This article was originally posted on WomenLearnThai.com.
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Considerations for Thai phrase book apps on your iPhone…
UPDATE: A large selection of the apps in this review are no longer online (noted below). An updated series compiled from my GINORMOUS List of iOS Apps to Learn Thai: iPhone, iPad and iPod is on the way. Please stay tuned.
Choosing a Thai language phrase book for your iPhone is similar to choosing a hardcopy Thai language phrase book. But not quite.
For instance: If you aim to go clubbing, the higher Apple ratings may be a draw; if you are not technically savvy, a help file is needed; if you intend on using the iPhone app in Thailand, not being dependent upon an internet connection is a must; and, male or female, you just might find that sound files with polite particles to match are an attribute to be considered.
For more: If you are a first time tourist or expat new to Thailand, even a brief introduction to Thai culture will be important to you (at the very least, advice on manners typical to Thailand should noted somewhere); if you are a Thai language learner, a wee section on grammar is helpful; if you intend on getting additional help from Thais or would like to play ‘guess the menu’, Thai script could come into it; if you have a Thai partner with poor eyesight, the size of the Thai script is bound to come into it too.
And for all you design lovers out there… there is still that oh my…
Note: At the time of this review, an iPhone app for zooming when inside other apps was not available. When it does launch (there is an open proposal to do just that) I will amend this post.
The criteria I used for this iPhone Thai phrase book review…
- Target market: Is it for tourists, expats new to Thailand, or Thai language learners?
- Phrases and vocab: How many phrases does it have? Does it include vocabulary too?
- Information: Are there tips on the Thai language and culture?
- Sound: Who is doing the talking? Male, female, or both?
- Thai script: Is the Thai script too small to read or just right?
- Transliteration: Does the transliteration style have tone markers?
- Internet connection: Will you need to make adjustments for roaming costs?
- Overall design: Is the navigation easy, or are you clicking on bits going nowhere?
- Design style: Does it add or subtract to the experience?
- Search: Are you able to search for a word or phrase?
Apple apps iPhone ratings…
New to me are the iPhone ratings (Richard from Lingopal opened my innocent eyes to this one). I’m lazy (and this review is hours overdue), so I snagged the below list from Wikipedia: App Store.
- 4+ Contains no objectionable material.
- 9+ May contain mild or infrequent occurrences of cartoon, fantasy or realistic violence, and infrequent or mild mature, suggestive, or horror-themed content which may not be suitable for children under the age of 9.
- 12+ May also contain infrequent mild language, frequent or intense cartoon, fantasy or realistic violence, and mild or infrequent mature or suggestive themes, and simulated gambling which may not be suitable for children under the age of 12.
- 17+ May also contain frequent and intense mature, horror, and suggestive themes; plus sexual content, nudity, alcohol, tobacco, and drugs which may not be suitable for children under the age of 17. Consumers must be at least 17 years old to purchase apps with this rating. Whenever an app of this rating is requested for download, a message will appear, verifying if you are 17 and asking to confirm the purchase for this reason.
Thai language iPhone phrase book review…
As previously mentioned: A given, with people having different wants and needs, personal opinions on phrase books will be all over the place.
The personal opinions below (cacca or otherwise), are mine.
English-Thai Talking Travel Phrasebook
Price: £1.79 | US$2.99
Author: Lingvosoft
Date: 14 Sept 2009
Version: 1.0.0
Internet connection required: No
Word / phrase count: 14,000 words and phrases
Transliteration: No
Thai script: Yes
Sound: Thai male, Western male.
Zoom for Thai script: No
Search: Yes
Other Thai-X Phrase books: Russian, Polish, French, Spanish, German.
Apple rating: 12+ for the following: Infrequent/mild mature/suggestive themes and infrequent/mild alcohol, tobacco, drug use or references to these.
Overview: This is a dual English-Thai / Thai-English phrase book with sound for both. In the preferences you can set the display language to English, Russian, Italian, French, and Spanish, but the sentences and sound remain Thai and English. Sections include: Phrases, learning, you may hear, useful words. Very handy, on some phrases you can click the underlined text (Thai script or English) to get additional words to use with the phrase.
Possible negatives: Sometimes it takes more than one tap of your finger to hear the sound. In the learning section the Thai script is larger but has room to be larger still (larger Thai script will be useful for some). There are no instructions for the learning section (needed). The speech recognition did not work for me (came back with odd phrases). There are no polite particles in the phrases. A brief explanation of the Thai language and culture would be useful.
