hi everyone I'm Casey and I'm currently in Thailand looking for a tutor who can help me with my initial language learning

need help in learning Thai language here on the site

 

The best that you can do is to find a Thai person with a lot of patience and interest in language.   I have not succeeded in this, although I have often thought of asking at schools for teachers prepared to help in their spare time.  I haven’t done so because it seemed to be such a long-shot.  

There are people on You Tube advertising Thai lessons too.  

For the mechanics of the language join Thai-language.com where you will find everything you need in lessons and conveniently, a forum where any questions you have can be answered.  Learn to read and write as you learn to speak because then you will not need to learn phonetics.  

In terms of a useful book to use to begin learning Thai, I would suggest the Beginning Learner book (I forget the actual title) by Benjawan Poomsan Becker.  It is very helpful with pronunciation since it starts with vowel, consonant sound and words using English letters to approximate the proper pronunciation and acting as a kind of bridge to get the learner to know proper Thai. There is also audio CD.

 

As for working with a Thai person, I agree with choosing the patient and enthusiastic Thai person, perhaps a university student.

To begin with, there are heaps of lessons on YouTube.

Try it out.

Thanks

Warmest