How to learn Isaan for Thai Speakers
I speak Thai at an upper intermediate level, and in two months I learned to speak Isaan from scratch to a lower intermediate level. This is a slightly cleaner version of the same method I used. For more background, you can read my log.
1) Memorize about 50 sentences by heart.
Timeline: Do this first.
Details: To save time and money, I suggest just memorizing the list below, but you can personalize your own if you prefer. These sentences are specifically designed to keep you from getting stuck in a conversation and to allow you to exchange some basic info.
Before describing how to memorize the sentences, a word about tones. There are many Isaan dialects, and tones vary. If you want to concentrate on a specific dialect, it’s best to use their tones. But I was interested in all dialects, so I used four tone rules that seem to apply to most of them:
Pronounce ข้าว as ข่าว
Pronounce ว่าย as วาย
Pronounce น้ำ as น่ำ
Pronounce มื้อ as มื่อ
The first rule means “pronounce ANY high consonant, long vowel, live syllable with a falling tone as a low tone”. In other words, these are just representative syllable types, and can be switched out. For example, ห้อง is pronounced ห่อง, ว่า is pronounced วา, etc.
There are many ways to memorize a list of sentences. Here is one that I can recommend:
a) Listen to the audio of the first sentence and repeat. Do it enough times to feel you are pronouncing it correctly, then move onto the next one. Do the same thing, then move onto the next one, etc.
b) Once you’ve done a group of three or four sentences, stop and hide the Isaan. Glance at the English of the first sentence, and try to produce the Isaan. Say it out loud with correct pronunciation. Play the audio to check. Do this for each of the sentences in the group. If any are incorrect, do all of them again, until you are able to produce them correctly. Then you can go onto to do another group. Do a total of 10 sentences.
c) The next day review sentences 1-10 by hiding the Isaan, glancing at the English, and making sure you can produce the sentences with the correct pronunciation. Do steps a) and b) for sentences 11-20.
d) Repeat step c) for the next 10, for three more days or until you have all 50 sentences memorized. Remember to review all previous sentences every day. After that, come back every day and review all 50. The day that you can quickly, easily and correctly produce all sentences is the day that you are ready to start daily conversations.
สวัสดีคับ ข่อยซื่อลีโอ
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Hi, my name is Leo.
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เจ้าซื่ออีหยัง
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What's your name?
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เป็นจังใด๋
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How's it going?
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ซำบายดีบ่
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How are you?
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ซำบายดีอยู่ แล้วเจ้าเด๋
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I'm fine. And you?
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ขอบใจเด้อ
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Thank you na.
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ขอโทด
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Sorry.
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เว้าอีกเทื่อได้บ่คับ
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Can you repeat that?
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กินข้าวแล้วบ่
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Have you eaten yet?
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อีหลี
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Of course!
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ซ่อยเขียนให้แหน่
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Please write that for me.
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ข่อยมีคำถาม
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I have a question.
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แป๊บหนึ่งเด้อ
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Just a moment na.
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เป็นต้น
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Etcetera.
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เว้าซ่าๆแหน่
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Speak slower please.
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"Dog" ภาษาอีสานเว้าจังได๋
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How does one say "dog" in Isaan?
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หมายความว่าอีหยัง
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What does that mean?
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บ่เป็นหยัง
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Never mind.
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เรียนภาษาอีสานอยู่
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I'm learning Isaan.
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ยังเว้าอีสานบ่เก่ง
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I don't speak Isaan well yet.
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เรียนภาษาอังกิดอยู่ไส
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Where did you learn English?
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เรียนภาษาอีสานออนไล
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I learn Isaan online.
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เรียนภาษาอีสานอยู่เมืองไทย
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I learned Isaan in Thailand.
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มักเรียนภาษาอีสาน
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I like learning Isaan.
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อยากเรียนภาษาอีสาน
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I want to learn Isaan.
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มาแต่ไส
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Where are you from?
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มาแต่อะเมริกา
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I come from the USA.
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เคยไปอะเมริกาบ่
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Have you ever been to the USA?
