Language school teaching Thai (or private teacher) in Sisaket?

[rotor1]

Hi forum,

is there any language school teaching Thai for foreigners in Sisaket? If not, any recommendations of private teachers?
Living now for nearly 2 years in Thailand, I find learning from books and videos only doesn't make it for me.

Thx in advance and regards,
Chris

[nikmar]

there are on - line options.

 

I follow this lady on facebook and get some great advice from that.

 

 

https://learnthaiwithmod.com/

 

 

 

 

[rotor1]

@nikmar
Thx for the hint. I know the site, good videos.
Anyways, I seek for in person teaching.

[youreavinalaff]

1 hour ago, rotor1 said:

@nikmar
Thx for the hint. I know the site, good videos.
Anyways, I seek for in person teaching.

It's there, right out side your front door.

 

Immerse yourself. Learn a language the way proven to be most efficient and effective. Just like you learnt your own language when you were a small child.

 

Eliminate your native tongue from your everyday life for a few months and you will pick up the local language(s). 

[KhaoNiaw]

46 minutes ago, youreavinalaff said:

Immerse yourself. Learn a language the way proven to be most efficient and effective. Just like you learnt your own language when you were a small child.

Actually all the research shows that immersion and completely natural language is a very inefficient way for adults to learn a new language. Adults don't learn a new language in the same way that children do. There are critical periods where adults lose the ability for incidental learning to the extent that children have, not completely but natural language learning on its own becomes much less efficient.
 

[youreavinalaff]

56 minutes ago, KhaoNiaw said:

Actually all the research shows that immersion and completely natural language is a very inefficient way for adults to learn a new language. Adults don't learn a new language in the same way that children do. There are critical periods where adults lose the ability for incidental learning to the extent that children have, not completely but natural language learning on its own becomes much less efficient.
 

In a language school or even with a one on one teacher you are not going to get enough experience. Asxan example, learning an hour a day it will take years to master the language. 

 

Why do you think young ladies working in bars along with taxi drivers and tuk tuk driver in tourist areas speak better English than most Thai English teachers?

Anyone faced with a situation of being in an area with totally foreign language will learn and much faster than sitting in a classroom. The clue is in the word " learn". We need to learn languages, not study them. 

 

I studied French at school for 12 years.  Arrived in Thailand with zero knowledge of Thai language. Lived in an area with virtually no English spoken. Thai was by far my second language within 6 months. When I met my wife she spoke zero English. Within a year she was more proficient than all of her peers that had studied at university. 

 

You say " all reasearch"? How about thesis by Cummins, Kinginger, and Wilkinson, as examples?

 

 

 

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by youreavinalaff

[rotor1]

@youreavinalaff
I agree. When we built our houses here (some smaller adobe houses, we built on our own - from brick production to welding the roofs) I learnt a lot from the Thai helpers, who came from surrounding villages. Direct social interaction is the best, no question. That's one way.
But I know myself - to really get into the language, for the next step I need a teacher.

[youreavinalaff]

19 minutes ago, rotor1 said:

@youreavinalaff
I agree. When we built our houses here (some smaller adobe houses, we built on our own - from brick production to welding the roofs) I learnt a lot from the Thai helpers, who came from surrounding villages. Direct social interaction is the best, no question. That's one way.
But I know myself - to really get into the language, for the next step I need a teacher.

For what purpose? Reading? Writing?

 

The problem with studying Thai with a teacher is they may undo what you have already learned. Academic Thai is not the same as conversational.

 

A teacher will take you through the grammar, most of which you don't need. As an example, a friend of mine learned at an English centre. He kept saying "khun ja gamlang bai nai?" to the locals. They had trouble understanding. I de- contructed what he was saying to " bai nai?". Understood by all.

[rotor1]

1 hour ago, youreavinalaff said:

For what purpose? Reading? Writing?

 

The problem with studying Thai with a teacher is they may undo what you have already learned. Academic Thai is not the same as conversational.

 

A teacher will take you through the grammar, most of which you don't need. As an example, a friend of mine learned at an English centre. He kept saying "khun ja gamlang bai nai?" to the locals. They had trouble understanding. I de- contructed what he was saying to " bai nai?". Understood by all.

Reading, writing. In the first place.
I'm fully aware of those differences ;-)
A private teacher seems the best solution to me. A school could be glued to a somewhat fixed curriculum.

[KhaoNiaw]

5 hours ago, youreavinalaff said:

In a language school or even with a one on one teacher you are not going to get enough experience. Asxan example, learning an hour a day it will take years to master the language. 

 

Why do you think young ladies working in bars along with taxi drivers and tuk tuk driver in tourist areas speak better English than most Thai English teachers?

Anyone faced with a situation of being in an area with totally foreign language will learn and much faster than sitting in a classroom. The clue is in the word " learn". We need to learn languages, not study them. 

 

I studied French at school for 12 years.  Arrived in Thailand with zero knowledge of Thai language. Lived in an area with virtually no English spoken. Thai was by far my second language within 6 months. When I met my wife she spoke zero English. Within a year she was more proficient than all of her peers that had studied at university. 

