Thai Language Blog

I’ve been writing this blog for ~3 years now and I’ve never given my readers long sentences to read, focusing more on basic vocabulary and grammar. Today, I’d like to challenge my more advanced readers.

Now, for those who aren’t quite there yet, I’m making this post doubly interesting. We all know why we foreigners like Thailand. But why do Thai’s think we like Thailand? (Think about that before you read on.)

Below are answers written by Thais themselves – surprisingly most are right on the money!

ทำไม….ฝรั่งชอบมาเที่ยวเมืองไทย

Why….do farang like to travel Thailand?

Thai #1

เพราะนิสัยเอื้ออารีย์ ยี้มแย้มแจ่มใส และชอบช่วยเหลือคนอื่น

[Thais] are generous, helpful, friendly, have bright smiles, and they like to help others.

มีสถานที่ท่องเที่ยวและวัฒนธรรมหลากหลาย ทั่วๆไปตั้งแต่เหนือจดใต้

There are many places to travel and lots of culture to experience, from the north to the south.

มีความปรอดภัยและสดวกในการเดินทางและอยู่อาศัย

It is safe and convenient to travel and live here.

มีค่าครองชีพถูกและอาหารอร่อย

The cost of living is cheap and the food is delicious.

มีหลายกิจกรรมทั้งทางน้ำและทางบกให้เลือกทำ…..

There are many activities, both on the land and water, to choose from.

ทะเลที่สวยงาม ตุ๊กตุ๊กที่โต้ลม ส้มตำอันหอมหวล

Beautiful oceans, open-air tuk-tuks, aromatic somtam.

Thai #2

ประเทศไทยมีครบทุกอย่างครับ แถมค่าเงินเรากับเขาก็ต่างกันด้วย

Thailand has everything. In addition, the value of money is very different [here].

Thai #3

สถานที่ท่องเที่ยวเยอะ อาหารอร่อย ค่าเงินถูก

Many places to travel to, delicious food, cheap money.

เป็นเมืองท่องเที่ยว ทำให้สะดวกในการท่องเที่ยว

It is a tourist country, making it easy to travel [here].

Thai #4

ได้รับสิทธิพิเศษอย่างราชา

[You] get the royal treatment.

แถมค่าใช้จ่ายถูก ก็ต้องมากันมากเป็นธรรมดาครับ

In addition everything’s cheap, so it’s normal for many to come.

แต่เป็นสิ่งที่ผิดอย่างมากในแง่จริยธรรม..!!

But that’s something which is so wrong from a moral viewpoint!

(my comment – it is?)

Thai #5

นักท่องเที่ยวต่างชาติ ที่มาเที่ยวเมืองไทย ก็มีหลายระดับ เงินมาก เงิน น้อย หลายเชื้อชาติ หลายวัย หลายเพศ

Foreign tourists that come to Thailand have many levels: those with a lot of money, those with little money, different nationalities, and gender.

จุดประสงค์และเป้าหมายของการมาเที่ยวต่างกันออกไป….

Their purpose and goals of traveling are different…

(my comment – he then agrees with the previous responses, but I edited that part out for simplicity)

นักท่องเที่ยวที่เข้ามาในรูปแบบโจร หรือมาทำสิ่งผิดกฏหมายก็เยอะแยะ

Tourists who come looking like thieves, or that come just to commit crimes, there are quite a lot.

(my comment – well, I definitely see them myself, but I’d say they are a minority IMHO)

ฝรั่งที่เราเรียกกัน บ้านเมืองเขาก็ดีเลวปนกันไป

Those that we call farang, their own countries are a mix of good and bad.

(my comment – I think he means some countries are good and some are bad?)

แย่กว่าเรา หรือดีกว่าเราคงเปรียบเทียบกันไม่ได้ …

Whether [these countries] are worse or better than ours (Thailand) we cannot compare.

แต่เหตุผลหลัก ๆ ที่นักท่องเที่ยวมาคือ คนไทยโอบอ้อมอารี ยิ้มแย้มแจ่มใส จริงใจ ไม่มองทุกอย่างเป็นธุรกิจเหมือนเมืองนอก

But the main reason these tourists come is Thais are generous and helpful, smile brightly, are sincere, and don’t look at everything as only business like in other countries.

(my comment – true, assuming you don’t count the million scam artists prowling the tourist areas)

Thai #6

มีทุกอย่างและหาง่ายทุกอย่างครับ

[Thailand] has everything, and everything is easy to find.

