About Thai for Teachers

Practical Thai for the classroom, the staffroom, and everyday life in Thailand.

Hey there! I’m Jouni Flemming, and perhaps surprisingly, I’m not a teacher.

I’m an engineer who has lived in Thailand for more than seven years. Along the way, I’ve met many people who struggle to learn Thai language.

I don’t claim to be an expert and my Thai is still a work in progress, but I can already manage many daily tasks in Thai.

I built this website to offer a starting point to English-speaking educators in Thai schools. The lessons focus on things you might need to say in class, with colleagues, or on the way home.

Naturally, a website like this has its limits. A Thai language school or private tutor can give you regular practice and feedback that a website cannot. Use these lessons as a supplement or a starting point to your language learning journey.

What you’ll find here

You can look up a classroom instruction, practice a canteen order, or read about a school routine before you encounter it. The introduction guide shows where to begin.

Free to use: There are no paywalls, subscriptions, or locked lessons.
No account required: Open a lesson and start learning, without signing up or sharing your email address.
No advertising: There are no pop-ups, banners, or video ads.
Practice for everyday use: Short phrases grouped by the situations where you might need them.

Make the lessons work for you

Use the preference box below to choose your voice, pronunciation guides, and Thai font. If it is folded away, select Customize to open it. Voice, font, and Paiboon changes appear immediately in the greeting below. RTGS stays visible in article examples; your RTGS display preference applies on lesson pages.

Choose Modern for a clean, loopless Thai font or Classic for traditional looped letters. Pick whichever you find easier to read. The greeting below uses your selected font.

Choose your preferences

Voice: In Thai language, different wording is used depending whether you identify as male or female. You can choose your preference here. Polite endings, personal pronouns, and pronunciation guides follow your choice. Note: The audio recordings are currently only available if you choose the female option.

Romanization: Thai language is written in Thai script. Therefore, there are many transcription systems to convert Thai script into the more familiar A to Z alphabet. RTGS is the official Thai transcription system used on road signs and in official documents. Paiboon adds tone and vowel-length guidance. IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet, uses symbols for speech sounds. Select any combination to compare them, or none to practise reading Thai script on its own.

Thai font: This website also allows you to choose between two different fonts for the Thai script. The classic font is easier to read, but many places will use a more modern font which can be harder to read for beginners. If you want to learn reading Thai script, you can first start with the classic font and then move on to the modern one.

Your voice

Female Male

Romanization

Thai font

Select Save preferences to keep your choices in this browser and fold the box away. Your settings also apply when you open lessons elsewhere on the site. You can change them at any time by selecting Customize again.

Use the speaker icons after the Thai text and romanization to hear it spoken. When two icons appear, Normal plays the phrase at a natural pace and Slow helps you listen more closely. Speaker icons appear only where recordings are available.

Try your settings: say hello

สวัสดีค่ะ

RTGS sawatdi kha

Paiboon sà-wàt-dii kâ

IPA sa˨˩.wat˨˩.diː˧ kʰa˥˩

Literal: Hello • [politeness particle: kha]

Hello

Use this all-purpose greeting with a ไหว้ (Wai) when the situation calls for one.

Start learning Thai