Archive for July, 2010
Guessing the Thai Tones, part 1 of 2 (Beginner) Posted by palmisano on Jul 30, 2010
The rules for reading Thai are fairly complex, especially when it comes to determining the tone of the word based on the spelling. When I first started learning Thai, I preferred to memorize the tone of each word and not bother so much learning the actual rules. In reality, memorizing the tones allows for faster…
Political Responses to Thai Protests Posted by palmisano on Jul 28, 2010
Between my last post and this one (the dates don’t match the actual writing date), Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva อภิสิทธิ์ เวชชาชีวะ ordered a crackdown on the protesters camped out. Prime Minister is translated as นายกรัฐมนตรี, but in the newspapers you’ll only see it in the short version, นายกฯ (naa1 yok4). For those familiar with what…
Language of the Protester (Intermediate) Posted by palmisano on Jul 27, 2010
This is, obviously, my first post in what will be a fruitful blog for those interested in learning to speak Thai and how Thai culture relates to its language. Let’s start by stating who I am and what makes me qualified to do this. I’ve been studying Thai for approximately six years now, about…
YouThai Posted by Transparent Language on Jul 20, 2010
As part of our campaign to helping you learn Thai, we’ve created a new YouTube channel, TransparentThai. Here we’ll be adding videos about language fundamentals, tips, culture, and more. This first video teaches you about male and female forms. It is less than one minute long. This second video discusses how and where to place…
Introduction to Thai Posted by Transparent Language on Jul 20, 2010
History and Development Thai is spoken by the majority of the population in Thailand, as well as by smaller groups of people in other countries. Linguists disagree on the number of Thai dialects in existence. Some linguists believe that a large percentage of Thai speakers actually speak some variant of Standard Thai. The question of…