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A benefit of learning to read Thai


SpiceMan

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I got engaged to my girl friend 3 years ago. After all this time I recently learned I had been pronouncing her name wrong. Her name is Tuk. Now I can read Thai, I know its pronounced with a combination D and T sound, dtuk. She never complained but I feel ashamed that I was so ignorant for so long. Now I just need to understand the words I can read.

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LOL while there may benefits for sure there'll be drawbacks also :)

Welcome to the club!

How did you learn by the way? self taught or in school?

BTW didn't it pisss you off there's no unique definition of the Thai letters & how about all the redundant letters (having the same sound) & rarely/never used, but still 'have' to memorize them (and soon forget again) :banghead:

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I'm self taught using various resources on the web. My motivation was knowing that once I could read the letters and the tone markers I would know how to pronounce nearly all Thai words correctly. But now I have the problem that although I can read, it doesn't make sense. I have almost no vocabulary. My other problem is that although I know what the tones should be, I can't actually say words using them correctly or consistently.

 

I wasn't pissed of at having to learn the redundant and obsolete letters. I know English learners have it much worse.

 

 

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I'll quote from an article I wrote for Stickman about five years ago with regard to learning Thai. It was written under another nom-de-plume but I think is still relevant today.

 

Quote:

Here’s my take on the necessity of proficiency in the language.

 

I did a basic Thai language course before I came permanently, but you will pick up your vocabulary as you go along. The type of vocabulary also tends to typify the company you keep. The Thais and most resident farangs can tell.

 

I use it with dealings with suppliers, product engineers, just to make sure everyone understands fully and the head-nodding is not for show. It's also fun with some taxi drivers; you get involved in some very interesting conversations.

 

In a restaurant, see what language they address you in, and answer back in the same language. If they look uncomfortable, then offer to speak Thai. I adopt the same practice in the watering-holes, but give myself a few minutes to assess the situation first. No one likes surprises.

 

Know the bad language and avoid using it. It's called etiquette.

 

Being able to read takes the mystery out of the road signs.

 

Since you're going to be here for a while, you might as well pick it up. Everybody benefits.

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Some of the books say its better to learn to read and write Thai before actually speaking it.I did it the other way around as I suspect most people do.This has proved to be a help in that when reading a sentance,or more often with dialogue it is often possible to anticipate what the words are and the sense implied....makes reading a whole lot easier and quicker....

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I started studying Mandarin once upon a time. The class was quite interesting and I was progressing well - until the prof decided to teach us how to WRITE Chinese. Ummm ... my vocabulary must have been less than 200 words. So what did I have to write? (Also Chinese characters are not phonetic. One has to learn them by rote - including the tone. With Thai, the written word tells you the tone.) That pretty much killed everyone's interest and nobody signed up for the next class.

 

Writing before speaking is absurd. Is that what children do? In our Peace Corps language training, we could get around quite well in Thai - shopping, travelling, feeding ourselves, simple conversations - before we got any writing instruction whatsoever. Writing came after about 2 months of intensive Thai (6 hours a day, 6 days a week at the beginning).

 

But I do believe it is important to read if you want to get beyond the basic survival level. Reading is the best way to improve your vocabulary. Otherwise, you just find yourself in the same situations over and over, using the same knee jerk vocabulary.

 

 

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