Walen School Of Thai Good/not Good

[lekandgary]

Can anyone recommend The Walen school of Thai or does anyone have any bad points of view ?

[CHdiver]

Can anyone recommend The Walen school of Thai or does anyone have any bad points of view ?

There was a extended Thread about the Walen School; probably in the Visa Section. If you use the search function, you will get all Information you want.

[joeseeker]

I'm studying at Walen and I'm happy with it but not everyone is. They have a particular method that suits some but not everyone. Some teachers stick to the method, some vary it a little. Check it out thoroughly to make sure it's what you're looking for. Must who are not satisfied did not check the method and course details properly before they signed up and paid their money. Can't blame the school for that.

[FlakeyFoont]

I'm studying at Walen and I'm happy with it but not everyone is. They have a particular method that suits some but not everyone. Some teachers stick to the method, some vary it a little. Check it out thoroughly to make sure it's what you're looking for. Must who are not satisfied did not check the method and course details properly before they signed up and paid their money. Can't blame the school for that.

I read about the method on their web site, sounds interesting. This method must be effective for you if your happy with it. How long have you been taking classes at Walen and how fluent are you? Do you find the course difficult or easy? Do you need to put in much study time outside of class?

[Tod Daniels]

I have studied at the Walen School for about 4 months now. Before I started, I spent about 6 months teaching myself to read thai pretty well. I used the teachthai-dot-com site which is sponsored by the Ministry of Informal Education. It was a big help to have put the time into learning some language basics BEFORE I started at the Walen School.

That being said; I believe the Walen method can work teaching someone who has no thai language knowledge. It is based on the Callan Method of teaching English which is a well known teaching method. It uses the premise that people do NOT learn to read letter by letter, but by recognizing groups of letters as words.

As an example; using it for thai would be like this;

If you saw, heard and repeated the thai word นี่ (nee) enough times, eventually you would learn it means 'this' in thai; whether you know the individual characters that make up the word or not. You will remember that specific group of characters as the word 'this' and its corresponding english pronunciation; 'nee'.

I know the owner of the school would disagree with my assessment that his school is in NO way a conversational thai course. It isn't going to help you speak to people on the street, ask or answer common questions because it teaches reading NOT general conversation. Granted as your vocabulary goes up it is easier to engage thais in conversation but that is not the focus of the class. The first book has over 700 vocabulary words, the second nearly 800.

The text books are only in thai without any "karaoke thai" (english transliteration) in the book. They do have the english meaning for each new vocabulary word but that is it, no phonetic spelling in english of how to pronounce the word in thai. The plus side of this (which I have found extremely useful) is; ANY thai you know can practice the lessons with you as they are written in thai. This makes out of class practice at home or with thai friends extremely easy. I have yet to find a thai who can make heads or tails out of text books from other language schools written in karaoke thai (other than the teachers of that method). Another learning aid is the Walen School's first two books have spaces between the thai words (english style) so you don't have to immediately learn where words start and stop in a sentence to begin reading words written in thai.

IS this school for everyone; most likely not. I suggest, take the time to go to as many thai language schools as you can visit in your area. Almost all of them offer a free lesson; take it. See if their teaching style meshes with your learning style. Different people learn differently, especially as adults.

No matter what school you attend, learning thai is something that will take time, effort, and practice. Without any one of those you're just not gonna succeed at it. There is no pill to take before bed and when you wake up the next morning you're speaking thai.

Good Luck,

[joeseeker]

I agree with most of what tod has written.

To answer flakey's questions:

I've been studying at Walen for a little over three months. Students who attend classes regularly are more fluent than students at another school I visited who'd been studying for the same time. At first I found the course quite difficult so I put in a lot of time working on it alone and with Thai friends at home. That made quite a difference. Many students don't bother with this and they don't progress much.

[eggshen]

I've been studying at Walen since the beginning of May. Just moved over to book 2.

Tod got it absolutely right.

