Learning to speak Thai is well worthwhile, and better sooner than later.
As you learn Thai, you will not only become more functional and less frustrated, but you will also extend your range in the Thailand experience, and also come to appreciate the culture. The extent of your understanding of the Thai culture will be limited by how well you understand the language, as it is the core of the Thai mentality.
Nonetheless, I know many expat managing directors and others who have spent years in Thailand and not learned the language. I, myself, had spent 4 months in Thailand before I started to learn the language, as all the Thais I dealt with could speak good English. Professional Thais can usually understand and can often speak English well.
Whether to learn Thai, and how much, all depends on what kind of existence in Thailand you wish for in your experiences, and how much you are really willing to work to learn the language.
The good news is that the language isn't really very difficult, the most difficult part is the first few months when the hearing part of your brain needs a little experience with this language's various sounds, and after you learn a little bit of the language, you start to learn it faster and it becomes fun.
Other websites cover the Thai language very well, and I'd rather not reinvent the wheel. Instead, I would like to just point out the main features of the Thai language, give some tips about learning the basics, and relate my experiences in learning Thai. After that general guidance, I list some websites and non-web resources to help you.
Thai language is easier to learn than European languages in these ways:
No conjugation of verbs (I am / you are / he is / they were), and future-past is just an added word
No articles (a, the, those, etc.)
Thai language is more difficult to learn than European languages in these ways:
It is a tonal language -- each word has a tone which can be high, low, rising, falling, up-down, down-up. Change the tone and you change the meaning of the word! Westerners are used to changing tones for emphasis. You must forget that habit! Your speech is "programmed" here by authoritative rules, so repeat exactly. You basically learn to "sing" words.
In written Thai, there are no spaces between words, just between phrases. (However, that is not a problem because you will recognize the patterns after you become familiar with it.)
You must learn a new alphabet.
Most expats learn just basic spoken Thai, not written Thai.
Many expat men learn Thai by falling in love with a "long haired dictionary" and lovingly remembering every sound they speak, both from phrase books and when out-and-about together. It's a good way, just copying them, and love certainly helps memory! It's best if you find a pleasant tutor who pronounces words fully.
If it's an office or other high class lady arrangement, then the foreigner will learn a classier dialect. Otherwise, the foreigner may learn a lower status choice of words, phrases and pronounciations. Like everywhere, your choice of language partially establishes your class and respectability.
Countless times, I have heard foreigners proudly exercising their learned Thai to other Thai people in a professional environment, but using "bargirl Thai". The choice of words and expressions can be irritating, if they learned from the wrong sort of bargirl. Imagine a Thai executive coming up to you and saying "I ain't got no phone number for da big guy of Acme. Gimme it." There are also a lot of crude words, phrases and gestures. Further, there is a different accent for various parts of Thailand, and Thais may know where your pronounciation teacher came from.
If you use the Isaan (northeast) dialect, well, did you know that the vast majority of prostitutes come from Isaan, the dryest, most remote and poorest part of Thailand? Most prostitutes also have a 6th grade education or less, from a country school.
Thailand is a class conscious society much moreso than the West, and polite charm rather than assertiveness helps get one ahead. Thai is a politely spoken language in good business, and as there are different ways of saying the same thing in general social conversation, sensitive word choice can make a difference in the course of things. It may be good for you to appreciate the differences. While it's not a majorly significant factor if a foreigner of established position or skills speaks some bar Thai while trying to speak the local dialect, and Thais will generally forgive non-native speakers and take it all in good humor, nonetheless it's at least enjoyable to be sensitive to all elements.
It is always recommended that you learn Thai from a formal school. However, realistically, in this busy and unpredictable world, what businessperson can schedule in regular classes?
I, the Thailand Guru writer, never has attended a Thai class nor hired a professional tutor, but I can speak it fairly well, and can read and write it. Nonetheless, if I could go back and do it all again, then I would attend classes and then hire a professional tutor after I had learned a certain amount.
Instead, the spoken part I learned initially from a Thai lady I fell in love with and who had a good sense of humor, was patient and genuinely helpful, and had a radio quality voice. From there, I have used special friendly opportunities to improve my Thai.
