Thai Consonants ... Still another 20 some vowel sounds to add!
Sara and I had our language checks on Tuesday morning and with that finished up the first three modules of our study of the Thai language. Up until this point everything has been spelled in western phonetics so that we are able to learn to speak. Well, upon completing those modules we have now moved onto reading and writing, and let me tell you, it is ROUGH!
The Thai language has 44 consonants and over 20 different vowel sounds and 4 tones markers (that mean different things depending on the class of the consonants they are used with). Needless to say, our brains have been exploding with trying to wrap them around this new challenge…
While it’s possibly been one of the hardest things we have ever had to learn (besides learning how to be a good husband), it’s also been one of the most rewarding… even after only a week. I wish you could have seen our faces the first time we read a word on our own!
We feel all excited likes kids but all tired like grown adults trying to learn to read…
Wanna learn a bit of Thai yourself? Check out www.learningthai.com… it’s a great online resource! Also, you can read more details on the Thai script and alphabet on it’s Wikipedia page!
What’s the hardest thing you’ve had to learn to do lately?
[...] to be exact. In that time I’ve managed to tell an office full of bankers that I am gay, learn to read and write in Thai, and have been able to build some decent relationships with Thai people. And it’s all been [...]