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Learning Thai Language

EssexAl · 5 · 4090

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Offline EssexAl

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Hi everyone, this obviously comes under the "Education" banner and apologies if this has been asked on a regular basis but I can't seem to find any current / direct linking to any relevant posts.

Having spent 6 months per year for the past couple of years out here it is abundantly clear to me how reliant I am upon my wife as an interpreter. Worse still, living out here in the sticks, as we do, if my wife isn't around, then I literally have nobody to speak with. The few Thai phrases that I do know are very limited to say the least.

So my question; does anybody have recent experience or advice on the best way to try and improve on my very limited and basic Thai language skills? I'm thinking online courses that I could continue whether here in Thailand or in the UK. Spoken as well as written is my ideal goal.

I know that learning Thai written and spoken, is difficult. Plus, as an old dog, learning new tricks will be even harder but I do feel that as I spend more and  more time here then the onus really is mine to try and at least make an effort.

Thanks in advance for any guidance / assistance

Al


Offline Alfie

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There are a lot of materials available both in print and digital form. What's best for you really depends on what kind of learner you are, what you respond best to and where on the learning curve you are so it's best to try a few different resources and formats and see how you respond to them.

As Thai is a tonal language, you definitely need to hear the language spoken so you can try to replicate the sounds and understand the important differences in sounds, so audio files of some sort are required, either from an app on your phone, MP3 files, a CD or from videos. There are lots of videos on Youtube and some shorter ones on TikTok. I downloaded 5 apps to my phone last year then tried them all out. I uninstalled four of them and kept one that I found useful for me at my stage of learning. Not that there was anything wrong with the ones I deleted, they just didn't suit me.

For reading an writing, I'd recommend using a printed book. But maybe that's just my preference. Choose what suits you. For books, SEED bookshop has some books for learning Thai, and some come with CDs.

Whatever you choose, stick at it but adjust your learning as you go along so it remains interesting and useful to you. Good luck!




Online Hector

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EssexAl; re my PM to you.... apparently the Ajarn has moved to Joho, but the contact details remain the same.


Offline EssexAl

  • Junior Member
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Cheers, Roger. Think I might give some online resources a try first as I could continue with that wherever I might be. Thanks for the heads up about writing / reading Thai as well. Prety much confirms what Alfie said.