Updated 04-Aug-2025
NOTE: These will be available for sale in 2026
There are both substantive and subtle changes to the Thai Alphabet Cards. For the Thai Consonants, we add the ten numbers (0-9) as ten additional cards, and then on the consonant cards themselves, the significant changes are:
Updated 03-Aug-2025 The five tones of Central Thai (Siamese) have idealized forms that are produced and have been tested synthetically to determine recongition boundaries. However, in running speech there is considerable variation that can be Intraspeaker differences (different tone articulations at different points in time) Interspeaker differences (differences between individuals and between groups) Stressed syllables ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Thai language learning happens, regardless of teaching and learning methods are used. The question is which methods are more efficient and more enjoyable. As the educator Shanahan once compared teaching methods to medicine: "The iron lung is a good intervention, the polio vaccine is better". Theories and Methods There is nothing so useful ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Thai people do not learn tone rules per se, at least not until around the 3rd or 4th grade (age 10 or so). Even then, few get a firm understanding of the various rules for tones that adult foreigners are taught. Rather they know how to speak Thai correctly because they have learned ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 For someone who is learning Thai as a second language (and knows English), it is useful to get an overview of the differences between the languages so that certain assumptions don't impede language acquisition. Differences in Written Thai from Written English The Thai script is used, and may include use of Thai numerals ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Olly Richards' Story Learning Olly Richards' a polyglot, has a method for language learning he calls story learning. He has actually taken out a trademark on this term, and claims that it protects "the invention of a powerful new method." But in fact patent protects inventions, trademarks only protect trade marks. That said, ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 This is about learning how to hear a new language. Many so-called experts recommend trying to speak immediately, but one cannot say what one cannot hear. Also, while in some cases sounds are considered the same, there are nonetheless differences. Capturing and recognizing these differences is important. Pigeon Holes When there are recognized ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025
Language learning progression and vocabulary lists are not the same thing. However, good lists -- those that focus on the more frequently occurring lemmas -- can be enormously helpful in efficient language learning acquisition.
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Anki is one of the most popular flashcard software programs for memorization, and it is one of the first. It includes a spaced repetition algorithm for optimized learning, and a host of configuration options. Anki is multi-platform (Linux, Mac, Windows, Android, iOS), and free (except for iOS). There is also a web version, ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 > In linguistics, prosody is concerned with those elements of speech that are not individual phonetic segments (vowels and consonants) but are properties of syllables and larger units of speech, including linguistic functions such as intonation, tone, stress, and rhythm. Such elements are known as suprasegmentals. Prosody vs. Discrete Phonology In learning Thai, ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Update 07-10-2024 Sadly this app is no longer available, and therefore there is no longer an elegant solution to the Thai keyboard on Android. Sigh. The standard Android keyboards such as Android Keyboard (AOSP) and Gboard do not display all the Thai characters. Instead, half the Thai characters are not visible until the ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025
This article is about Thai keyboard layouts for desktop and laptop computers, which have a hardware and software component. This does not deal with virtual or soft keyboards or mobile device layouts.
Thai Keyboard Layouts are generally something Thai speakers and Thai language learners have little problem with because of a de facto standard, although there are three specific standards, in practice (along with ISO and ANSI layouts).
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Confucius' Analects - Introductory Essay Emerging several millennia ago, Confucius' Analects are aphorisms and short dialogues between Confucius and other masters and students. Some of these are historical figures, while regarding others there is ambiguity, and many recede, like Confucius, into legendary status. Regardless of historical authorship, the work has exerted a profound ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025
The second edition of the Thai Alphabet Cards is underway, and we've revamped the Tone Graphs, among other elements.
Updated 03-Aug-2025
One challenge for using Thai script on a computer is that Thai characters are more vertical than roman alphabet characters. If one is mixing roman and Thai characters in a document, the Thai characters tend to be much smaller (and therefore illegible if the roman characters are optimized for space and legibility). The reason for this is that Thai characters, along with vowel markers, tone marks, and the silent marker can stack above and below a character, which means they are generally much taller than Roman (Latin) and other alphabet systems.
Updated 03-Aug-2025 INCOMPLETE - WORK IN PROGRESS It is common for those learning Thai to run across transcription of spoken Thai into systems other than the Thai script. At first, one would think that there would be a single correct transcription, for example based on the International Phonetical Association (IPA) that would accurately capture all ... Read more
Updated 03-Aug-2025
While Speech Perception Research is a large and dynamic area of study, some recent findings can be summarized in a way that helps us better approach second language learning and teaching.
Updated 03-Aug-2025
Thai languages, or languages in Thailand, are many and diverse. Scholars generally use the term Tai to refer to a larger language family which ranges across much of Mainland Southeast Asia and what is now Southern China. The main point is that there is ongoing research, different ideas, and not full agreement, on how to distinguish which languages are related to each other and which are siblings and which are parent languages.
Updated 03-Aug-2025
Comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences between two languages is an effective tactic for second language learners. Direct cognitive awareness of those differences, while engaging in recognition and production of the differences, is more effective than indirect trial and error. Instruction and exercises that highlight these differences are important for mastery.
Updated 03-Aug-2025 Teaching English as a Foreign Language, one would think that the most simplistic formulations of what teaching is, devoid of real content, are the actual work of the teacher. Any belief to the contrary contradicts pretty much all of the standard TEFL, CELTA, and TESOL certificate courses. Yes, these courses do teach something, ... Read more