My 2-Year Thai Learning Journey

TL;DR: My 2-Year Thai Learning Journey

This article documents a personal two-year journey of learning Thai, starting from curiosity and no clear plan. Progress was slow but steady, showing that language learning takes time and patience.

Pronunciation and tones were the biggest challenges and required constant listening and repetition. Using real Thai content (movies, conversations, daily exposure) helped more than textbooks alone.

Motivation went up and down, with plateaus being a normal part of the process. The journey highlights that patience, realistic expectations, and long-term effort matter more than fast results

A Little Thing Called Love – That was my first introduction to the Thai language. When I was in university (2013), a friend recommended this romantic comedy. 

I was hooked. 

The language fascinated me (the way it’s spoken) because I’ve never watched a Thai series or movie before. How many times have I watched? leum láew kha.

It wasn’t until 2022 that I accidentally came across a lakorn and brought back the memory; only this time, it boosted my motivation to learn. I officially started in early January 2023, which was 10 years later!

But who’s counting, right? 😁

To be able to understand and watch Thai entertainment content without subtitles. That means the majority of the vocabulary I’ll be learning will be broad. 

I don’t set any short-term goals because I’m a not-so-casual learner. That has always been the case, even with Spanish and other languages.

If down the road I want to tackle a different skill, I’ll probably do so.

I was looking for a main resource, and then I remembered learning Thai while reviewing Transparent Language, so I went for it.

For a year or so, that’s what I used (and still use). I memorized phrases and words for certain common topics and filtered them again by my commonly used words.

• Asking the time
• Days of the week/ months
• Numbers
• Asking for directions
• Parts of the body
• Adjectives/ adverbs/ verbs
• etc

After categorizing and organizing all that, I ended up having 78 folders. Within each folder, there are around 5 to 16 files (words and phrases).

My morning routine for every week is;

• Do one folder. Learn and memorize 4 to 5 words every day

• Write down what I just learned in my Samsung notes
• Say I finish all the files in a folder in 3 days. For the remaining days, I’ll do active recall by writing down all the files.

When I finished all the folders, I started learning the alphabet. I checked on Memrise and saw that they have Thai community courses. I took the Thai Alphabet Crash Course and created a new weekly routine;

• Learn 10 to 11 alphabet
• Write them down right after in my Samsung notes
• Do active recall (write) for one folder

When I finished with the alphabet, I wanted to add more resources, and Instagram was a great place to start.

I chose 10 accounts for learning Thai after what seemed to be an endless search. I started with each thoroughly (not all at the same time), and man, did I learn 4 (among many others) eye-opening facts;

• Some of what I learnt from Transparent Language are very old and are no longer being used 😲
• Most Thais use a modern alphabet
• Thai doesn’t have a standard romanization

• Thai has many words with the same spelling but different pronunciations and meanings.

I was gobsmacked for minutes, thinking should I forget everything I just learned and start with something new, more updated? I was angry at myself for not doing more research before jumping in. I felt like I had just wasted valuable time.

I tried to turn them into positive thinking, and it worked (still is);

• Let’s just replace the old words and phrases with new ones.
• No worries! Some still retain the ‘old’ alphabet. Let’s just learn both.
• Writing isn’t even your goal, so why bother? Just choose the easier ones.
• Your goal is to understand Thai, not to speak it. No need to stress. Your listening skills will improve as time goes by.

So, what did I do next?

I changed my routine and have been following it ever since.

• On Saturdays, I will do an active recall of the alphabet by writing it down. When I started, I wasn’t even trying to memorize them because it was too much for my brain.

• I decided to take a different approach. I reorganized the order according to A to Z instead of categorizing them according to consonant they belong, and voila! All of a sudden, it doesn’t look overwhelming anymore. The colors I assign to each consonant help a lot in memorizing.
  
  
• Do active recall on the folders twice a month (first 8 days of the month and 8 days before the end of the month). I have 78 folders, right? So, it will take 8 days.
  
  For example, on April 1st, I do 8 folders. I spread them throughout the day. Four folders at dawn, two folders at midday and two folders in the afternoon.
  
  From April 2nd until April 8th, I do 10 folders, four folders at dawn, four folders at midday and two folders in the afternoon.
  
  Then, from April 21st to April 28th, I’ll start again, rinse and repeat. I always make sure to have two or three free days before each month begins.
  
  
• Watch a few lakorn every month (with English Subtitles).
• Learn on Instagram on my free days or whenever I feel like doing so.

The amount of active recall I’ve done is beyond that of Spanish, which shows that I really love the language. Also, it’s the hardest one I’ve learned so far (pronunciation and alphabet-wise), hence why I emphasize this method so much.

It’s been a fun journey, though the tones are driving me nuts sometimes 🤯, but I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon. 

I mean, why would I? 

I’m super excited about where this will take me and look forward to doing and exploring so many things while keeping in mind potential burnout. Yeah, that thing is real!