Free Thai language learning resources
Iâve been learning Thai for the past 20 months. This list is by no means complete or comprehensive, what works for me doesnât have to work for you, etc etc. That said: Iâve used most of these and found them useful, I thought you might, too. Have fun!
Youtube channels with free video lessons:
There are tons of wonderful teachers on youtube; this is by no means an exhaustive list. The three channels listed here are comprehensive, long-running, and updated regularly; if you have other favourites, please reblog and append!
Comprehensible Thai is a channel that teaches Thai in Thai, from zero, via the comprehensible input method. They have videos from total beginner through upper intermediate/lower advanced levels available.
Learn Thai with Mod â Mod runs a language school that offers good, structured group classes; she and her co-teachers often upload short videos about specific aspects of Thai. The channel has been around for a long time and they cover a lot of topics, including grammar points.
Thai Lessons by New (Learn Thai one Word one Sentence) â lots of good vocabulary and situational phrases
Advanced Thai with Kruu Momm â one of my favourites, Mommâs a star. Not included in the upper list only because this is definitely more of an intermediate-advanced resource.
Thai with Grace â I knew of Grace via her polyglot channel and travel vlogs before I realised she also teaches Thai. Fun stuff.
Kat talks Thai â I believe Kat is more active on instagram (@kattalksthai), but these are still really neat.
Perth Nakhunâs Basic Thai playlist
Honourable mentions because theyâre interesting and can be nice supplements (yes, the video titles on these channels tend to be clickbaity, the content is useful, though):
Stu Jay Raj: Stu is a polyglot based in Thailand. His channel is a bit of a mixed bag, but he has a very interesting approach to languages and sometimes does foreign accent reduction / accent analysis sessions on his channel (with consent and participation of those whose speech he dissects).
Thai Talk with Paddy: Paddy is an Australian who learned Thai when he was a volunteer in Thailand, heâs kept it up. Fun things about language learning and culture
Iâm assuming many folks on here who are interested in Thai already watch some Thai shows (yes Iâm stereotyping but also this is tumblr), which means youâre spending time listening to Thai.
Netflix, Youtube, WeTV, and Viki all have several Thai shows with English subtitles available. The Youtube channel of Thai broadcasting giant GMMTV has English subtitles on nearly all of their uploaded series, some series are also subtitled in languages other than English. one31 is another huge channel; they have English subtitles on some series and some series also have subtitles in Thai. Thereâs tons more â find a rec list and a Thai show that sounds like youâd enjoy it, chances are youâll be able to watch it for free, legally, on youtube.
You can use the youtube controls (or the ones on netflix) to turn the speed down to 75% âthis can make it a lot easier to catch whatâs being said. 50% gets so draggy that I personally find it almost harder to understand, but ymmvâgive it a shot!
https://lingopolo.org/thai/ has real-life recordings for listening practice; sign-up is required but itâs literally just an e-mail-address, user name and password. Using the site is free.
https://www.activethai.com/ has a section dedicated to learning the tones (under âOverview of Thai Tonesâ) including a self-test for listening that I found very useful.
I will always, always, ALWAYS recommend learning to read the Thai script. All available romanisations for Thai have drawbacks, and besides, you learned to read English with its âthough through thorough tough thoughtâ, you can damn well learn to read Thai. I promise it will help you improve your pronunciation (yes, really) and overall understanding of how the language works.
Learn-to-Read-Thai resources that seem comprehensive and like they should do everything in one:
Anki decks âRead Thai PHASE 1 - The Consonantsâ, âRead Thai PHASE 2 - Thai Vowelsâ, âRead Thai PHASE 3 - Consonant Classesâ and âRead Thai PHASE 4 - Tone Rulesâ by Khruu Gaan (ŕ¸ŕ¸Łŕ¸šŕ¸ŕ¸˛ŕ¸ŕ¸ŕš). Anki is probably the most powerful spaced repetition software I have ever used. Itâs free on all desktops and android. These decks have sound.
Memrise course âRead Thai: A Complete Guide to Reading Thaiâ
Other resources I used (In hindsight, I feel like I shouldâve picked one resource to learn to read from and stuck with it; I think I was rushing and made things more complicated than need be for myself with my hodgepodge mix-and-match approach. But hey, I can read now.)
https://www.activethai.com/ â the site I started with. Teaches the consonants separated by class and with sound. The only reason this is no longer my top recommendation is that I ended up using this alongside a resource that helped me memorise what the words used to represent the letters actually mean because the site itself didnât tell me, and I wanted that easy way to have 44 vocabulary words ready as soon as youâre done learning your consonants, and it gives you access to neat mnemonics such as ŕšŕ¸ŕšŕ¸ŕ¸´ŕ¸ŕšŕ¸ŕšŕ¸ŕ¸ŕ¸˛ŕ¸˘(ŕšŕ¸ŕšŕ¸ŕ¸ŕ¸˛ŕ¸˘)ŕ¸ŕ¸ŕ¸ŕ¸˛ŕ¸ŕšŕ¸ŕšŕ¸.
