GotR1GHT

Re the Walen School method:

It involves giving the student a book with call-response dialogues written out in Thai script. The teacher reads out a question in a very artificial manner, reads it out again, then students read an answer. And on and on.

Can't read Thai script? No problem. Just run your finger along the passage as the teacher reads the question and as other students read the answers. You'll absorb Thai script in no time.

That's strange because i didn't experience anything what you have written.In my class at walen we use book only as a pointer. Every word is translated and explained in what kind of context it is used.Then,everyone has to make a sentence in thai using that word.After that,like you said,we read question from the book BUT you have to answer in your own words without looking at the answer.Not to mention all conversation has to be spoken in thai,even if you want to ask for permission to go in bathroom.

So,me and you have completely different experience.

I've never heard about hidden fee or threatened visas at walen.You shouldn't believe anyone,best thing to do is to attend a class and see what's like,that's what i did before i enroll at Walen.I have no regrets,i feel i improve my thai a lot since i'm studing there

I started to learn Thai at age 257 and had no previous experience. I spent many hours (800 plus) just listening to spoken Thai and was not allowed to attempt speaking all that time.

As I am just beginning to learn Thai, excuse me if this has been done before. I write the words the same as musical notation. Anybody else try this?

I don't get,how do you do it? Have an example?

A short summary of regrets:

• Didn't learn how to read and write from the beginning
• Didn't set the tones right from the start
• Didn't learn how to type
• Poor teaching

Have I missed anything else?

I still don't know how to type/write. I'm focusing on vocabulary/tones,live conversations and reading. I think it would just take too much time from those things if i decide to start learning writing.

Oh man i would really really like for you to record saying หมูทอดกระเทียม". (or something other)

Here it is.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1O79FAt2iVZ

BTW, what kind of media files can be uploaded? I tried m4a, m4v and mp4, but all were rejected.

I have zero problem understanding what you are saying.

It is easily clearer than 95% of the farang I have heard speak Thai; you seem to have a pretty reasonable understanding of the tones, Moo is actually a rising tone (you are using a high tone because you have cut the sound so short, it should be more like moooooooooo (rising) toooooord (falling) you are cutting it a bit short, G (gratium) not K (kratium, yes it is written kratium but said with a G) but that is still easy enough to understand.

The only thing I can guess is you don't have the context, I would not walk into a Thai restaurant and just say this. It would be like walking into McDonalds and blurting out "cock". With a little context, it would be quite understandable (despite my mispronounciation)

(wait for server)

hello can I take your order?

Hi, can I get a big cock?

you mean a coke large size?

yes

would you like fries with that?

no, just the coke.

etc etc

I can think of countless farang I work with who speak Thai far, far worse than this and they get understood, I can only guess it is perhaps who you are speaking to, and perhaps not wrapping enough context into the conversation, or it is some sort of alignment of the moons. Honestly, I have zero problem understanding you.

I know you have sort of given up, but at least when I first moved back here (I could speak a little Thai as a kid) I had an aunt who said the following things:

- speak slowly, it will help the person speaking to you to speak slowly

- if they don't understand, carefully say the same thing again, exactly the same

- there are many reasons why someone won't understand you, it doesn't mean you are saying it wrong, it may be they are partly deaf; they may be preoccupied with something else; they may just be a moron - don't assume it's because you are speaking gibberish

Anyhow, I really do think you are very very close, easily good enough, are you in Bangkok? Upcountry sure, people cannot even always understand a city accent, in Bangkok people should be understanding you with this level of pronounciation.

I agree basically with everything you said here especially "speak slowly" part

Similar to mine situation just i'm lucky because it took me 1 year not 18 years to discover i really need to learn tones,so i didn't lose much but still i had to start from bottom again.

I hope you understand why I gave up. I figure that about 95% of the Thai I know is totally wrong. The most monumental screw up of my life. If I could erase from my brain everything I know about Thai and start over again, I would. That seems to be not possible.

The solution I've found for myself is to try to be happy and have a full life without knowing or using the Thai language. It's not easy, but certainly a lot easier than, at age 64, starting from scratch.

Thanks to all. I'm done with this thread.

But let me tell you,based on mine experience,learning for 2nd time will be SO much easier because you'll already have vocabulary and meaning of the words so only thing what you have to do is setting the tone right.I have done this and it's much easier than you think

my girlfriend didn't understand either. When I said it she understood, and made these suggestions:

the word for garlic (กระเทียม) starts with a sound more like the 'g' in girl than the 'k' in kite. Also you might exaggerate the rising tone in muu (หมู) more, and make the vowel a little longer.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0JlbYAHGmOz

And herein lies the crux of the problem. I have no idea what the tone of any of those words is supposed to be. I have no idea what the tone of any Thai word is supposed to be. If I see a Thai word written down I can figure out the tone from the tone rules, but no information about tone is stored in my brain about any Thai word. Why? Because when I first started learning Thai nearly 18 years ago I made the stupid assumption that I could ignore tone and that listeners would understand based on context. How wrong I was.

