Online Thai Language Learning

[Gaybutton]

I would say about 15/ 20 days ago..

That seems like the beginning of the month, which tells me the web site owner was probably supposed to pay a fee to his site host company, but for whatever reason hasn't done so. If I'm correct and if the fee gets paid, the site will be back up. For those who use that site, I hope the problem is nothing more serious than that.

[Jun]

I don't use http://www.thai-language.com every day, but noticed it was down & posted about that on 4 Oct. So probably about the beginning of the month.

The site was very good and I was grateful to them for providing such a high quality resource, for free, with no obvious revenue model. It's one of the few places that actually tells you the tone of the words.
However, I had the impression that the site was quite old & running with minimum maintenance. I never managed to get the audio working on Firefox & on Chrome, they were recently flagging up security certificate issues. I think Chrome is most popular browser these days.

The site so good that I would make an effort to work around that, but if minimum maintenance were followed by closure, it would be no surprise. Unfortunately.

[Jun]

I've just discovered this one today. By accident.
My first impressions are that he has by far the best structure for Thai language videos. I'm so impressed that I'm posting the link right now.

https://www.youtube.com/@KODTHAI-TH or without the YT advertising: https://skipvids.com/?@KODTHAI-TH/videos

He doesn't ramble on in English for 75% of the video, like some do. Just enough English & not a single word more.
Also, with this kind of video, I think it should be possible to download an audio file & put it straight on the phone, for listening to when out & about.

Also, he is very cute.
เขาน่ารักมาก

[Jun]

The list of Thai words I'm supposed to be learning is on google sheets.
After a while, I decided to add another column with the tone of the word & was sourcing that from thai-language.com, which is still down.

Today, I pasted the words into Gemini (google AI) & asked it to add a column with the pronunciation tone. It did that for all the words & where I have existing data, only one was different. Very impressive.

Also, ask it to "translate & explain" a sentence and when trying to learn, the result is far more useful than the simple translation site.

[christianpfc]

"only one was different" which word?

[Jun]

"only one was different" which word?

วันไหน
I think the error was a typo on my part & Gemini is correct.

Copilot agrees:
Step-by-Step Breakdown
1. Understanding the Words

"วัน" means "day"

"ไหน" means "which"

These are basic Thai vocabulary words, and their tones are well-established in Thai dictionaries and language resources.
2. Tone Rules in Thai

Thai is a tonal language with five tones: mid, low, falling, high, and rising. The tone of a word depends on:

The class of the consonant (low, mid, or high)

The type of syllable (live or dead)

The presence of tone marks

3. Analyzing "วัน"

Starts with ว, a mid-class consonant

No tone mark

Ends in a live syllable (short vowel + final consonant)

→ Mid tone (default for mid-class consonants with no tone mark)

4. Analyzing "ไหน"

Starts with ห, a high-class consonant

No tone mark

Ends in a live syllable

→ Rising tone (default for high-class consonants with no tone mark and live syllables)

Final Determination

"วัน" = mid tone

"ไหน" = rising tone

[Gaybutton]

It is important to get the tones right. Context alone is not enough. If you don't get the tones right, often the Thai person does not understand what you are trying to say.

[Jun]

It is important to get the tones right.

Tones are a pain.

Problems:
1 The only one I can easily recognise is the rising tone.
2 The rules for writing them are, of course, ridiculously complicated.
3 Remembering them is difficult.

For #3, I need to do a bit more visualisation. For example, I can easily remember ขาว (white) as rising, by visualising some white underwear & I'll leave it to your imagination where the rising part comes into this. It's not so easy with other words.
As for writing it, "a high-class consonant with a long vowel and a live syllable final consonant results in a rising tone" .

Now if anyone has some good ways to remember the tones, please share.

[Gaybutton]

Tones are a pain.

Speak for yourself. I've never had any problem with the tones. As for remembering them, the best way I know is listening and practicing.

Many times I hear foreigners trying to learn to speak Thai exaggerate the tones. That is not necessary. The Thais don't do that, so no need for us to do that either.

[christianpfc]

"Now if anyone has some good ways to remember the tones, please share."

The tones are fully coded in the written language.
It's just a matter to calculate them in real time from tone rules, and with enough repetition just know which word is which tone.