Dialect

[Johann]

Please help! I met a beautiful lady from Thailand and I got myself a pocket book to assist with translation from English to Thai, but she seems not to understand it when I SMS her. She is from the Phayao province so I want to know what is the common dialect spoken there?
Thank you

[Mel]

Phayao is in the north of Thailand, as long as you use common Thai language, it should be ok, but I am not sure about sms language, I am confused whenever reading sms language too.

[5tash]

Please help! I met a beautiful lady from Thailand and I got myself a pocket book to assist with translation from English to Thai, but she seems not to understand it when I SMS her. She is from the Phayao province so I want to know what is the common dialect spoken there?
Thank you

Are you sending her Thai script or Romanization of Thai script ?

[Johann]

Hi Mel and 5tash. Thanks for the reply. I am totally unfamiliar with the Thai language so I am using words that is translated from english to Thai using the english language for instance when I sms "pom kit teung koon" she understand what I am saying, (I found some words on "learningthai.com") but when using words in a book I bought (Collins Thai phrasebook) she does not understand.

[Riga]

Hi Mel and 5tash. Thanks for the reply. I am totally unfamiliar with the Thai language so I am using words that is translated from english to Thai using the english language for instance when I sms "pom kit teung koon" she understand what I am saying, (I found some words on "learningthai.com") but when using words in a book I bought (Collins Thai phrasebook) she does not understand.

If she can read roman fonts then she can get some of the most common and basic sentences. But as soon as you try to say something more complicated or uncommon she wont understand the romanization of the hai words.
If your book have also the thai script you could write her using thai fonts. Sadly actually I coudn't find any site that allow you to send sms to a thai cellphone using the thai fonts, so I had flash my old cellphone and install on it a firmware that support thai language

[Johann]

Thanks Riga! I am getting a windows based cellphone in August and would then also install firmware on it that would support thai language. Could you perhaps give me the name of the firmware that you are using?

[5tash]

Some phrases can be easy to decipher, ie; "pom kit teung koon". Other words/phrases may not be so easy, because when Thai is translated into the Roman alphabet, a lot of words can have different meanings.

For example "kao" could mean; glue, henna, a step, to scratch, old, nine, gout, white, news, rice, he, she, they, them, mountain, antlers, knee, to enter, stink, outline, dark clouds, feature or appearance of a person's face, an indication/clue.

I think this is probably the reason why she sometimes can't understand your messages.

[Riga]

Thanks Riga! I am getting a windows based cellphone in August and would then also install firmware on it that would support thai language. Could you perhaps give me the name of the firmware that you are using?

Even I had used for long time inly Nokia cellphones, my last 2 phones have been Sony Ericcson. They have many limits (both no Symbian, and only java programs will work on them) but I was able to find a site that allowed to flash my old one (SE W800i) and actually it has the same firmware it would have if buyed in Thailand. So if you are going to get a windows based phone you have to ask other people, because I can't help you.

[djaidee]

It would probabky be better if you write in English to her; use easy words, easy sentence structure etc.

[Riga]

It would probabky be better if you write in English to her; use easy words, easy sentence structure etc.

I agree. This is certainly better than the use of some weired transliteration system (all of them have something weired). Thai can often understand our misspelled thai when we are there, because situations and our attitude and expression + body language help them to get what we are trying to say. An sms with translitterated thai is a leap in the dark for them