Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Pablo]

Hello

Does anyone know what kind of Korean phone I need to buy or what kind of procedure I need to put a Korean phone through in order to send (and receive) SMS text messages in Thai script (ภาษาไทย) from Korea? I haven't bought a phone yet and I would like to find out what I need to do beforehand, in case I need to buy a particular kind of phone or sign up for a particular kind of provider. Thai phones don't work in Korea.

This question might be a bit unusual. I have not had any luck finding someone who knows the answer. Does anyone have a Thai friend in Korea who you could ask for me?

Some of my friends in Thailand can't read English and I need to text them in Thai.

Thank you very much for any information or any leads.

Pablo

P.S. I've already tried politely approaching strangers on Facebook who are Thai people living in Korea, but I have not received any response.

[jonpurdy]

Well, the only phone that I know of that supports Thai script would be the iPhone. You can easily send and receive texts in Thai as well as type in any application or read any documents sent in Thai.

The last time I checked, the Galaxy phones only supported English and Korean. But this may have changed so check with someone who would know about that.

The only problem is sending the Thai script to and from Thailand. A couple of years ago I was unable to send and receive Korean text when I was in Canada with a Canadian SIM card. I think that perhaps the carriers stripped out anything non-Roman text. This has been fixed since then. So definitely test it out if you can before you go ahead and purchase something.

[orosee]

Easy-peasy. You can get either an iPhone and join the mainstream, or get any of the large number of Android based phones and install the free "Multiling Keyboard" app, after that you can text in pretty much any script you like. There are also paid apps/keyboards, of course.

Of course, if you just get an iPhone then you could ask "Siri" the same question (but I'm not sure if you'd get the same answer).

I have a Galaxy-S and have used Thai with it so I know this works.

[Pablo]

Thanks much for this info Jonpurdy and Orosee. I think I found half a solution. I found out that Yahoo Messenger can send SMSes in Thai to Thailand as long as the destination phone is on one of two major cell phone providers: AIS or DTAC. And it's free. Yay! I tested it and it worked. The drawback is that I'll need to send my SMSes from a computer rather than from a phone. But that works okay for me.

I looked at the list prices of iPhones and android phones online. Woah. That's the price of *airfare* to Thailand. Yikes.

I asked a friend in Thailand to send a Thai script SMS to a cell phone in Korea. I don't think the Korean phone is an iPhone or an android. Unfortunately, even just receiving the Thai message didn't work on that common phone (I don't know the type.) The Thai characters were rejected and rendered as "???????????????".

So I guess the question I'm left with is: Is there a cheap Korean phone that can simply *receive* Thai text messages correctly, without needing the ability to send them?

It just doesn't seem right to blow US$400-600 just to be able to receive a message that any cheap $30 phone in Thailand can read correctly. I know it's silly to compare North-South prices, but it just doesn't seem like *receiving* a Thai message should be rocket science.

Argh.

Pablo

[r122925]

[Pablo]

Hey, that sounds much more affordable. I'll check that out. Thanks R122925.

Pablo

[thomas pars]

ice cream sandwich keyboard on android supports thai.

[orosee]

iPhone 3gs, new or used, should be affordable for a reasonable price.

Or get an iPad with WiFi, it can be used for a few other useful things as well.

But I agree with your airfare comparison ^^

By the way (since I'm leaving Korea for 2 weeks for my annual Christmas/New Year Korea Blues Evasion Holiday), are there any apps or sites that can reliably give cheapest airfares for a certain flight?

I tried 2 famous ones and the results were hilarious:

Jin Air:
Site A: ~540,000 Won
Site B: ~1,500,000 Won (same flight!!!! Jin Air doesn't even have this tariff)

BremenFly:
Site A: ~400,000 Won but for an airline that went extinct over a year ago

Good luck with your texting!

[jonw8uk]

A word of warning on this, you need to confirm that the network supports it.

I'm on Olleh, using an iphone4, and any thai script message (sent or received) comes through as question marks.

I do an 8/2 rotation here, and in my off time I'm home in Bangkok, so of course I know my phone is thai capable.

I get around it using whatsapp, which is free, providing you have a data package.

I've tried to think how I could be doing this wrong, but I just tested it 5 minutes ago - sent a english sms to thai mobile - received, sent thai, "???????" received instead of thai script. They replied the same way - same results. I have screenshots to confirm it......

Maybe paranoia on Korea's behalf, or probably just lack of interest on the networks behalf..?!?!?

[Pablo]

Thanks, jonw8uk. I haven't had a smart phone before, but I googled WhatsApp. Does it mean that by using this WhatsApp add-on program, you are able to bypass the (uncooperative) telephone network and send the SMSs via the Internet through your phone? I've always gotten by with a very basic phone until now, so I'm trying to figure this out. Thanks.

Pablo

P.S. What's an 8/2 rotation?

[jonw8uk]

[jonw8uk]

[Pablo]

Thank you again, Jonw8uk. I can probably set up my most important SMSee with a smartphone and app when I go to Th on vacation.

I'm sorry, your 8/2 back-and-forth intrigues me. Could you possibly PM me to tell me more about what you do? I don't yet have the minimum 25 posts necessary to send a PM. I would put my e-mail address here, but I would guess that's not allowed. If the details are too personal, no problem.

Pablo

[jonw8uk]

[Pablo]

Cool! I thought maybe you found a really GREAT hagwon. :- D

Thank you for saying.

Pablo