kikenyoy

I'm interested.

Thanks for posting this.

Thank you. Shouldn't it have "ได้" at the end though?

I say "ใส่กล่อง" (or ถุง)

as in "I don't want to be too predictable"

I just had a look around your site and found this sentence under the what you will and won't learn section: ซ่วยลอดแอร์ไห้หน่อยครับ – chuay lod aeh hai noi khrab (please reduce the air conditioning)

There are 6 words in the sentence and you misspelled 3 of them... doesn't exactly instill confidence in the quality of your course.

I think that your drawings could help a new student to learn to read faster, but what I don't understand why you would choose objects like "boat" and " "tortoise" which are the names of other letters. This will surely be confusing when the student tries to learn the correct names. Why not choose something else like "bucket" and "telescope" (with a man bent over looking through a telescope). instead? Personally, I would rather just learn the correct names from the beginning and make up my own associations, but since the need to spell a word or write down a word that's spelled doesn't happen too often then a case could be made for using your method which will get them reading faster.

This site has a dictionary with audio files http://www.thai-language.com/dict

I live in Pattaya and have had 5 different teachers here...none of whom have greatly impressed me. I am now self studying and am at a conversational level, working slowly towards fluency. Forum member Kris Williams tried the schools here then decided it was worth it to commute to Bangkok to get better instruction. He said that Pro Language was the least bad of the schools in Pattaya and I would agree.

You said: "I will study with a falang as a last resort"

I did a few lessons with Bret Whiteside via skype and think he is good though a bit expensive at about 1000 baht/hour. As a native English speaker who learned Thai as an adult I think he is better suited to teaching than a Thai because he has already gone through the same difficulties that you will face. If money wasn't an issue then I would be studying with him full time. I don't think I can post links here so if you're interested I can pm you his details or answer any other questions.

Good luck.

I wanted to edit my post but I guess I was too slow.

Not all Thai books are about ghosts. There's the book ฉันคือเอรี่ which many of the forum members read and there is a thread about it. It's the autobiography of a girl working in the bars in Thailand and abroad.

Chart Korbjitti has written several novels and a bunch of short stories. I've read a few of his books and don't remember any references to anything supernatural. His novella จนตรอก was very good. พันธุ์หมาบ้า was mostly enjoyable but it's a bit over 700 pages and my interest level in it was up and down... but, to be fair, it was probably too difficult for me when I read it a few years ago so it was more of a struggle than it needed to be.

Are you familiar with Michael Connolly? Most of his books are about a homicide detective in Los Angeles named Harry Bosch, but he has a few stand alone books also. I've read all of his books and while they aren't exactly great literature they are quick, entertaining reads. I've seen several of them translated to into Thai

A few of the books make reference to earlier events and backstories of recurring characters but for the most part they can be read in any order. I borrowed a few from a friend then read them as I found them in second hand stores and I don't think it mattered too much.

I'd be happy to put a link in, but last time I did that the mod said it was against the rules.

Well... their house, their rules I suppose, but it seems a shame to not allow links to useful sites (especially non-commercial ones).

I'm about the only person left without a facebook or twitter account but I have it bookmarked and will be checking it every few days.

Now that I've had time to go through a few articles it's amazing how efficient it is: I read the vocab list and article while the audio is downloading and cut and paste any interesting phrases/sentences directly into Anki. With most material I need to have thai2english open as well to type in unknown words. The only improvement I can think of would be more frequent updates.

Great idea Keo. How about this?: http://wp.me/pUfz6-pN A guided reading based around a report of the fourth day of rioting in the UK. Audio included if listening practice is more your bag.

Two bits of key vocab to get you in the mood:

จลาจล riot

ปล้นสะดม to loot or plunder

Enjoy

Audio, transcript, vocab list, and translation...absolutely perfect! I just quickly searched your blog and there is enough material there to keep me busy for quite a while. What a great resource! You should put a link in the tagline of your posts. People need to know about this site.