Categories:
Basics, traveling, hotel, local transport, sightseeing, bank, communication, in the restaurant, food and drink, sopping, repairs / laundry, sport / leisure, health / drugstore, beauty care, calling for police.
iParrot Phrase English to Thai
No longer online
Price: £2.99 | US$4.99
Author: vAccessory
Date: 11 June 2009
Version: 1.1.0
Internet connection required: No
Word / phrase count: 0 words and 322 phrases
Transliteration: No
Thai script: Yes
Sound: Female
Search: No
Zoom for Thai script: No
Other Thai-X Phrase books: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese.
Apple rating: 4+ for the following: Contains no objectionable material.
Overview: This is a simple to use iPhone app. In the catalog, select from any of the 20 subjects then select your phrase of choice. Clicking on the sound icon gives you a clear, slow Thai voice (excellent for newbies to the Thai language). The forward and back arrows take you to more phrases in the list.
Possible negatives: The Thai script is small and you cannot zoom in (on an iPhone screen, even Thais will have a problem when trying to read in a reflecting light situation). There is enough room to enlarge the Thai script, so hopefully in the next version they will make it so. It would save clicking time if there was a button link to the catalog list on each phrase list page. There are no sounds for the polite particles (they can be found in Thai script only). There are no instructions, no search capabilities, and no explanation of the Thai language and culture (brief or otherwise). And there is certainly enough room for all…
Categories:
Greetings and farewells, thanks, introduction, seeking help, asking for directions, correspondences, dinning, shopping, hotel, entry and exit, transportation, bank, hospital, Post Office, the hairdressers, at a laundry, weather and seasons, time and date, sports, entertainment.
iParrot Phrase Thai to English
No longer online
Author: vAccessory
Price: £2.99 | US$4.99
Date: 12 September 2009
Version: 1.1.5
Size: 7.8 Mb
Word / phrase count: 400 travel phrases
Overview: This is the Thai-English version of the above app. I’m including this iPhone app because it could be helpful for a Thai spouse learning English. Ditto the above comments.
iPoodThai
Price: £1.79 | US$2.99
Author: Franck Blaevoet
Date: 1 February 2009
Version: 1.0
Internet connection required: No
Word / phrase count: 233 words and 276 phrases
Transliteration: Yes (but no tone markers)
Thai script: Yes
Sound: Male and female
Search: No
Zoom for Thai script: No (not needed)
Other Thai-X Phrase books: No
Apple rating: 12+ for the following: Infrequent/mild mature/suggestive themes and infrequent/mild alcohol, tobacco, drug use or reference to these.
Overview: A lot of local thought went into this English to Thai talking phrase book as the phrases are typical of what you actually will hear in central Thailand (they are not English/etc phrases translated to Thai). For instance, if you are new to Bangkok and need to tell your taxi driver where you are going, the major attractions are listed. Also useful, you can make a favourites list. The Thai script is fabulously huge so Thai learners will get a lot out of this app, and tourists won’t have a problem if they want ask a Thais to read the word or phrase. Polite particles for male and female are in the basics section.
Possible negatives: There is an excellent fast-scrolling list showing all words and phrases, but there is no search. This app could use a small section explaining the Thai language and culture. This is a sweet app, but adding more words and phrases would make it sweeter still.
Categories:
Basics, transportation, accommodation, restaurant, activities, shopping, nightlife, relationship, money, formalities, emergency, health.
LingoPal Thai
Price: £0.59 | US$0.99
Author: LingoPal
Date: 1 August 2009
Version: 1.0.0
Internet connection required: No
Word / phrase count: 900+ phrasels
Transliteration: No
Thai script: Yes
Sound: Female
Search: Yes
Zoom for Thai script: No (but you have the option of seeing larger script)
Other Thai-X Phrase books: Languages included in the preferences: Afrikaans, Bengali, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Croation, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Mandarin, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Spanish (Latin American), Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, and LingoPal FLIRTA with all 42 languages (£3.49).
Apple rating: 17+ for the following: Infrequent/mild sexual content or nudity, frequent/intense/mature/suggestive themes and frequent/intense profanity or crude humour.
Overview: When you select a Thai phrase you have the option of making it a favourite, showing large Thai script (excellent), or hearing the selection spoken by a Thai lass. In the settings you can change to your language of choice (see above), male or female.
My favourite? Flirting: Rejection “I need to go back home and turn my kettle off”…
Possible negatives: There are underlines denoting where to fill in a word, so a link to a list of words would be useful. I could not work out what the male and female selection in the settings did. Missing are polite particles, as well as an explanation of the Thai language and culture. Warnings need to be put in place for the insults section (throw some of those phrases at a Thai and at the very least you’ll lose your iPhone). I talked to Richard from Lingopal about the insults and he agreed. Nice. He also pointed out their 17+ Apple rating. Thanks Richard (it was an element I was not aware of at the time).
