been thinkin a lot abt learning languages. itâs not something i particularly enjoy. iâve never really given it a full go. like i did italian for probably 7+ years but im nowhere near conversational and definitely donât have the grammar understanding or vocab of a 7 year learner.
im also not really into italian culture in general. italy is cool but there are definitely other countries and cultures iâve been more invested in.
really atm there are only 3 languages im thinking of learning.Â
lao. i am half lao, its my dads mother tongue. my grandparents are getting old and they are my strongest connection i have to my culture. when they go (sad face) i will still have my aunties and uncles but its different. i feel like learning now while theyâre around will help me keep my culture within me and not with someone else. i also find myself day dreaming a lot about thailand nowadays and if i feel like if i learn lao which is similar to thai it would make it easier for me to navigate thailand if i ever were to go.
korean. fairly straight forward. liked kpop since i was 14. love korean food. went to korea and loved it and wanna go again. i do like the idea of working in korea as an illustrator. not in a serious way but in a day dreamy romantic âwouldnât it be niceâ way.
czech. this one is more out there. iâve been watching honest guide for a year its is prague / czechia propaganda. i am not immune. i dont have to learn czech to go bc most people in europe speak english i feel lol and prague is very touristy so even more so. that being said i think its still nice and respectful to know a little bit and it definitely enhances experiences and bonds with locals no?Â
these are sort of in order by how much i actually wanna learn them. i think learning lao would be deeply enriching for me. but i also think korean would be the easiest for me to learn due to my exposure to it already.Â
i also donât know if i would be learning to read and write lao too. much to think about.
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April 2024 update: the following list is no longer being maintained. please visit my website to view the resources i would currently recommend to people who are interested in learning thai. thereâs fewer resources listed but i used everything there when i was starting out and can vouch for their quality, and i think it is more useful to beginners who may feel a bit lost or overwhelmed looking at the following list.
Under the read more is a huuuuuuuge (70+) list of free resources Iâve compiled during my time studying Thai, with some resources on Isaan and Lao as well. Iâve organized it by alphabetical order for Tumblr but you can view by level, format, and content on Notion (you donât need an account to view btw). Since Iâve been using Notion to organize and keep track of all these resources thatâs also where youâll find more notes and future updates. This list focuses on resources meant specifically for language learners and does not include native content made for native speakers.
101 languages - 100 different vocab lists, mainly presented in full phrases. Link also includes audio download, good for Anki flashcards.
Aakanee - Uses their own illustrations and has native speakers describe whatâs happening in them, as well as native speakers telling stories. Recordings include transcripts. They also have Isaan and Khmer learning materials.
Active Thai - Interactive website that teaches Thai script by breaking down the alphabet into consonants, vowels, and tones that are taught in chunks.
Advanced Thai with Kruu Momm - YouTube channel for intermediate/advanced level immersion videos. A teacher on Comprehensible Thai as well.
ALG World - YouTube channel for recordings of AUA sessions. Uses Dr. J. Marvin Brownâs Automatic Language Growth method (basically immersion/comprehensible input) to teach Thai.
AUR Thai Online - YouTube channel for immersion-based lessons.
Banana Thai - Her YouTube has lots of reading and writing help, but also short themed lessons and a podcast. She also has a website with paid courses.
Benjawan Poomsan Becker books
Thai for Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced Audio and Vocabulary (also has links to Memrise courses with the vocab/audio)
YouTube playlists with audio for all books except Thai for Beginners
You can also find the accompanying audio for her books on Spotify, Apple Music, and Napster
Thai for Beginners
Thai for Intermediate Learners
Improving Your Thai Pronunciation
Speak Like a Thai, Vol. 1: Contemporary Thai Expressions
Speak Like a Thai, Vol. 2: Thai Slang and Idioms
Clozemaster - Gamified cloze sentences to acquire language through exposure to vocabulary in context.
Colloquial Thai: The Complete Course for Beginners - .pdf, audio files. Very little Thai script, almost all transliterated.
Comprehensible Thai - Largely English free YouTube channel that designs comprehensible input material for beginner and intermediate Thai students.
