Any of my readers that happen to have an iphone and would be interested in testing out my first app which is nearly completion please shoot me an email at -
learnthaifromawhiteguy AT gmail DOT com
I’m not entirely sure if it will be terribly helpful for regular readers of my site as it is more geared towards the beginner, but it may be useful as a reference for some of you.
I came up with this story the other day while making flashcards for one of my students. Mnemonics are great.
In order for this mnemonic to work properly, you should try to imagine the story in your mind. Pictures you make in your head are easier to remember than actual images.
To reinforce it you might make SRS cards to quiz you on the story. Ex – Q – What pets does the middle class kid keep? A ปลา ไก่ เต่า
There is a middle class kid (เด็ก) who likes to keep pets.
He has a fish (ปลา), a turtle (เต่า) and a chicken (ไก่).
Where does he keep these pets? In his basin (อ่าง) of course. (Actually try to imagine a big bucket with a chicken, a turtle and a fish swimming around inside it always bumping into each other)
He needs to feed the pets. They eat leaves (ใบ ไม้).
Also, he needs to make sure they don’t get out so he keeps a big plate (จาน) on top of the อ่าง.
Yes, I left out the other 2 as they aren’t vital when you first start reading. If you are solid on this story its easy to add in the other ones.
There are 24 low class consonants. This is the biggest group of letters. This post will just cover some of the more common ones. It is assumed you are familiar with the vowels covered in previous alphabet-related posts. These vowels are - อา อิ อี เอ เอา ไอ ใอ ออ อุ อู
If it isn’t already obvious, the best way to go about this is to memorize the 2 other groups of letters (high and mid) so that when you encounter a letter that you know isn’t high or mid, you know its low. With a bit of time spent trying to read, it will all become second nature and you will no longer need to think in terms of high, mid or low.
As I mentioned above, there are 24 letters in the low class. Today we are just going to cover 14 of them. As usual, I strongly reccomend learning the alphabet ASAP as it is very difficult to separate sounds within a language while you are associating the sounds with your native alphabet/sylalbary. So learn the damn alphabet already. Its easy. If you are going to be in Chiang Mai (or Bkk if I happen to be there) and need help, I can pound the bulk of the alphabet into your head in 6-8 nearly painless hours and help you start reading (fun easy stuff) so it stays put.
ค ง ช ซ ท น พ ฟ ภ ม ย ร ล ว
ค (คอ ควาย) is very much like the ‘k’ in English. You should note that the only difference (in appearance) between this letter and ด (ดอ เด็ก) is the circle placement.
Mnemonic – The line in the middle is an arm. The circle is a fist holding a dagger. If you are trying to kill someone the blade of the dagger is coming out the bottom of your hand while you stab them you might shout “I’m gonna kill ya!” in order to remember the ‘k’ sound — ค
If you are holding the dagger the other way (blade up) you are more likely to be ‘defending yourself.’ — ด
ง (งอ งู) is like the ‘ng’ in singing, but in Thai it can be the first sound in a word. The letter is called snake and it looks like one. Or it looks like a lower-case ‘g’, whatever works for ya. I’d go with a snake that makes งงงงง sounds rather than hiss instead.
ช (ชอ ช้าง) This one is like a ‘ch.’ The name of the letter ‘ช้าง’ (chaang + high tone) means elephant so you might consider the last line which heads off to the top right being the elephant’s trunk.
ซ (ซอ โซ่) This is the only ‘s’ sound that is low class (the rest are high). โซ่ means chain and has a nick in the tail of the elephant, so lets imagine a chain wrapped around the poor creature’s tail. It helps to create a mental image.
*This letter is the only ‘s’ sound that can be any tone (high class consonants leading a word restrict the word to rising, falling or low)
ท (ทอ ทหาร) is just like a ‘t’ and the letter’s name means soldier. Maybe this soldier is holding one fist (the circle) high in some sort of salute….
น (นอ หนู) – ‘n’ the name of the letter is ‘mouse’ or ‘rat.’ This letter looks a lot like an ‘N’ to me. The connecting line in the English letter is mousing its way along the floor only to scamper up the other side.
พ (พอ พาน) like a ‘p,’ and the name of the letter is a type of tray or dish that has a pedestal base. Let’s just think of it as pedestal-ed plate (จาน) with a big P on it.
ฟ (ฟอ ฟัน) like an ‘f,’ and the name means ‘tooth.’
ภ (ภอ สำเภา) – ‘p’ – type of boat (junk).
ม (มอ ม้า) ‘m’ – horse
ย (ยอ ยักษ์) ‘y’ – ‘giant’ *often used as a semi-vowel
ร (รอ เรือ) – ‘r’ (often pronounced as ‘l’ or half-ass’d ‘r’ *correct pronouciation involves a trill, but this is almost always dropped in colloqual speech) - boat (any kind)
ล (ลอ ลิง) ‘l’ – monkey *monkey down on all 4′s with unusually long tail extending high over its head
ว (วอ แหวน) ‘w’ – a ring *Mnemonic – here someone has presented you with a very odd ring – its far too small to fit on your finger (the circle) and it has a long curved claw jutting out of the top. Maybe if you just hung the claw over your finger…
I keep noticing lots of posts on other blogs about ways to learn the alphabet. This has been going on for years. Just learn the alphabet already. It doesn’t matter how you memorize it, but you must realize that if you just memorize it and don’t actually try to read with someone who can correct your pronunciation (both to make sure you are reading the letters correctly and learning to work out which class rules apply to the syllable) then you are just wasting your time. If you are in CM for a week or so sometime and need some help learning the alphabet let me know.
On with the learnings…
While one may be intimidated by the rather large number of letters in the low class group, its not really that big of deal as you don’t actually need to memorize which letters are in this group. If you’ve memorized the middle and high class consonants then the low class letters consist of the leftovers.
So if you have it down fairly well that
ข ฉ (ฐ) ถ ผ ฝ ศ ษ ส and ห are all high, then you are well on your way.
If you are also pretty solid that
ก จ (ฎ ฏ) ด ต บ ป and อ or middle class, then you are set. Everything else is low class. The ones in ()’s are less important and while you should note them – you don’t need to stress about them.
Thats 10 high class and 9 low letters whose class you NEED to know. Years ago when I memorized these on my own, I memorized the following poem for Middle class.
ไก่ จิก เฎ็ก ฏาย เด็ก ตาย บน ปาก โอ่ง
let’s break it up even more -
So imagine 2 kids standing by a big basin (its the big bucket-like thing that was/is used to bathe with when there is no running water) who are attacked and pecked to death by a rabid chicken. Spend at least 15-20 seconds picturing that image and once you have the vocab down, you are set on the middle class. Don’t just read my words, you need to actually create an image in your mind for it to stick.
ไก่ จิก เฎ็ก ฏาย เด็ก ตาย บน ปาก โอ่ง
Next up – High class. While there is a poem for this one as well, I didn’t know about it when I was trying to figure out how to learn the different groups and a friend told me that he went with the circles on the letters.
ข ฉ (ฐ) ถ ผ ฝ ศ ษ ส and ห
Notice that except for the first and last letters, all the rest have circles that are ‘inside.’ You can argue about ฉ, but I consider the tail going up over the circle keeping it inside. So lets make those circles balloons. Balloons float up. Up = high. Thats it. Worked for him and it worked for me.
If you want poems for high class, here is one, but its more useful for a Thai kid who is comfortable with the vocab already. I’d give the balloons a shot if I were you.
ฃวด ของ ฉัน ใส่ ถุง ผ้า ฝาก ให้ เศรษฐี
bottle-of-mine put (in) bag-cloth leave-with-rich person