Study out loud. You cannot simply read or silently memorize Thai vocabulary words. The more senses you get involved with learning Thai, the easier it will be to remember. Say the words out loud to yourself, use your hands to emphasize what you want to say.
Study slowly, but daily. You cannot cram and learn Thai in a matter of weeks, especially since it is so different from English. Instead, learn a little at a time, and learn something new every day. Don't study for hours at a time. Instead, study frequently for shorter periods of time to absorb and retain more information.
Recycle the material. After you learn a new concept, make sure to review and review until it is committed to memory. Occasionally look back through the material and review much earlier concepts to make sure you still have a good grasp on it. Use the idle moments of your day to study Thai. If you find yourself waiting in line for a coffee, go over the latest vocabulary in your head.
Make flash cards with vocabulary on them. Carry a stack with your everywhere and switch stacks as often as you feel like it. You can write a vocabulary word in English on the front, and put both the English phonetic and Thai alphabet translation on the back.
Form a group of people who also want to learn Thai. Being able to speak Thai to someone else who can attempt to speak it back will greatly help with retaining the language. Find a forum where other people are also trying to learn to speak Thai. You can pick up a few ideas about how to study in general, and you can also practice communicating with others who can speak the language.
Plan a trip to Thailand. Planning this trip will motivate you to learn more so you can communicate better. Once you are there, being immersed in the language will greatly help you to speak more efficiently. Go out and buy food from a local market, testing out your language skills. Turn on the television and listen to a local children's station to help increase your understanding of how to pronounce difficult Thai vocabulary words.
Spend a lot of time working out how to use the Thai tones. Thai is a tonal language, which means the same word could have several different translations depending upon how it is pronounced. A slight change in tone could result in a very different meaning than you intend. Thai has five tones you need to worry about: low, middle, high, falling and rising.
Watch how long you hold your vowels. Holding vowels for a different period of time for the same word can also result in a change of meaning.
Find a way to visualize the tonal changes and the vowel lengths. Write down the English phonetic translation of a word and write an icon or symbol next to syllables with tone changes. Come with with one icon per tone change. Use your pen to bold syllables with longer vowels; use an extra fine point pen for short vowels.
Sing Thai songs to help you get a hold of the tone changes and vocab. Tones will often be worked into the tunes which will help untrained ears hear the differences and learn how to use them.
Plan on spending a lot of energy memorizing the Thai alphabet. While English phonetics can get you a great head start, the Thai alphabet is important to know when trying to learn Thai. It contains 44 consonants, 18 vowels and 6 diphthongs. Use online audio clips or speak to a native Thai speaker to get the hang of these letters.
