Learning at read, write and speak Thai

[ginocox]

The Thai language is much like Thai women. Quite beautiful, but infuriatingly ambiguous, overly complex, a bit tradition bound and often too polite to say what really needs to be said.

I’ve studied Thai for about three years. I wouldn’t consider myself fluent, but I can carry on simple conversations with native speakers if they are reasonably patient and indulgent and can read and write a little. Tones are my greatest challenge. I doubt I say ใหม่ไม้ไม่ไหม้ไหม correctly and I can’t pronounce ง to save my life.

Thai-Language is extremely helpful, as is Thai2English.

Becker’s introductory and intermediate CDs with accompanying texts are reasonably priced and easy to find. Reproduction quality is adequate, but can be an issue. There are a few mistakes and the material is slightly dated, but it’s a good starting point.

Pimsleur’s audio-only lessons are good for study in the car or at the gym.

I don’t recommend Berlitz. Rosetta Stone is expensive and only offered beginning level lessons when I checked.

Courage Software has a software program with drills that I find helpful, but it is only available for PCs. In theory I could run them on my MacBook Pro, but after a discouraging experience with Parallels, I uninstalled the software and haven’t tried again, although I need to readdress that issue. The software is on my desktop, which is often not available when I have time to practice.

On the subject of Mac/PC, I had a lot of trouble trying to use Thai with Office for Mac and had to switch to Pages.

I’ve taken classes at Wat Thai in North Hollywood, California and at Wat Dhammaram in Chicago, Illinois. The first class was good. I cannot recommend the second; however, I have begun taking private lessons with one of the monks. These have proven very helpful, even though he sometimes seems to feel obligated to act like Pai Mei. I teach him some English in return.

Gino

[ginocox]

That should, of course, have been ไม้ใหม่ไม่ไหม้ไหม. Sorry for mangling the language.

Gino

Originally Posted by ginocox

The Thai language is much like Thai women. Quite beautiful, but infuriatingly ambiguous, overly complex, a bit tradition bound and often too polite to say what really needs to be said.

I’ve studied Thai for about three years. I wouldn’t consider myself fluent, but I can carry on simple conversations with native speakers if they are reasonably patient and indulgent and can read and write a little. Tones are my greatest challenge. I doubt I say ใหม่ไม้ไม่ไหม้ไหม correctly and I can’t pronounce ง to save my life.

Thai-Language is extremely helpful, as is Thai2English.

Becker’s introductory and intermediate CDs with accompanying texts are reasonably priced and easy to find. Reproduction quality is adequate, but can be an issue. There are a few mistakes and the material is slightly dated, but it’s a good starting point.

Pimsleur’s audio-only lessons are good for study in the car or at the gym.

I don’t recommend Berlitz. Rosetta Stone is expensive and only offered beginning level lessons when I checked.

Courage Software has a software program with drills that I find helpful, but it is only available for PCs. In theory I could run them on my MacBook Pro, but after a discouraging experience with Parallels, I uninstalled the software and haven’t tried again, although I need to readdress that issue. The software is on my desktop, which is often not available when I have time to practice.

On the subject of Mac/PC, I had a lot of trouble trying to use Thai with Office for Mac and had to switch to Pages.

I’ve taken classes at Wat Thai in North Hollywood, California and at Wat Dhammaram in Chicago, Illinois. The first class was good. I cannot recommend the second; however, I have begun taking private lessons with one of the monks. These have proven very helpful, even though he sometimes seems to feel obligated to act like Pai Mei. I teach him some English in return.

Gino

[jsflynn603]

Just cook him up some fishheads, that'll cure his attitude.....hehe

[Dave O'Dottu]

Originally Posted by Serendipity2

. . . . Are there schools in Chiang Mai offering classes in learning to read, write and speak Thai available to foreigners? I'm not looking for one-on-one as that's not the best way to learn and it's costly - even in Thailand. Short of appearing at a local school and beginning in the 1st grade [I'm sure the school administration would NOT be amused] does anyone have a suggestion? Some can be learned from books but a class setting would be very helpful - especially when it came to speaking and getting the correct pronunciation etc. . . . .

There a plenty of schools in chiang mai, large and small. CMU, chiang mai university, may have something.

There is a good teacher who has his own office-classroom in a small soi just off Chaiyapoom road, along the moat. The street has a different name on the other side of the moat. But walk away from Thapae square and you will see his sign in orange letters. He speaks very good english and has an excellent teaching method.

In the opposite direction on this same street is DK books near the Lanna Thai hotel. They have books and dictionaries. I would caution you however, that some dictionaries sold in foreign countries are for native speakers wishing to learn english, so they will not give all the information you need.

Of course AUA will have Thai classes but they will be expensive. If you walk past AUA away from Thapae square toward the big temple, you come to an area with a lot of little schools, they may be interesting to you.

[KhwaamLap]

Originally Posted by Dave O'Dottu

There a plenty of schools in chiang mai, large and small. CMU, chiang mai university, may have something.

There is a good teacher who has his own office-classroom in a small soi just off Chaiyapoom road, along the moat. The street has a different name on the other side of the moat. But walk away from Thapae square and you will see his sign in orange letters. He speaks very good english and has an excellent teaching method.

In the opposite direction on this same street is DK books near the Lanna Thai hotel. They have books and dictionaries. I would caution you however, that some dictionaries sold in foreign countries are for native speakers wishing to learn english, so they will not give all the information you need.

Of course AUA will have Thai classes but they will be expensive. If you walk past AUA away from Thapae square toward the big temple, you come to an area with a lot of little schools, they may be interesting to you.

Excellent info there Dave - I may take a wonder and see if I can get a Saturday class for hte kids and me down Chaiyapoom road - don't suppose you remember the name of the school? Cheers KL

[Dave O'Dottu]

Originally Posted by KhwaamLap

Excellent info there Dave - I may take a wonder and see if I can get a Saturday class for hte kids and me down Chaiyapoom road - don't suppose you remember the name of the school? Cheers KL

Sorry cannot remember the name. It's a thai name.

[frogblogger]

Good bookshop, DK Books - most expats head for the Suriwong, but DK has a good selection too...

[flemmie]

For those that only want some assistance in Thai (I am getting too old to learn yet another language), I can recommend a small app that I downloaded on my iPhone, called iPoodThai (look it up under apps). It was very cheap (maybe even free) and has about 12 categories with each 15-30 expressions. Quite neat, it says it for you so you can repeat, it shows the english and thai written on screen. It has helped me a lot already.

Nothing of course for those who wanto to seriously learn the language.

Hope this helps.

[bayleigh]

I'm fascinated by the Thai culture, but finding the Thai language much more difficult to learn that I had thought it would be. Not sure why I thought it would be easier...

Anyway, here is a Web site that has videos about reading, writing, and speaking Thai. They also have some on the Thai culture. Everything else looks good, so I'm sure they probably know what they're talking about, but I understand you have to be really careful not to believe everything you read/hear about the culture.

[bayleigh]

Originally Posted by bayleigh

I'm fascinated by the Thai culture, but finding the Thai language much more difficult to learn that I had thought it would be. Not sure why I thought it would be easier...

Anyway, here is a Web site that has videos about reading, writing, and speaking Thai. They also have some on the Thai culture. Everything else looks good, so I'm sure they probably know what they're talking about, but I understand you have to be really careful not to believe everything you read/hear about the culture.

Sorry. I forgot to post the link, then had trouble posting it. If you're interested, the site is called learn-thai-videos (dot) com