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เคยไปอีสานหลายเทื่อแล้ว
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I have been to Isaan many times.
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อยากไปเที่ยวอีสาน
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I want to travel in Isaan.
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อาศัยอยู่ไส
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Where do you live?
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อยู่แถวซีแอดเทิน
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I live near Seattle.
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มักอาหารอีสาน
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I like Isaan food.
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อยากกินอาหารอีสานแท้ๆ
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I want to eat real Isaan food.
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เคยกินอาหารอีสานมาหลายแล้ว
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I have eaten a lot of Isaan food.
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แล้วพ้อกันไม
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Until we meet again!
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ซ่อยได้หลายเลย
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That was helpful.
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เลิกเรียนแล้วแม่นบ่
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The class is over, right?
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บทเรียนนี้ม่วนดี
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The lesson was fun.
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งานอดิเรกคือการเรียนภาษาและไปเที่ยว
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My hobbies are language learning and travel.
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เว้าได้สิบสองภาษา
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I speak twelve foreign languages.
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ตอนที่เฮ็ดงานข่อยกะเรียนภาษานำ
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When I was working I studied languages too.
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กำลังนอนอยู่
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I was sleeping.
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มาแต่จังหวัดได๋
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Which province are you from?
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มีลูกบ่
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Do you have kids?
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มีลูกจักคน
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How many kids do you have?
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เฮ็ดงานอยู่หนี่โดนทอใด๋
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How long have you worked here?
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เอาน้ำหยังบ่
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Do you want a drink?
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ว่ายน้ำเป็นบ่
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Can you swim?
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มักคนอะเมริกาบ่
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Do you like Americans?
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2) Take a daily conversation class.
Timeline: Start this only after you are able to produce the 50 sentences automatically.
Details: I recommend using italki. The classes should be 100% Isaan conversation, with no fixed topics. When the teacher says something you don’t understand, ask them to write it down. When you want to say something but don’t know how, ask the teacher how to say it and write it down. Have them write it in both Isaan and Thai.
After the lesson, curate a list of all unknown words and sentences, and put them in an SRS. I recommend Anki. The cards should be both Isaan-English and English-Isaan, and include Thai on the answer side as additional info. The next day do all your reps before class. When you start your reps, write the answers out in a notebook. After writing at least five complete lines, you can put the notebook away and finish the rest of the reps.
If you do this every day, you should improve very quickly. The first 5 to 10 lessons should only be 30 minutes, because you are going to have a lot of things to write down, and you don’t want to get overwhelmed. When the number of new items becomes easy to handle, start taking 60 min lessons. After you reach a certain level of comfort, add some Lao teachers to the mix. They speak a more pure form of the language. Don’t worry about not understanding them; there are very few common Lao words that don’t exist in Thai or Isaan.
3) Watch these videos and read their subtitles daily.
Timeline: Start this any time after the 50 sentences.
Details: I recommend first reading these here. Choose a video that looks interesting to you, and begin reading. Read out loud. Remember to use Isaan tones. Notice that you can get fly over definitions if you get stuck on a word or sentence. Toggle the words you don’t know to green (learning). It will be difficult at first, but try to put in at least 15 minutes before stopping. Bookmark your stopping point. Scroll down to the bottom and select “I know all the peach words before the bookmark”. Play the video, while reading along silently. Optionally watch the whole video, turn off the subtitles, watch another video, etc.
Reading wise, you’ll notice that you will cover more and more, in the same amount of time, with each day. Listening wise, you will be able to understand more and more too, although progress may be less obvious than reading. Doing additional video watching, or other listening activities, is highly recommended, as listening is normally considered to be the hardest skill to acquire.
And that’s it! Isaan is a very straight forward language for a Thai speaker, with 80-90% cognates. And now you have all the learning resources at your disposal, so you should progress relatively quickly compared to other languages.
What’s next? Conversing with native speakers and consuming lots of native content. Don’t forget to try Lao native content. Isaan dialects are just Lao dialects, so material originating in Laos is often understandable, and there are plenty of Lao youtube channels that have Thai subtitles available if needed.