CU Intensive Thai Audio - Audio files for Chulalongkorn Universityâs Intensive Thai courses. I use these files for listening comprehension practice.
Everyday Thai - Includes three levels of basic lesson plans with games, quizzes, and flashcards. Also has recorded conversations with transcriptions for listening practice, songs, and additional reading exercises.
ExpatDen -Â Basically a blog aimed towards expats or people who want to be one, but hosts lots of information on language learning. Collection of my favorite blog posts:
Master post of free resources
List of all free downloads related to learning Thai
Tense (with Thai, English, and audio download): part 1, part 2
Thai cat cartoons transcripts
Forvo - Hear native speakers pronounce words. Can download audio (great for building Anki decks).
Free Lao Books - Free pdfs of childrenâs books in Lao and English to practice reading.
FSI Everyday Lao - Basically a beginner textbook with audio on the side.
Fundamentals of the Thai Language - Textbook of lessons in an online format. Dry but more extensive than most lesson plans. Has a number of helpful appendices (including idioms, family relations, cooking terms, etc.)
Glossika Mass Sentences: Thai Fluency -Â Basically a bunch of example sentences, with the difficulty increasing across books. Unfortunately I havenât found the audio for these books so better used as supplementary reading practice. Uses IPA transliterations.
Fluency 1
Fluency 2
Fluency 3
I Love Languages - Lessons are much vocab lists, with example phrases utilizing them. Mainly useful for its grammar section, which goes over adjectives, imperatives, pronouns, prepositions, etc.
Isaan Dialect | Siamsmile - Some background on the Isaan dialect, general differences between Thai and Isaan, and a short vocab list.
Isaan Language - In depth discussion on the phonological differences between Thai and Isaan. Has some vocabulary and grammar info too.
Khruu Peter - Teacher from AUA vlogs about daily life in Thailand, good for intermediate listening comprehension.
Langhub - Lots of lessons. Includes basic beginner/intermediate/advanced tiers as well as more tailored lessons (lessons for partying, university, the legal system, etc.).
Language Hut School - Very short videos (~2 minutes) by native Thai speakers teaching small grammar lessons, related phrases, etc.
Learn Thai Ping - Website that teaches you how to type in Thai. Lessons are broken down by phonetics.
Learn Thai Thaigomaster - Mainly advertises their Chiang Mai language learning school but has a good playlist on Thai basics (especially for grammar), some short clips sorted by each instructor at their school (I like to use for beginner level listening practice), and lessons meant to go with their book (which is pretty cheap).
Learn Thai with BoBo -Â Vocab lists with audio at native and slow speed. Audio is easy to download and has Thai, English, and transliterated text - great source for Anki flashcards. She also has a YouTube channel where she covers topic specific vocab by presenting full sentences and breaking them down word by word.
Learn Thai with Shelby - Mostly short, weekly videos. Has stuff on Isaan, intermediate/advanced topics, love and relationships, culture.
Learning Thai with Bangkok Post - Bangkok Post articles with audio, Thai transcript, and English translation. Some key vocabulary from the article is presented after the Thai transcript and before the English translation; the audio also goes aver the vocabulary.
Lingo Hut - Has a lot of short lessons. Each lesson is basically a list of vocab, and they have games to help memorize them (flashcards, tic-tac-toe, concentration, listening games).
Lingopolo - Themed lessons. You can choose recommended lessons or pick whatever you want to learn. Recommends lessons based on previously known words and phrases. Audio based; pretty much presents flashcards and then quizzes you on them. After each âcardâ you can see how the word is used in example sentences, or see each word used if the card was a sentence/phrase.
Maanii Readers - Website where you can download the Maanii books as pdfs and audio of a native speaker reading them. You can also view each lesson in each book as interactive webpages (listen line by line, hover over words to view their English translation).
Mango Languages -Â Conversation based lesson plans. Learn by building new sentences through given vocabulary. Also available as a mobile app. Paid but free through my local library. Check if itâs available near you here.
Memrise - Kinda like an online Anki but more modern UI with user-created flashcards. They have an app but I think you have to add courses on their desktop site first.