A few simple notes which don't fit anywhere else:
Passively hearing a foreign language is easier than creatively speaking it.
Many Thais are shy about their English.
However, be careful about Thais who don't normally hear English. They will often pretend that they understand, and say "yes", when in fact they don't understand. This is a common problem in Thailand! Tip: Sometimes, you must speak slowly and clearly, and choose your words carefully, avoiding slang and sophisticated words.
Learning to Read Thai
As noted before, most foreigners who can speak Thai cannot read or write Thai at all. If you don't have time for classes, then you might want to follow my rather substandard way of learning to read Thai.
The written part I learned from reading my name written in Thai, Thai street signs, company names, and various other words whereby I knew the sound so I could start to figure out which letter made what sounds. That was supplemented by presenting some questions to Thai friends who explained some of the rules of Thai spelling & pronounciation.
To this day, I can read all geographical signs and many words and sentences, but I still don't know the names of many of the letters of the alphabet! I learned the sound every letter makes a few years before I learned the names.
Based on this, I can get around on transportation systems with no English, fill out basic forms with no English instructions, and understand some basic instructions written in Thai.
The absence of space between words is not a big problem after you learn to read some Thai because you start to both recognize words and see the patterns of particular letters which tend to denote the endings and beginnings of words, as well as recognizing words in the stream. However, it's still not as easy as if there were spaces between the words.
Thai is my fourth language, after Spanish and Russian (the latter a different alphabet, not a problem after a week). Even though I've never spent any time in a Russian speaking country and it's been over 20 years since I learned it from the book and non-native teachers, whereas I'm on my 10th year in Thailand, I still consider my Thai to be my worst language. I know that this is because I have never learned to read Thai properly.
I get along well enough for my own purposes, but I recommend that you do better than me, and I am very impressed by those rare expats who can do better than I do -- and relieved to not need to step up in handling communications tasks around us! These guys have almost invariably learned it formally.
When you speak and read Thai well, it can become a burden when you are with expats who don't. It's fine if they enjoy dealing with the challenge and you don't mind just kicking back patiently with your time and let them flounder. I have a difficult time letting others make mistakes without helping them with the solution. However, when you need to get business done, then there's no time to waste on fun and you must help them. Likewise, I need help -- I have professional translators in my office, and I take one to my business meetings so that I don't miss anything.
The most pressing need to learn the written Thai language is just finding your way around. Many signs with geographical names do not have an English, "romanized" (A-Z) version. (If you can't read Thai, then you would be oblivious to this.) Sometimes, they are romanized but there are many different ways to romanize, for example:
Ram Indra = Raminthra
Sinagarintra = Sri Nakarin (Thais drop r's often)
Chang = Jaeng
Wattana = Vadhana
Nakhon = Nakorn = Nakhorn, and Ratchasima = Rajasima
... and so on.
You can go down one expressway and see the romanized name of the same town or exit road spelled differently on different signs as you approach, but of course the Thai name is the exact same on every sign.
Of course, many don't have ANY English, especially when you go outside of the central business district of Bangkok.
There is no single standard set of rules for transliteration (i.e., romanization) of Thai into English, and vice versa, to the best of my knowledge. If there is, then not many people follow them. For example, different books on learning to speak Thai, written by language professionals, use different romanization systems (usually discussed at the beginning of the book). After reading one book, if you pick up another then you may need to learn a considerably different way to learn pronounciation by romanization.
It is better to just learn to read and right the Thai letters, and forget about romanization!! Think in Thai.
The ability to read Thai certainly helps in pronounciation, both correcting major mistakes as well as refining your pronounciation. After seeing how something is written in Thai, I have been able to hear a significantly different sound in Thais speaking the word, and after that I spoke so that I was better understood.
I don't recommend my 100% "osmosis" method of learning Thai, but if you're like me and you just don't have the time to formally learn Thai, then with a positive and funloving attitude you can still do it.
(But you won't learn much under the influence of alcohol. Try a nice coffee instead.)
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