Using an iPhone & iPad in Thailand Tips, App Reviews and News for the iPhone and iPad by Richard Barrow

Free Thai Flash cards for iPhone and iPad

Thai Flash helps you to learn the Thai alphabet. Each character is displayed as a card ( flash card ). Create your own combination of cards and settings, and swipe left or right to move backwards and forwards in the deck.

This new app called "Thai Flash" is probably all you need for learning the Thai alphabet. It has all of the consonants, vowels and numbers too. As you can see, the options are numerous. On this setting, you will see all of the cards by swiping to the left or right. Click on the sound icon in the lower left and you will hear a native speaker saying the name of this character. Alternatively, turn on the setting "Speak on card change" to hear the name automatically as you flip through the cards. You can also just concentrate on different groups of consonants or just the vowels or numbers. Turn off "Show character" and you will only hear the name and not see the character. You just then tap on the screen to see the character. Considering that this app is presently free, there is no reason why you shouldn't download it now. It works on both iPhone and iPod.

Download Thai Flash for free on iTunes >>>>

Reading Thai – Words & Sentences for the iPhone

If you've been learning the Thai alphabet, this app will take your reading ability to the next level. Practice reading Thai words and sentences in the Thai script.

For the past few weeks I have been playing around with a new app for the iPhone called Reading Thai - Words & Sentences. It comes from the same developers as Reading Thai that I reviewed earlier. The first app helps you with the Thai alphabet. What this new one does is to take you to the next level by helping you practice various sentences. What you get is 25 lessons with up to 10 sentences in each lesson. Each lesson starts with a list of relevant vocabulary (see above).  If you have no idea on how to read the words then click on the "play" button to hear a native speaker. There is a pause between each word for you to repeat after your teacher. When ready, try the first sentence (see below).  As you can see, you can cheat if you like by clicking on "Show romanization" to get some help with the reading. There is also a button to reveal the translation. Although it is not the most beautiful of apps, it is nicely done and should prove useful to people starting to learn how to read Thai. What I would like to see in future updates would be a random sentence button so that you could test yourself after finishing all of the lessons.

Download Reading Thai - Words & Sentences for $4.99 from iTunes >>>>

URGENT: This app appears to be free for downloading today which will probably only last 24 hours!

Learn Thai on your iPhone with a Thai Language Hostess

Let the beautiful women of Thai Language Hostess accompany you on your travels and assist you with speaking and learning Thai whenever you desire.

There are quite a few iPhone apps out there for people wanting to learn Thai. Many of them are quite similar. The Thai Language Hostess is the first one I have seen that takes a different approach. Instead of a list of boring phrases, what they have done here is give you video clips of Thai ladies speaking the phrases. It is actually quite important to watch the movement of the lips when trying to say Thai words. So, they have the right idea. Though obviously that wasn't their intention.

When you first open the app you are given various categories like  Getting Around, Eating & Drinking, Shopping & Money, Meeting People, Health, Time & Date, Problems and Numbers. In each of the categories you are then presented with a long list of related phrases. There is also a search function if there is a particular word or phrase that you want to find. You can also mark any phrase as a favourite so that you can quickly find it later. In all there are over 500 words and phrases.

When you click on the phrase you are then taken straight to the hostess who reads it out loud to you. At the bottom of each screen you will see the phrase in English, Thai and Roman letters to help you pronounce it. In the last section there are some bonus phrases, see above, which I guess are there to help you feel better about yourself. Overall it is kind of fun. The girls are certainly pretty and they give you incentive to keep working on your language skills. But, will this be of interest to women learning Thai?

The developers have recently released more versions for French, Chinese, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and Korean speaking people learning Thai. So, if English is not your native language then make sure that you buy the appropriate app.

Buy Thai Language Hostess (English/Thai version) on iTunes for $2.99 >>>

Learn Thai Squiggles on your iPhone

Learn Thai Squiggles makes learning the Thai alphabet easy.

The latest iPhone app for learning the Thai alphabet is called "Learn Thai Squiggles". It groups these consonants into the three classes which are important when it comes to learning the tone rules. The fourth section is for letters that are hardly used. Each of the letters has good quality recording done by a native speaker. You can set this to play automatically or only when you tap on the letter. What is interesting is that there is no pronunciation guide. This may seem like a risky move on their part but really Thai letters are a series of sounds that are not always easy to write down using Roman letters. By doing it this way you will be learning the same way as Thai kindergarten students and you won't be reading the alphabet with a foreign accent. In the final section, see below, you are shown all of the letters which are colour-coded according to which class they belong to.

Although it is a very clean cut and easy to use app, I don't think that there is enough here to justify the present price tag of $4.99. For example, the similar priced Reading Thai app also has vowels and numbers. They even do a free version that just has the consonants like this one. Something else I would have liked to see is a kind of quiz to see how much you have remembered. It is true that you can look at the screen with all the letters (above left), identify the letter and then click on it to see if you were right. But it would be nice to have a quiz where you hear a letter and then you have to click on the right letter. Something like this would give it better value for money. After all, there are other free iPhone apps out there for learning the Alphabet: Thai Alphabet Helper, which has consonants and vowels, and I Know My กขค, which is aimed at Thai students so there aren't any transliterations like this one.

Download Learn Thai Squiggles at iTunes >>>

Thai Phrasebook on your iPhone

Learn Thai Pro is an easy to use mobile Thai Phrase Book that will give visitors to Thailand and those who are interested in learning Thai a good start in the language.