The chart on Wikipediaâs English article on the Thai Script
the reference section of Thai-Language.com
In order to better learn to read Thai written in different fonts (modern and handwriting fonts can be tough at first), the Thai Script typographical styles overview on Thai-language.com was a huge help, as was throwing simple phrases things into gdocs and messing around to see how different fonts made them look. This chart from sanukmaak.com also helped.
Speaking and pronunciation
The hardest one for any new language for most folks. For me personally, finding someone who speaks the language and is willing to correct me was an absolute necessity, but I know thatâs not always an option. If youâre going it on your own, make sure you check out the resources above for learning to hear the tones and those sounds and sound clusters not present in your own language correctly first.
Things to try on your own:
shadowing: Whenever someone on a show utters a sentence you think might be useful, or provide a useful pattern, or something just sounds cool, rewind and try to speak along as they say it, trying to make it sound as close to their pronunciation as you can.
try to record yourself and listen back â yes, itâs cringe af but it will HELP.
memorising short sentences and phrases: tying back to the section above, thereâs a ton of youtube videos that is âphrases to use in [situation]â that are great for targeted learning if youâre up for it
self talk (cautiously! donât want to cement bad pronunciation habits)
if youâre linguistically inclined: looking up descriptions on how to make a sound correctly sometimes helps, as does watching videos of folks whoâve successfully learned the language.
once youâve learned to read: find sentences to read somewhere (twitter, a textbook, whatever) and read them into your phoneâs dictation engine. See if the software understands you correctly. Adjust as needed until it does.
Websites and apps to find language partners or (paid) tutors
Like any other app where you âmeet peopleâ, please exercise caution on these.
italki (mainly for finding tutors and teachers, but you can find language partners on the forums)
Preply (web/app) (for finding tutors/teachers)
hellotalk (app only, iOS/android) for finding language partners â free to use basic features like messaging, voice rooms, etc; has annoying ads
tandem (app only, iOS/android) for finding language partners â free to use basic features, has ads
any other app or website thatâll let you meet people, like local facebook groups (yes really), instagram, etc
(note: Neither hellotalk nor tandem allow users to sign up without selecting a binary gender. it sucks. Iâve seen people who managed to circumvent this on Hellotalk by signing up via apple ID (? I think), but itâs hearsay and I have not managed to do so myself.)
Books (a book) that are (is) worth spending money on imo
Higbie & Thinsan: Thai Reference Grammar. The Structure of Spoken Thai. Orchid Press: Bangkok, 2002.
Yes, itâs ancient in textbook terms. Itâs not perfect, but itâs still the best reference grammar for Thai Iâve come across so far, and I use it frequently.
Stu Jay Raj has two videos in particular that I, as a phonetics-and-phonology-loving person, loved and found extremely useful and wished Iâd watched before I started to try and learn the script: Thai Vowels for Dummies in 5 Min v2 - A System Impossible to Forget and Thai Bites Extended Edition - Transliterating Thai using IPA. I realise these may be overwhelming and less helpful for people with no prior phonetics or phonology training, but they helped me so much itâd feel amiss not to include them.
Resources I recommend AGAINST using when starting out
drops/hello words â seems like their Thai courses have been created using machine translation that wasnât sufficiently proofread. They will assign you nouns in places of the corresponding verb or false cognates, and thatâs within the first 10 or so lessons. Might be useful once the level where a learner can tell âah, yeah, thatâs ⌠not rightâ has been reached? idk.
transcription as generated by google translate: BURN IT WITH FIRE. itâs a transliteration, i.e. 1-to-1 representation of 1 Thai letter = 1 Latin letter (extended), itâs not phonemic, itâs not going to help ANYONE (and those who can make sense of it presumably already read Thai and would be better off with just Thai script). Just. Stop.
Google translate as a dictionary: still shitty but not AS bad as the transcription function. Still, for the love of all that you hold dear, please, save yourself the pain and confusion and just use thai2english or thai-language.com instead.
And thatâs that from me, friends. Yeeting this into the void before I second-guess myself more. Please append additional resources!
Edited to fix a couple of typos and errors on 2023-06-15
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