If you happen to know somebody who’s Thai or have been to Bangkok, Thailand, you must have heard of this tonal language. Most of the time people think this language is some version of Chinese. The only thing that makes you think it is Thai is that you are in Thailand. You are not that far from the truth indeed as the Thai language originated from the Kradai language, which is said to have originated from what is now Southern China. It is also mutually intelligible with the Lao language.
The Thai language, being the official language of Thailand, is spoken by about 65 million people. Some of these include those that speak the dialects of Khorat Thai and Bangkok Thai. Although most of the Thai people can speak good English and you can survive in the country using the English language, the Thai people would like you more if you could converse with them in their own tongue.
Thailand is also a great place to shop. If that is your main reason for going to Thailand, you will surely end up getting good bargains when you know how to haggle using the Thai language. Here are some tips on the right way to learn the language:
It is best if you expose yourself much to this language. Since it is tonal it means you can learn one word and use it with different pronunciations to mean different things. The language has five tones such as the mid tone, high tone, the rising tone, the low tone, and the falling tone. It may be hard for an outsider who is learning the language but Thai people are also good in discerning the language through context. Unlike in some languages whose native speakers are intolerant of those who are learning their national language as the second language, Thai people understand and give a lot of leeway for mistakes for foreign learners of the language.
When you speak in the Thai language it is best that you do it with confidence than do it slowly and with hesitation. When you do it that way it will distort the tones, making it hard to understand the language. They say that you will know if you are making progress in your Thai language learning when a native speaker tells you that you speak Thai clearly, instead of saying you speak it well.
It would help a lot to learn the language if you listen to the sounds of it most of the time. Surely you can’t be with a Thai or be in Thailand the whole length of time you are learning the language; the closest thing to it would be to listen to a Pimsleur Thai language learning audio on your iPod. Pimsleur’s manner of language training is gradual and done through exercises that you can access on your portable device. So start learning the language even while you are caught in a rush hour traffic.
