Bangkok Library Digital library and information center for Bangkok, Thailand

Chatting on the Internet is a great way to practice and improve your Thai for free. It can also be a fun way to make new Thai friends and may be one of the few ways to meet Thai people if you are living outside of Thailand.

By searching on Google, you can find many Thai websites that allow people of all ages to exchange email addresses, mostly for chat on MSN Messenger (Thai: เล่นเ็็อ็ม) or Windows Live Messenger, but also Yahoo Instant Messenger, Skype, and ICQ. There seem to be few concerns about privacy and data protection, so beware if you decide to post your own details. Most websites allow the user to post his/her age, and if you want to improve your Thai language skills you are best advised to choose someone of at least 25 years old to chat with. Many younger Thai people, especially teenagers, prefer to use teenage slang (Thai: ภาษาวัยรุ่น) with its heavily corrupted spellings and poor grammar, and for obvious reasons it's definitely not a good idea to chat with adolescent boys or girls unless you are one yourself.

This useful one-page guide teaches the names of each day of the week in Thai. It also lists commonly used abbreviations for each day and explains the origins of each word.