[video] Another way to look at the 5 tones of Thai

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This post includes an embedded video. If you are reading it through RSS or email and don't see it, click through to watch it on my site!

Archive note: This is not a pronunciation model or a how-to guide. It records the rough mnemonics I was trying after just over two weeks in Thailand, and the video contains mistakes. Standard Thai has five lexical tones, but their contours vary with the speaker and context. Use native-speaker audio and feedback to learn them.

A note from the Fluent in 3 Months team before we get started: You can chat away with a native speaker for at least 15 minutes with the “Fluent in 3 Months” method. All it takes is 90 days. Tap this link to find out more.

Blogger cameo roles in the video

I was going to wait to record this video for another week or so when I would have had a better ear for the tones, but I couldn't miss out on the opportunity to work on a shared project with some big names in the blogosphere! I spent an entire week in Ko Phi Phi and most of that was in the company of some fellow “location independent professionals” that went with me to the parties on the beach every night. It's definitely been the best part of my Thailand trip so far.

I convinced some of them to help me with this video. They are (in the order you see them):

Sean Ogle Location 180: Sean quit his job and decided to move across the world and has a great blog about why it's not as scary as you think to do that. In person he's super cool and really great fun! We'll be meeting up again before I leave Thailand for sure!

Dan Andrews Tropical MBA: Dan knows his business and he does most of it from somewhere tropical! He runs a cool podcast to inspire others to do the same and was giving me some great advice for how I should expand on my blog. His work partner Ian was the cameraman.

Tom Li: Tom, and the others above are all working together. Tom and I had an amazing time meeting people on the sandy dancefloors!

Adam Baker ManVsDebt: Adam's blog is huge after less than a year since he started it, because apart from really amazing content, he is proving that you can travel the world even if you have a family and showing that there is a way out of debt if you are committed to it and sell all your useless stuff. His beautiful daughter Milly (who also appears in the video) and his wife Courtney are with him on the adventure of a lifetime. He's really nice in person!!

Summary of the 5 tones

To put the five Standard Thai tones in clearer terms:

• High tone. It stays in the upper part of the speaker's pitch range and often rises slightly. It is distinct from the larger movement of the rising tone.
• Rising tone. It begins low, may dip, then rises sharply. An English question can be a memory aid, but it is not an exact pronunciation match.
• Mid and low tones. The mid tone is relatively level, while the low tone is lower and generally falls slightly. These can be difficult to distinguish without context, so compare native-speaker recordings rather than relying on an English analogy.
• Falling tone. It begins high, sometimes with a small initial rise, then falls sharply. I did not produce it reliably in the video.

One other mistake I made in the video was that despite saying it pretty well on the beach, I said the high tone almost exactly the same as the rising tone (I went down-up, instead of up-up) when giving the example in the last part. I think I sound pretty silly trying to point out the difference between two sentences that sound pretty much exactly the same and shouldn't in Thai…

So overall, I definitely can't say that I've “mastered” tones yet, but I hope that I have a pretty good idea thanks to comparisons with situations in English, as in the video, and with practice they will come! Rather than giving tips in this video, I wanted to just share the learning experience, even in the stage where I'm still making lots of basic mistakes. And of course, it was a great excuse to work together with the other bloggers on a common project that only took a few minutes!

Right now I'm in a small town called “fisherman's village” despite there not being a single fisherman in sight; great fake title for tourist soundbites though. It's on the north part of Ko Samui and I'll be getting the 20 minute speedboat to the famous full moon party this weekend! Can't wait!!