Home Basic Intermediate Advanced Grammar Links Contact Us Enter your search terms Submit search form   Web www.talkthai.org Talk Thai- The Quick Way To Learn A Language Learning a new language can often be a time consuming process remembering each new word's correct pronunciation, however this website aims to speed up this process by associating any new vocabulary you might learn with more familiar English words. This is done using pictures. Sounds complicated? It really isn't. Take for example the Thai word for rice; 'cow'. Hence to help you remember this, in the picture on the left is an image of a 'cow' eating a plate of 'rice'. For many people this is a prefered method of learning as it is much easier for the brain to remember an image rather than a word. The idea being that you set yourself a target of how many words you wish to learn each day, and to allow yourself time to  visualise and embelish each of these images, so they are established in the subconscious, allowing easy access for future use. A Short Introduction to the Thai Language The Thai language originated from the Thai-kadai language family of Southern China. Like the Chinese language Thai is an alphabetic language consisting of 44 consonants and 24 basic vowels. It is also a tonal language, meaning that you can say the same word in 5 different pitches (high, low, rising, falling, neutral) to have 5 separate meanings. For example saying 'cow' in a falling pitch, is the Thai word for rice, but saying 'cow' in a low pitch, is the Thai word for 'news'. On this website I have indicated the tone after each syllable using the keys below: High tone   Rising tone   Neutral tone (blank)   Falling tone   Low tone Tones creates an extra challenge in that as well as learning what to say you will also need to learn how to say it. However don't be deterred from this challenge as this website aims to ease the difficulty of learning Thai. For more information check out our page on the correct way to pronounce these tones by clicking here. Basic Conversation Hello: Sour-Dee-Cap (or 'Sour-Dee-Ca' for a girl) The best thing to learn first, as with any language, is the basic conversational vocabulary, as shown below. Hello: Sa wat dee cap    สวัสดีครับ Nice to meet you.: Yin dee tee die roo jak koon    ยินดีที่ได้รู้จักคุณ What is your name?: Koon cher ari   คุณชื่ออะไร     My name is ___.: Pom/Dechan* cher ___   ผม/ดิฉัน ชื่อ ___ How old are you: Koon are yu tow rai    คุณอายุเท่าไร I am ___ years old?: Pom/Dechan-are-you-___-bee    ผม/ดิฉัน อายุ ___ ปี Where are you from?: Koon Ma jak ni    คุณมาจากไหน I am from ___.: Pom/Dechan*-Ma-Jak-___    ผม/ดิฉัน มาจาก ___ *'I' (referring to oneself) has two different translations depending on which gender it is being spoken by. A male would refer to themselves as 'pom'. Whilst a female speaker would refer to themselves as 'dechan' or 'chan'. All materials on this website ©2007 Talk Thai Ltd. All rights reserved save as per website Term of Use. For all advertising and sponsorship enquiries, please click here