Thai #7

เพราะเมืองไทยเราอากาศบริสุทธิ์ ทะเลงาม ผู้หญิงสวย(เซ็กซี่ในแบบที่ฝรั่งชอบ)

Because Thailand’s air is pure, the oceans beautiful, the girls are pretty (sexy the way farang like),

อาหารอร่อย บริการดี (เพราะคนไทยเห็นฝรั่งเป็นพระเจ้ามั๊ง)

delicious food, good service (because Thais see farang as gods I guess),

และค่าเงินไทยต่ำกว่าของเขาไงจ๊ะ…

and the value of Thai money is lower than that of his.

ฐานะธรรมดาในบ้านเขา เข้ามาเป็นเศรษฐีในบ้านเรา…ทำไมเขาจะไม่ชอบ

While of average [financial] status in their country, they are very rich in ours. Why wouldn’t they like it?

Thai #8

หนีหนาว เลยหาที่เที่ยวที่ร้อนๆหน่อย ถูกๆ อยู่สบายๆ

To escape the cold weather, to find a place that is a little hot, cheap, and laid back/comfortable.

Thai #9

ถ้าเอาคำตอบจริงๆ คือ กัญชาไทย ดีที่สุดในโลก

If you want the real answer . . . Thai weed is the best in the world.

(my comment – no comment, lol)

It’s always good to know how to say what you do and don’t like, because it helps others please you! Seriously. Go practice these words at a restaurant and other various situations with your Thai friends.

The Thai word for ‘like’ is ชอบ chawp3. If you don’t like something, add the word ‘no’ ไม่ mai3 in front to get ไม่ชอบ mai3 chawb3.

I like swimming.

Pom5 chawb3 waai3 nam4

ผมชอบว่ายน้ำ

I don’t like spicy food.

Chan5 mai3 chawb3 aa1haan5 ped2

ฉันไม่ชอบอาหารเผ็ด

I like to read.

Pom5 chawb3 aan2

ผมชอบอ่าน

He likes Thailand.

Kow5 chawb3 muang1 tai1

เขาชอบเมืองไทย

Tourists like to travel Thailand.

Nak4 tawng3 tieow3 chawb3 maa1 tieow3 muang1 tai1

นักท่องเที่ยวชอบมาเที่ยวเมืองไทย

I don’t like running.

Mai3 chawb3 gaan1 wing3

ไม่ชอบการวิ่ง 

The Thai word for ‘favorite’ kawng5 brood2 ของโปรด doesn’t carry the same meaning as in English. Let me explain . . . I had a Thai friend who would tell me what her favorites are and in English say something like, ‘This food is my very favorite’. One day she’d say pizza was her favorite food, 20 minutes later she’d say it was somtam, then a few hours later declare cake her favorite food. I wasn’t sure if she just couldn’t make up her mind, or there was some language mis-translation going on. Upon getting clarification, I learned that ของโปรด doesn’t actually mean ‘favorite’ – it means ‘one of my favorites’. What she meant to say was simply lost in translation.

Somtam is a favorite food of mine.

Som3dtum1 kue1 aa1haan5 brood2 chan5

ส้มตำคืออาหารโปรดฉัน

Somtam is my most favorite food of mine.

Som3dtum1 kue1 aa1haan5 brood2 tee3 sud2 kawng5 chan5

ส้มตำคืออาหารโปรดที่สุดของฉัน

My favorite song.

Pleng1 brood2 tee3 sud2

เพลงโปรดที่สุด

My favorite hotel.

Rong1raem1 brood2 tee3 sud2

โรงแรมโปรดที่สุด

My favorite dish is somtam with sticky rice.

Aa1haan5 jaan1 brood2 kawng5 chan5 kue1 kaow3 nieow5 som3dtum1

อาหารจานโปรดของฉันคือ ข้าวเหนียวส้มตำ

For further reading, check out our past post on liking food:

http://blogs.transparent.com/thai/the-real-way-to-say-something-tastes-good-in-thai/

What Books are Best to Learn Thai? This question inevitably comes up with every new class I teach – what books do I recommend my students to buy? For a beginner, I don’t recommend any specific book. Let me explain why . . .

When I was a beginner, almost a decade ago, I was tight on cash at the time so didn’t want to buy too many books. So I just went to a book store and browsed until I found something that seemed right. While the book I read definitely assisted me in learning Thai, I later found it was full of mistakes – all of which I then had to un-learn. This was back when there weren’t very many internet resources, and paper-back literature was also limited.

Students today have it so much easier! You guys got Amazon.com, tons of recently written books, online help forums, book reviews, this blog, and many pathfinders with sage advice. In my day, we had to walk 10 miles barefoot in the snow in Bangkok just to get to the bookstore.

