Best Place To Start

[iGlen]

I plan on dedicating a good time in england over the next 3 years to learn the language of thailand as its somewhere I plan to spend a lot of my time

What did you find helped you best when you started?

[eefoo]

I plan on dedicating a good time in england over the next 3 years to learn the language of thailand as its somewhere I plan to spend a lot of my time

What did you find helped you best when you started?

Having access to native Thai speakers helped best. I started learning outside Thailand, but there were about 30 Thai labourers working at the same place as me. I would wander off and sit with them for a while each day armed with a dictionary, pencil and paper and try out the latest things I had learnt on my Linguaphone course. Used to annoy their (non-Thai) foreman like mad!

[beechguy]

I plan on dedicating a good time in england over the next 3 years to learn the language of thailand as its somewhere I plan to spend a lot of my time

What did you find helped you best when you started?

I used a book and cd set called "Thai for Beginners". I think it does a fairly good job explaining speech, reading and writing. After that, there are intermediate and advanced sets of books, etc. I also had Thai friends who helped explain things I wasn't sure of.

[Chung noi]

Howdy,

I started learning Thai from some students I met while going to college in America. Most colleges have a Thai Association, If they have an international program. You might be able to help someone with English in exchange for help with your Thai. If you have a Wat Thai in your area you might meet someone there.

The tones of the lanuage is what you need help on to start. You might be able to meet someone in a online chatroom and use a mic to voice chat. Just an idea. I chat with many Thai's in Yahoo.

For me, the best thing about learning Thai, has been the friends I've made, and the fun we have had while I have been learning.

I still can not say "WORK" in Thai

*j*

[sparkinsonic]

I plan on dedicating a good time in england over the next 3 years to learn the language of thailand as its somewhere I plan to spend a lot of my time

What did you find helped you best when you started?

I started with a book called Learn to speak thai ...by davd smyth.There are to books very simular,But some different dialogues.The newer version comes with a cd(very good)Go to any decent book shop. Also lingaphone sell a book with 4 cds,diferent dialogue,Can be bought on ebay both under £20

koon ree-un eng,Gnia_gwa pror-whah toog-gwa (you learn yourself,easier because cheaper )lol

Hope this helps and chock dee krup(good luck)

[mangkorn]

i once heard a lily-white European girl ask a Jamaican how she might be able to manage to grow some dreadlocks. He sniffed, and said: "trow 'way yo brush, mon" and walked away.

The best way to learn a new language is to stop speaking (and thinking in) your own - to the extent that you can. If you are in England, that will be difficult. But the idea of the brush still holds: one must immerse one's brain very deeply into the new language, and eventually to the point where one begins to dream in it - which demonstrates that enough of your waking time is devoted to studying it that it appears again during sleep. That's when you know you're starting to get there (but only just starting).

I mean to say that you really have to be dedicated, passionately, especially to a language like Thai - which has no relation to Romance languages of your familiarity. The road to failure is strewn and paved over a million times with those who took it on as a new task they thought could be learned fairly quickly - like fixing the plumbing or changing a spark plug.

It doesn't happen.

The study of languages, particularly Asian ones for Westerners, is a very long haul, much akin to "riding the tiger," to borrow a phrase from another thread here. An Aussie friend who has been here for many years and speaks beautiful Thai mentioned this the other day: "There are even some people who actually study in schools for a long time, but they don't really have any Thai friends. Outside of the classroom, they don't speak Thai regularly; you can just tell that they probably speak to their maids and whomever in English, and you just know that they will never get it..."

You have to eat, drink and breathe it, and practice it a lot. Also, one must learn finally to stop translating, and start listening. One needn't become a barefoot jungle boy, nor a rice farmer, but you must be very passionate about learning it, and spend endless amounts of time and energy. There are no shortcuts.

And, of course, you must learn how to read it, which means knowing the consonant classes and all of the tone rules as second nature. How could anybody possible learn English without learning the alphabet?

But do take heart: there is no language on earth that is more complex, more maddening nor impossibly inexplicable than the English language.

Cheers.

[gampaan]

All of these replies are good and valid. My suggestion would be get as much or as many learning materials as you can. You can see the different techniques used, and no one CD or book has everything you will want to know. I've bought the books, CD's, tapes, and have a Thai wife with Thai friends and you get a little from each one. And absolutely learn the alphabet. That will help as much or more than anything...