Women Learning Thai… and some men too ;-)

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Free Thai learning materials… I’m a Thai language resource junkie so was chuffed when Remi pointed me to the Thai language resources at Everyday Thai Language School. Thanks Remi! I owe. Everyday Thai Language School’s FREE online resources… Everyday Thai Language School’s Free Thai language study aids are in four main groups covering beginner to [...]

UPDATED: A top 100 Thai vocabulary list… In the post, Compiling a Top 100 Thai Vocabulary List, I put together a Thai words list and asked for suggestions. New words came in via email, Facebook, and in the comments of the post. While that list was percolating, I created a list from a different direction: [...]

Look Tewada: Child of an Angel? Spoilt brat?… My Thai posts are usually well-researched (as much as I can do, anyway). But, with Thailand’s Children of God: Look Tewada ลูกเทวดา, I took a shortcut. I was slim on time so I quickly checked ลูกเทวดา /lôok tay-wá-daa/ in Thai dictionaries and threw it out for a [...]

Doraemon Comics in Thai… In the last Successful Thai Language Learner’s interview, Rick Bradford’s mention of reading Doraemon Comics in Thai go me interested so I contacted him for more: The Doraemon comics are a good way to get a first foot on the ladder of reading Thai. They’re aimed at children, so the vocabulary [...]

Read More THAI or Die… Andrej from Bakunin learns Thai recently reminded me that the registration for the Tadoku challenge, Read More or Die, is now open for July. From Read More or Die… The three basic Tadoku principles: Read without using a dictionary. If you can’t read it without using a dictionary, read something [...]

Thailand’s Children of God… I wasn’t sure what to think about the Thai phrase Children of God when I first happened across it. Thailand is Buddhist, right? Not Christian? Curious. So, just who are Thailand’s Children of God? You might already know the concept but not the Thai. When stopped by the police Thailand’s Children [...]

12 FREE Manee books online… When you get over your fear of Thai script and start learning to read, the Manee books (sometimes spelt Maanii) are often recommended. Long discontinued, the Manee books were written back in the late ’70′s by รัชนี ศรีไพรวรรณ (Ratchanee Sripaiwan) with a team from the Thai Ministry of Education. And [...]

A Sticky Problem… I was reading one of those Thai expat blogs recently when I came across someone discussing the Thai word for “stingy” (seems like his girlfriend uses this word with him often). To add a little humor to his blog he did a direct translation of the Thai word for “stingy”, ขี้เหนียว /kêe-nǐeow/. [...]

I’m Not Fine, Thank You… From my years of teaching English I have learned that there is a two-line dialog that is ingrained in every student of English, probably in the world. It goes like this: Hello, how are you? Fine thank you, and you? As native speakers of English, we know that there are [...]

Rosetta Stone* Methodology… *After the stone and not the expensive software In her interviews of Thai speakers, Catherine likes to ask if we have ever had an “Ah ha” moment in our Thai studies. An “Ah ha” moment is sort of a Zen “satori” experience where we become enlightened, although sometimes only for a short [...]

Heartfelt wishes to Thailand during these turbulent times… What a depressing month. Desperate to write about something positive (having had to cancel most of my planned posts), on Monday I sent the below to a smattering of people (apologies if you didn’t receive one): A request – Those living in Thailand (Thais as well as [...]

Meeting successful language learners… One of the many pluses with hosting the Successful Thai Language Learners series is meeting talented (and generous) Thai speakers. For instance, take Hugh Long of www.retire2thailand.com. Hugh was yesterday’s Successful Thai Language Learner. In the middle of our back and forth, Hugh released a triple package of free: Advanced Thai [...]

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 [...]

เมีย ชึ้อ สอด รถ ชึ้อ ผ่อน mia séu sot rót séu pòn He paid the dowry in cash, but got a loan for his car. มี หมา เป็น เพื่อน ดี กว่า มี เพื่อน ใจ หมา mee măa bpen pêuan dee gwàa mee pêuan jai măa Having a dog as a friend is nicer than having [...]