Categories:
Essentials, numbers, days and time, traveling, where is…, dining, accommodation, directions, shopping, email and banks, making conversation, business talk, emergencies, flirting: 1st move, flirting: conversation, flirting: compliments, flirting: at the beach, flirting: for girls, flirting: for boys, flirting: getting lucky, flirting: rejection, gay, insults: mild, insults: X-rated.
Lonely Planet Thai Phrasebook
No longer online
Price: £5.99 | US$9.99
Author: Lonely Planet
Date: 9 July 2008
Version: 1.4
Internet connection required: No
Word / phrase count: 152 words and 474 phrases
Transliteration: Yes (with tone markers)
Thai script: Yes
Sound: Male and female
Search: Yes
Zoom for Thai script: No
Other Thai-X Phrase books: No. But they do have English to: Cantonese, Czech, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese.
Apple rating: 12+ for the following: Infrequent/mild mature/suggestive themes and infrequent/mild alcohol, tobacco, drug use or references to these.
Overview: This is a very simple phrase book. You can view by phrase, or by category. Where necessary, they have male and female voices responding (but mostly male). A help file is included. There is also a Lonely Planet Mobile site, which you can access just by clicking on the Lonely Planet logo at the bottom of each page.
Possible negatives: While there are male and females speaking the same phrases, there are no polite particles. There is nothing to assist with the Thai language and culture. The Thai script is quite small and would be more legible in black instead of blue.
Categories:
Tools, transport, accommodation, communications and banking, sightseeing, shopping, greeting people, entertainment, food and drink, emergencies, health.
PhasaThai
No longer online
Price: £4.99 | US$7.99
Author: SANDBOX Co., Ltd.
Date: 11 May 2009
Version: 2.1
Internet connection required: No
Word / phrase count: 799 words, 466 phrases
Transliteration: No
Thai script: Yes
Sound: Female
Search: No
Zoom for Thai script: No
Other Thai-X Phrase books: No
Apple rating: 4+ for the following: Contains no objectionable material.
Overview: This is a Thai-Japanese-English dictionary/phrasebook. Sections: Word, phrases, library, settings and info. To use it as a Thai to English phrasebook you need to change the display language (first option) to Thai, the speech (second option) to Thai, the Ruby Language (last option) to English.
My favourite section is Luxury goods: Cigarette, marijuana, opium, cocaine, heroin, coffee, green tea, liquor, beer, rice wine and wine.
Possible negatives: While I did read one kha in Thai script, there are no polite particles (male or female). There is an option to edit, but I haven’t a clue how it works (my bad). There are no instructions. The Thai script is small and you cannot zoom in. There is no search. There is no explanation on the Thai culture and language.
Categories:
Greeting, shopping, meal, hotel, transport, hospital, temple, massage, airport and airplane, telephone, company, emergency, lost way, love, school, quarrel, restroom, thanks, apology, encouragement, blessing, complaint, nightlife, sightseeing, rental car, fastfood, exchange.
PhasaThai Free
Price: Free
Author: SANDBOX Co., Ltd.
Date: 23 May 2009
Version: 2.3
Internet connection required: No
Word / phrase count: 121 words, 84 phrases
Overview: Smaller version of the above app.
PocketPhrase
No longer online
Price: £1.19 | US$1.99
Author: Urban Embassy (no longer online)
Date: 18 March 2009
Version: 1.1
Internet connection required: Yes
Word / phrase count: 50+ phrases
Transliteration: Yes (no tone markers)
Thai script: No
Sound: Female
Search: No
Zoom for Thai script: No
Other Thai-X Phrase books: No
Apple rating: Not yet rated.
Overview: Click ‘locate me’ or ‘browse’ to chose your language. ‘Locate’ connects to the internet to find where you are (make sure you have GPS positioning turned on). ‘Browse’ lets you select your language from a rolling bar: Arabic, English, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Polish, Thai, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish, Danish, Faroese, Greenlandic (upcoming languages: Cantonese, Dutch, Hebrew, Malay, and Mandarin). Scroll through 50 phrases. The audio is automatic.
Possible negatives: There can be a long wait between phrases (especially in Thailand) as the app first has to find you, then it has to download audio samples (each time). You are supposed to be able to avoid international charges by setting it to memorise favourite phrases, but I could not find that option (blame the Italians). There is no search, polite particles, or advice on the Thai culture or language.
