ตำนานสมเด็จพระนเรศวรมหารา(The Legend of King Naresuan The Great)

Was happy to see this Thai movie showing on the start of Chinese New Year over the weekend. Its always interesting to learn more about Thailand's history, and one of the Thailand's great leaders: King Naresuan. The film features some fantastic performances from Wanchana Sawatdee, Jirayu La-Ongmanee as the guiding monk. I remember when I used to live in Ayutthaya, there was always a great yearly re-enactment of the battle between the Burmese and the Thai soldiers of the then Siamese kingdom of Ayutthaya. This film is an epic, and it sets of the triology quite nicely, amidst the long serious scenes there's also some humour in there as well. 
Definitely worth a watch.

Thai Twitter

I was over at Rikker's Thai 101 blog today, http://rikker.blogspot.com/, which I find a great resource for learning Thai especially when it comes to Thai Cinema, this guy knows his shizzle...(not just about films and stuff...innit) 

Okay enough of me pretending im down with the kids. 

Anyway reading his blog there was a mention of วันเด็ก or Children's day on Twitter. Now, my job requires a certain level of web savvyness and use of web 2.0 technologies for internet marketing, so of course i was already familiar with tweeting in english as most of us are. But, before today it never would have occurred to me to tap into this resource for learning and improving my writing and reading. (something i desperately need to do, given my position outside of thailand now). 

So, if you havent already why not start following some Thai celebrities, find your Thai friends on Twitter and start reading what they're tweeting. It can be a great way to find some good abbreviations, and get some valuable pointers when you come to start tweeting in Thai!

สวัสดี ปี ใหม่ (sawasdee pee mai)

Happy New Year To All My Readers!
Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years.
Looking forward to 2010, and keeping the blog updated with hopefully some useful nuggets for learners of Thai at all levels. Unfortunately, as I'm no longer living in Thailand, it's harder for me to maintain my level, as I'm concentrating on learning Mandarin for the moment. So if you spot any glaring mistakes in my written Thai, please feel free to point them out.

Anyway happy new year to you all, and here's to a cracking 2010!

Windows 7

I've been writing about windows 7 in another blog I have, found here: http://www.webseoconsultancy.com/seo-blog

but i'd thought i'd add something to this from a language point of view. My previous install was using XP Pro, which was fine when i wanted to add Thai to the language bar. However, when I wanted to add Chinese (Traditional) to the language bar, it caused no end of headaches as that was never listed in my language service pack and trying to download it independently was a no go. I therefore, decided it was time to make the leap forward and go with something a bit more multi-lingual friendly, which Microsoft Windows 7 is - surprisingly. It was dead simple, adding Chinese to the  language bar, and know I can easily switch between Thai, English and Chinese, with a few shortcut keys. However, I was a bit disappointed to read that Microsoft Windows 7 is only available in 5 languages, which might come as a bigger disappointment to people not versed in those 5 languages.

Will have to wait and see if 2010, brings any updates and developments to this.

Thought for the day.....

ก่อนหัวเราะเยาะคนอื่น ลองหัวเยาะตัวเองดูบ้าง เพราะอย่างน้อย มันก็ไม่ทำให้เราไม่ลืมตัว


Before laughing at others, try laughing at yourself (see how it feels) because at least it will makes us not forget (how it feels).

Thai Alphabet (อักษรไทย)

Although, I thought I would never be able to learn the whole of the Thai alphabet, after all there's 44 consonants to contend with for starters and once you'e committed these towards memory then there's the 15 vowels to grapple with. Of course, for someone who can easily remember pictures and symbols it shouldn't be too much of an issue. However, I know when i was learning I wanted to commit all the consonants and vowels to memory as fast as possible so that I could start identifying them in signs, newspapers etc and progress with reading Thai.

If you're looking to streamline learning the Thai alphabet, then I'd suggest downloading some software that can help you visualize the alphabet characters and also provide audio clips on how they should sound. So if you've got the cash to invest in your learning, you may want to give 60 minutes to learn the Thai alphabet a go. There's plenty of features on there that will expediate the whole process. Or if this is out of your budget, kids books and the tables i featured on my first post are a great way to start learning as well.

ขายขี้หน้า/เสียหน้

For many westerners the concept of 'losing face'/'saving face' is something strange and unusual, as for many of us before coming to asia it was a novel concept. However, here in lots of asian countries it's very important for the locals to maintain the harmony and not to lose face or make other people lose face. Often in Thailand, you may hear the term 'sĭa nâa ' เสียหน้ used as an equivalent of 'losing face' 
and when you hear this you just hope Thais aren't talking about you. 
In Taiwan, the concept of face is also important and maintaining the harmony.