Fastest Way to Read Thai in the World - Rapid Thai Alphabet

Learn the top 13 Thai letters in only ten minutes.

It takes 16-18 hours altogether to learn to read Thai the Rapid way. It's not just about learning the alphabet (that you can do in a couple of hours). You can't read Thai just by knowing the letters; and the names of the letters are irrelevant.

At the end of the Rapid Read Thai course, you will be able to sound out words accurately with the correct tones. It'll be a bit slow at first and you won't necessarily understand what you are reading... but it's the most effective foundation for being able to continuously absorb Thai from the living dictionary that surrounds you and to learn how to speak clearly and fluently.

It may not seem so at first, but the Rapid Method focuses on CONVERSATION by reading (and listening to) *colloquial* texts... after you've learnt to read!

Try out the Rapid Method yourself. Based on quirky images, you will learn to recognize several of the top letters without any memorization, and learn to say them correctly. After learning these letters, do the follow-on exercise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3688F...

and see for yourself how quickly you can learn to read.

Note: you may prefer to watch the more up-to-date video course instead, starting with the first lesson: The Top 25 Letters in 25 Minutes https://youtu.be/gOvIRNmi0fY.

For more details and to get a free Rapid Read Thai Starter Course, please visit my website Learn Thai Online http://learnthaionline.com

See what The Bangkok Post has to say about the Rapid Method: http://goo.gl/LyDB9

PS Sorry about the sleepy voice. I had to get up at 2am to record this video as it was the quietest (well, least noisy) part of the day.

The intro music is a snippet from หวาน [waan?] - "sweet" - by Nursery Sound: https://youtu.be/edsiciZKf1Q

This is the first lesson in a series of video lessons to teach you how to read (and pronounce) Thai accurately - using the Rapid Method. Sign in at Learn Thai Online http://learnthaionline.com to access the Rapid Read Thai online course (there's a free trial available) and keep the course pages open in a separate window for reference.

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Note: I forgot to mention in the video that the "P" letters turn into "F" letters when you extend the line on the right. Think of a balloon that is tied to the toe of the girl or ladyboy doing the "push-ups". When you blow air into a balloon, you go "fffffffffffffff"! (Or think of it as the "ph" in "photo" where the "p" becomes and "f" when you add in the airy "h" letter.)

This and the following lesson will be revised shortly. I've decided to explain how the tones work early on in the course, rather than at the end, so that by constantly practicing the tones for each word that we read during the course, it will become second nature in no time.
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The minimalist Rapid Method is designed for busy people who don't have the time or inclination to "study". The courses are based on reading authentic (colloquial) Thai texts, and using this as a basis for learning to speak and understand everyday Thai with minimal effort. The underlying theory is that - at least for adults - you can speak and "hear" accurately and fluently if you can already "see" the words and phrases in your mind's eye. Gaining conversational fluency is then primarily a matter of developing a kind of "muscle" skill, like dancing or playing a sport or musical instrument.

In this lesson, we cover the most common 25 consonant letters (three of which also double up as vowels), which make up around 80% of the Thai words you will encounter in everyday situations.

The next lesson in the series will start you on the road to reading simple words, and the lessons after that consist of a journey of learning to recognize and remember more and more words that become progressively more complicated.

By the end of the course, you will be able to read virtually any Thai word and pronounce them accurately and clearly with the correct tones.

If you haven't done so already, watch this intro first: http://y2u.be/bRVOVx6Ujjw

The most effective way to speak Thai is to know how to read first... Try it out for yourself by signing up for a free trial course (learn 30 letters and be able to read over 100 words) at http://learnthaionline.com

The next workshops are:

October 19-24 and December 14-19.

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Closed Caption:

