Gary's Chiang Mai "learn to read Thai" course. Has anybody here attended it?

[OishiRefill]

I have been toying with the idea of attending one of these 'bootcamps' for over a decade but personal commitments or work commitments have always prohibited it.

I was wondering if anyone here had been on the course and could vouch for it?

If I hear great things I am going to bite the bullet and go take the course regardless of how difficult is will be to arrange.

It is so frustrating being 'illiterate' living here in Thailand.

 

This is the link to the site I am speaking about.

 

https://rapidlearnthai.com/

Edited May 30, 2021 by OishiRefill

[Chris.B]

If no one responds you could study Thai in an online group class here...

 

https://learnthaiwithmod.com/online-group-lessons/

 

I personally recommend it.  ????

 

There are some new classes coming up in the next couple of weeks.

 

[1FinickyOne]

it is enough to learn bau bai w/o u-boat captains.. or cackling old witches...

 

looks like it complicates things a bit... and I can't imagine how you learn without memorizing things... 

 

but, everyone learns differently and if it works for you, go at it.. 

[Bredbury Blue]

THB 42000 for the 6 day course! Expensive. I'd have a go at learning on your own first or you could try contacting the lovely ladies at learnthaiwithmod or Banana thai or maybe get the wife to do a deal with a teacher from a local school.

 

[Bredbury Blue]

Have a look at Stuart Jay Raj's website and sign up to get access to his free lessons, skip through them until you get to the ones teaching the consonants vowels and tones (also available on his YouTube channel) and see what you think. His book (haven't read it) linked to his teaching vids might be a cheaper and better option to try first, if that doesn't help you then maybe do the 6 day course.

[EricTh]

On 5/30/2021 at 7:07 PM, Chris.B said:

If no one responds you could study Thai in an online group class here...

 

https://learnthaiwithmod.com/online-group-lessons/

 

I personally recommend it.  ????

 

There are some new classes coming up in the next couple of weeks.

 

I second Learn Thai with mod, they are easy on foreigners and they speak English well.

 

Most Thai in Thailand either can't speak English well or can't teach to foreigners. They teach the same way as their teachers taught them when they were kids.

[EricTh]

5 hours ago, Bredbury Blue said:

Have a look at Stuart Jay Raj's website and sign up to get access to his free lessons, skip through them until you get to the ones teaching the consonants vowels and tones (also available on his YouTube channel) and see what you think. His book (haven't read it) linked to his teaching vids might be a cheaper and better option to try first, if that doesn't help you then maybe do the 6 day course.

 

Stuart Jay is more for advanced Thai learners. He talks too fast and talks a lot of confusing stuff like Sanskrit sounds. Not recommended for beginners.

 

Edited May 31, 2021 by EricTh

[Bredbury Blue]

1 minute ago, EricTh said:

 

Stuart Jay is more for advanced Thai learners. He talks too fast and talks a lot of confusing stuff like Sanskrit sounds. Not recommended for beginners.

 

 

I would agree Stuart Jay Raj  is probably not for absolute beginners. Wouldn't say he talks too fast (As a brit I have no problem with his Aussie speech). He does explain a lot about the background to Thai, Lao, Khmer, etc being derived from Sanskrit but I found that an eye opener and his map of the mouth is a brilliant simplification of Thai sounds which has moved me forward. He is a polyglot in 16 languages I believe and sometimes is videos are aimed at others than me - I have no interest when explains about Chinese Korean Japanese etc unless it directly relates to Thai. I find his stuff very interesting, watched all his free videos over the past 3 weeks and can imagine his paid for stuff would be very helpful but at the moment I'm just cracking on learning with other resources.

 

[Bredbury Blue]

11 minutes ago, EricTh said:

I second Learn Thai with mod, they are easy on foreigners and they speak English well.

 

Most Thai in Thailand either can't speak English well or can't teach to foreigners. They teach the same way as their teachers taught them when they were kids.

 

Working my way in the last few weeks through all of Mod's videos from 7 years ago and I've the most recent year to go through. Mod and Pear are excellent teachers, very entertaining and easy on the eye ????. 

 

Likewise I'm working my way through Banana Thai videos from 3 years ago and I've got the last 11 months to go. Also listening to the podcasts. Comments about Mod and Pear above are ditto Khru Smuk. 

