Thai Intensive Course

[luisparis]

We're planning to fly in a relative from China to help us working in BKK. I'd like him(or her) to arrive a couple of months earlier and spend that time studying conversationnal Thai. He won't have anything else to do so the more hours a day the better. The school and the area around don't need to be fancy, and we'll get him an apartment very near.

he won't speak a single word of english so farang presence is not necessary. Consequent chinese population may help him feel better though.

any idea which school to look, perhaps in Yaworat? And could we get him a student visa thanks to the course?

[jdinasia]

We're planning to fly in a relative from China to help us working in BKK. I'd like him(or her) to arrive a couple of months earlier and spend that time studying conversationnal Thai. He won't have anything else to do so the more hours a day the better. The school and the area around don't need to be fancy, and we'll get him an apartment very near.

he won't speak a single word of english so farang presence is not necessary. Consequent chinese population may help him feel better though.

any idea which school to look, perhaps in Yaworat? And could we get him a student visa thanks to the course?

at Chula would be good ... they can help with visas etc

it is 4 hours of class a day (5 on campus) but it is INTENSE

homework should run several hours a day

The whole program is a year long but the basic section is 3 months and encompasses reading/writing some too. The classes are conducted in Thai.

[mangkorn]

I am a Yaowarat denizen, and there are no Thai-language schools around here, so I agree that Chulalongkorn would be the closest. Also, contrary to some popular opinion, I don't believe that too many of the ethnic-Chinese population actually speaks Chinese, although some read it. (The fact is, most people living down here these days are from Isaan.) But he would recognize some signs, food and general ambience, and could find cheap Chinese-style lodgings.

Oh, come to think of it, there is a tiny Chinese-language school in front of Wat Traimitr, and I bet they would be happy to switch over and teach Thai to a Chinese person. Just a thought. Cheers.

[expat_4_life]

We're planning to fly in a relative from China to help us working in BKK. I'd like him(or her) to arrive a couple of months earlier and spend that time studying conversationnal Thai. He won't have anything else to do so the more hours a day the better. The school and the area around don't need to be fancy, and we'll get him an apartment very near.

he won't speak a single word of english so farang presence is not necessary. Consequent chinese population may help him feel better though.

any idea which school to look, perhaps in Yaworat? And could we get him a student visa thanks to the course?

at Chula would be good ... they can help with visas etc

it is 4 hours of class a day (5 on campus) but it is INTENSE

homework should run several hours a day

The whole program is a year long but the basic section is 3 months and encompasses reading/writing some too. The classes are conducted in Thai.

There are other schools that assist with visas too, Piammitr and Unity are two that I know of. These and other schools offer intensive study programs for a fraction of the cost of Chula, assuming that cost is a consideration. Yet another consideration may be the timing, schools like Piammitr and Unity start new beginner level classes every month whereas I believe that Chula being a University only starts courses each semester.

There is a long running discussion of schools in Bangkok on the forum, click the link below.

Best Thai Language School

[luisparis]

Jdinasia

Thanks for your advice, it has me thinking studying conversationnal thai only if we plan to set up that person in BKK for long term isn't that smart. Studying writing would be useful as well, although at the beginning we only need him to know basic thai to achieve simple deals and perhaps communicate a little with me as well as my chinese is nihil. I'll check expat4life link and try to get larger vision of the offer for thai schools.

We might do without the student visa if we can get him a long enough tourist visa. After the first 3months studying we'll try and get him a non immigrant visa than possibly a work permit.

Mangkorn,

I've noticed that in Thailand even second generation thai chinese tend to have forgotten mandarine or even Chao Zhou (it seems that's the originl dialect that most people we deal with there) so I'm not overly surprised with what you say about Yaworat.

Yet where I work we see quite a few chinese new immigrants who only speak broken thai. Any idea where they tend to gather/live ?