Pablo Roman - Has a playlist of recordings in Thai from aakanee narrating daily activities and routines. All videos link to the corresponding aakanee transcript.
Pick Up Thai -Â Produces paid podcasts and books geared towards immersion (with some free samples), but they also have free blog posts explaining slang or other finer points of the language, as well as really cute wallpaper dictionaries. I like their page on translations of Thai memes and their listening comprehension page (includes transcriptions).
Picture dictionaries
Thai Picture Dictionary by Jintana Rattanakhemakorn
Thai Visual Dictionary by Collins Dictionaries
Read Thai in 10 Days - Best resource for learning how to read Thai in my opinion. azw3 (Kindle format), audio.
Riam Thai - Immersion-based lessons including beginner videos. A teacher on Comprehensible Thai as well.
SEAsite Lao - Comprehensive website full of lessons, vocab, grammar notes, reading and listening exercises, and cultural info on Laos.
SEAsite Thai - Very similar to SEAsite Lao. Old af website so not everything works, but a lot of the resources are still up. I mainly use this website to find sentences in Thai with audio for Anki flashcards.
Self Study Thai - Translations of articles with audio; has audio by paragraph or by line.
Slice of Thai - This website has a variety of information on Thailand including their food and their culture, but also has a great language section. It focuses on the sounds of the language, especially parts that native English speakers have trouble hearing through the use of spectrographs.
Speak Thai Easy - Mostly short videos giving tips, grammar explanations, and vocab. I really like her grammar videos.
Speak Thai Possible - Short clips meant to provide tips and improve pronunciation. Good resource for learning and understanding spoken, colloquial Thai.
Spoken World: Thai - Beginner book for self studying Thai. While transliterations are always provided, in my experience this book is way more effective if you learn how to read before using it. pdf, audio.
Study Thai Subs - Thai sentences and phrases from movies with the audio of the line and the English translation. Can be from original Thai movies or from Western movies dubbed into Thai.
Thai 2 English - Thai-English dictionary. Nice UI; includes example sentences as well as compound words or phrases a given term is used in. Gives the different meanings of a word, frequency of its use, and an explanation if the word is not directly translatable.
Thai Conversation CafĂŠ - Mainly immersion videos; lots of food and daily life. Has some videos on reading and writing. A teacher on Comprehensible Thai as well.
Thai Growth Expert - Immersion based videos mainly teaching phrases; has content on improving pronunciation as well. A teacher on Comprehensible Thai as well.
Thai Language and Culture for Beginners
Book 1 (djvu)
Book 2 (djvu)
supplementary audiovisuals
Interactive website (can be glitchy)
YouTube
Download
Thai language | Omniglot - Basically gives an overview of the Thai language and script. Mainly useful for the plethora of links to actual language learning resources at the bottom.
Thai Lessons with New - Tons of playlists on vocabulary, grammar, speaking like a Thai/words in context, etc. I really like her grammar playlist. Puts Thai, transliteration, and English in the description.
Thai Notes - Has a reading/script course as well as lessons based on the Foreign Language Service Thai Language Course. Only the reading course has integrated interactive games/quizzes. Has some cool tools like a Thai typing trainer and a classifier finder, as well as some reading exercises.
Thai Reference Grammar - Book with lots of example sentences illustrating many different grammar structures. More extensive than the Smyth Essential Grammar book. pdf.
Thai With Grace -Â Podcast for beginners. Also has a YouTube channel that covers basic lessons and vlogs in Thai with English and Thai subtitles to practice listening and immersion.
Thai with Mod -Â YouTube channel mostly with short clips giving phrases used in a specific context (talking about COVID, ordering food, asking someone out, etc.)
thai-language - Best dictionary site. Has 70,000+ dictionary entries, 20,000+ audio clips, lessons, reference pages, and tons of reading exercises. Isaan words can be found here.
Thai: An Essential Grammar - Concise and simple book on Thai grammar. Beginner friendly and good reference material but I donât like that the transliteration is emphasized more than the Thai script. epub.
