Hi everyone, I am trying to get copies of the Intensive Thai Textbooks by Chula. I know there is this thread here and I have access to Intensive Thai 1 via this thread here (Chulalongkorn University Intensive Thai 1 eBook : r/learnthai)

Was wondering if anyone has any luck with procuring the remaining textbooks e.g. second hand, pdfs, etc.

Cheers!

I find that English pitch patterns take over on words that would be emphasised in English, e.g. (choosing something) "I'll have that one" (they go for the wrong one) "no that one". This obviously messes with the tones.

I would like to understand how this kind of contrastive focus is marked in Thai, because I have a hunch that replacing the English habits with something else that does the same job is a better solution than just trying to repress them.

Just wondering if it's been studied.

Hi! I'm Pare, a 22-year-old English major at Bangkok University.

I'd like to practice teaching Thai and I'm looking for a beginner who'd be interested in trying a free lesson. I'd really appreciate any feedback afterward. If anyone is interested please let me know!

​

When I am drunk, I tend to speak Thai without translating in my mind, reviewing grammar, or worrying about tones. I don't even forget what I hear.

I don't mean that I magically become a better speaker; rather, I receive information without judgment and talk without the fear of making mistakes.

Science shows that alcohol affects the prefrontal cortex, making rational judgment and even fear disappear. (Interestingly, the prefrontal cortex doesn't even fully develop until around the age of 25).

But it makes you wonder: Can a rational mind actually be a problem for studying language?

A rational mind is analytical and great for learning grammar, but it also searches for perfection, fears looking foolish, and blocks intuition. This isn't a call to go drinking beer,it’s just an interesting look at why children and younger people often learn languages faster than adults: they aren't held back by overthinking.

I guess the more experience we get, the more conditioned our minds become. You don't just listen to a word as it is; you judge it and compare it with your existing experience, so it takes longer for new information to enter and bypass your filters smoothly.

Sometimes, I meet a kind and smart German friend at the Amazon Café who has stayed in Thailand for two decades and can't speak more than 10 Thai sentences, even though he speaks English very well.

What do you think? Did you have a similar experience?

In other words, what have you noticed you've gained skill wise?

A few weeks back I shared a preview of AanThai here and asked for feedback. A bunch of you tried it out, and some of you asked to be notified when it launched. It's live now!

Quick background if you missed the first post: I'm learning Thai myself, my wife is Thai, and we built this together because I kept hitting the same wall so many learners run into.

Textbooks get you to a certain point and then there's nothing between "finished the textbook" and "try to read a novel and get lost in the first paragraph."

We're a tiny two-person team, so we've been building the app piece by piece alongside our regular jobs. Every story starts as an AI draft, then my wife rewrites and edits it for natural Thai before recording the narration herself, so everything you read and hear has gone through a native speaker before it reaches you.

AanThai is a graded reader: short stories at different levels, with click-any-word translations and audio you can follow along with while you read. If you've used LingQ, the overall idea will feel familiar, but because AanThai is built specifically for Thai, things like tokenization, romanization, word breakdowns, and frequency information are designed around the language rather than adapted from a more general system.

aanthai.app

Since the preview: 70 stories are live now, 54 of them fully narrated, and we're recording the rest as fast as we can. We've also got over 50 more drafted and in the pipeline, so the story list is going to keep growing quickly. The short-term goal is to get to 200 fully narrated stories.

We've put an enormous amount of time into it, and launching is really just the beginning. We're adding more stories every week, building grammar explanations directly into the reader, and working toward native iOS and Android apps.

If there's something you wish it did, let us know. It's still early enough that feedback genuinely shapes what we build next.

Thanks to everyone who tested it last time. Not only did you give us good feedback and suggestions, but the overwhelmingly positive reactions motivated us a lot.

The app uses a freemium model, so you can try a good selection of stories before deciding whether it's worth paying for. We would genuinely love to hear what you think.

Hello guys, I started learning Thai consonants at the end of last year. Then I dropped it because it was too difficult for me but I picked it up again and started studying not consistently maybe 4 hours a week.

I spent a month learning consonants, vowels and tones. And the second month is my most inconsistent month due to my college assignments. But during that second month I used มานะ มานี grade 1 book for reading and writing. I wrote down common words and phrases in my notebook.

For this month, I found a new website Jamdaithai for vocabulary and sentences and YouTube channel farmpasathai for listening and speaking (still doing มานะ มานี book because I was very inconsistent last month.)

I still watch comprehensible Thai and Understand Thai also watch Spooky TV and Doraemon in Thai for entertainment.

