Note from the author
For many years I searched, without success, for a language book in order to teach Thai to my young son. While I did find many such books for adults, written in Romanized Thai, only flash cards and a couple of pictionaries were available for children. To make matters worse, none included grammar or even exercises. The only Thai language books for children I could find were written in Thai script. Although I agree with the use of Thai script for learning the Thai language, it is not always practical.
In 2011 I decided to write my own book. The stories and exercises have been beautifully illustrated by Jessica Emmett (www.jessica-emmet.com) and my Thai teacher, Onanong Wongprasert (Kwang), provided invaluable advice on the Thai language. After a positive feedback from individual customers and schools alike, I published my second book in 2014. My new teacher, Duangdee Boothongkum (Mook), was instrumental in ensuring the accuracy of both the linguistic and cultural aspects of the book.
I have decided not to use the standard phonetic transliteration symbols because I found them very difficult for young readers. Instead, I use the Roman alphabet, as illustrated in the pronunciation guide below.
Also, I have included Thai script in the dialogues, vocabularies and exercises because it is much easier for native Thai speakers to read Thai script than Romanized Thai. For the non Thai speakers among you who manage to read Thai script, I have put spaces between the words to facilitate reading. Normally, there is no space between words written in Thai script.
I hope that you will enjoy these books, whether you are adoptive parents eager to teach Thai to your child/children, expats moving to Thailand wanting to learn the language, or you just love Thailand and want to get more out of your visit by communicating in Thai.
Karine Jones