in this short video will learn to
recognize some letters and read some
words using the record way now
although it only matters for working out
the terms you should keep in mind that
there are three types of constants boys
girls and ladyboys
you don't have to try to memorize this
it'll come to you naturally this happens
to be the first letter of the alphabet
but for learning how to read it really
doesn't matter it's the sound as in
chicken or a girl
it's a male chicken so it's a boy later
and actually the name of the letter is
also chicken or guy that again for
reading purposes
it really doesn't matter what the name
is there are a few letters like this
entire that have no voice and no air
so you don't say good as in the liturgy
and you don't say come as in cat make
sure that there's no voice and no air
one way to make sure that there's no air
is to put your hand in front of your
mouth and check there's no air coming
out
go and also be careful not to vibrate
your vocal chords as in the letter G
it's the same sound as that got in
chicken
it's a kind of a swallowed sound good
this letter is the u-boat captain u-boat
is another word for submarine
it comes from the german word on to say
bought which means the undersea but
notice it looks like a you and in
handwriting or in certain of the modern
fonts is a you that is actually the bird
sound as in you vote
this has a similar shape to the u-boat
except it has an extended line just like
a balloon that's attached to the u-boat
and it makes a sound slightly lighter
but it's the same sound as the pee when
you say something
ball or spy with your hand in front of
your mouth
if you're feeling any air then you're
not saying it properly
also be careful not to vibrate your
vocal chords but this is the tortoise
it's the turn sound notice there's air
coming out of your mouth
as in Thai or tortoise you can see the
shell and a little head peeking out of
the shell just like a tortoise look at
the two loops in this letter
they're actually the heads of two
ladyboys the first lady boy on the left
is standing up and the lady boy on the
right is upside down
possibly suspended from the ceiling that
both depraved the one on the left is the
sadist and the one on the right is the
masochist the masochist has his or her
hands underneath the nail boots of the
lady boy on the left that net sound as
in nail roots very similar-looking
letter but this time both loops are are
on the left hand side the top loop is
the head of the lady boy and the bottom
loop is the leg going around the waist
of the lady boy and up into the air
it's a kind of a yogic contortion that
they have in meditation the summer as in
meditate
this is a lady boy carrying a cactus you
expel air from your mouth just as in
cary or cactus notice that the head is
pointing downwards towards the ground
while struggling under the heavy load of
the cactus in this letter
the head is pointing upwards this is a
boy letter is a male Indian fakir or
contortionist and is doubled over
himself
that letter is dirt as in double compare
this with Kurt for carrying a cactus
notice which way they hit is pointing if
it's pointing down towards the ground
it's carrying a cactus if it's pointing
up looking at the belly then it's
doubled
over now after an hour of being doubled
over the contortionist start to get
tired and his stomach starts to sag
it's another one of these letters that
have no voice and no air
so it's not dirt and it's not turn
it's that as in stomach or sty
now the vowels in time are completely
unlike English you don't read words
strictly from left to right
valves are tacked onto a constant just
like the pins in a voodoo doll
the vows can be on all size of the
letter of all can be tacked on to the
left hand side on top of on the right
hand side or underneath and sometimes
you can have two or three vowels all
tacked on at the same time
the trick is to look for the main
continent in a word and then say the
consonant followed by the vowel sounds
so here we have the doubled over later
with the AA vowel so it's da the doubled
over later with the value of tops as
that and the doubled over later with it
will sound underneath do so let's learn
to read some words now
this file is the sound
it's a guy who's desperate to pee and
when he finally does he goes
ah so the First World here is the
meditating ladyboy
what followed by the vial are my
and that means to come my the next word
consists of the u-boat captain followed
by the bow and then ending with the
tortoise turn
it's the word bar which is the thai
currency time people never explicitly
pronounce the ends of words as we do in
english in English we expel the final
sound very forcefully as in stop or pack
but in Thai you stopped short of
actually saying any sound at all
so instead of but it's bad
this Val looks a little bit like a puppy
upside down
wanting his tummy rubbed it's a short
appt sound as in-app make sure to open
your mouth very wide when you say the
short at sound so the first letter is
the mail to get in the sound followed by
the app vowel and ending with the u-boat
so it's got remember you don't say gap
but you say cup
this means with the next word is the
lady boy
tortoise turn with the app file stuck on
top followed by the u-boat but at the
end and remember you don't actually
pronounce it there
so the way to say this word is top
this world is often used in addresses as
in soy three-stroke to soy Sam tap song
now this file is tacked on to the left
hand side of the letter
it's the air sound as in care
think of it as a bucket and remember
that the French really care about their
pockets
now even though the valve is tacked on
the left hand side you still pronounce
the consonant first in the first words
the constant is the tortoise
ladyboy tortoise term and then you say
the a valve tear
and it ends with that but the u-boat
with the balloon attached to it tear
which actually is an english word
meaning tape the second world is again
the a Val tacked onto the male chicken
that you say the girl first
that's gay followed by the meditating
ladyboy game
the meditating ladyboy is a singing
sound so you do actually pronounce them
at the end of the word that becomes game
it's an English word meaning game eating
two buckets is bad for you
this is the air sound as in bad or dad
again it's tacked on to the left hand
side of the continent
the first word conscious of the
contortionist with the sagging stomach
with that sound and then you say the air
foul
even though the vows on the left there
ignore the little stroke on the top
I call that the dagger tone mark this
word means but the second word is the
u-boat captain with the air
Val tacked onto it and it ends with
another u-boat captain bad and this
means style or kind
for example what kind of book do you
like to read
keep in mind this is a long sound its
air lock at bad
and my bag drop c 1 probably chocolate
this
the time
yeah
teen