PocketPhrase Lite
No longer online
Price: Free
Author: Urban Embassy (no longer online)
Date: 27 March 2009
Version: 1.1
Word / phrase count: 5 phrases
Overview: This is a sample app of the full version (above).
Survival Phrases: Thai
No longer online
Price: £11.99 | US$19.99
Author: Innovative Language Learning
Released: 25 March 2010
Version: 1.0
Internet connection required: No
Word / phrase count: 60+ phrases
Transliteration: Yes (no tone marks)
Thai script: Yes
Sound: Female
Search: Yes
Zoom for Thai script: No
Other Thai-X Phrase books: No
Effortlessly learn from a bi-lingual and bi-cultural host and 60 short audio lessons
Access and read all 60 Lesson Write Ups while you listen
Learn local secrets from over 100+ Quick Tips on travel, customs, and etiquette
Quickly access all of the essential phrases and vocabulary covered in each lesson
Instantly search everything above with an easy to use advanced search function
Apple rating: 4+ for the following: Contains no objectionable material.
Overview:
This is an iPhone version of their Thai course I reviewed here: Free Thai Lessons at Survival Phrases. The original course is created around 60 lessons, but on the iPhone version you are given 7 categories.
Once inside the lessons, across the top left of the nav is the title of the category, which takes you back. To the right is an information icon that takes you to a well-written help file. Below is a selection of lessons (phrases). At the bottom of the screen you get an about and search icon.
Some lessons are divided into Write-up, Quick Tip 1, Vocabulary and Phrases, and the sound controls. Others are missing the tips. The sound controls stay visible all the way through, so you can listen to the lesson at any time. In the write up the lesson is explained using transliteration, but no Thai script. Beware as there is no breathing space in the copy so reading is a slog to get through. In the tips section you are given cultural explanations. Finally, the vocabulary and phrase section is where you can see each word and phrase with Thai script, romanisation, and the English explanation. The Thai script is a decent size, as is the romanisation. But the romanisation/transliteration is difficult to read because of the overuse of capital letters.
Possible negatives:
The sound files are the same as their previous version. The problem is, they didn’t bother to take off the introductions. For instance, if you start with Home Visit, you first get the announcement ‘Lesson 57’, which is a bit disconcerting. Especially for someone as anal as myself, who must start lessons from A and work to B and finish at Z. Or else.
I paid full whack for this app and as Richard mentioned in his review, for several reasons (be sure to read his review as well) it’s not worth it. If pressed for a choice, I’d get their iTunes/iPod version instead as you also get free pdf downloads to go with each lesson. But I see they are playing silly buggers with their pricing – INSTANT Download: Only $69.98 $29.99 – so hopefully they will notice the complaints piling up as no way is their 60 phrase course worth $29.99 (I paid $25 for the Thai version), let alone $69.98.
This app is buggy and keeps kicking me out, forcing a restart. It may be due to iPhones upgrading to version 4, so I’ll check back when the update comes out.
Categories:
All, asking for help, basic conversation, etiquette, food and drink, shopping, transportation, travel and accommodation.
Thailand2Go Talking Phrase Book
No longer online
Price: £14.99 | US$24.99
Author: HNHSoft (no longer online)
Date: 17 July 2009
Version: 1.0.0
Internet connection required: No
Word / phrase count: 64 words 286 phrases
Transliteration: No
Thai script: Yes
Sound: Female
Search: No
Zoom for Thai script: No (not really needed)
Other Thai-X Phrase books: No
Apple rating: 4+ for the following: Contains no objectionable material.
Overview: This program has ten categories and fifty subcategories. The home page starts out with tidy icons. A plus, you can organise words and phrases into a favourites category. Another plus is being able to select a related phrase for some phrases (found next to the ‘favourites’ button). The Thai script is legible.
Possible negatives: Lacking is a search, polite particles, and a guide to the Thai culture and language. While the home page is attractive, the rest of the design leaves much to be desired. The English and Thai script is scrunched to the left against the black border, making it uncomfortable to read. Nothing on the turquoise border goes anywhere: icons, url, and logo.
Categories:
Basic, travel, food, lodging, sightseeing, social, shopping, emergency, business, questions, favourites.
Talking English to Thai phrasebook
No longer online
Price: £5.99 | US$9.99
Author: Hanashite.com (no longer online)
Date: 17 January 2009
Version: 2.0.3
Internet connection required: No
Word / phrase count: 2,500
Transliteration: Yes (no tone markers)
Thai script: Yes
Sound: Female
Search: Yes
Zoom for Thai script: No
Other Thai-X Phrase books: No
Apple rating: 4+ for the following: Contains no objectionable material.
