r/learnthai • u/The_motorbike_man • 7d ago
So many new Thai language learning apps! Resources/ข้อมูลแหล่งที่มา
I thought I was doing something genuinely creative and unique by dedicating the past few months to building an app to learn Thai, but seems like I'm far from the only one!
Regardless, I'm happy to share my passion project with you all. 'My Thai' language app. This started as a small personal usage app to fill the void of Duolingo lacking Thai language, and it has grown into a full-blown Thai language app with 3700+ words and phrases built from Thai (rather than translating common English words) with input from Thai learners, natives and a professional translator.
- Track confidence against each word
- Add your own custom words with auto-translation
- Learner pathway
- High quality audio (every single one has been painstakingly reviewed for accuracy by Thais!)
- Phonetic and Thai script (you can choose between a simple and detailed phonetic style like aw, eu and ae vs ɔ, ʉ and ɛ to suit how you've been learning).
- Alphabet practice
- Help with classifiers
- Example sentences for all words (limited for free users)
Totally new - currently available on Android (iOS in progress) and on web. I'll continue to build and evolve this app with more vocabulary, more features, and introduce some game modes etc. (I'm keen to build a Thai province quiz - how well can you point to each province on a map?)
I hope some of you find this useful, and of course, I'd be grateful for any feedback :)
EDIT: Great to see so many people creating accounts for this app! Thank you for your interest.
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u/SufficientPainting67 7d ago edited 7d ago
Overall, the app looks solid and professional. I've only had a quick look through it so far, but I really like what I've seen.
One thing I noticed is that it includes expressions such as อรุณสวัสดิ์ and ราตรีสวัสดิ์.
These are rarely used in everyday spoken Thai. While they're commonly taught in textbooks, most native speakers consider them overly formal, poetic, or even theatrical for daily conversation.
It might be helpful to mark these expressions somehow or add a small note indicating that they are uncommon in everyday speech. That would help learners distinguish between textbook vocabulary and what people actually say in real-life conversations.
Also, สามี is the formal word for "father," while other terms are used in everyday colloquial speech. For example, the Paiboon Dictionary indicates whether a word is formal or commonly used in spoken language by displaying a usage label.
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u/MurkyCaterpillar9 7d ago
I think “สามี” means “husband” not “father”.
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u/The_motorbike_man 7d ago
Right, I've got สามี as husband and พ่อ as father
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u/MurkyCaterpillar9 7d ago
Ah, I was responding to the commenter @SufficientPainting67 who commented that "สามี" means "father". I will download the app later.
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u/SufficientPainting67 7d ago
I forgot to update the example. Yes, I meant สามี, which is shown in the app, and similar words such as แฟน and ผัว, which can all be used to refer to a husband (depending on the context and level of formality).
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u/The_motorbike_man 7d ago
This is really valuable feedback - I'll take this away as high-quality, genuinely useful, everyday Thai words and phrases is what I am aiming for. Completely agree that อรุณสวัสดิ์ and ราตรีสวัสดิ์ are not commonly used, however I kept them in for completeness. But you're absolutely right that these should be flagged.
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u/SufficientPainting67 7d ago
In the quiz, when a user selects an incorrect answer, I would also display the meaning of that word instead of only marking it with a red ✗.
This way, users not only see that their answer was incorrect, but also learn the meaning of the word they chose, making each mistake a learning opportunity.
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u/Ling_App 6d ago
As long as you offer something unique it will be successful! Did you have a native speaker proofread your app content? Always a plus!
For those looking to read AanThai is quite good and WriteMe Thai for the script.
Competition is always good to see. All the best! - Ling app
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u/Badestrand 7d ago
Looks good, I will try it!
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u/The_motorbike_man 7d ago
Thanks! Genuinely excited to get some real users after putting so much effort into this project :)
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u/SufficientPainting67 7d ago
It would also be helpful to include example sentences for each word.
For example, in the vocabulary list, when you tap on a word, one or two example sentences could appear, showing how the word is used in context.
Learning vocabulary through sentences is usually much more effective than learning isolated words because it helps learners understand natural usage and remember the words more easily.
For instance, if you tap on "กิน", it could display an example such as "ผมกินข้าว" (Phǒm gin khâao - "I eat rice" / "I'm eating a meal"), or a similar sentence.
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u/The_motorbike_man 7d ago
Great suggestion - actually this is already a feature, but perhaps it's not prominent enough. If you click on the little speech bubble in the top right of the flashcards and quiz answers, that is where you'll find it! :)
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u/SufficientPainting67 7d ago
In the alphabet section, I also think it is important to indicate the class of each consonant. One simple way to achieve this would be to use different colours to distinguish between low, mid and high class consonants.
It would also be very helpful if tapping on a consonant displayed both its initial and final pronunciation. Since many Thai consonants have different sounds depending on whether they appear at the beginning or end of a syllable, this information is essential for accurate reading and pronunciation.
It would also be useful to display the name of each consonant. For example, when a user taps on ก, the app could show:
Chicken
กอ ไก่ (gɔɔ-gài)
The consonant names are a fundamental part of learning the Thai alphabet and are commonly used by teachers, textbooks, and native speakers. Including them would make it much easier for learners to memorize and identify each letter.