I can now read words on posters, social media and stuff and know the meaning of some words but not the full meaning. I also practice speaking with my friend who herself has a Thai tutor.

Can you guys please share your thoughts on my progress so far?

Thank you.

i live with both my mom and yai who speak thai to me everyday on the daily. the only issue is that i understand basic conversation about food, family, etc. but i can't speak back 90% of the time. i also cannot read nor write :( i'm wanting to go into a major though that requires a foreign language and i just want to know how long it would take for someone like me to learn thai. i understand it's subjective and everyone's learning time is different but an estimate would be helpful D: thank you!

Hey everyone, it's me again.

Two weeks ago, I shared Glyphraid here, a roguelike for learning Thai. The response completely blew me away, so thank you all, genuinely. I've spent these two weeks heads-down making changes based on your feedback, and I wanted to share where things are now.

Here's what you asked for, and what I did:

Some of you said it was too easy, others said too hard. So I added more themes and difficulty tiers, from the very basics of Thai consonants and vowels up to a slightly more advanced theme called Reflections (abstract and emotional words). The first time you open the app it also asks about your level and recommends a starting point, so hopefully everyone gets a smoother fit no matter where they're at.

You wanted to type in Thai, and you wanted listening practice, so I built both. Two new question types: Reverse (you see the English meaning and spell it out with a Thai keyboard) and Listening (you hear the pronunciation and type the meaning). These unlock once you've read through all the words in a theme at least once (if you already have some background, that goes pretty fast).

Pronunciation got completely redone. Every word now uses a voice model I found more natural (after comparing a few out there), and I also fixed the bug where the iPhone silent switch would mute the audio. I've tested it as carefully as I could, but I'm not a native speaker, so if any pronunciation still sounds off, please let me know through the in-game report (just shake your phone and it pops up).

Some of you got hit even after answering correctly, or couldn't tell what that timer was for. That was on me for not teaching the rules well. Now there's a tutorial the first time you meet a special monster, you can long-press any monster to see what it does, and the input bar tells you what you're supposed to type.

Content went from 1 theme with 24 words to 5 themes with 151 cards: Consonants, Vowels & Tones, Everyday Phrases, Travel, and Reflections.

There's a bunch of smaller stuff too (extra notes on the flashcards, resuming a run in progress, and so on), but I'll spare you the full list.

Android beta is open.

A lot of you asked about Android last time, so here it is. It's in closed testing, so there are three easy steps (join a group, become a tester, install). The guide walks you through it:

[Quick installation guide link]

For iOS, you can install straight from TestFlight (updated to the latest version):

[TestFlight link]

What's coming next:

• More beginner-friendly assists (like optional romanization and pronunciation help)
• More themes, and a deeper roguelike where every run has different dungeons, monsters, and relics, the kind you actually want to replay
• More languages

Lastly, about the early tester perk: same as before, anyone who fills out the feedback form after finishing a run in-game gets all future paid features unlocked for free, forever. A few of you left feedback last time but didn't leave an email, and I don't want to miss you. If that's you, just DM me and drop your email.

Any questions or feedback, feel free to comment, DM, or reach me through the in-game report. Would love to hear from you!

Thanks so much for reading krub 🙏

It seems that เผ็ด is not an acceptable answer to this question and you kind of have to understand it as asking how spicy do you want it.

Is that right, and if so what are the normal answers? I think เผ็ด ๆ is one, but does it mean very spicy or fairly spicy?

Hello everyone (Sawadee kâ),

I am working on an original novel and I would like advice and/or help with names I have chosen.

It is set in a modern-like setting with no specific date setting. It is an international romance (BL) that also references some Thai holidays like Songkran and the name change given by a monk. One of the main characters is from Thailand (Thai-Chinese to be exact). He will be the one receiving the new name. His father is from a Chinese lineage. His mother is full Thai.

To preface, I do not speak Thai nor have studied the language (Only some Japanese and Mandarin). My knowledge is linguistic borrowing at best- using words or phrases with their meaning in English context. Example, replacing hello, Phi/Nong or Khun, aijfeminine or masculine grammatical endings (like kaa even though I personally do not identify as female but am afab). But I do have a formal linguistics education, so I did my best to research Thai name construction. That is why I would like advice because, as a westerner and native English speaker (who has a deep appreciation of Asian cultures) I want to make sure that I play proper respect to the Thai language and culture.

Here are the names I have chosen or the options I created. I wanted them to have meanings that reflect their personalities.