I did Thai for Beginners with the CDs, followed by "Learn to read Thai in a day" software for a 3 months before I moved to Thailand.

Came into class able to pronounce the tones and read properly - as in, knowing the consonant classes and tone rules in absence of tone marks - and found the curriculum to be odd, but quite fun, given you come properly prepared.

The books do not put any emphasis on the tones, but are great for drilling vocab. Also, most of the tricky (yet vital) grammar is left unexplained. Be sure to compliment your studies with the Becker books (Thai for Beginners and Thai for Intermediate learners).

Several months ago, a friend of mine assured me that the key to Thai lay hidden in it's script - only now am I able to fully appreciate what he meant by that !

Walen has great teachers, a lot of enthusiastic students and the classes are fun once you find your pace.

[kriswillems]

When I went to Walen to ask for information they said that I could start studying any time, I could also freely choose the hours that I wanted to study. They had at that moment only 1 book, now they've 2.

My questions are:

They have 2 books. Does that mean they have 2 classes with 2 different levels? Is this number of levels sufficient to make sure newcomers don't slow the long term students? (In other schools they've up to 8 levels).

You are completely free to choose the time you study. Is that correct? How do you prevent from studying 2 or 3 times the same, while missing other parts?

Any new student can start whenever he wants and join an existing class? Is that correct? How they can make sure a new student is able to follow in a class that has students that already have been studying for a few months?

Somebody said students at Walen speak better than students of other schools in the same time frame. Does anyone know how many Walen students passed P.6 last year?

I ask this question because the book I saw when Walen was already open for 9 months (at that moment they had only 1 book) was far below P.6 level, while other schools reach P.6 level within about 9 months.

[joeseeker]

When I went to Walen to ask for information they said that I could start studying any time, I could also freely choose the hours that I wanted to study. They had at that moment only 1 book, now they've 2.

My questions are:

They have 2 books. Does that mean they have 2 classes with 2 different levels? Is this number of levels sufficient to make sure newcomers don't slow the long term students? (In other schools they've up to 8 levels).

I've been working on book one for a while. I've now reached the point where I feel I can leave the newcomers behind so I will move on to book 2.

You are completely free to choose the time you study. Is that correct? How do you prevent from studying 2 or 3 times the same, while missing other parts?

You can start studying at Walen at any time. You join an existing class. You are free to choose from classes they offer at your level. There are many choices so you have a bit of flexibility but you can't come and go as you choose. Some students do miss classes. They tend to stay stuck on book one for a long time.

Any new student can start whenever he wants and join an existing class? Is that correct? How they can make sure a new student is able to follow in a class that has students that already have been studying for a few months?

When I first started it was a struggle to keep up. That inspired me to do some work at home. Now I'm no longer behind. Don't practise and you'll continue to struggle.

Somebody said students at Walen speak better than students of other schools in the same time frame. Does anyone know how many Walen students passed P.6 last year?

I ask this question because the book I saw when Walen was already open for 9 months (at that moment they had only 1 book) was far below P.6 level, while other schools reach P.6 level within about 9 months.

If you are a conscientious student and study for nine months you'll be way beyond book one, maybe book two also. I believe they are working on book three and perhaps have some students studying it. Not sure, maybe someone else can answer that one.

[Rionoir]

I watched a video of an english class being taught using the callan method (the one wallen uses) and it was very fast-paced and interesting... although the way tod described the way they teach reading I think is complete horse crap... kids don't learn to read by just memorizing blocks of text - that is how chinese people learn to read cuz they don't have an alphabet, and I don't think you'll find anyone on the planet that will say that is an easier way to learn to read. Recognizing blocks of text is something that happens AFTER you can already read.

So... I'm still torn on Wallen school... I think I'm going to check out a class anyway, because I am in the same boat as tod said he was when he started... I can already read and write and have been studying intensely on my own for about 6+ months, so I am able to sound out words I don't know already, and their method will be mute in that regard... maybe? I think it will be a good class to just pound out some new vocabulary which I can practice with my friends.