Intensive Thai At Chula (basic 1 - Advanced 2), Your Questions Answered Here!

[EthicsGradient]

I studied Chula's intensive Thai program from May 2007 -April 2008. I've seen it get mentioned a lot here although it seems like not too many people have firsthand experience with it, so I thought I'd make myself available to answer any questions people might have about it. (I've got a week in Bangkok to kill before I go back home, and lots of free time to type this up) I was originally typing this as a reply in the pinned thread, but it seems a little long for that now.

The basics: class is five days weeks for four hours a day (10-3, with one hour for lunch). The teachers mentioned they were thinking about starting a 2-hour/day "non-intensive Thai" course as well, although it still hasn't materialized. It's broken in to 9 levels of five weeks each, Basic 1-3, Intermediate 1-3, and Advanced 1-3. Class size is limited to 10 people, although if they'll often have more than one room going at the lower levels. You can schedule a placement test for 500 baht, and you can also buy their textbooks. If you miss more than 5 days of a course, you're automatically failed unless you have a pretty good reason.

Visas are sponsored, although speaking from experience it's important to request the sponsor letter at least a week or two in advance of when you need it. You'll probably be given a 3 month visa which you'll need to get extended in three month incriments with more for 1400 baht a pop (immigration's fee). I was a got lucky, I asked them to try writing me a special letter since I was a degree-seeking university student, and immigration gave me a full year visa.

In case you're going to stop reading here, I'll summarize by saying Basic/Intermediate is the best language instruction I've ever had (I've had a lot, I've studied Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese before Thai), but the course is definitely not suitable for anyone not planning to use it professionally or academically.

Basic

The basic levels are pretty much just basic, spoken Thai. In Basic 2 the writing system is introduced in about 3 weeks, and you never see phonetics again. (Basic 1 uses the IPR system). They also begin to take English out of the classroom as early as possible, by the end of Basic 3 it's probably about 90% Thai. Basic 1 is generally vocab/grammar introduction and speaking exercises. In Basic 2 you spend 2 hours on the writing, and then 2 hours on conversation/vocab/grammar. You start doing a morning dictation (basically a spelling exercise) in Basic 2 and continue this every day through Advanced. It's not fun, but you need a lot of practice with all of the irregular spellings in Thai. Basic 3 was probably my favorite level, there were group discussions about a topic in the morning, along with lectures about subjects from the teacher, and the usual reading/vocab/grammar. In Basic you have homework every night, although it doesn't count towards your grade. (I would still recommend you do it) The final exam is 100% of your grade.

I would recommend the Basic levels to pretty much anyone, with the caveat that you can probably get instruction that's almost as good for a lot less somewhere else. Most of the students, especially the Japanese knew some Thai already when they started (some of them definitely should have been in Basic 2 or 3, but I think they wanted to avoid any possible face loss) so it's easy to feel really discouraged in Basic 1. If you already have a somewhat decent grasp of spoken Thai, it might be worth it to study the alphabet on your own and place in to Basic 3.

Intermediate

This is where casual learners, or people who only want to speak Thai ought to stop. In Intermediate the emphasis is on reading and writing. Aside from reading from the articles aloud, your only speaking during this level is a 5 minute speech each week. (In Int 1 it can be about anything, Int 2 it's either political/social/cultural/economic, and in Int 3 you're summarizing a newspaper article) The in-class readings are articles (usually about Thai history, culture, politics, a social issue, Buddhism, etc) picked out by the teacher, your homework is answering 5-6 questions about them. It's nice getting the double-benefit of cultural or historical knowledge along with your learning, instead of just learning stuff like "Somchai went to the store to buy apples" in a vaccuum. I would say that the difficulty of the course increases steadily from Basic 1 (which is pretty challenging if you've never had Thai before), and peaks with Intermediate 2. Starting from Intermediate 1 it's pretty much full-on immersion, although some teachers have a tendency to fall back on English more than others. I think that by the end of Intermediate 3 you already have a good enough background in Thai to use things like newspapers, books, radio, etc to learn on your own.

Advanced

This is where I think everyone should stop. The main professor is terrible, and you learn very little. (This professor even said she didn't think they should offer Advanced, but was overruled by the director) There are the usual articles, which are a slight step up in difficulty from the Intermediate material since they usually require some background cultural knowledge. You make a few forays into different types of language (descriptive language, academic Thai, etc) but the whole thing feels very incoherent and slapped together, especially compared to the earlier levels. In Advanced 3 you're required to complete a research paper in Thai of 5-8 pages on a topic of your choosing. When you complete Advanced 3 you get a certificate, but I didn't feel like it was worth another 25,000 baht and five weeks of dealing with the professor. Even within Chula, nobody really knows about Intensive Thai outside of the program itself, so I didn't see the point.

I think you would be far,far better off taking the 75,000 baht you'd spend on Advanced 1-3 and either getting a language school/tutor to design a course tailor-made to your specific needs and interests, or just taking a vacation and traveling around Thailand using Thai on a daily basis.

