Women Learning Thai… and some men too ;-)

You are browsing the archives of 2009 August.

Every, many and more…
Let’s look at the difference between ทั้ง (tháng) and ทุก (thúk), remembering that “th” is pronounced as a “T” while breathing out. In rough translation, ทั้ง corresponds to “all” and ทุก to “every”. You use ทั้ง for all of one thing and ทุก for all of many things.
As with typical Thai [...]

Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners…
Name: Glenn Slayden
Nationality: American
Age range: 40-50
Sex: Male
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Profession: Author of www.thai-language.com
Website: www.thai-language.com
What is your Thai level?
Intermediate.
Do you speak more street Thai, Issan Thai, or professional Thai?
Tourist Thai.
What were your reasons for learning Thai?
It is still an ongoing process but I would say that the more I learned about the [...]

Is the Thai language easy to learn?…
The Thai language is immensely different to most western languages. As a high context tonal language, with its own alphabet consisting of 44 consonants and 36 vowels, studying Thai can be enough to make your head spin to the point of explosion. Add the fact that the language differs [...]

Anthony Bourdain makes it to YouTube…
Exactly one week ago I wrote the post, Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations: Thai Episode, lamenting that his cooking show wasn’t going to be viewed on available channels in Thailand. Available to me anyway.
But here we are already… on YouTube…

Enjoy…

Long or short really does matter…
When it comes to Thai vowels, length really does matter. I remember in grade school that the teacher taught about “long” and “short” vowels in English, where the i in “bite” is long, but the i in “bit” is short. Or something like that.
This terminology has been around a [...]

Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners…
Name: Rikker Dockum
Nationality: American
Age range: 20-30
Sex: Male
Location: Bangkok
Blog: Thai 101
Wiki: Thai Video Transcripts
WLT: Thai 101 Learners Series
Do you speak more street Thai, Issan Thai, or professional Thai?
I’d characterize what I speak as Bangkok Thai. I don’t try to be overly “correct” in ways that native Thais wouldn’t be — I [...]

Anthony Bourdain has no reservations…
Yesterday, America’s Travel Channel kindly contacted me about Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations episode shot here in Thailand.
The culture of Thailand incorporates a great deal of influence from India, China, Cambodia, and the rest of Southeast Asia, and Thai cuisine blends five fundamental flavors: sweet, spicy, sour, bitter and salty.
In an [...]

A loan by any other name…
Anyone who has spent time in Thailand knows that Thai, like many other languages, has a generous helping of English words mixed into the vernacular. English also figures significantly in the technical and academic vocabulary of Thai, where frequently an imported version of an English term catches on more than [...]

Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners…
Name: David Smyth
Nationality: British
Age range: 50-60
Sex: Male
Location: UK
Profession: University lecturer
Books/Products: Thai: An Essential Grammar, Teach Yourself Thai, Linguaphone Thai Course (with Manas Chitakasem) + translations of a number of Thai novels and short stories.
Do you speak more street Thai, Issan Thai, or professional Thai?
Bangkok Thai.
What were your reasons for learning Thai?
A [...]

All things Thai culture…
Last month I posted about Khun Krajog’s Brush Up You Thai series on The Nation Weblog. Well, Khun Krajog also blogs about Thai culture under the heading Of Things Thai.
His two latests posts deal with Thailand’s National Mother’s Day: National Mother Day and August 12 Mother Day Special: A tribute to [...]