Thai: Southeast Asia’s Most Difficult Language
Above: a sample of the Thai script.
Thai is not an easy language. In fact, Thai is easily one of the most difficult languages for native English-speakers to learn. My intention here is not to dissuade anyone from learning Thai, but I would be failing in my duties if I didn’t forewarn you.
First, a bit of background: Thai is spoken by almost all of the 65 million residents of Thailand. If you learn Thai, it will also be easy for you to learn Laotian, the language of Thailand’s eastern neighbor. (There are about 6.2 million people in Laos.) Thai is member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages; it is distantly related to Chinese. In practice, however, Thai is about as similar to Mandarin as a potato is to a strawberry. Don’t expect to learn Thai easily just because you’ve had some success with Mandarin.
So what is difficult about Thai? To begin with, Thai is a tonal language, so the meaning of a syllable can change with voice pitch. Tones are also a challenge when learning Vietnamese or Mandarin. However, Vietnamese is written with a modified form of the Latin alphabet--- so we English-speakers have an initial foothold there. Mandarin is written with ideograph characters, but the pinyin system of Romanization makes it possible for you learn Mandarin with the “crutch” of Latin letters. The distinctive shapes of Chinese characters also become mnemonic aids once you reach a certain level.
Thai, however, has an alphabet that consists of forty-four consonants and thirty-two vowels. Thai phonetics do not lend themselves to Romanization. Therefore, you will need to master native Thai phonetics in order to acquire vocabulary. This means a lot of “groundwork” before you can achieve even a middling degree of functionality in the language.
Thai grammar is more complex than the grammars of most languages in the Sino-Tibetan family. Individual words are not separated in Thai texts, so a page of written Thai looks like a sea of (Thai) letters. (Have I scared you yet?)
The Thai diaspora is not as vast as the overseas communities that speak Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. If you live in Los Angeles or another major city, it will of course be possible for you to find Thai speakers. If you live in Ohio or South Dakota, on the other hand, you may have a hard time tracking down someone with whom you can practice Thai.
The good news is that Thailand is a beautiful country, and a reasonable grasp of the Thai language will make your stay there more enjoyable. Thailand is country of wide, unspoiled beaches, delicious food, and ancient Buddhist temples. Tourism is a major source of revenue for Thais, so they welcome foreigners. There is some street crime, but Thailand is politically stable and generally free of terrorism and kidnappings.
If you want to learn Thai, your first stop should be Paiboon Publishing. Their website is located at www.paiboonpublishing.com. I would recommend starting with Benjawan Poomsan Becker’s Thai for Beginners.