Main character (Thai-Chinese)

• Male, age will span 18/19 - late 20s/early 30s
• Forced to major in business in college but eventually becomes a t-pop star/BL actor with international music aspirations.
• Potential names: “Lei“ Wichian Chaiyapasuwu (first choice, intended meaning thunderbolt beast), “Lei“ Wichian Srisuwan (golden/splendid thunderbolt), “Lei” Wichian Chaiyawu (thunderbolt victory/victory thunderbolt), “Lei” Wichian Chaiyanoi (thunderbolt of the victory bird)
• ”Wu” is a Chinese last name often used in Thailand according to my research. that is why I added it at the end to tie in more of the Chinese lineage and to make the last name unique since Thai law says each surname only belongs to one family.
• stage name: Sasi (moonlight)

Father (Thai-Chinese from Chinese lineage)

• Prominent figure in the private security sector (lots of govt. connections)
• only publicly acknowledged his son’s existence after his mother’s death.
• Name: “Li Wei” Wichai Chaiyapasuwu (beast of victory or victory beast)

Mother (Thai)

• literature grad student who worked at a catering company when she met Li Wei.
• broke up when his family matched marriage was announced (he dumped her).
• discovered she was pregnant after and Li Wei sent money to her to raise him privately.
• was a famous author under a pen name
• Name: Sasithorn Wipharai (The calm light/peace of the moon)

Any feedback and assistance in making sure these names are correct to the meanings I want for them would be clearly appreciated. Thanks you!

Hi guys, hope there're people who still remembered me. I'm the guy who quit his job for being able to develop his own Thai learning website:

I quit my job for being able to build this Thai learning webite... (alphatest now!)
by u/Old_Entry_2300 in learnthai

BTW, big thanks to the guys that joined the alpha test. 🩷

For now I can say the main functions of the site have been finished and tested stable, so I decided to start a new round of user test and this time it will be open registration (invitation is not needed), the only limit is time.

You can use this registration link to sign up: Register an account

The link will be expired in 24 hours from now (deadline Saturday 9:00AM ETD), so do it quickly if you can!

Hope my work helps the Thai learners out here, cheers!

Been learning Thai for almost 4 years. Mostly self motivated learning.

I think everybody agrees its useful to learn the basics of reading, simply so you can sound out the words; as the phonetic English translations are just terrible.

However, there are many people who prioritize reading and recommend doing it concurrently with speaking and listening. I have always disagreed with this, as a new learners simply do not have the vocabulary. It can take 30 minutes to finish a single page and then you are left with 50 new words you need to learn. Its a headache.

Two weeks ago i purchased a physical copy of the first Harry Potter book to read. I figured its a book aimed at young adults, so the vocabulary should be basic, and i read it already about 15 years ago, so i know the names and basic plot.

My reading up to this point has mostly been single sentences or individual words. At first it took me about 20 minutes to finish a single page, now I can complete a page in about 4 minutes. Still slow, but a big improvement. Approximately every page i encounter 1-2 words i dont know. But they are often repeated many times, so when im sure iv seen them a few times, i write them down to learn later. Many can be figured out from the context of the sentence/paragraph.

For me its been very useful for sentence structure and has helped my writing also as i can 'visualize' the words more quickly now.

Conclusion: Don't bother trying to read full books until you have been learning for *at least* 1 solid year, or 2+ years if your only practicing thai a few hours a week. Perhaps sporadically pick up a book and try a few pages. If your encountering 15+ unknown words per page, put it down and try again in 6 months.

I asked for a โซดาสตรอเบอร์รี่ and was corrected to สตรอเบอร์รี่โซดา, but that doesn't seem like the normal Thai word order. Is it just a case of borrowing the whole thing from English? Is โซดาสตรอเบอร์รี่ actually wrong?

Presumably the same thing would apply to smoothies, ice cream etc.

Hi all,

I’ve been living in Thailand for approx 20 years, my Thai is ok, maybe an upper intermediate, lower advanced level.

Can read and comprehend reasonably complex Thai, writing is non existent if I’m honest. Listening/comprehension is actually ok and i find i can understand a lot of native Thai conversations now.

The area I’d like to improve in is my spoken Thai, mainly sentence structure. I think my vocab is large enough that it’s probably not holding me back, the thing i think i struggle with is connecting all these words together in a way that a native Thai would understand. I’m probably still mapping Thai words into an English sentence. I’m aware of most of the connecting words such as ก็ but it still doesn’t stop the blank looks i often receive when i respond to somebody in Thai.

For those at a conversational level, what techniques have you all used successfully to build fluency in sentence structure? Should i study grammar explicitly or just learn it through lots of reading and writing? Are there any drills or exercises that stopped you thinking in English?

เรามาทำงานบ้านให้เสร็จกันเถอะ

We = coming here to do, homework & to let it, to finish + together, as an invitation.

