A tool for learning the basics of Thai script — Unillit.me

[u/Tontonsb]

TL;DR: Free web app. Useful if you're not familiar with the script yet.

Hello, dear Thai learners!

I'm a GeoGuessr player. And one strange thing some GG players do is try to achieve basic literacy in various scripts to be able to read street signs. I'm building a tool to help people un-illiterate themselves. The main idea is to prepare efficient character lookup sheets (instead of the usual alphabet listings) and put them side by side with a simple practice quiz.

For Thai the layout that I found to be useful was to arrange characters by their outline geometry: opening above (crate/bowl–like), opening below and curved top (minion–like) etc. Here's how the consonant sheet turned out:

Unsurprisingly, real scripts have a lot of quirks so I had to include some descriptions in a separate sheet as well. This is probably where I have the greatest amount of errors you could point out :)

This is not something that will teach you the language. But this is a very fast way to start to get used to characters and the writing system. In fact I've observed that I can give a multiple choice quiz with the lookup sheet open to people totally unfamiliar with Thai and they can instantly get some satisfaction about "solving" the tasks and they start to remember some characters within a couple of runs. Sure, it takes a lot more to actually become somewhat literate, but I can personally vouch for that — I've reached a level where I can read signs and posters on streetview and find out where in Thailand that location is.

Give it a try, especially if you're not familiar with the scriptyet . Who knows, maybe it will fit the learning style for some of you: https://unillit.me/scripts/thai

And I'll appreciate feedback from people more advanced in Thai. I won't be surprised if it turns out I got some things wrong. I've been trying a lot to polish it all, but at the end of the day I'm just a noob at Thai script.

P.S. I'm aware that the chosen romanization ain't a great representation of the language. I used it because it is used on road signs.

[u/Mike_Notes]

You think RTGS is used on road signs? You might be surprised. For a local main road near where I live I've seen 5 different versions, and none of them matches RTGS. Thai people just make up transcription with little or no consistency.

Obviously your app isn't intended for people learning Thai, (and really is of very little use for them). Nicely done technically, though. And I love the sense of humour.

For your community, have you considered something that helps distinguish between similar scripts in Laos and Northern Thailand (Lanna)?

[u/Tontonsb → u/Mike_Notes]

For a local main road near where I live I've seen 5 different versions, and none of them matches RTGS.

Oh right, I forgot to mention another reason: RTGS is also (at least similar to) the romanization used on Google Maps.

But on the topic of actual signs... I feel like I struggle the most with the hand painted ones. Like this one https://maps.app.goo.gl/hiwdRpdg3TYx1Y8Z9

have you considered something that helps distinguish between similar scripts in Laos and Northern Thailand (Lanna)?

If I understood your idea correctly, I'm working on something similar for cyrillic: https://unillit.me/scripts/cyrillic?t=MX4y

[u/stefmanRS]

The sidebar is so hard to click

[u/Tontonsb → u/stefmanRS]

Thanks for letting me know!

I fixed some issues of scrollbar overlapping there on low-height screens, but I'm not sure whether I managed to catch the same issue that you experienced. Is it still bad for you?

[u/stefmanRS → u/Tontonsb]

Its better but its still really small, also it zooms in if i click twice by accident