Learning Thai language is not easy. Well, not that learning any language is easy, but Thai in particular is difficult in terms of pronunciations. I have been living in Bangkok for more than 3 months, but I have yet to speak a full sentence. I started learning by learning vocabulary. Thank goodness that I can speak Mandarin, and other Chinese dialects and that helps a little in terms of pronunciations. Let me share with you some similarities between Thai and chinese languages.
(orange words are Thai pronunciation)
numbers:
3 – sam (sounds like chinese number 3)
4 - si (also sounds like chinese number 4)
8 – paet (slightly similar to chinese number 8)
9 – gao (sounds like hokkien number 9)
10 – sip (sounds like hakka number 10)
11 – sip et (also sounds like hakka number 11)
objects:
table – tok (sounds like hokkien for table)
chair – gao ee (sounds like hokkien for chair)
chicken – gai (sounds like hakka for chicken)
noodle (in general) – kuey teow (sounds exactly like hokkien for kuey teow)
yellow noodle (wantan noodle) – bak mee (sounds like hokkien for ‘meat noodle’)
dog – ma (sounds like horse in mandarin)
cat – meaao (well, sounds like cat meow )
turtle – tao (as in ‘island’ in Mandarin)
elephant – chang (like ‘long’ in Mandarin)
jambu – champu (very similar to malay language)
durian – turian (very similar to malay language)
no - mai (like 'don't want' in hokkien)
There you have it for some basic Thai language Hope I am able to speak like a Thai in no time.
(orange words are Thai pronunciation)
numbers:
3 – sam (sounds like chinese number 3)
4 - si (also sounds like chinese number 4)
8 – paet (slightly similar to chinese number 8)
9 – gao (sounds like hokkien number 9)
10 – sip (sounds like hakka number 10)
11 – sip et (also sounds like hakka number 11)
objects:
table – tok (sounds like hokkien for table)
chair – gao ee (sounds like hokkien for chair)
chicken – gai (sounds like hakka for chicken)
noodle (in general) – kuey teow (sounds exactly like hokkien for kuey teow)
yellow noodle (wantan noodle) – bak mee (sounds like hokkien for ‘meat noodle’)
dog – ma (sounds like horse in mandarin)
cat – meaao (well, sounds like cat meow )
turtle – tao (as in ‘island’ in Mandarin)
elephant – chang (like ‘long’ in Mandarin)
jambu – champu (very similar to malay language)
durian – turian (very similar to malay language)
no - mai (like 'don't want' in hokkien)
There you have it for some basic Thai language Hope I am able to speak like a Thai in no time.
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6 comments:
Yeah...got free Thai language class. Can't wait for the next lesson...hehehe
no lah... (blush)... i'm not qualified to teach... just to share with you what i know so far... that is only the tip of the iceberg :)
No worries the time will come :) it's a matter of time.
i have started to learn japanese language!
1-ichi
2-ni
3-san
4-yon
5-go
6-roku
7-nana
8-hachi
9-kyu
10-ju
11-ju ichi
a bit same like chinese way...
waaaa nice - free Thai & Japanese lessons..... its interesting there are so much similarities btw Thai & Chinese.....
Lee, yeah... that's why it is slightly easier for chinese speaker to learn Thai. We do have an advantage because chinese language and dialects also have different intonations like Thai.
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