Hello everyone,

In this post I’d like to share with you a website and android app I’ve developed for Thai learning called ThaiEar (see website and Play Store link at bottom of page).

There are lots of free resources (see below), and also a paid tier for full disclosure. The cost of studio recordings were significant but a vast upgrade from AI TTS which was error-ridden - Thai TTS is not yet at the level of TTS for many European languages and in my experience of developing ThaiEar, was not fit for purpose.

My main aspiration with ThaiEar is that it benefits people who are learning Thai. If you enjoy the free materials in ThaiEar and think you would benefit from access to the whole library, please message me and I can arrange free access for you if your financial situation makes paid membership untenable.

I’ll preface what ThaiEar currently has, and then go into more detail afterwards.

--------------------------

Website / App contents:

• All Thai audio on website is professional studio recordings from native Thai speakers - not AI TTS

• Completely free 12-step Reading course with quizzes at each stage to test active recall

• Over 200 free sentences across topics from beginner to advanced levels

• All sentences have a word by word breakdown and many come with cultural/ grammar usage notes as well

• No sign-in needed at all for free material access (sign in is needed for playlists, downloading topics, and saving progress to your account only)

• Play each topic as a customisable mp3, choosing the number of times a sentence is repeated, adjust pause lengths, adjust Thai audio speed, choose to hear the english or the Thai first, and excluding any sentences that aren't relevant to you.

• Play topics from lock screen on android or iphone for passive review/ learning on the go

• Offline study for both android and iphone. Android has its own ThaiEar app, iphone can save website to home screen and enable downloads

• Each topic is complete with four quiz types (except grammar topics which lack the vocab quiz):
+ Vocabulary quiz (English -> Thai, multiple choice)
+ Listening comprehension (Thai -> English, multiple choice)
+ Thai builder quiz (drag tiles in correct order - accepts multiple valid solutions)
+ Speak Thai quiz (self marked)

• Free custom playlist building - save sentences from across multiple topics into personalised playlists ( can be downloaded for offline just like topics).

------------------------------------

Why does ThaiEar exist?

ThaiEar started after I developed my own study materials, which I found to be highly effective, to the point where I wanted to formalise them into something others could benefit from, and it has evolved and taken on a life of its own in the 6 months I have been developing it.

Initially I was learning Thai using Anki, watching Comprehensible Thai and listening to You Too Can Learn Thai - all approaches i’d still recommend. But after starting to learn in whole sentences (initially made with TTS audio), practising shadowing and active recall, I genuinely felt like I’d made as much progress in three weeks as I had in three months of my previous approach. Suddenly I was actually comprehending whole sentences, not just picking up individual words, and I could even start spontaneously stringing my own sentences together. This method took more applied effort, yet at the same time it felt like progress came easily and quickly when I did apply myself to it.

The ease with which progress was coming now made a big impression on me and I felt I wanted to formalise what i’d built into a project others could benefit from. Since ThaiEar’s inception it has moved on a lot. If interested, please see the Guide page (thaiear.com/guide) and the suggested study sequence on there for how to best approach studying a new topic. But fundamentally ThaiEar is a collection of resources and there are multiple valid and useful ways to approach the material so the suggested sequence is not a prescription by any means.

I hope you enjoy ThaiEar and gain benefit from it. It’s something that has evolved quite organically - I would be appreciative and open to any questions or feedback.

Website: thaiear.com

Google Play store: ThaiEar: Real Thai Audio - Apps on Google Play