 

You say " all reasearch"? How about thesis by Cummins, Kinginger, and Wilkinson, as examples

Cummins, Kinginger, and Wilkinson are only talking about fluency? And focus on children? The critical period hypothesis means adults no longer have the same acquisition capabilities of children. It's actually widely accepted based on the research evidence. Check out the first few chapters of Long 2015 for a very detailed look at the evidence on the main approaches. There are plenty of foreigners in Thailand immersed in local areas with a lot of input similar to Thai children, who barely pick up any of the language. 
Anyway, I'm certainly not going to argue that synthetic approaches through grammar rules, vocabulary lists etc. are any good. Completely natural learning is a much better option than that yet still relatively inefficient. You actually gave a kind of mini lesson in the approach that research shows is the most effective (also Long 2015) when you gave the example of friend and probably shows why the OP feels he could benefit with a teacher. Genuine communicative interaction, still giving the adult implicit learning capabilities chance to function, and you giving explicit feedback that allows your friend to notice and adapt accordingly. That's a good example of the analytic approach I feel.   

Edited June 1, 2023 by KhaoNiaw

[youreavinalaff]

1 hour ago, KhaoNiaw said:

Cummins, Kinginger, and Wilkinson are only talking about fluency? And focus on children?

No and no.

 

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by youreavinalaff

[youreavinalaff]

1 hour ago, KhaoNiaw said:

There are plenty of foreigners in Thailand immersed in local areas with a lot of input similar to Thai children, who barely pick up any of the language. 

The only expats I know that have barely pick up any Thai are those that are content to rely on and hide behind their wives.

Edited June 1, 2023 by youreavinalaff

[scorecard]

8 hours ago, youreavinalaff said:

It's there, right out side your front door.

 

Immerse yourself. Learn a language the way proven to be most efficient and effective. Just like you learnt your own language when you were a small child.

 

Eliminate your native tongue from your everyday life for a few months and you will pick up the local language(s). 

Wow... a real expert.

[youreavinalaff]

5 minutes ago, scorecard said:

Wow... a real expert.

I Speak from experience of learning and teaching languages and having studied graduate diplomas about learning techniques.

 

If that makes me an expert in your eyes, thanks for saying so.

 

 

[kokesaat]

Not for everyone, but the village pharmacist wanted to improve her English and I wanted to improve my Thai.  Her mother was a primary school Thai teaccher and the daughter learned the rules from mother....probably better than most primary students.

We struck a deal.....2 hours of English conversation for 2 hours of Thai.  She took me through the first 20 or so lessons of Maani (https://ressources.learn2speakthai.net/  for examples) before worrying about tones).  But from the start, I asked her to insist on proper pronunciation.  I wrote each lesson as homework from the start.

After those 20 lessons, we started to break the code on tones.  It took a few bottles of headache medicine and lots of practice, but the day came when it all came together.

You might be surprised to find a person in your village/area that an do the same.  In any case, best wishes on improving your language skills.  All the pain and agony is worth the effort.

 

[rotor1]

11 hours ago, kokesaat said:

Not for everyone, but the village pharmacist wanted to improve her English and I wanted to improve my Thai.  Her mother was a primary school Thai teaccher and the daughter learned the rules from mother....probably better than most primary students.

We struck a deal.....2 hours of English conversation for 2 hours of Thai.  She took me through the first 20 or so lessons of Maani (https://ressources.learn2speakthai.net/  for examples) before worrying about tones).  But from the start, I asked her to insist on proper pronunciation.  I wrote each lesson as homework from the start.

After those 20 lessons, we started to break the code on tones.  It took a few bottles of headache medicine and lots of practice, but the day came when it all came together.

You might be surprised to find a person in your village/area that an do the same.  In any case, best wishes on improving your language skills.  All the pain and agony is worth the effort.

 

@kokesaat
That sounds like a (nearly) perfect solution to me. Unfortunately, I'm living in a very remote location (surrounded by ricefields only - Phrai Bueng area, south of Sisaket). In the nearby villages I know many people, but no one who can speak any (or enough) English (even the teachers of the local schools really don't). That's why I started the thread, in the hope someone maybe know a potential Thai teacher in Sisaket (Khu Khan, Phrai Bueng, Payu would be ok too)...

[youreavinalaff]

3 hours ago, rotor1 said:

@kokesaat
That sounds like a (nearly) perfect solution to me. Unfortunately, I'm living in a very remote location (surrounded by ricefields only - Phrai Bueng area, south of Sisaket). In the nearby villages I know many people, but no one who can speak any (or enough) English (even the teachers of the local schools really don't). That's why I started the thread, in the hope someone maybe know a potential Thai teacher in Sisaket (Khu Khan, Phrai Bueng, Payu would be ok too)...

When I decided to try to learn to read and write Thai I was an English teacher in a Thai school. 

 

After having asked permission, I sat at the back of the classroom as a teacher was teaching 4 years old kids the Thai alphabet and the start if Thai sounds. It was great. My level of reading was at the same level so, why not? I still stand by immersion being the best way to learn to speak and understand but, as with our own native languages, we need help to read and write. Sitting with a group of 4 year olds learning " Gor a GA, Kor a Ka..........." was fun, the young kids loved it too.

 

Living in a remote area there will most definitely be a small rural school nearby. You' ve said you speak some Thai so pop along and ask to speak to the head. Offer an hour or two of your time each week helping the kids with English in exchange for a few Thai reading lessons. You'll have fun and learn at the same Time.

Edited June 2, 2023 by youreavinalaff