Difficulty

The class is probably one of the most challenging I've taken, language or otherwise. It requires substantial time outside of class (both homework and extra study) and a certain amount of motivation. If you don't have a clear objective for learning Thai, you will most likely find yourself dropping out in Basic 1 or 2. Honestly, had I not had a significant financial penalty waiting for me if I dropped out, I probably would have done so several times. There were at least three people I know of that failed (one of them was even Japanese), although neither of them was really giving it 100% from what I saw/heard. The course apparently used to have a higher fail rate, but they said they've changed their objective to teaching the student rather than having the student pass a test within the past couple years. If you're motivated and willing to try, I don't think many people would have a problem completing the whole course.

Skill level after the course

Since the emphasis was on reading/writing, all of us wound up being able to read and write more than we can speak. The teachers explained that it's more economical to just live in Thailand for another couple of years than to actually teach speaking. (I agree with their reasoning, although it doesn't look like I'll get the chance to do that ) I can pick up a newspaper and read it with no problem...there may be one word in ten or fifteen that I don't know or have forgotten, but it doesn't effect my overall comprehension of the article. I've read one book in Thai so far (มองตะวันตกจากสายตาคนตะวันออก, 220 pages about Western society from a Thai monk's point of view) and am halfway through ประวัติศาสตร์ไทย:ไทยสึกษา, which seems to be a university textbook. Reading fiction is more challenging due to the descriptive language... I had no problem reading "Charlotte's Web" in English when I was in primary school, but it gives me a much harder time than scholarly texts do in Thai. This is just a side-effect of the focus of Chula's program, if you're interested in Thai literature, Royal Thai, learning slang/swear words, or some subject area with a lot of technical terms, you will need to study on your own further.

I can hold a conversation in Thai for a couple hours without falling back on English. (When I went to Iisaan for a week by myself in May, I think I only spoke 3-4 senteces in English the whole time.) Although my vocabulary may come up short sometimes and my grammar may not always be correct, Thai people can pretty much always understand what I'm getting at the first time. Since Advanced, I haven't been in a situation where I both didn't know a word and couldn't explain it so someone would know what I meant, or had a Thai person unable to explain an unfamiliar word to me in Thai so I could understand them. I found some volunteer work outside of class as an interpreter during Advanced, and I credit that with helping my spoken Thai along a great deal. In general, I would say I can usually understand about 85% of Thai being spoken, plus or minus 10% or so given the context/subject matter. My classmates were all at about this level or close enough, though most seemed to do better at remembering vocab than I did.

Professors

When I was looking up Intensive Thai online, I found an old thread on this site where some other former students shared their experiences about how intensive the class was, and how terrible the teachers were. This is what I want to clear up most, that the teachers are (with one exeption) great. Some of them are PhD candidates or hold Masters' in linguistics, but they keep the course as non-technical as possible. They're all very professional, and accustomed to teaching Westerners. Most of them will try and joke around and make the class as fun as they can. I was "adopted" as a 'son' and 'little brother', and still see those two professors for lunch or dinner every once and a while. I think the professors' consensus on Western students is that they can find all the questions they get exasperating, but they tend to be more interesting/fun to teach, even if they are more demanding. There are usually 5-6 professors on rotation between the Basic and Intermediate levels. Advanced is handled by one or two different professors.

I did have a problem with one professor, who matches the description of the terrible professors I read before to a "t". She's the main professor for the Advanced level, as well as doing the grammar lessons one day a week during Intermediate. She's a PhD candidate in linguistics and knows the material well, but spends all the class time going on personal tangents (often racist, she doesn't like Chinese or Indian people and wants you to know it), trying to pass of her political opinions as fact, trying to show off her English, etc. I could read and analyze one of the two page articles in about 40 minutes, whereas it took her as much as 5 hours of class time to get through it. I am by no means the first student to have an issue with this professor, but by Advanced everyone else in the class is Japanese, so there's no honest feedback on the teacher evaluation sheets, as they just want to collect their Chula certificates and not rock the boat. Bad teachers have been fired from the Basic and Intermediate levels before, but apparently this one has been a problem for 8 years and can't be dislodged because of her seniority. I dropped out at the first opportunity I had (I was under a contract to study through Advanced 2), as the Advanced level was both very unpleasant and a complete waste of time and money. I realize this may sound opinionated and biased, but I seriously doubt that anyone who was capable of critical thinking and wasn't just in it for the certificate would complete the Advanced course.

Students

This will vary a lot from generation to generation. Mine started out with 20 people; 50% Western, 50% Japanese. By Intermediate there was only one other Westerner left besides myself, who had started in Basic 2. One of the levels below mine was 9 Japanese and a Korean. The lack of other Westerners actually does have an upside, when I was by myself in Intermediate I was forced to use Thai 100% of the time, while the Japanese would usually fall back on their own language when talking amongst themselves. It really showed by the end of Intermediate, as I had been one of the weakest students in Basic. Contrary to what I've seen posted before, the teachers do not favor the Asian students... if anything they prefer the Westerners, although with the exeption of the Advanced professor they're all very professional and you wouldn't know it. Age range varied, I was the youngest at 22, one of the Japanese guys was a dentist maybe in his 50's. The Japanese were mostly learning for work (although there were a few bored housewives), most of the Westerners didn't have a clear goal in mind for studying and dropped out early on.

