006, 20:59

Well Done Mr D.. How much are the lessons done like that at home ??

I might enroll as a New year thing..

wylos · #11 14-12-2006, 21:14

ive listened to pimsuleur,didnt get through all of it as i lost it on my old computer,found it very good,and was a great way to learn some of the necesities.........i like to learn thai when im in company of thais,and defintely one of the languages that stick more so in my head,probably because it my most visited country that im very fond of.
thai classes is a big step forward,something id defintely look into if i lived in LOS.

jimbulljag · #12 14-12-2006, 23:59

I'm pretty lucky in that I live in an area with a large thai community so i've been able to go to thai school on saturdays at the local wat. I think it's important to learn to read and write first (also helps w/ the tone rules). My teacher gets a bit ticked when we try to write the english sounds instead of sticking to thai only. You don't have to try to memorize phrases so much when you can write.

I'm working on the thai script for the numbers now because i'm curious about the dual pricing for falang/thai in los.

It's still a bit hard to speak thai on the phone so i'll be curious if i'm better when i'm in LOS next month.
JJ

marc26 · #13 15-12-2006, 02:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dodger

Do not try to learn Thai from a book at home unless you have a thai with you that can teach you the pronunciation, I know they try to get the sound by spelling phonetically but it is nothing alike when you try it on your own. Lived here 9 moths and had tirak teach me 3 new words everyday. Then realised if they are words you are not commonly using you forget them too quickly.

Pay a thai teacher to come to our home 2 times aweek for 1 and half hours of lesson, she then gives us another hour homework and also a page of sentances or words to learn before the next lesson. In 6 lessons so far my Thai has improved 100 fold, I can understand quite a bit they say, speak much more than i realised and most important to me can now put sentances together for myself not jusy those I have learnt parrot fashion.

Even after saying all this I think it will take a good couple of years to become fluent. Also interestingly I am being taught to speak perfect/proper Thai and not Issan dialect or slang. Just got back from Bangers were I was showing off my Thai to mum, sisters and family etc and they were impressed but mostly because I was speaking such good quality (upper class) Thai, R's are pronounced as a rolling R not a L, many different replies rather than the common terms used locally.

thats kinda weird about upper class to lower class
obviuosly i know it exists but i would think they just wouldnt be able to understand you vs recognizing you were seaking proper thai
i will always remember being in italy, learning some italian in rome and it meaning shit when i got to naples. half the stuff i was saying wasnt used in that dialect in naples

stevem · #14 15-12-2006, 05:47

Yes as someone else has said learn the script first, that is the easier part. But you really either need to be in Thailand or have a Thai speaker in the house to keep it up. Once you know the script, when talking with your partner, and a word comes up that you dont understand, she can spell it out for you, and then it very easy to visualise it.

Unfortunately now back in Sydney we speak only english at home, so my wife improves her english skills as thats important for her to live here.

LivinLOS · #15 15-12-2006, 09:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by marc26

thats kinda weird about upper class to lower class
obviuosly i know it exists but i would think they just wouldnt be able to understand you vs recognizing you were seaking proper thai
i will always remember being in italy, learning some italian in rome and it meaning shit when i got to naples. half the stuff i was saying wasnt used in that dialect in naples

I think theres a difference between regional accents / dialects and speaking correctly..

I know in the UK we have regional accents but theres also what my folks would call BBC english and another kind of upper class / public school / plum in the mouth english..

Regional can be hard to understand but everyone would understand BBC English..

Pantie_pp · #16 15-12-2006, 09:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nanook

Actually this thread is in addition to the one about translations. Hence, I am not sure if the moderators want to integrate this one in the previous one. If so, then it's OK for me.

Being on the board now for a few months, I noticed that quite a few of you have either a Thai wife or (at least) long lasting relationships with your Thai girlfriend. I just wonder if and how you learned or try to learn the Thai language.

As I usually have not much of a problem to learn a language, I just wonder how you guys did it. I would like to learn a bit basic Thai so at least I can have a little bit of small talk in case, I may visit my GF early 2007.

The writing with the different characters is more difficult and I am not so into this. I rather write the Thai using our alphabet, how tricky this may be.

Any tip is welcome.

Khob khun kap mak.

actually learn thai is not so difficult, but mostly is not use to about the thai accent

Pantie_pp · #17 15-12-2006, 10:02

actually learn Thai is not so difficult, but mostly of farang is not used to with Thai accent.. so that a problem..

LivinLOS · #18 15-12-2006, 10:31

Not sure I would agree..

In the language teaching realm they assign 'difficulty' levels to language pairs.. Mostly based on what language your coming from and going to, so its much easier to learn Thai for a Khmer speaker for example..

I remember that for a latin based language speaker (Euro's / English) Thai is up near the top in terms of difficulty.. No ear for tonality and different structure of what part of the word is important in defining it (the start and end of a word in English is by far the most important and the middle is moreso for Thai)..

Pantie_pp · #19 15-12-2006, 10:43

well... , may be your right.. Thai is more complicate..

Dodger · #20 15-12-2006, 10:56

Lil she charges 400 baht per hour, we have 1.5 hours at 600 bht then because there are 3 of us she increases it to 700 for the session. I paid her for 10 lessons to see how it would go, not sure if she is good or not as have nothing to compare her with. She comes from Karon.

I choose to learn BBC Thai as she does give you the option to learn/answer either proper Thai or common Thai, I am pleased I choose proper Thai as when an opportunity arises and I say something proper it seems to always impress the locals.

I nearly gave up learning after 4 weeks as both Duncan and myself were talking from our book in Thai to Gee and she could not understand a word we said. I thought whats the point if with the book no one understands me, but it turned out that it was more a case that she could not turn what I had said into English.

Pantie_pp · #21 15-12-2006, 11:34

so I think you choose the wrong thai teacher, anyway you try to looking the proper one in phuket gazette? the most important you should consider about your teacher is she have background deal with foreigners for a few year or not, cos even someone graduate but if she naver deal with farang, so still can't communicate as well too.

LivinLOS · #22 15-12-2006, 11:55

Hmm new year resolution coming up I reckon..

Pantie_pp · #23 15-12-2006, 21:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by ub2yoo

There's that guy (I think he's from Australia) every day on Thai TV with his show called : One minute of English (or something like that).

He introduces one basic english phrase every day (only 1 minute

. The Thai I've seen love that a lot.

And my god, he speaks really really good Thai. I'm well impressed with him and just think by myself, it can be done

ahh.... that aussie guy, you know how long he stay in thailand?... he was here more over 10 yrs, that's why he can speak well.. !!!