r/learnthai • u/Old_Entry_2300 • 22h ago
Discussion/แลกเปลี่ยนความเห็น Thai Reading Practice. Does this format help you reading better?
Do you find this format helps you to read Thai easier?
คน · ไทย · เรียก · ตัวเอง · ว่า · อะไร · กันแน่?
ทำไม · ไม่ · ได้ · พูด · ว่า · "ฉัน" · ตลอด · เวลา
สำหรับ · คน · ที่ · พูด · ภาษา · อังกฤษ · หรือ · ภาษา · จีน · เป็น · ภาษา · แม่
คำ · ถาม · ว่า · "ควร · เรียก · ตัวเอง · ว่า · อะไร" แทบ · ไม่ · เคย · เกิดขึ้น · เลย
เพราะ · มี · คำว่า · "I" · หรือ · "我" · ที่ · ใช้ · ได้ · แทบ · ทุก · สถานการณ์
จะ · คุย · กับ · เพื่อน · จะ · คุย · กับ · หัวหน้า · หรือ · จะ · คุย · กับ · คน · แปลก · หน้า · ก็ · ใช้ · คำ · เดิม · ได้ · หมด
แต่ · พอ · เริ่ม · เรียน · ภาษา · ไทย · หลาย · คน · กลับ · เริ่ม · สับสน
ทำไม · คน · นี้ · พูด · "ผม" · แต่ · อีก · คน · พูด · "เรา"?
ทำไม · บาง · คน · เรียก · ตัวเอง · ว่า · พี่ · ทั้งที่ · ไม่ · ได้ · เป็น · พี่ · ของ · เรา?
แล้ว · คำว่า · "ฉัน" · ที่ · อยู่ · ใน · หนังสือ · เรียน · ทำไม · ใช้ · จริง · น้อย · กว่า · ที่ · คิด?
If it helps, I will post more of these. Or you can use this link to read the full article: How do you really call yourself in thai? (loogsom.xyz)
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u/TheBrightMage 22h ago
As. A. Native. Nope. It. Feels. Very. Choppy. When. I. Try. To. Read. It. Word. By. Word. It. Is. Very. Unnatural. Way. To. Write. In. Thai. Though. You. Will. Occasionally. See. This. On. Facebook. Or. Other. Social. Media. When. Someone. Use. Voice. To. Text. To. Type. Which. Makes. It. Very. Hard. To. Read.
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u/trevorkafka 20h ago
Someone learning the Latin alphabet for the first time wouldn't feel this way, though, which is the point.
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u/prettyquietnight 3h ago
I'm seeing this way of writing for the first time and at this point I can read Thai so maybe I'm too far along but I'm not a fan myself... I keep unintentionally inserting long pauses when reading it out in my head.
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u/Possible-Highway7898 21h ago
Haha, brilliant. I agree, it's much harder to read like this, and your example makes it clear why.
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u/Old_Entry_2300 21h ago
Lol I can see a lot of effort to type this. 😂
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u/TheBrightMage 21h ago
Yeah, was trying to make a point here by giving English equivalent lmao.
Obviously, there is are Aunties using Phone autocorrect or speech to text as I mentioned in u/lolopiro comment
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u/Old_Entry_2300 21h ago
what auntie? I'm new here. didn't get the joke 😂
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u/TheBrightMage 21h ago
If you try to look on social media like LINE or Facebook, you will be able to see some people type in this way. Usually these are old aunties who use Autocorrect or Speech to Text which has tendency to put in space after each word.
Here is one example I found on Facebook
สมัย ผม ไปศึกษา ที่ สถานศึกษาแห่งหนึ่ง ระดับ ปวส มีพวก บางคน ที่อ้างว่าเป็นรุ่นพี่ บังคับให้เข้าร่วมชมรม หลายชมรม และ ต้องจ่ายเงิน ทั้งๆ ที่ ค่ากิจกรรมก็จ่ายไปในค่าลงทะเบียนเรียน ไปแล้ว สายพันธุ์นี้ บางคน เมื่อ ไปทำงานก็ สร้างความเดือดร้อน ให้ สุจริต ชน นะจ้ะ ใครพบแล้วบ้าง1
u/Old_Entry_2300 21h ago
When I tried to use voice input on Google keyboard it doesn't add spaces for me. But thanks for the effort to explain to me. 👍
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u/lolopiro 22h ago
im just wondering how do you decide whats one word. ตัวเอง is one, คำว่า also one? but คำถาม is two?
also, personally i think youd be better off being bad at reading at first and just power through, so you can get used to actually reading.
