# learning thai



## captainben (Mar 29, 2010)

cab anyone surgest a good way of learning thai ,ie schools ,private lessons,tutoring ,i have been married to my thai wife for 2 years and still struggle and as we life in a place where no one speaks english ,its up to me to try


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## Mr. Soap (Feb 6, 2010)

How about volunteering some of your time at local schools?
Some teachers there can help you with your Thai in exchange for your help with English.
Mrs. สบู่


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## gino (Jul 20, 2009)

There are many excellent resources for Thais who wish to learn English. The materials and options available for English speakers wishing to learn Thai are more limited.

*Self-Study CDs*
Pimsleur
Audio-only course. Sixteen half-hour lessons. Good to work with during a commute, jog or work-out. No transcription from Pimsleur or elsewhere that I’ve found. There are transcriptions online for the Pimsleur Japanese and Mandarin courses, although they are hard to find, but not for Thai. Only beginning course, no intermediate or advanced, as with some other languages. 

Becker
Probably the most extensive selection of materials. Relatively inexpensive and easy to find. There are some quality issues, particularly with the beginning level materials. Printing quality is poor and can be difficult to read, audio quality is mediocre with static and background noises, missing tone marks and misspellings, text doesn’t match audio, that sort of thing. Also, materials are based on outmoded language acquisition paradigms.

Rosetta Stone
I haven’t used. The materials are expensive and the last I checked, only beginning level available for Thai. I think there are better options.


*Computer Programs*
_Courage Software_
Good for drills of basics, like alphabet. Haven’t done much else. Unfortunately it doesn’t run on Macintosh or on Windows 7. But a good program if you use an earlier version of Windows.

_Becker_
Becker has a software program that I bought, but never installed on my PC. I wasn’t able to install it on my Mac. 

*iPhone*
There are half a dozen Thai apps. I haven’t used any of them. According to the reviews, none are particularly good. Several are reviewed here: iPhone apps: Thai Language Phrase books | Women Learning Thai... and some men too ;-)


*Online*
thai-language.com
An excellent and fairly comprehensive online dictionary with a number of useful articles, lists, tables and such. Unfortunately, the search function is not well designed. If you try to find a simple word such as an article or preposition, it returns dozens of results that use the word in the definition. They also have an extensive list of books and resources. 

Thai to English dictionary, translation & transliteration - Thai2English
An excellent online dictionary, although not as extensive as the other. Also translates paragraphs and web pages. Translations return all possible definitions, which is often helpful, but can be cluttered. Fewer audio files.

Online Keyboard for Thai - incks.com
Puttipan Thai Keyboard
Two virtual keyboards. I find the first easier to use as keys are in alphabetical order, which is more familiar to me than the Thai keyboard arrangement. Also, each letter has a separate key. The second mirrors a Thai keyboard, so requires a lot of carriage shifts.

Language Exchange Community - LingoPass! <img src="/media/images/login.png">
A new site with a promising premise that has yet to reach fruition. It presents an opportunity to meet others who wish to practice a foreign language. I’ve chatted a few times with a girl from Jordan, but haven’t yet found a language partner for Thai, Mandarin or Japanese. 

Language Exchange Community - Practice and Learn Foreign Languages
A site for finding a foreign language pen pal. I met a girl on this site who has helped me with my homework and I’ve helped her with her homework in Economics and English Literature. But you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a suitable, motivated language partner. 


*Personal Instruction*

Thai temples in the States generally have some sort of programs, usually geared to children. They generally offer language, music and dance and may also offer other courses, such as math tutoring. Some have adult classes. I studied one-on-one with a monk for about six weeks, two hours per day, four days a week. I helped him with his English and he helped me with Thai. A waitress at a Thai restaurant near my home tutored me for a while. Most of the adult classes I’ve seen have been geared to conversational Thai for tourists. I don’t know what is available, if anything, in Thailand.


Everybody has different learning styles. To master a language, you need to study the four basic skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing. There are a number of resources available at a beginner/tourist level, but I’ve found very few self-study materials at an intermediate level. In frustration, I attempted to produce my own materials, but I’m not at all happy with what I’ve produced so far. I’ve tried to use speakers who were fluent in both Thai and English, but I think I shall have to use native Thai speakers and simply dub in English by native English speakers. I’ve learned a lot through the project, but I’ve yet to produce anything I’m comfortable trying to promote. If anybody is interested to assist with this project, please contact me. It needs a lot of work.


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## KhwaamLap (Feb 29, 2008)

captainben said:


> cab anyone surgest a good way of learning thai ,ie schools ,private lessons,tutoring ,i have been married to my thai wife for 2 years and still struggle and as we life in a place where no one speaks english ,its up to me to try


If you are in Thailand (I know your location says you are, but many people list the locations they visit or expect to migrate to at some point) then you can't beat going to proper lessons.

