I talked a little about Tuttle Publishing in my Instant Thai review. They have a long history of producing quality materials about and related to Asia and Asian culture, including foreign language materials. While a long history doesn’t necessarily guarantee quality, their Mini Thai Dictionary is great at pretty much everything it claims to be. It’s small, it’s efficient, it works bidirectionally, and it’s cheap.
This is a great dictionary for study and travel. You probably won’t be deciphering business documents with this, but all the basics are there. I checked a few financial terms and they were missing, but if you’re referencing a mini dictionary, you’re going to expect a few sacrifices. I only include this because I’ve heard people complain about a simple dictionary “missing” advanced content.
Let’s go over the structure of the dictionary, what it does well, anything to be aware of, and who it’s best for. Most mini dictionaries have a more limited use case, and this one is no exception. As long as you know what to expect going in, you’ll get a lot out of it. This is a solid dictionary.
Structure and Layout
The dictionary is laid out like most dictionaries. There’s the standard introduction which touches on pronunciations and grammar (which is never really useful without already having started learning the language), then the actual dictionary. There are 357 pages of dictionary material in a double column setup (with word – definition lines).
It’s a small book which is about 3 inches (7.5 cm) by about 4 inches (10 cm), by 0.7 inches (1.8 cm). It’s smaller than most cell phones, but thicker. The English and Thai sides are each about the same size (185 pages in English versus 170 pages in Thai). For how small it is, it’s extremely efficient.
You get a mix of English, Thai, Thai romanization, and part of speech for a given definition. Sometimes you get explanations or context (but these are rarer as the work is made to be more compact). There are colloquialisms and more formal terms defined as well depending on the word. There’s no real usage section like with larger dictionaries.
What It Does Well
While font is rarely something that matters, it’s important for small form books and language books for newer learners. This dictionary fits in both categories, and fortunately the fonts used are great. The text is clear and legible without any effort. Some dictionaries are too small or blurry, others try too many color gimmicks to be easily legible.
This work employs a nice use of fonts and text types to make each section obvious. I had barely used the dictionary, but I could scan it easily. It’s intuitive and just makes things easier. To top it off, it’s really cheap (for a good dictionary).
The pronunciation system is a bit nonstandard compared to some, but makes more sense than others. It’s closer to IPA than most Thai romanization schemes for the consonants overall. Vowels are like pretty much any other system, hit or miss.
The actual content is pretty thorough. There are several sections where it will reference other terms. It’s a mini dictionary, so it’s a bit sparse, but not at the expense of getting the point across.
You get a good number of vocabulary words with a very clear path to and from them for each language. Nuance may diminish, but it’s not just a phrasebook either. I’ve had issue with many more limited dictionaries putting one language ahead of the other, but this appears to be balanced enough. I’m yet to have it not catch a term in a lower level textbook or with more accessible media though.
Weaknesses
It’s a mini dictionary. I really can’t fault it for anything else at present. It’s a tiny dictionary which delivers what it says it will deliver. That being said, like anything, there will be weaknesses depending on what you’re looking to do with a dictionary.
This is a good first dictionary, but I’d recommend learning the writing system if you want to use this for full effect. This isn’t a weakness of the dictionary, but the weakness of trying to learn Thai in general. There isn’t a standard romanization that’s the same between everything.
There’s no real usage explanation. Again, this is a limitation of this being a mini dictionary, but I’ve heard people complain about this sort of issue. This dictionary links a word or phrase to another word or phrase, or several words and phrases. You don’t get anything else, and this can be problematic for certain purposes.
It’s a very basic dictionary. That can be a weakness if you aren’t prepared (though I hate to say it). You won’t master every term, but you’ll get an idea which context can (hopefully) answer usage questions for. Study dictionaries differ from more academic dictionaries in this regard. Too much information can be worse than not enough in the beginning though.
You’re trading depth for access. There’s a reason this dictionary fits in a standard jean pocket easily. You aren’t dealing with something which will help you unlock literature, but you will have a quick, easy way to get an answer to what a word means in most materials while you’re studying or traveling.
Using This Dictionary
This is a very good dictionary for beginning learners, but it hinges on you learning their romanization scheme well enough (this can be a bit harder without more experience with the Thai language), and you knowing the context of certain terms. It’s a word to word(s) style dictionary with sparse usage notes. The romanization scheme isn’t anything too out of left field, but it is different than many for certain sounds (due to the IPA influence).
One of the first questions most people pose for learning a language is why should they still bother with a print dictionary? Print dictionaries offer an advantage of not having to learn any kind of input method or IME. You have a way to search if you are fuzzy on what exactly you’re working with. An app can do a lot, but there’s just something about the process of searching for a word which enriches learning. It’s a bit harder to stumble on different words when every word is targeted.
There’s a little bit of a linguistic requirement to understand how the sounds are classified compared to textbooks focused on ease of access for students. Even mentioning it feels like making a mountain out of a molehill, but it’s big enough to mention. The lack of recordings and depth for the pronunciation section makes it cryptic without some background. That being said, as long as you can handle one system well, you can handle this one.
While this dictionary has a good depth for a study dictionary, it also isn’t going to hold you over forever. You’ll want more eventually. That being said, with the size and efficiency of this dictionary, you’ll want to keep it even when you outgrow it. It took me years to get rid of dictionaries I started learning Chinese with (once I learned how to buy them).
It’s a great little dictionary to get going with. You’ll hit a wall eventually, but it will take quite a while. It’s small, efficient, and well made. It’s is a great study dictionary for anyone serious about learning Thai.
Get it here.