เดี๋ยวแม่ไปเอาของว่างมาให้กิน

In a minute, Mother = going to take, snacks & coming here, to let it, to eat.

กินให้อร่อยนะ

… = eating, ... & to let it, to be delicious + politely okaying.

วันนี้มีการบ้านวิชาภาษาอังกฤษต้องทำครับ

Today, ... = having, homework subject English & required to do (it) + politely confirming.

แม่จะให้ลูกลองทำด้วยตัวเองก่อนนะ

Mum = planning, to let, child & to try to do also himself first + politely okaying.

แม่จะอยู่ตรงนี้นะ เผื่อลูกอยากให้แม่ช่วย

Mum = planning, staying, right here + politely okaying.
In case, child = wanting, to let, mum & to help.

Let's exchange languages and cultures.

Can anyone help me to practice speaking and reading thai, I do really want to learn but I cant learn by myself, can anyone want to be my friend and teach me, pleaseee lets exchange socials.

เเสดง Sa deng เเผนก Pa nek

I'm in the middle of some textbook and encountered these new reading rules they didn't explain in the book

I've learned how to read when it comes to 1st consonant (k,t,p) + 2nd consonant (r,l,w) but this one is new.

I hope you will like it!

The link:
thai-alphabetgame.com/consonant_class_game.html

And if you want to play more about the Thai Alphabet I also have a Thai alphabet game and a Thai vowel game:
thai-alphabetgame.com/game.html - Thai Alphabet Game
thai-alphabetgame.com/vowel_game.html - Thai Vowels Game

Also, the site is COMPLETELY free and no sign ups are required.

If you have any questions, feedback or bugs, feel free to DM me or comment on my post!
Thank you really much!

Note: dragging the letters may be a bit confusing on phones or tablets, so to drag, you can press the letter and you press your finger on top of one of the 3 boxes on the right (phone) or on the bottom (tablet) and drag it around there. Once it's in the correct box the letter will automatically go into the box, but if it's incorrect it will jump back to the same spot as the beginning.

So like the title says I did a stream with these chill students on one.tv but my Thai is still very new so I just wanted to know what they say.

How do people actually say this word? I thought short high but when I say it that way it's not immediately understood. When I say it short mid it is understood no problem... but the dictionary says high, so I'm not sure what's going on here. Other high tone words are understood just fine.

I thought I picked up that when แอ represents English a as in "cat" it's short if the syllable is dead, otherwise long. If so, a short vowel here would be an exception.

Been in Thailand around 15 years. Had some tutoring a bit before and somewhere along the line have managed to mostly teach myself to speak, read and type Thai.

Spent a few years working and speaking Thai in workplaces with little English and in those early years put in more of a focused effort on learning and learnt quite fast.

I feel for the last 6 or 8 years I have plateaued a bit and if I put in a dedicated effort for 6 months I could level up from intermediate to advanced.

In my mind I can read, speak, type but it is vocabulary that limits me in everyday conversation although I manage quite well when I need to. Vocabulary and making more of an effort to speak Thai everyday is something I feel I need to focus on.

Years ago I had a close friend start to teach me live and dead syllables and it was going really well but then I moved away and years later when I came back she had moved away.

I wonder how important or beneficial learning this properly could be? To be honest as far as what tone rules are applied to what consonants I would struggle to say.

I have often asked Thais about this and many have said they don't even understand it themselves. Which reminds me of myself when Thais ask me about nouns, verbs, adjectives etc. I just speak English and never really took all these things on board or took the time to understand them myself.

I'm about to hire a tutor again and dive in but I wonder if I should abandon my desire to master this live and dead syllable thing or learn it. To be honest I don't know why I want to, it just seems kind of fundamental and I thought it may really deepen my understanding of Thai and help me get past this plateau.

Can people tell me how important it is. If It's a waste of time or I should just forget it. If it has helped them etc. Does it help with understanding tone rules?

I also have a thought that perhaps some tutors might struggle to teach this or steer me away from it given how many Thais have told me they don't actually understand it themselves.

Probably just a case of finding the right tutor.

Thank you

EDIT: Fast forward a few days. I have found a tutor but last night on my phone tried my luck and asked AI to teach it to me with low expectations. Kind of more so I know what to expect in tutors class. 2 hours later I can say I have a fairly solid understanding of it and it wasn't half as difficult as I imagined it to be. I wish I did it earlier. However, understanding it is one thing but remembering the consonant classes and rule based tone changes is another challenge entirely. With that cheatsheet you will find all over google sure I could map out the correct tone. Without it though I would be lost. So next challenge is memorising consonant classes and the changes. Thanks again for answers