ThaiPod101 -Â Most lessons and features on their website require a subscription, but free users still have access to lots of vocab lists and pretty cheat sheets. Vocab lists come with audio for both words and example sentences, making it easy to make Anki flashcards from them, and you can hide romanization. They also have a YouTube channel with lots of high quality videos going over everything from consonants, conversation based listening practice, and vocab related to culture.
Transparent Language - Lessons basically introduces vocab and phrases then tests you on it. Uses a variety of games and exercises to help memorize. Paid but free through my local library. Check if yours carries it here (in US and Canada).
Understanding Thai - Former AUA teacher who focus on immersion/comprehensible input. Also has videos on slang. A teacher on Comprehensible Thai as well.
Free Online English to Laotian Interpreter - Instant, Accurate Translations
Unlocking the Power of the Lao Language: Your Ultimate Guide to English to Lao Translation
In todayâs interconnected world, breaking down language barriers has become paramount. Whether youâre planning a trip to the enchanting Lao Peopleâs Democratic Republic or seeking to connect with Lao-speaking communities around the globe, mastering the art of English to Lao translation is an invaluableâŚ
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Actually, Iâm pretty much sure Kha noi is not really used anymore in Laos, if not banned. It is only still used outside of Laos. When you look at recent book on Lao language, there is no sign of Kha noi. Also, never have I heard someone in Laos say Kha noi. Â As for Kha pha jao, always based on recent Lao language book, it is used in Official relations, as in/between formal and important status/event. Iâd say that Kha pha jao is the new Kha noi. But at the same time, both are used outside of Laos. So my guess is that Kha noi is more about politeness between people of different age, status (i.e. monk and non-monk), while Kha pha jao is more about being formal, mostly in event where there is a large public. (Politeness and formal have a slight difference) Thatâs my guess for the use of both terms among Lao people OUTSIDE of Laos. But I am 99% sure Kha noi is not used anymore in Laos. And Iâm basing that on my Lao language book and own experience. I shall ask my dad tomorrow for confirmation. Haha
kaybear619 replied to your post:
I think that kha pha jao is used mostly in legal documents or papers. Itâs more written language than verbal. For professionalism?
Okay, Iâm back some some confirmation! âKha noiâ is still use daily in Laos. It was banned after 1975 since it has connection to the old royal language, but now has returned. Youâre right about âkha pha jaoâ! But it is only strictly use in ceremonies and when addressing government officials during speeches for example. So it would be really professional, yes. uarerii, you pretty much hit it on the nail with the politeness and formal part!
I know that "kha pha jao" and "kha noi" are different pronouns for "I/me". But what is the difference? When do you use them? In what situations are they used by Lao people? Which one is more formal? I looked up these on websites from learning Lao, but they weren't in depth enough. Isn't there the term "Kha phra phuttha chao" too, or is that only in Thai? Sorry for my long ask! I'm in the process of teaching myself Lao.
They are both formal! âKha noiâ is used for elderly people, those with higher status (as in a doctor or a government official), and so forth. It is more used for everyday life, for example, if you are working as a professional in your field and this is to refer to your higher clients and boss. For me, I have not heard of âkha pha jaoâ as often as âkha noiâ, but that is probably because it is very old-fashion (Iâm not the best person to go to if you want to know Lao linguistics haha sorry).
"Kha phra phuttha chaoâ is Thai. Itâs alright, itâs better to make sure in detail you are absolutely not making mistakes then making careless ones without research!
Hi! So I have a question regarding Laotian honorifics? My mom would always make me say "aunt," "younger/older uncle," & "big sister" before saying a person's name and I have no idea how to spell them! I've tried looking for them but no dice. /;
Letâs seeâŚ
Aunt has various words, but âbaa' is the most common. 'Sao' can also be used.
âLuung' is uncle. âNyai' is older while 'noi' is younger. So if you want to say older uncle, for example, it is 'luung nyai.â
Sister is âeuayâ, so you say âeuay nyai' for older sister.Â
Every Lao person spells the honorifics differently, so itâs alright to come up with your own spelling thatâs easier for you. c: (My spellings are even a bit different from what you may find on websites, etc.)
