ภาษา ต่าง ประ เทศ
“ภาษา ต่าง ประ เทศ” (пхаса таанг пра тхет) — foreign language in Thai. Noun, level A2. Literally "language of another country": the same phasaa as in "Thai language". Thailand has many of its own languages; a foreign one is "from across the border". In a live sentence: “ภาษา อังกฤษ เป็น ภาษา ต่าง ประ เทศ” — English is a foreign language. Written with the characters ภ, า, ษ, า, ต, ่, า, ง, ป, ร, ะ, เ… A word from the everyday Thai course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Thai | ภาษา ต่าง ประ เทศ |
| Read in Latin letters | пхаса таанг пра тхет |
| Translation | foreign language |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "language of another country": the same phasaa as in "Thai language". Thailand has many of its own languages; a foreign one is "from across the border"
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- ภาษา อังกฤษ เป็น ภาษา ต่าง ประ เทศпхаса ангкрит пен пхаса таанг пра тхетEnglish is a foreign language
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “foreign language” in Thai?
«ภาษา ต่าง ประ เทศ», read “пхаса таанг пра тхет”. In a live sentence: “ภาษา อังกฤษ เป็น ภาษา ต่าง ประ เทศ” — English is a foreign language. Noun, level A2; written with the characters ภ, า, ษ, า, ต, ่, า, ง, ป, ร, ะ, เ…
How is “ภาษา ต่าง ประ เทศ” written in Latin letters?
пхаса таанг пра тхет. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally "language of another country": the same phasaa as in "Thai language". Thailand has many of its own languages; a foreign one is "from across the border". A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.