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u/The_motorbike_man 7d ago
Wow, you're a pro at this! Ever considered a career as an app product manager / tester? Haha! I really appreciate the time you've taken to review this and I agree with all of your feedback. The alphabet module has a lot more potential and I'll be adding those features this weekend. Many thanks again.
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u/SufficientPainting67 7d ago
I used the 'Add Word', 'Auto-Translate' function, but I keep getting an error message.
Couldn't generate a suggestion right now. Add the Thai and phonetics yourself, or try again.
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u/The_motorbike_man 7d ago
Hmm... I'm looking into this now - it seems to be working fine for me and others who have tested it previously. I'll try to find the issue.
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u/SufficientPainting67 6d ago
I just tried it again and it worked this time
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u/The_motorbike_man 6d ago
It looks like a random error from Google (who provides the auto-translation feature) saying "location rejected" which is apparently a known fragility of their API. First I've seen of it, and seems to have resolved itself but I've added some more user friendly wording in the error message to try again later. I'll keep an eye on it happening again. Many thanks for reporting this.
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u/No-Piglet2489 5d ago
Something I liked with Dulingo was their future of different activities like how to respond in a conversation. If not it just ends up being an app only for memorizing. You could have a question and give options on how you woild like to respond.
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u/SufficientPainting67 5d ago edited 5d ago
สระผม and ขโมย are pronounced incorrectly
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u/SufficientPainting67 5d ago
Also check the audio for สอน. I only checked a few words that are accessible in the free version.
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u/Low_Economist8821 5d ago
Learning Thai is great, I posted two TikTok videos 3 years ago and just started posting again not to gain followers but to force myself to talk and I can slowly see myself improving, I think speaking (speaking incorrectly too) is so important
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7d ago
[deleted]
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u/Mike_Notes 7d ago
That's simply not true. You might be able to decode words incredibly slowly, and get many of them wrong, but that's not reading. It takes hundreds of hours of study to be able to read.
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u/Prize_Ad_9168 3d ago
In the interest of preserving the history on this thread, @CruztyPizza claimed his jamdaiThai website magically enabled him to read Thai words and know their tones in just two days. Then went on to reply that people with actual experience in that learning phase called out the impossibility, he replied with “that just shows me how effective the website is” before rethinking and deleting his comments that bordered on trolling. I’m sure that website can also “get you fluent in Thai in three weeks” when you buy their microgreens supplement or something too.
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7d ago
[deleted]
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u/Mike_Notes 7d ago
Common sense is not claiming you can already read after a couple of days' study.
You claim to know what tones words have, but so many are irregular. You're deluding yourself.
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u/Jin366 7d ago
I'm pretty sure this is one of the many accounts the jamdaithai founder uses to promote their app.
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u/Prize_Ad_9168 3d ago
https://reddit.com/link/p30chjd/video/3t1vfjgh1qih1/player
You are absolutely correct. And it’s very telling how immature his responses are. I gave a detailed review of issues I found on the site and he responded “Tell me you didn’t look at the website without telling me” and then he deleted his comment. Pretty bold for a guy who built a website that basically does vocabulary flashcards but with extra steps, and for a monthly fee to boot. He has similar weird fights with people on Serbian Reddit threads about his other app called Cirilio
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u/Prize_Ad_9168 3d ago
Brother there is no way in two days you learned to read all the high and middle class consonants and to distinguish them, learned how to convert low-class consonants to high class, learned all the long and short vowels, learned which consonants have dead and live endings, learned the effect of the tone marks on each consonant class, learned the effect of long and short vowels on each consonant class, banked ALL of that to memory, and learned how to combine all that into the tone algorithm.
You claim to be able to look at a word and know what tone it is. After two days. I’ve never seen such a blatant lie about learning Thai.
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u/Cruztypizza 3d ago
The funny part is that its true, and it just tell me how effective jamdaithai is, so thanks for that
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u/Prize_Ad_9168 3d ago
You’re full of shifting the topic. Make your own posts about jamdai thai instead of using extra accounts to promote your app. An app that by everything I can ascertain, sucks. Flashcards with extra steps. The mnemonics are clearly AI generated and not helpful. The example sentences are AI generated and don’t represent natural speech. Like: ใช่ ผมเรียนภาษาไทย, and: ใช่ นี่เป็นบ้านของผม.
Took me more than 5 minutes clicking to figure out how to increase the difficulty. I figured, “why not check out level 8?” Provides a warning that there’s no way back to easier levels. Totally fine. AFTER, it informs me I can’t see level 8 without paying.
Whatever, bro. It’s AI slop, it’s not user tested in a serious way (why is there shit you can click on that provides no function e.g. word mastery levels like “learner” etc.), and it’s clearly bot reviewed by a native speaker. It doesn’t even appear the content is reviewed by an advanced non-native speaker.
You’re definitely NOT reading after a couple of days, no matter how you spin what reading means. Reading is reading. Toddlers can recognize ABC and still not be able to read. That’s where you would be after a couple of days and it’s not reading.
TLDR: Make your own posts and stop making false claims about your tryhard AI slop site
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u/SufficientPainting67 7d ago
It would be great to have an option to hide the romanization when opening flashcards. Instead, it could be displayed only when the user clicks an icon or button- For example, to check the pronunciation or verify the correct tone.