A benefit of learning to read Thai

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

Yep, that's how I learned as well. Still cannot write at all, but can manage with reading (although my vocab is still not up to the level I would like it to be - too lazy though)

 

Sanuk!

 

[Flashermac]

I used to be able to write Thai passably, but it has got very bad from lack of practice. Thai has so many ways to write the same sound that writing Thai drives you up the wall. Thais have often told me it was easier for them to learn to write in English than it was in Thai. In quite a few words as many letters are not pronounced as are!

 

examples (transliterated from Thai) :

 

- Trongsakdi ... pronounced Songsak (a fairly common name)

 

- Paruehasbodi ... pronounced Paruehat (Thursday)

 

- Tray ... prounced Sigh (sand)

 

 

 

 

 

[The_Munchmaster]

.... my vocabulary must have been less than 200 words. So what did I have to write?

Posts on Thai360?

[Flashermac]

Wo shr meigwode ren ... ???

 

 

 

[SpiceMan]

My vocabulary is less than 200 words but I found it very rewarding to be able to read the Manee and Friends book at http://www.learningthai.com/ without needing to look up the letters. I don't think I have made a mistake by learning to read so early on in my studies. Many web resources and at least one author, Benjawan Poomsan Becker, say a person should learn to read early.

[Pescator]

 

Writing before speaking is absurd. Is that what children do?

 

 

I agree.

This is quite an academical approach to learning a non western tonal language with an entirely different alphabet.

The rewards are few and far between initially.

By that I mean, there is nothing like being understood and having the capability to communicate with locals thais, however limited the vocabulary is at first.

Instant "reward" boosting motivation and adding more words, phrases and idioms to the vocabulary.

 

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.

 

Indeed. Fully agree.

There is a substantial difference between speaking with thais in an informal setting and the vocabulary used in say the media.

Learning the script is definitely the way to go in order to brush up on the vocab.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flashermac]

My vocabulary is less than 200 words but I found it very rewarding to be able to read the Manee and Friends book at http://www.learningthai.com/ without needing to look up the letters. I don't think I have made a mistake by learning to read so early on in my studies. Many web resources and at least one author, Benjawan Poomsan Becker, say a person should learn to read early.

 

 

By all means, learn to read early. But not at the very beginning. Thai has three sets of consonants and the tone rules are different for each one of them. Thai is quite complicated to learn to read correctly, so what is the sense of spending time on it before you can even greet someone or order a plate of fried rice?

 

Compare that to learning another western European language which uses the same alphabet, has easy to learn pronunciation rules and has many identical or near identical words : father, Vater, padre, pere etc. An English speaker can learn to read French, German, Dutch or Spanish in just one lesson.

 

I still like the old AUA Thai language books, the ones developed by the late Marvin Brown. They were practical and conversational and had each lesson from the very beginning written in both Thai script and phonetics. You couldn't read Thai from the start, but after you had learned a bit you could go back and read all of the lessons you had covered. AUA also has (at least had) a useful book on reading and writing Thai, including various styles of handwriting. AUA has since moved on to reflect "modern" language learning techniques. The old ones worked for me and I'm a firm believer in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dave32]

Curious. If you were an instructor -- at what point would you have the students approach the alphabet and Thai grammar?

 

I'm in the process of just trying to memorize the consonants and vowels. When I pick up a Thai newspaper in hollywood (part of it is Thai town), the long blocks of text without spaces between the words or punctuation breaks intimidate the hell out of me. Also I'm a stark beginner who only knows a handful of words and phrases.

 

So, from that perspective... any input?

 

Gratzi...

 

(oops, I mean khop khum kap).

[Flashermac]

Peace Corps introduced us to writing after we had been studying intensive Thai for about 6 weeks - 6 days a week (and 6 hours a day for the first 4 weeks).

 

I'd say that when you feel fairly comfortable getting around in Thai - can order meals, tell taxi drivers where to go, book a sleeper on the train, buy clothes, carry on a fairly basic conversation - then you should have enough vocabulary under your belt to make learning to read worthwhile.

 

An easy way to practice your reading is to get some books aimed at first grade Thai students. The text will be large, the vocabulary basic and the words probably written with spaces between them. A Thai-English picture dictionary is always useful too.

 

Here is an odd site I ran across:

 

http://www.learnthaionline.com/html/downloads.html

 

[dave32]

Thanks for the input and the site.