A  month or so ago I reviewed an excellent Thai phrasebook for the iPhone called Learn Thai (see review). I noted at the time that there are quite a few phrasebooks out there now but this one stood head and shoulders above the rest. It was free and had about 200 words and phrases in six different categories. Now comes the release of the paid version which is much expanded. LearnThai Pro - Phrasebook has over 600 words and phrases in 18 different categories.

These are: greetings, general conversation, numbers, time and date, directions and places, transportation, accommodation, eating out, shopping, colours, towns and provinces, countries, tourist attractions, family, dating, emergency, feeling sick and tongue twisters. The last category is a nice touch as you can practice with, or indeed impress, your Thai friends. I also like the comprehensive list of cities. Maybe now foreigners will actually pronounce Pattaya correctly and also names of the islands like Koh Tao.

It works in much the same way as the free version. You choose the category and then click on the phrase to hear a native speaker. There is an option to mark the phrase as a favourite in order to get quick access later. What impressed me the most with this phrasebook before was the ability to change the speaker from male to female. This is so important with Thai as there are certain polite particles which must be used depending on your sex. In the examples you can see here the male word for "I" is used which is "pom". When switched to the female speaker, this is changed to "chan". Another nice little touch can be seen in the "Family" category above. Can you see where it says "This is my girlfriend"? If you have chosen female speaker then this becomes "This is my boyfriend".

Download LearnThai Pro - Phrasebook on iTunes for $4.99 >>>

COMPETITION: I liked this iPhone app so much that I asked the developers if I can have some promo codes to give away to readers to my blog. All you have to do to get a free copy of this iPhone app is post a comment below. It is that simple. I will add all the names to a randomizer on the evening of Tuesday 5th April 2011. To give yourself a better chance of winning, you can also enter this competition on my Facebook page and also on Twitter where I will be doing an instant giveaway. Don't forget you need to follow me in order to enter the competition.

Learn Thai for Free on the iPhone

Learn Thai is a free, easy to use mobile app to give visitors to Thailand a good start to learning the language.

It is starting to be a crowded market for iPhone apps for learning the Thai language. So many have been released of varying quality. I must say that LearnThai clearly stands head and shoulders above the competition. What you have here is a simple Thai phrasebook containing about 200 words and phrases which are useful for tourists. Categories include Greetings, General Conversation, Numbers, Transportation, Directions and Places, and Eating Out. For each of the words and phrases, you can listen to a native speaker by just clicking on the words. A heart shape to the right of the phrase allows you add it to your "Favourites". By default it is a male speaker and so the word "krab" is used a lot, the polite particle for men. However, in settings you can easily change to a female speaker. At the time of my review, I was unable to switch speakers but the developer tells me that is a known bug and it will be fixed at the next update. If you are only going to download one Thai phrasebook from iTunes then I strongly suggest that you choose LearnThai. You certainly cannot go wrong with the price as it is presently free. This app is also available in the Android market.

UPDATE: The problem of changing the speaker from male to female has been corrected in the last update. It works very well now.

Google Translate for iPhone

Translate words and phrases between more than 50 languages using Google Translate for iPhone. For most languages, you can speak your phrases and hear the corresponding translations.

There are already a number of apps for the iPhone and iPad that makes use of Google Translate. Some are free and some you have to pay for. Now Google has released their own app called simply Google Translate. It is available to download for free from iTunes. The app can translate between 57 languages which includes Thai. So, for us here in Thailand, we can enter the text to be translated in either English or Thai. It is obviously not going to be perfect but in many cases it should be able to translate simple sentences and phrases. There is a history of what you have translated already and you can also bookmark certain phrases for quicker access. 15 of the languages can be entered verbally (see below). Also, 23 languages can have their translations spoken aloud. Unfortunately Thai is not among them yet. Another feature is the transliteration of the Thai words. However, as you can see above, this is next to useless at the moment. If you are stuck on a long train ride with a Thai family then this app might help pass the time.

Thai for Beginners for the iPhone

Paiboon Publishing’s new iPhone app makes it easy to study your Thai lessons wherever you go with your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

The Thai for Beginners app for the iPhone is aimed at people who are using the popular book of the same name written by Benjawan Poomsan Becker  (buy book online here).  Benjawan has a series of three books for people learning Thai as well as a wide range of resources such as dictionary, CDs and DVDs. I reviewed her excellent Talking Dictionary for the iPhone a few weeks back. Like the talking dictionary, this new iPhone app is based on computer software that has already been released (buy online here). Really, it is aimed at people that have already bought Thai for Beginners as the app gives additional exercises based on this book.

When you first enter the app you are given a list of lessons which refer to lessons in the book of the same name. The introduction gives you a lesson about words with different tones. I think it is good that you get a chance to listen to words with certain tones as that helps to train your ear. You get the choice to first review the words then you get to do the exercises. Here you have a choice to hear and read the words or just read the words. This is the same format for all the exercises. For lesson 1 there are three topics: vocabulary, numbers and sentences. Click on the word or sentence and you get to hear a native speaker. Both female and male speakers are used. The speed is just right. Once you are ready then it is time to try the exercises. Overall, I think this is a useful app to buy if you are already using the Thai for Beginners book and are working alone.

Download Thai for Beginners on iTunes. Present price is $24.99 >>>

UPDATE: You can now use this on your iPad.