Overview: At last, an app with a decent help page. You can add, record, edit, and delete your own phrases. You can even add your own topics. Ah, and a search is included too.
Possible negatives: The Thai script is small and there is no way to zoom in. And by now you will not be expecting polite particles, or explanations of the Thai culture and language (there are no changes here). The section titles are odd so perhaps a consideration is in order: Broken intercourse, then when, saying yes or no, eating (eating, eating and drinking, eating and traveling). But I do like: standing up for yourself, how to say NO.
Categories:
Greetings, arguing, at the gas station, breaking up!, broken intercourse, clubbing, come and go, eating, eating and drinking, emotions, expecting a baby, fun and games, getting intimate, getting to know you, health, hotel, how to say no, internal call, language of love, listen and speak, love and marriage, lover’s arguments, postal services, rent a car, saying yes or no, shopping, sightseeing, small talk, socializing, standing up for yourself, student talk, sweet talk, the hospital, the phone, the when, travel (airplane, bus, ship, taxi, train), trouble, your feelings.
uTalk Thai
Price: £5.99 | US$9.99
Author: EuroTalk
Date: 15 June 2009
Version: 1.0.2
Internet connection required: No
Word / phrase count: 260 words and 16 phrases
Transliteration: Yes (with tone markers)
Thai script: Yes
Sound: Male and female
Search: No
Zoom for Thai script: No (not really needed)
Other Thai-X Phrase books: Not needed as there are over 60 languages to chose from in this app.
Apple rating: 12+ for the following: Infrequent/mild alcohol, tobacco, drug use or reference to these.
Overview: This is a beautifully designed learning app for beginners of the Thai language. It covers the bare basics of Thai vocabulary, with a few phrases thrown in. The sections include: word practice, easy game, easy game+, and hard game. You can record and playback your attempts at speaking the Thai language. The Thai script is a decent size. In the preferences you can set the volume and chose from 60 available languages, as well as clear your history. The graphics incorporated into the design goes a long way to making this program easy to use. Cheers to their design team!
The Thai language learning app from EuroTalk is quite quite exciting, and has a potential for doing more. And you will hear more about EuroTalk on WLT as they sent their Thai EuroTalk Complete Set to be included in my coming reviews of Thai language courses. Nice.
Possible negatives: There is no search, polite particles, or explanation of the Thai culture and language. The iPhone app icon would benefit if the uTalk logo was added to the design (I keep having to dig around to find it amongst the rest of the icons on my iPhone screen). The uTalk logo on the home page would have a purpose if it went to the uTalk site. I’m a clicker (no surprises there), and when I click near the bottom of the home page I get a white glow. It does nothing else. And lastly, I would love to see more Thai vocabulary and phrases. Yeah, when it comes to a beautiful design, I tend to be greedy.
Categories:
First words, food, colours, phrases, body, numbers, time, shopping, countries.
World Nomads: Thai Phrases
Price: Free
Author: World Nomads
Date: 11 November 2008
Version: 1.0
Internet connection required: No
Word / phrase count: 13 words and 23 phrases
Transliteration: Yes (no tone markers)
Thai script: No
Sound: Males (Thai and Australian)
Search: No
Zoom for Thai script: No (no Thai script)
Other Thai-X Phrase books: No. But you can get the same app in Arabic, Dutch, German, Hindi, Lao, Malay, Napali, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.
Apple rating: 4+ for the following: Contains no objectionable material (Ok, how in the world did they pull THAT off?)
Overview: The language lesson includes a few tips on Thai culture, as well as instructions on the basic polite particles.
Possible negatives: Free or no, with only 36 words and phrases perhaps they could ditch these two phrases (even if they have made them an issue in the lesson): those drugs are not mine, please do not shoot. Thai script is not included.
Categories:
Numbers, introductions, directions and transport, places to stay, travel safely, dates.
Learn Thai on Your iPhone: What’s next…
Apologies, I came back from Italy with food poisoning so I’m running late getting this post out.
When I explained it to my writing coach he came back with, ‘Food poisoning in Italy? That’s pretty unfortunate. It’s like getting coffee poisoning in Brazil or beer poisoning in Germany.’
Yeah. I’m lucky that way.
Edit: And here we have it, a spreadsheet comparing the iPhone Thai Language Phrasebook apps listed in this review…
PDF format 36 kb: Thai iPhone Phrasebook Spreadsheet
Note: Survival Phrases Thai is a new release so is not included in the spreadsheet.
Next up on iPhone app reviews: Thai Vocabulary and Word of the Day.