From the website: Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/learn-thai-squiggles/id432765724?mt=8#

'Thai Squiggles' for the iPhone and (I think) Android is pretty good.

Good luck

I just talked to Brett and it's only available for the iphone.

. Thais can understand each other when whispering - and when whispering it's physiologically impossible to make tones.

It seems possible to me. Where did you hear this?

This is a test where they show you the consonant and you have to select the initial sound, consonant class and final sound (no audio though and very slow to load): http://www.couragesoftware.com/quizOne/conquiz/ie4/index.html

This page has all the consonants color coded by class with their names and clickable audio. There is a similar page with the vowels.

Well, there are many others here who are far more proficient than I am, but I'll give you some input until one the big guns arrives. First of all, there are more ways for us to mess up the pronunciation in Thai than for other foreigners in English. There are the tones, vowel length, and pronunciation of the vowel and consonant sounds. If you make a mistake in one area you will likely still be understood, but multiple mistakes will doom you. I've had people tell me how great and clear my pronunciation is...then I heard a recording of myself and I was horrified! I was making very routine mistakes with tones and vowel lengths and yet I can sit and have a conversation for a few hours and have the person I'm speaking to understand almost everything I'm saying.

You didn't say how long you've been studying, so this may or may not apply, but if you've moved beyond just saying things out of the phrasebooks then part of the problem could be the way you phrase things. As an example, I bought one of those chicken wrap sandwiches and only wanted chicken so I said " gai tao nan" (chicken only). Made perfect sense to me but I repeated it 3 times and he couldn't understand me so I switched to English. I later found out that the correct way to order it would be "mai sai pak, mai sai sauce" (no vegetables, no sauce). I try to get the tones right, but I think that even if they were wrong I'd still be understood because it is the correct phrase.

Many times I've wanted to say something but didn't know the right word so I'd go home and look it up in the dictionary then try using the next time I was in a similar situation. My success rate with this was below 50%. Either the word would be too formal/obscure or there would be a more colloquial way of saying it. Now I ask a Thai person or on the forums and only use a Thai to English dictionary to help with comprehension, not to learn new vocabulary.

"I must admit this has had a drastic effect on my confidence in being able to speak Thai and my willingness to try and persevere."

This could be another problem. When I'm unsure about saying something I tend to speak it less clearly which makes it even harder to understand. I have a friend who has never formally studied and has very poor pronunciation and says almost everything in a mid tone, but he's one of those people who is totally unafraid to make mistakes and says everything with confidence...and Thais seem to be able to understand him even though the mistakes are so obvious that even I recognize them.

Are you self studying? What are you doing to try to improve?

I don't know if it's correct for all abstract nouns, but ข้อ is used for questions, rules, choices, reasons, etc.

I have a friend who advertises on Craigslist and has found partners for various languages including Thai. The cost is about $20 per hour, but they usually aren't teachers...just native speakers. There are a lot of commercial sites which you can find by searching "language exchange".

Thanks for this. I love shows with Thai subs....and the seizures aren't so bad once you get used to them.

Here's another one for you. with a bunch of episodes on youtube: หัวใจใกล้กัน

I would say jaak 123

[. I am thinking it might be more regional (perhaps isaan/lao)

Nope. I had a teacher from the south who said it a lot and so does my daughter who is in Bangkok. I've also heard Isaan girls use it.

Thank Rick...I really enjoyed that.

For the Thai conversation portion of their material; they now provide a review lesson after every 4 study lessons and a comprehension test after every 8 lessons. They deleted some lessons which didn't provide good useful vocabulary and added others which give more 'bang-4-the-baht', and each book has its own c/d with crystal clear sound files to practice getting your pronunciation down out of class. The Thai reading/writing books are easier to use and have much more practice insofar as learning to write and read Thai

Do you know if these books/cd's are available to purchase? Unfortunately I live too far away to attend classes there.

Did you try google? I remember seeing a site like that and searched "thai for beginners quiz". It was the first hit:

http://www.thaiforbeginners.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=28

It also has exercises for the intermediate and advanced books.