And, yes, I often make a 'k' sound when I should be making more of a 'g' sound. Why? Because all of the texts from which I learned Thai used a 'k' to represent a 'ก'.

Yes, I have many regrets. Go back and read my first post in this thread.

At this point I just don't have the energy or the wherewithal to go back and learn the tone of every word and unlearn all the horrible pronunciation habits I have picked up over the years.

This is why I gave up.

Thanks to all for trying to help. It really is no use. Time to move on.

Similar to mine situation just i'm lucky because it took me 1 year not 18 years to discover i really need to learn tones,so i didn't lose much but still i had to start from bottom again.

Oh man i would really really like for you to record saying หมูทอดกระเทียม". (or something other)

Here it is.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1O79FAt2iVZ

BTW, what kind of media files can be uploaded? I tried m4a, m4v and mp4, but all were rejected.

I don't get it how people can't understand you,it was fairly decent and very understandable.

If I knew what the problem was I could figure out how to fix it. When I hear spoken Thai I can't pick out any words at all. It's just an unintelligible buzz. When I listen to my wife talk to friends or family on the phone or in person I understand zero. But, if she repeats it to me in what she calls "Rosetta Stone Thai", I understand quite a bit. When watch the Thai TV news in the morning I don't understand anything the announcers say. Not a word. However, I can read some of the on screen text and usually understand the SMS messages posted at the bottom of the screen.

Can you understand this? Level 5 has 10 parts,she is really a great teacher.Also,would be nice if you post some video on youtube of you speaking thai(you don't have to show face ),just to see what's the problem,i'm sure someone would give you good advice.

Which level is required to undestand radio or tv 100% ? because this woman, I understand everything, but on news on tv or radio I must say sometimes I don't understand a word: they speak too fast or use words that I don't know yet

as for the woman on video, she articulates very well and she uses an everyday vocabulary but there is more to do to be fluent : are there other levels ?

I'm not sure but i've seen somewhere that vocabulary of about 5000-6000 words would be sufficent for some intermediate conversation thus maybe understanding tv/radio talks.

So, yesterday I'm cycling in the boonies and stop for lunch. The proprietor of the restaurant asked me what I wanted.

I replied: "หมูทอดกระเทียม".

The proprietor gave me a puzzled look and said, "ข้าวผัด".

Well, no.

But, this is the story of my life with Thai. No one ever understands.

I keep trying, every single day, but make pretty much zero progress.

(And, yes, I eventually got my garlic fried pork, but it took many stabs and an especially tedious exchange clarifying that I wanted pork, not chicken.)

Oh man i would really really like for you to record saying หมูทอดกระเทียม". (or something other)

You can use http://vocaroo.com/ - online voice recorder. I would really like to hear how you talk,i don't get it how people can't understand.I'm sure you would get some good advices here.

I never even heard of MOE testing and i have been going to school for total of about 2 years. When they do the testing,in immigration or?

What i realized is that for me knowing tone rules is useful for some words like mai,kaai,maa(all with their similar spelling and different meaning). But for all other words i will just remember how to pronounce it properly. For example:

If i see words like ม้า หมา ,tone rules would be useful because words like that are very similar and i would have difficult time recognizing what words means

but for any other words like ประเทศ บ้าน tone rules are not useful to me because i can just remember how to pronounce it and it wouldn't be difficult to memorize because there are no similar words like it.

If i see word บ้าน i will know how to pronounce it,because there are no similar words like it,but on other hand word like หมา one could have trouble identifying meaning because it could be easily mistaken by ม้า.

tl:dr tone rules(for me) -very useful for similar words like ม้า หมา ไข้ ไข่ ไม้ ใหม่ ,so you can identify it quickly

- any others words- just remember how to pronounce it

The tone rule is only useful when you are trying to write down a spoken word.

For instance the word, มา can produce 5 different sounds like the middle consonant but in order to produce the corresponding tone, you need to write like this มา, หม่า, ม่า, ม้า, หมา

So we group those consonants which have similar pattern as ม and call them low consonant. And all those words can only be written in this regard that is มา, ม่า, ม้า นา, น่า, น้า.

The tone rule is taught in school, so that you can remember how to write what is spoken correctly. They are not meant to be used in the reversed order. In other words, it's not used to to help you pronounce the word correctly. In order to do that, you just have to remember them all by heart. You can try, but it's going to be really confusing and hard, unless you remember what them all sound like in the first place (which isn't that hard to remember).

Yep,that's why the only way to remember it+pronounce it correctly is to read,read,read every single day.Books,magazine articles..

Yeah when i'm reading it takes some time to discover what tone to use with that word but after some time i will memorize that word so when i see it again i will know how to pronounce it instantly.

Ian added you.

shoot2kill4fun1 - cant find that?