 

If I had to choose one to sign up for lessons with, it'd probably be Smuk as she's very enthusiastic and her English is the best of the 3 i think which could be helpful  (that said, I used to have lessons with my kids Thai language teacher who spoke no English at all - usually we could get by understanding each other, but failed one time when I didn't know the Thai for coffee BEAN or GRINDING and she rang the wife to find out what I was on about).

 

[Kinnock]

Yes, I've done the one week course with Gary.

 

Yes it works .... but with some limitations.

 

The constant repetition of the stories and visual references for the letters does help you to remember the sounds - so after the week you can read most Thai letters correctly.  There's also opportunities to practice during the week to reinforce the learning.

 

The limitations are due to the Thai language itself.  After beginning to think you have the hang of it after 3 or 4 days, you are then introduced to even more letters, and none of them follow the logical pattern of the first 3 days.  They are generally the less frequently used letters, but they are still needed to be fully literate.

 

Then on the last day you're shown simplified Thai script, and you realise all of the little loops and kinks needed to relate to the visual stories are missing.  At this point I lost the will to live.

 

You also need decent spoken Thai, or you'll not understand what you are reading.

[EricTh]

25 minutes ago, Bredbury Blue said:

 

Working my way in the last few weeks through all of Mod's videos from 7 years ago and I've the most recent year to go through. Mod and Pear are excellent teachers, very entertaining and easy on the eye ????. 

 

Likewise I'm working my way through Banana Thai videos from 3 years ago and I've got the last 11 months to go. Also listening to the podcasts. Comments about Mod and Pear above are ditto Khru Smuk. 

 

If I had to choose one to sign up for lessons with, it'd probably be Smuk as she's very enthusiastic and her English is the best of the 3 i think which could be helpful  (that said, I used to have lessons with my kids Thai language teacher who spoke no English at all - usually we could get by understanding each other, but failed one time when I didn't know the Thai for coffee BEAN or GRINDING and she rang the wife to find out what I was on about).

 

Who's Smuk?

[Bredbury Blue]

Just now, EricTh said:

Who's Smuk?

Sorry, the teacher/owner of Banana Thai is khru Smuk

 

 

 

 

[EricTh]

2 minutes ago, Bredbury Blue said:

Sorry, the teacher/owner of Banana Thai is khru Smuk

 

 

Sorry, I watched some of her videos... just not as good as Mod/Pear in terms of teaching style.

 

[Bredbury Blue]

2 minutes ago, EricTh said:

 

Sorry, I watched some of her videos... just not as good as Mod/Pear in terms of teaching style.

 

 

Why?

[BritManToo]

Why not attend the YMCA course in Chang Puak (COVID allowing).

Not expensive and really easy, 4-6 weeks at 2-3 lessons a week.

Edited May 31, 2021 by BritManToo

[Chris.B]

1 hour ago, Bredbury Blue said:

 

Working my way in the last few weeks through all of Mod's videos from 7 years ago and I've the most recent year to go through. Mod and Pear are excellent teachers, very entertaining and easy on the eye ????. 

 

Likewise I'm working my way through Banana Thai videos from 3 years ago and I've got the last 11 months to go. Also listening to the podcasts. Comments about Mod and Pear above are ditto Khru Smuk. 

 

If I had to choose one to sign up for lessons with, it'd probably be Smuk as she's very enthusiastic and her English is the best of the 3 i think which could be helpful  (that said, I used to have lessons with my kids Thai language teacher who spoke no English at all - usually we could get by understanding each other, but failed one time when I didn't know the Thai for coffee BEAN or GRINDING and she rang the wife to find out what I was on about).

 

 

I had a look at Banana Thai's web site but couldn't see any face to face classes offered. She seems to be offering access to online material and videos.

 

Learnthaiwithmod, on the other hand, offer tuition in a class format using Zoom, i.e. real time tuition.

 

[Bredbury Blue]

13 minutes ago, Chris.B said:

 

I had a look at Banana Thai's web site but couldn't see any face to face classes offered. She seems to be offering access to online material and videos.

 

Learnthaiwithmod, on the other hand, offer tuition in a class format using Zoom, i.e. real time tuition.

 

 

Both offer online group classes (around b200-250 HR I think I saw) on zoom.

 

LearnThaiwithmod definitely offer 1to1 classes online, I'd  assume Banana Thai also does.

 

https://bananathaischool.com/course/

 

From watching the videos I'm sure either school  would be very good.  Just don't let the wife watch the lesson ????????????

Edited May 31, 2021 by Bredbury Blue

[rhodie]

Try this one. https://lingopolo.org/thai/ 

 

It's free and while it has limitations, it works for me. 

