Manee

As I promised in my 100th post, I want to start digging a little deeper into actual translation of Thai text. Grammar and vocabulary are obviously very important things to learn, study, and review, but putting it all together is really what it’s all about. I can’t just sit and try to memorize vocabulary lists, and studying grammar books is about as much fun as watching my wife paint her toenails (much as I love her).

Since I’m no Thai language expert I thought it would be best to work through the Manee books. Always up for a challenge, I decided to start with the Grade 2, Volume 1 book. (Not really a challenge, per se, but the Grade 1 books have very fragmented sentences and doesn’t work well for translating.)

So, I’m starting with Manee Grade 2 and working very slowly. Time is a bit of a factor, as is my current Thai education level. But let’s work together and see how well we can do, shall we? My hope is that we can work together and discuss each “lesson” so we can get better as a group.

Time to dig in!

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Anyone remember this game show?

This past weekend Su and I had some friends over to hang out. The wife is originally from Thailand and the husband is a farang with excellent Thai language skills. I always enjoy spending time with them, certainly because they are cool people but also because I know I am going to walk away with some good Thai language learning advice and skills.

Our friends introduced us to a game designed to help me with vocabulary and basic sentence structure/grammar. We all thought it was a lot of fun and I thought it would be good to share with you as well.

I should tell you up front that the game is going to require at least two people, although having three or four people makes it much more interesting. I can understand that being difficult for some as it seems that most of us language learners do so alone. But if you have a few friends also learning Thai or, better yet, have some Thai language speakers that like games, you’ll dig this.

The game is quite similar to the old game show called The $10,000 Pyramid or the Taboo board game. If you have ever seen this show you have a pretty good idea of how the game is played.

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ตัว, คน, or ดอก?

I’ve admittedly been putting this subject off for a long time now. It’s not necessarily an overly-complex subject, but it’s one that gets somewhat overlooked by many beginning Thai language students.

I feel that knowledge of classifiers – what they are and how they work – seem to fall somewhere in the “intermediate” language learning area for Thai. They aren’t something beginners necessarily need to worry about, but they should definitely have been figured out (the concept, at least) well before one considers themselves fluent. (I’m not one of those people, btw…)

So without further adieu, I give you Thai Classifiers…

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I see you...

In this installment of Grammar Wars, I want to take a look at two Thai words that mean “to see.” These words are:

เจอ /jəə/

and

เห็น /hěn/

Shall we dig in?

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It's "tsch" not "sch" you no good...

This topic has caused many a debate in the world of Thai grammar and language. Like one of those all-too-common Asian government gang fights they pass off as legislation debates, the issue of how exactly we Westerners should pronounce Thai consonants and vowels is highly discussed and often argued.

I have my own thoughts, which I will share with you today. Please keep in mind that these are general suggestions, not intended to be taken as the absolute way. These ideas are meant to get you a little bit closer to sounding more natural when you speak Thai, and for me to learn as well. If you have any thoughts on the subject, please chime in.

Since we’re not trying to pass any new laws, let’s keep the fist-fighting to a minimum as I discuss five pronunciation tips…

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I was recently asked to write a guest post on the Thai language for another blog, and so I did.

You can read Learning to speak Thai: the ins and outs of Tackling the Thai language on the Expat Arrivals website. Please take a few minutes and visit their site to show your support.

Thanks!

As I’m sure most of you know by now, pronouns such as ผม /pǒm/ and ฉัน /chǎn/ are used by males and females, respectively, as the word “I”. We also use the pronouns พี่ /pîi/ and น้อง /nɔ́ɔng/ for older and younger sibling and พ่อ /pɔ̂ɔ/ and แม่ /mɛ̂ɛ/ for father and mother. These should not be new to you.

However, quite often in Thai when one person is referring to him or herself, or when referring to someone else, these pronouns (and others) get used differently than the way we are used to in English.

Wanna find out how?

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ใคร

I sound so important when I use big words like “interrogatives.” Makes me feel all smart and stuff. In English we use the term “interrogative” as a grouping for words that ask the questions “who, what, when, where, why.”

Thai certainly has these words, but each of these interrogatives also comes with their own set of answers, and you don’t even have to learn a new word.

Let’s take a look at what I mean…

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Okay, so today we’ll continue with Part 2 of our Thai Tones review. Before we go further down the rabbit hole, here are the answers to yesterday’s “quiz”:


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I’ve been hearing a lot of people – both on and off the blog – talk about their difficulty in understanding and internalizing the tone rules for the Thai language. I admit that it did take several months before I felt truly comfortable with them, but rest assured it can be done.

So let’s start from the beginning.
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