Yeah loads of SG servers and pings around 50 even. Never seem to have as much player activity as what I see is going on in US ones and even on 40/40 player ones I never see anyone, I am getting a bit bored of the looting etc now and want to start messing with some noobs lol

I have never had trouble playing online with 200-250 ping,even in quick shooter games like COD and BF3. I would think ping around 200 should be more than playable for dayz

First off, DO learn Thai if you're going to spend a substantial amount of time here. Your experience will be richer and more fun than if you didn't. Don't give up, everyone reaches a plateau now and then, but trust your effort will pay off in the long run.

Secondly, DO learn to read & write. I refused to learn my first couple of years here and it was a mistake. Once I could read a lot of problems I was having became easier to understand, and acquiring new vocabulary became easier. The other thing about reading and writing is that it's easier to learn than speaking/listening - so it keeps your confidence level up.

Have fun.

I gave up because after years and years of study and after learning how to read, I still made absolutely zero progress learning how to speak and understand. The constant failure to understand and to be understood was just way too depressing for me. I'm much happier now that I've accepted the fact that I will never learn conversational Thai.

For example: The other day I was on a long bicycle ride. I stopped to buy water three times. Each time I asked for น้ำเปล่า in my best Thai. Each time the shopkeeper looked at me as if I'd asked for tickets to a Puccini opera.

So, after 17 years of on and off study and after living here for nine years, I can't even ask for a bottle of plain water.

It was time to give up.

Well if you learned thai for 17 years and can't even order water then you're doing something terrible wrong.

น้ำ is a high tone,maybe you didn't pronounce it correctly(or what @rumblecat said "It might be that they're just not expecting the foreigner to ask in Thai so their ears are tuned in",which is true sometimes).

Thai is very hard and time consuming language to learn.It isn't just enough to learn only vocabulary like in most languages but actually learn how to pronounce correct tones with EVERY WORD you learned.Thai is tonal language and that makes it so hard to learn.

most of the post here are stupid but congratulations you have just won first prize

or maybe you're the one who is stupid. It's not post of the year but there's some truth in it.Comparing buddhism thinking that people are not worried about death which basically means hey let's drive drunk, if die and take 4 people with me -no worries,i'll be reincarnated.Lol. It just shows that many foreigners think they know everything about Thailand but in fact they know jack shit.And yeah i agree,most of the stupid stories come from barstools

I'll probably wait for 1-2 months,just to make sure they fixed all game-braking bugs.I don't want to ruin my experience by stupid bugged deaths or losing all inventory etc.Also i have read there are almost to no zombies in-game.

OP can i ask how much was cost of the entire trip+visa costs at the end?

I would take much more time to learn tones properly,thai is a tonal language and it depends on tone and vowel lenght if you're gonna be understood or not.

If thai is non-tonal language i would probably be fluent already.

To all those folks who are saying OP is a moron please point at someone who owns a big bike and never did break top speed on the highway.It's not like op is doing 230kmh 24/7.I agree that luck was involved too,if there were couple of cars in the other line it would be hard to avoid it.

Also to anyone who's saying this is only luck not skill - bullcrap. Anyone who manage to go from 100% death situation to only "that was close" takes some skill,especially at that speed.

If that was a car instead of bike there's a high chance that car would oversteer doing that manouver at that speed.

I got a ninja 650 and its supposed to go 220km/h or at least that is what they say. I can tell you the fastest I have been was 160 and that was only to tip that speed and go slower again on an quite empty road. What I like about the bike is the torque not its top speed i would not want to try that out here in Thailand.

I might be a far less competent driver as many but top speed does not do it for me. I usually cruise at the speed of traffic maybe a bit faster but not 50km / h faster as the rest of traffic. I also wont zig zag like you see some people do.

Everyone has their own riding style and skills, some love to test them and pay for it. I just hope they wont take people with them. Speeding is normal here.. but 220 km/h is extreme speeding in my opinion.

Live and let live.. i still think its dangerous to do here.. if it was only his life so be it. But at these speeds a bike can take out a car.

I agree,same as me.I never really like the top speed,on the other hand i enjoy much more in acceleration till 100-120kmh.I'll probably never get a bike that has more than 650cc 70-80hp.Something like 400cc,50hp top speed 180 would be ideal for me,especially in thailand seeing and experiencing so many close calls

To all those folks who are saying OP is a moron please point at someone who owns a big bike and never did break top speed on the highway.It's not like op is doing 230kmh 24/7.I agree that luck was involved too,if there were couple of cars in the other line it would be hard to avoid it.

Also to anyone who's saying this is only luck not skill - bullcrap. Anyone who manage to go from 100% death situation to only "that was close" takes some skill,especially at that speed.

If that was a car instead of bike there's a high chance that car would oversteer doing that manouver at that speed.

I'll but a second hand ninja 250r for 60k just for city cruising.Anyone knows the answer on my question?thx

A 60k ninja ? Surprised it starts...

I'm buying from a friend,14k km 4years old. Nowdays you can get cbr250/ninja 250r 2010year with 10-15k km for 80k