Let’s start with the ‘learn Thai in 20 days’ books. If you believe that, I have some land to sell you in Nakorn Nowhere. Moving on . . .

As I don’t have any particular recommendations on beginner-level books, I will tell you how to identify a good book from a bad one. The ‘learn Thai’ books today are a dime-a-dozen now. Many target impulse buyers – lots of ‘easy’ but not meant for a serious learner. Just follow these three simple rules:

1) If the book doesn’t identify tones, move on. You can’t learn a tonal language from a book that doesn’t teach tones!

2) The book should somehow identify diphthongs and have reasonable transliteration. For example, many Thai books claim ป sounds like ‘p’ or ‘b’, or that ต is a ‘t’ or ‘d’, or ก only makes a ‘k’ sound. If you use these books, you’ll end up with a horrible unintelligible accent. When at the beginning of a word, ป should be written as ‘bp’, ต should be ‘dt’, and ก should be ‘g’. At the end, it should be ‘b’, ‘d’, and ‘k’, respectively. If the writer doesn’t write it that way, the writer probably doesn’t even know, putting the whole book into question.

3) Learning Thai without the Thai alphabet is like learning English without the English alphabet. You want written side-by-side English, Thai, and transliterations. If you are just casually learning Thai and don’t have the time to learn the alphabet, you still want the Thai. One day you may change your mind. And your Thai friend can use it to help you with pronunciation.

After you’ve passed the beginner phase, finding a good book to go yet further is a challenge. Thai is an obscure non-traditional language with very few people ever getting passed the beginner phase . . . For those who are past the beginner stage, I do have books I’d recommend. Read on!

If you are very serious about learning the Thai language, Thai Reference Grammar is not optional! I highly recommend getting it. This book is more intermediate and advanced level Thai, but the first 100 pages does cover some of the basic grammar. The book teaches by method of example. First it shows you a new word, then explains what that word means. Then it gives you several examples in english, transliterated Thai (Thai words using English alphabet), and finally the Thai spelling. I literally carried this book wherever I went for two years, as it covered so much of the language! Although I still had issues with some of it, it’s by far the best book you can get.

Most Thai people will not teach you ‘normal’ Thai. They will instead teach you ‘correct’, ‘proper’, and ‘polite’ Thai. Meaning if someone doesn’t speak ‘perfect’ Thai, you’d be clueless to what they said. And actually, 90% of the time, Thais don’t speak ‘perfect’ Thai. What this book teaches is street-level Thai, full of useful insults, perverted remarks, informal phrases, and everything else my Buddhist monk teacher doesn’t want me to learn. Being the only book that covers this information, I’d say it’s the best and a must-have. However, it’s obvious a native Thai did not grammar/spell check the book. Every other page had at least one mistake, either in grammar, in Thai spelling, and often even in karaoke spelling. Occasionally the karaoke doesn’t even match the written Thai! So practice it on your Thai friends to make sure you learned it correctly . . . Check the book out, Outrageous Thai: Slang, Curses and Epithets.

.

You will find tons of Thai-English English-Thai dictionaries out there, but this is a great beginner level book for those who haven’t yet mastered reading and writing in Thai. It has the English spelling, Thai spelling, and a decent karaoke spelling. As the karaoke spelling takes up a decent part of the dictionary, it sacrifices many words that an intermediate or expert learner would typically look up. Great for beginners, but not for experts. Check the book out here, Thai-English English-Thai Dictionary for Non-Thai Speakers, Revised Edition (Dictionary).

For experts I’d recommend ‘A Junior Thai-English Dictionary‘ by Tianchai Iamworamate. Why? Well, big dictionaries are too annoying to carry around, so you’ll never want to bring it with you. At home you can just look a word up online. But while out on the streets, this *tiny* book easily fits into a pocket, yet the fine print and one-way translation allows for quite a large (14,500 word) vocabulary to be stored inside. Translations are useful and unambiguous.

So, what about software?

Next up, Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone. Despite what their marketing wants you to believe, their software doesn’t actually teach any language. It’s just one big multiple-choice test software which was cut and pasted from their other languages. It’s like trying to learn Thai by taking the final test – it doesn’t work like that. But . . . what the software does do is give you an opportunity to help you practice and test your abilities – after you’ve learned the material somewhere else. While Rosetta Stone is no longer offers it’s Thai software, you can get the Pimsleur Thai software here.

One final option . . . online software. Transparent Thai offers online Thai learning software for less than the price of a good beginner’s book.

You can see a demo of their software for Spanish here: