i need to learn thai (have recently become a buddhhist monk in a forest monastery in north east thailand).
the language is alphabet based - 42 consonsants and 20-30 vowels depending on classification- both short and long vowels. and 5 tones. uses diacritics or tone rules based on consonant classes (3) and vowel length. many of the consonants have essentially the same sound but have a different class affecting the tone of the word. also consonstants have different sounds when they come at the end of a word compared to at the end.
spelling is pretty important to get the tone correct which is pretty vital most people say for understanding thai. so how do i combine learning words and spelling those words? i was thinking to use palaces for words and PAO for spelling. but the PAO would be large database of each . maybe i could combine initial consonant with vowel to reduce complexity but this would just add a lot of other options…i am confused how to combine PAO and memory palaces i guess.
for example the word we would spell as cow in english has 8 different meanings (extreme example) from knee, to enter to rice to understand depending on length of the vowel and class of the consonant the ‘c’ can use two different characters.
what do people think/suggest? any experiences with or tonal language that has an alphabet?
I’m studying Thai also and maybe I can give you some advice.
To learn the Alphabet it’s not to hard if you use mnemonics you can see an example of this on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQEux3Fo1Oc.
There is this guy who created a course in Thailand that is awesome and let’s you learn the whole Alphabet in a few days the same guy that made this youtube video. I used some of this because I couldn’t take his course in thailand and came up with a system like his. Then you use Thai books that are made for Thai to learn English that have English words written in the Thai script. That is how I started practicing reading in Thai.
When it comes to learning vocab I would go with a memory palace a POA system will drive you nutz there for sure in Thai I think. You can do every letter but mnemonics are better in my opinion.
You maybe not have seen my question about reviewing vocab maybe it’s interesting for you to read a bit about how I approach learning Thai. Awesome by the way that you are living in Thailand in a monastery very cool.
You will get a lot of exposure there in Thai. If you have more questions let me know.
Yes I am aware of the chap who invents that approach.
I pretty much know all the alphabet but didn’t use mnemonics. A mistake?
Is that how you remember the spelling of each word or do you not worry about the spelling or do you have another method ?
I will read your other post (on grammar I think) on my kindle in next couple of days. I just wanted to post thus quick follow up question while I have the chance.
No it’s no problem if you learned the alphabet without mnemonics because they will do you little good with vocab.
If you know all the original names it’s great when you ask Thai to spell for you.
When I started with Thai I wanted to be able to spell everything perfect and I used all the mnemonics of the alphabet to remember the spelling. This is ok for very short words but with Thai you have so many longer words that it became impossible to do it that way for every word. I dropped the whole I want to spell perfect at Thai because Thai are far from perfect them self 55555.
Especially with all the exceptions on tones (irregular words) and the use of tonemarks it became clear to me that I didn’t want to put a lot of energy in spelling Thai correct all the time.
I type as little Thai as possible because I’m very slow even though I learned where all the letters are on my keyboard. What is more important (imho) is the tones so I have colors and superhero’s that I use for those. Without knowing what tones the words are, you are wasting time learning words. Sometimes, I say three things in one sentence that would be the same in transliteration but only have another tone or vowel length.
Vowel length is also important, something I neglect to often and get burned for when I speak.
I wouldn’t worry about writing Thai to much that will come later that is like icing on the cake at least that’s how I see it. You have done the right thing by learning the alphabet it’s the most important thing to do in Thai.
Transliteration doesn’t work very good and now you can read in Thai and Thai can write words down for you.
And you can use all the learning materials that are made for Thai to learn English and those are very cheap in Thailand. 40 bath will do and now a days you have for 100-120 Bath books with audio MP3 cd’s made for Thai listening to English but they also include Thai audio (1000-2000 sentences). The books from the company MIS are pretty good and have pretty good translations between English and Thai.
One thing I can recommend is the use of bridging figures like Anthony Metevier explains in his course or books.
Because Thai is filled with words that are compound words and you will see words like ประ ใจ การ ความ etc… forming new words all the time. By creating figures with those words you can easily remember spelling, tone and meaning if you combine it with mnemonic stories.
And last but not least stay away from grammar in Thai this only complicates things.
For every solution to your question you will get 10 answers back. I wasted almost a whole year only learning about grammar and it got me nowhere speaking Thai. For example if you would take a look in the grammar books to find out how to use the word “also” you will see they have twelve words for this. Now you can get into to the fine details but the bottom line is that with เท่านั้น you can handle most situations just fine. By time when you start reading more and see more sentences, grammar will introduce itself little by little and you will learn the other words for also and when they are used.
Remember this is just my view on learning Thai, different folks different strokes is the expression if I’m not mistaken. Maybe you will learn different then me, and thats just fine. Only one thing is important and that is that you learn Thai.
That is something that everybody should do that lives there or stays a lot in Thailand like I do and only a few do.
It opens so many doors when you can speak a little bit of Thai. You will get so more respect when you do. I myself I have along way to go I can speak it now a bit but I have a problem understanding when they speak Thai with me.
I focus now on reading and listening and a lot of vocab building. It’s a struggle, a war but it can be won 55555.
THANKYOU so much for your helpful tips mate. I will go and see if I can get mis books downloaded. Cheers and will write more to let you know how I am going.
Hey I have been documenting what I have been doing and in around the last 4 days I have learned around 100 words and the whole alphabet. Documenting it all: http://escapeplansuccess.com/learn-thai/ Mnemonics are apart of everything I am doing as I can’t remember anything without them. Forgive me if the post is a bit rough I am going to clean it up as I go on.
Nice I’m looking forward to hear how you progress in learning Thai.
Good to hear that you can use the mnemonics created in Linkword’s Survival Thai.
I hope you keep posting it’s always very interested to see other people learn Thai for me.
One word of advice make sure you know the tones with all those words that is very important or you will not be understood by Thai.
