Loi Krathong Festival

Loi Krathong Festival  (ลอยกระทง)

Loi Krathong is a Thai tradition for people to show respect to the water that we use in everyday life.

Loi "ลอย" is a verb meaning "to float"

Krathong "กระทง" is a floating bowl made from banana leaves

Loi Krathong is on the full moon night in November. In the evening of Loi Krathong day, people go to the river and float a krathong. A krathong contains candles, incense, flowers and sometimes money as an offering to the river goddess (Phra Mae Khong Ka) who is named after the Ganges River in India. This shows that Loi Krathong festival has some possible origin from India.

People decorate their doorways with candles, flowers, and lanterns. Children play with firecrackers. Here in the northern part of Thailand, people release floating lanterns into the night sky.

Here is a video of the Loi Krathong song. You can practice following the words. It's not too difficult. The general meaning of the words in English is:

On the full-moon of the 12th month, the water fills the the riverbanks.
All us, men and women, have real fun on Loy Krathong Day.
Float, float the krathong
Float, float the krathong
After floating the krathong, I invite you darling to come out to dance.
Dance on Loi Krathong Day
Dance on Loi Krathong Day
The merit we make will will give us happiness.
The merit we make will will give us happiness.

Mother's Day in Thailand

Mother's Day - August 12

สุขสันต์วันแม่ ค่ะ "Happy Mother's day kâ"

On Mother's Day, most Thai people do something special to show their gratitude and 
appreciation to their mother. August 12 is celebrated as Mother's Day in Thailand because it is the birthday of her Majesty Queen Sirikit. Thai people think of the Queen as the mother of the whole country, so they honor they Queen on the same day that they honor their own mother. 

Here are some useful words for Mother's day:

สุขสันต์ Sùk-sǎn = Happy
วัน Wan = Day
แม่ Mâae = Mother

สุขสันต์วันแม่ 

Sùk-sǎn Wan-Mâae= "Happy Mother's Day"

Learn Thai Tones

Sawat-dii everyone,

I've got a brand new video lesson about the 5 Thai tones.

As you probably know, Thai is a tonal language. So that means when the tone used to say a word changes, the meaning of the entire word changes too. That's why it's very important to learn how to speak the tones correctly.

The 5 tones are: Mid, Low, Falling, High, & Rising

If you try to say a word, but you use a wrong tone, you could accidentally say something very different from what you meant.

For example:

sǔai (rising tone) = beautiful
suai (mid tone) = unlucky

So if you forget the rising tone when you try to tell a girl she is beautiful, you'll really be saying that the's unlucky! Be careful. :)

Please watch the video to practice your tones.

Hope you enjoy the lesson!

Practice Writing the Thai Alphabet

How to write the Thai alphabet

First, I'm going to introduce you to the Middle Class consonants, "อักษรกลาง" "àk-sǎawn glaang". There are 9 letters in this class. They are:

1) ก.ไก่ Gaw Gài

2) จ. จาน Jaw Jaan

3) ฎ. ชฎา Daw chà daa

4) ฏ. ปฏัก Dtaw bpà-dtàk

5) ด. เด็ก Daw dèk

6) ต. เต่า Dtaw dtào

7) บ. ใบไม้ Baw bai-mái

8) ป. ปลา Bpaw bplaa

9) อ. อ่าง Aaw àang

Note: To write the letter, we always start with the head.

Hope everyone enjoys the lesson :)

Learn Thai, Lesson 4: How are you?

In today's lesson we learn how to say "How are you?" in Thai. For someone who is just starting to learn Thai, I think this lesson will be very useful.

In Thai we don't have the direct words "Yes" or "No" to answer a question. So to indicate "yes" we just repeat the main Verb or Adjective used in the question. For example:

สบายดีไหม  sà-baai dii mǎi = How are you?
สบายดี sà-baai dii = I'm fine.

In Thai, we use ไม่ mâi before the Verb or Adjective to make it negative. For example:

ไม่ค่อยสบาย mâi khâwy sà-baai = I'm not so well.

Thai language is a tonal language, if the tone changes the meaning of the word changes too. For example:

ไหม "mǎi" with a rising tone is a question particle.
ไม่ "mâi" with falling tone is a negative particle.
So be careful not change ไหม "mǎi" to be ไม่ "mâi".

Thai Phrases to ask and answer "How are you?"

สบายดีไหม  sà-baai dii mǎi = How are you?

สบายดี sà-baai dii = I'm fine.

ไม่ค่อยสบาย mâi khâwy sà-baai = I'm not so well.

ไม่ mâi = No, Not

ไหม mǎi = (question particle)

เป็นงัย bpen-ngai = How is it going?

Hope you enjoy the lesson. Please leave a comment if you have any question. :)

Learn Thai, Lesson 3: What's your name?

In this lesson, you will learn how to ask: "What's your name?" and how to answer. When you make new friends in Thailand, of course you want to ask them their name. So, this lesson might be very useful for you.

Thai Words and Phrases to Ask Someone Their Name

คุณชื่ออะไร khun chûue à-rai = What's your name?

คุณ khun = You

ชื่อ chûue  = to name, to call

อะไร à-rai = What?

To Answer with Your Name in Thai

ผมชื่อ... phǒm chûue... = My name is... (for male speakers)

ดิฉันชื่อ... dì-chǎn chûue... = My name is... (for female speakers)

Hope you enjoy the lesson and find it useful. 
Remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel too :)

Introduction to the Thai Alphabet

 Thai consonants พยัญชนะ "phá-yan-chá-ná"

Thai has 44 consonants with 32 vowels and 4 tone marks.

Thai language is a tonal language. If the tone changes then the word and its meaning are changed to something else.

In order to be able to say the right tone when you are reading Thai, you need to remember the consonant class of the initial letter of each syllable.

The 44 consonants are divided into three classes:

        1. Middle class consonants "อักษรกลาง" "àk-sǎawn glaang"

        2. High class consonants "อักษรสูง" "àk-sǎawn sŭung"

        3. Low class consonants "อักษรต่ำ" "àk-sǎawn dtàm"

Here are all of the consonants in alphabetical order with their initial sound: 

ก     ข      ฃ      ค      ฅ      ฆ      ง      จ

g           kh           kh           kh          kh           kh           ng           j

ฉ     ช      ซ      ฌ     ญ     ฎ      ฏ      ฐ

ch        ch             s            ch           y              d            dt            th     

ฑ     ฒ     ณ     ด      ต      ถ      ท      ธ

 th          th            n            d            dt            th            th            th   

น     บ      ป      ผ      ฝ      พ     ฟ      ภ      

 n           b              bp          ph           f             ph           f             ph

ม     ย      ร       ล      ว      ศ      ษ      ส

m           y              r              l             w             s            s             s 

ห      ฬ      อ      ฮ

h              l           silent         h 

 Note:  ฃ and ฅ are obsolete letters.

Here are the consonants grouped by consonant class:

1. Middle class consonants:

    ก จ ฎ ฏ ด ต บ ป อ  

2. High class consonants:

    ข ฃ ฉ ถ ผ ฝ ศ ษ ส ห 

3. Low class consonants:

   ค ฅ ฆ ง ช ซ ฌ ญ ฑ ฒ ณ ท ธ น พ ฟ ภ ม ย ร ล ว ฬ ฮ 

Hope you enjoy the lesson. :)

Please leave a comment if you have any questions.