It all depends what you actually want to learn. If you want to be able to order in cafes, buy tickets, answer he phone and converse with the Mrs, but don't care about reading and writing, then there are many, many places to learn. Try your local YMCA (in Chiang Mai they are very good and really quite cheap). Also many language schools that teach English to locals also teach Thai to foreigners. You can also try local Universities etc - but these will be prices - I;ve heard CMU is good, but never tried myself.

If you want to learn Reading and Writing too, then some say it helps to be able to read Thai script before going deep into Thai language - the reason is transliteration - every course seems to have its own way of transliterating Thai script and they are all rubbish. Why? Because depending on your accent you will still pronounce the words differently (take and example: 'a' as in 'Grass' - in London it would be /Grahrs/ in Yorkshire /Gruss/ and so on). THat script gives the tone by tone mark and by class rules. Know them and you can get the pronunciation at the same time you learn the vocab - no relearning stage. Other people poo-pooh this. As Gino said, everyone learns differently.

I learnt to speak basic Thai first (simple 'holiday'/'get by' language like asking where the toilet is etc). Then I learned the Thai alphabet and how to read. I am still learning (and new rules - and exception to those rules - all the time). I am currently doing a second level Thai writing course (to help improve my awful attempts at spelling in Thai) -= its quite basic for me, but it helps to re-affirm and formalise stuff (and iron out the bugs!). Ironically there are four other people on my course all Japanese or Korean - the level 1 course has 3 times the number and all bar one are farang - so may be many never get past learning the alphabet and basic vowels.

If you are outside of Thailand, then find a Thai temple. Monks often teach Thai lessons - usually for free (a donation would be nice). I did this in the UK for 6 months. It was once a week for 3 hours - it was really quite intensive and taught me reading and language - though I forgot most of it when I had to give up due to work commitments, and had to relearn it all again  

Walen school has a different approach. All the books are in Thai script and basically the "teacher" reads the words/sentences over and over and you repeat over and over - and you learn them along with the script. Its strange to me, but many people say it has good results. The only problem I've heard of this - and its common with these sort of places - is that they have lots of people that sign up for the (overly) advertised "Ed-Visa ability to stay in Thailand" reason and turn up rarely - but slow it all down when they do as the class has to move together.


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## gino (Jul 20, 2009)

*I second that emotion*

I agree with everything KhwaamLap says. 

If you want to go beyond the basics, which would probably be a good idea as you have a Thai wife who will probably want any children to also learn Thai, you need to learn the alphabet. There are probably half a dozen transliteration systems, none of which is truly satisfactory and the official rules for transliteration produce some strange results. 

One-on-one instruction with a monk or other dedicated teacher is the best way to go. I studied for over a year at Wat Thai near Los Angeles. We had a core of dedicated students and a very fluid group that drifted in and out. The instructor constantly went back to basics to bring new students up to speed and the old-times never progressed very far.


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## captainben (Mar 29, 2010)

thanks forall the info ,just shows how ,sharing knowledge through our own expriences can help ,if only a few world leaders /contries would do the same!!!
i think the way i will try is to find a school /tutor in bangkok as i have tried self taught courses and get distracted kids will have the tv on ,wife yapping away with her friends etc ,but i suppose that is even learning because i have started to notice indivdual words cropping up in conversations and i find that just looking at ther body language and the tone of the voice,
i havw worked in egypt for over 12 years and can speak arabic purely through listening (dont have much choice when your the only english captain on an all egyptian ship, so i willbe hunting down a language schoolwhen i get back on leave , actually one of the reasons i want to learn more thai is so i can helpout at the local school ,our village is very remote and the school is struggerling to stay open as many parents send there children to better equiped ones if they can afford it ,which is good in a way but what about the 70 or so kids who depend on the local school ,this xmas i gave the school a stack of paper ,pencils and sports equipment , i turned up dressed as santa claus which they found hilarious ,the headmaster made them all line up and thank me for the gifts ,i will never forget the look on there faces , brought me to tears , they showed genuin gratitude and i was so impressed by there respect for elders and how neatly they where turned out in there uniformrs i watched as they sang the national antheam and raised the thai flag up and filed off to there classes except 4 boys who ha been caught dropping litter in the school yard ,there punishment was to go around the whole shcool inside and out picking up not only litter but the dead leafs ,try doing that inthe uk and yous have some angry parents threatening to sue the school bcause they didnthave the right safety gear on or something!!! like i said i have been a ships captain for over 15 years and have travelled the world and have many stories ,just wish i could speak to them ,but just seeing the joy on there faces after getting a few footballs and pencils, 
i am the only farang in the village infact for miles so it took some time for them to come out from brhind the teachers skirt, but like most kids in the world a few funny faces and a strange looking man making a fool of himself soon broke the ice , thanks again for the advice will let you know how i get on
BEN


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