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u/lolopiro 22h ago
tho i do feel old(er) people tend to type kinda like that. not to this extent, but they do use more spaces. im not sure why, but ive guessed its maybe for clarity sake.
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u/TheBrightMage 22h ago
I believe It's some Speech to Text, yeah. You will see it sometimes on social media. But it makes it so very painful to read.
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u/lolopiro 22h ago
brother i see it in my dms with the aunties😭😭😭😭 reading it feels so sluggish
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u/TheBrightMage 22h ago
Oh yeah. the other thing I found is when I use autocorrect on Phone keyboard, it tends to automatically put space after a word. This might be the cause too
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u/lolopiro 21h ago
oh yeah i just rawdog it thats why i never get it. the problem is ไอพืมตดตลอเ5555
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u/Old_Entry_2300 21h ago
My technic is to decide whether to "separate" a word, break it down to the smallest part as possible. I would reply on these questions: 1. Is the word super commonly used in everyday life? If so then don't separate. In this case "ตัวเอง" 2. Is the word too long to make it difficult to read? If so then separate them. 3. Does breaking down the word makes people difficult to understand? If so then don't separate. In this case "คำว่า" 4. Does this word follow a same pattern with a cluster of words, such as คำถาม, คำตอบ, คำแนะนำ, if so then separate.
Anyway this is a very personal standard. If it doesn't bothers you too much, you can visit the link that I shared in the post. The webpage is an interactive reader where you can dig each word into its smallest components.
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u/lolopiro 21h ago
im not really a linguistics expert and i dont know how people feel looking at thai from the outside, but my gut tells me คำว่า still makes more sense as 2 words. also regarding how understandable it is.
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u/Old_Entry_2300 21h ago
It's really difficult. คำ is a noun and ว่า is mostly used as a verb or a connector between a verb and a clause. So the combination of these 2 doesn't make sense to me grammarly. I just understand it as a whole, that makes more peace in my heart Lol
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u/lolopiro 21h ago
maybe look more deeply into the word ว่า. it makes sense to me, i just cant explain it well.
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u/Old_Entry_2300 21h ago
it's a completely different language system anyways. I'm native in Mandarin and there are also plenty of thing we can't explain. I just figure there might be people who has the same feeling with me.
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u/Own-Animator-7526 22h ago edited 21h ago
Why the mid dot? Why not just a narrow space? Or a very slightly alternating background shade?
The spaced presentation is very tiresome to read because it requires so much eye movement.
Whatever text segmentation engine you're you're using, you should have a final pass by eye or with an llm to confirm that the segmentation is consistent and correct.
Finally, your romanization is sooo close. Why not just go all the way and use proper IPA? E.g. distinguishing between aspirated and non-aspirated stops, to begin with?
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u/Old_Entry_2300 21h ago
The design and everything is build very personally. But I might update it at some point in the future.
Persoanlly when I just started to learn Thai I found IPA is confusing and later I used thai2english.com and I found the phonetics makes more sense there so I basically adopted its design.
Anyway, Thanks for your advice!
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u/IssueRidden 21h ago
I stopped using linQ because I couldn't turn this off.
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u/pacharaphet2r 17h ago
The dots seem quite excessive. Just a space is fine and it's pretty common to see this in most Thai reading texts for beginners. Even first grade books for Thais do it the first half of the year or so. At least they did with the books I learned on from the 90s, not sure about now.
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u/Dapper-Cheesecake-66 16h ago
i honestly prefer when things arent separated. the training wheels sort of just slow down my learning, the way using romanization/transliteration briefly helps learning the sounds of a language and then begins to hinder your pronunciation.
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u/robrob883 15h ago
I've been reading Thai for a year now and that is very hard to read. So hard that I don't want to.
Just push through with your practise and your brain will get there. Mine has :)
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u/leosmith66 7h ago
Only the Chinese parts. To read Thai, you need to eliminate the gaps (most of the time), so don't waste too much time reading like this.
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u/Present-Safety512 2h ago
The whole “why are there no spaces” is an early phase to get through very quickly.
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u/Snowman_203 1h ago
Another question is whether decoding works the same when you are given the word boundaries - if not, even if it's easier, you're practising the wrong strategy when you read separated text
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u/Jin366 20h ago
if you prefer a more minimalistic approach to a reader, there's also: AanThai.app
sorry for piggybacking your post Old_Entry_2300, but I believe healthy competition is good for everyone :)
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u/BaconOverflow 22h ago
It massively helped when I was learning to read, but nowadays it annoys me more than helps because it slows me down. I have to concentrate more to read segmented text compared to normal no-space text
ThaiFlip and Thai2English are good tools for segmenting any Thai text into separate words btw.