[EricTh]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Why not attend the YMCA course in Chang Puak (COVID allowing).

Not expensive and really easy, 4-6 weeks at 2-3 lessons a week.

 

YMCA is one of the worst schools after having studied there. The books are full of translation errors, too many formal words that aren't used in real life, teachers who can't teach and can't speak English well.

 

The translation errors in their books have been there for more than 10 years and they don't even bother to correct it. It just shows how uncommitted they are to good education.

 

I had to unlearn a lot of formal words that I learnt there because people don't use that in everyday life. Unfortunately, they don't teach the informal equivalent in their books.

 

The only good thing about YMCA is the big and spacy classrooms and lower tuition fees but you aren't going to learn much.

 

 

Edited May 31, 2021 by EricTh

[EricTh]

2 hours ago, Bredbury Blue said:

 

Why?

 

I compared with Mod's videos and find Mod's videos are much better in terms of content and presentation.

 

One of BananaThai videos showed a formal way of speaking which isn't used in spoken Thai. She doesn't seem to know which are formal and informal words like most Thai teachers unlike Mod and Duke language schools.

 

BananaThai is good for absolutely beginners but not for higher levels.

Edited May 31, 2021 by EricTh

[OishiRefill]

Many thanks to all who responded with suggestions and comments. 

[shdmn]

I find this method works well for me.

https://rapidlearnthai.com/

 

 

[OishiRefill]

3 minutes ago, shdmn said:

I find this method works well for me.

https://rapidlearnthai.com/

 

 

In what form/package? Did you physically attend a camp or did you buy the self-study reading package?

[OishiRefill]

On 5/31/2021 at 8:17 PM, Kinnock said:

Yes, I've done the one week course with Gary.

 

Yes it works .... but with some limitations.

 

The constant repetition of the stories and visual references for the letters does help you to remember the sounds - so after the week you can read most Thai letters correctly.  There's also opportunities to practice during the week to reinforce the learning.

 

The limitations are due to the Thai language itself.  After beginning to think you have the hang of it after 3 or 4 days, you are then introduced to even more letters, and none of them follow the logical pattern of the first 3 days.  They are generally the less frequently used letters, but they are still needed to be fully literate.

 

Then on the last day you're shown simplified Thai script, and you realise all of the little loops and kinks needed to relate to the visual stories are missing.  At this point I lost the will to live.

 

You also need decent spoken Thai, or you'll not understand what you are reading.

 

Good to hear your report.

That's my core objective. To be able to make the sounds of those letters.

If I can make the sounds of a full word, and if it is a word that I have already learnt through speaking & listening, it will be a massive advantage.

Thanks for the opinion.

 

 

[OishiRefill]

I decided on https://rapidlearnthai.com/

 

Bought the (version 3) of the self study videos & flashcards for reading.

 

[Kinnock]

1 hour ago, OishiRefill said:

 

Good to hear your report.

That's my core objective. To be able to make the sounds of those letters.

If I can make the sounds of a full word, and if it is a word that I have already learnt through speaking & listening, it will be a massive advantage.

Thanks for the opinion.

 

 

The course is more effective than the traditional 'Gor Ghai, Nor Ngoo" method, and I think the challenges and limitations are due to the hugely complex language itself rather than any particular teaching method.

 

Hope your learning goes well.

 

 

[Chris.B]

6 hours ago, OishiRefill said:

I decided on https://rapidlearnthai.com/

 

Bought the (version 3) of the self study videos & flashcards for reading.

 

 

The cost seems a bit steep for self-study. Lazada have flash cards for 233 baht and there are loads of free videos on Youtube for learning Thai language

 

Edited June 13, 2021 by Chris.B

[OishiRefill]

45 minutes ago, Chris.B said:

 

The cost seems a bit steep for self-study. Lazada have flash cards for 233 baht and there are loads of free videos on Youtube for learning Thai language

 

Some, as I do, have a "visual learning" style. It is part of a theory of learning methods which have yet to be proven or disproven by academics. This being said, I did remember the sounds of the letters of the Thai alphabet which were available free from the site (as a kind of tester).

I see this as an investment in my own life. Sure some things are free. Some things IMHO are easier / better when they are paid for. I have the feeling that the author/creator of those materials put a real load of effort into it. I am excited to receive the download link or access code to the materials. Will report back in a month or so to comment on how it worked, for me at least.