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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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” [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The Top 100 Language Learning Blogs… Earlier, I shared my favourite blogs amongst Lexiophiles Top 100 Language Blogs for 2008. In July, WLT was included in the 2009 voting for Lexiophiles Top 100 Language Blogs. WLT is new so I was more than a bit nervous about the whole deal. But, with your support, I [...]

Thai is both voiced and voiceless… In my previous column, I explained “contrasting” and “non-contrasting” sounds as well as aspirated and unaspirated sounds in Thai. This week, we’ll discuss another important distinction in Thai: “voiced” and “voiceless” sounds. To briefly recap, those sounds we consciously distinguish are called contrasting sounds. Other times, there are multiple [...]

Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners… Name: Tom Parker Nationality: British Location: Bangkok Profession: Recent MA graduate. I have previously worked as a Research Manager for a multi-national in Chiang Mai. I have a BA (Hons) in Southeast Asian Studies and Language (Thai) and an MA in Southeast Asian Studies. Website: Chiangmai News Twitter: @tomjparker What [...]

Being true in your communication… In my last post, I talked about the fact that the Thai language is what is known as a HIGH context language. I referred to the example of “mai pen rai” to highlight the implications of a language and culture where the actual words used are only a part of [...]