Life at Chula

As a non-degree seeker you aren't really considered an actual Chula student. You do get a letter that lets you use the sports facilties, and if you ask you might be able to get a library card. (They're kind of reluctant to do this, since if a book gets lost Intensive Thai would be liable) You also get a little paper ID that says you're a student at Intensive Thai/Chula... it's not a real student ID, but coupled with a little friendly chit-chat and a smile it's gotten me the Thai price at the national parks/tourist attractions I've tried it at. You aren't eligible to live on campus, and you also don't "get" to wear the uniform, although since I was an exchange they said they could make an exception. (I did, by the way. I got a lot of double-takes on the street, but it did cut down on the number of people surprised that I could speak Thai) Aside from one conversation activity in Basic, there's really no interaction with the Thai students during the course, although I joined the photography club on my own time. The canteen is about a 5 minute walk from the building, you can also make it to MBK and back if you don't mind rushing a bit. There's a shuttle bus that runs from Siam Square to pretty much right in front of the Arts building, but by the time you wait for it you could have easily walked. The Arts building is about a ten minute walk from either Sam Yan MRT or Siam Square BTS station.

Is it worth it?

It all depends on the student, really. In my case I was studying on a full scholarship from my government, and when I go home I'll be working for them in a few years, most likely something using Thai, so it was worthwhile for me. On the other hand, I don't personally know any other Westerners in Thailand that I think would benefit from Chula's course versus any other less expensive one. If you're an academic looking to do research in Thai you would find this course invaluable. If for some reason you needed to use Thai for business (it seems there's not much demand for foreigners who can speak Thai though, since the cost of a bilingual Thai is much lower) or some other formal situations, it would also be good. If you want to be able to chat with the noodle lady on the corner of your soi, your significant others' family, etc... not so much. Especially at the upper levels, the course is definitely oriented towards professional and academic language, and it's pretty hard to justify the premium over other courses if you don't need those specific skills. For the total cost of tuition you could pretty much afford a private tutor for the equivalent number of hours. I think a lot of the price is simply the Chula name, and while that's great for impressing Thai people, the program really seems to be only tangentally connected to the university.

If anyone has more questions about the program, fire away.

[kerr17]

THank you very much, very useful indeed.

How much was the cost of a single class?

I speak basic thai and been here many years already despite being in my early 30's.

Anyway i was thinking to join one, but 20 hours a week sounds a bit too much for me.

are there any other shorter courses?

[MKAsok]

Great post and very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to supply all that info...

mk

[Aries74]

Yeah, thanks for the info, too much info, got to think which one ????

[ntfeeney]

Greetings,

I just wanted to file a reply to this to help those looking into Thai classes. I looked into the Chula course, but balked at the then 25,500 Baht price tag.

Instead, I opted to take the Speaking and Listening course offered by Thammasat University at the classic Tha Prachan campus.

Details:

5 weeks, 3 hours/class, 2 classes/week for the Speaking and Listening course. Writing and reading is offered on alternating days.

5,500 baht - can use the library. I got a letter from the university, but failed to get an ED visa from immigration (tried twice) because it was 'part-time.'

The ajarn was an excellent professor of Thai at TU who taught this class, and I learned an excellent base of Thai that got my speaking basic sentences with native Thais by the end of the class. About 8 students, from Viet Nam, Korea, Taiwan, France, Australia, USA (myself).

Not the same as Chula, but a hellavu lot cheaper and more than adequate getting you learning how to speak. My highest recommendation.

[iaminwa]

Greetings,

I just wanted to file a reply to this to help those looking into Thai classes. I looked into the Chula course, but balked at the then 25,500 Baht price tag.

Instead, I opted to take the Speaking and Listening course offered by Thammasat University at the classic Tha Prachan campus.

Details:

5 weeks, 3 hours/class, 2 classes/week for the Speaking and Listening course. Writing and reading is offered on alternating days.

5,500 baht - can use the library. I got a letter from the university, but failed to get an ED visa from immigration (tried twice) because it was 'part-time.'

The ajarn was an excellent professor of Thai at TU who taught this class, and I learned an excellent base of Thai that got my speaking basic sentences with native Thais by the end of the class. About 8 students, from Viet Nam, Korea, Taiwan, France, Australia, USA (myself).

Not the same as Chula, but a hellavu lot cheaper and more than adequate getting you learning how to speak. My highest recommendation.

How often do these classes at Thammasat University run? Do you have any contact details for someone I can call - that speaks English of course?

Many Thanks

[MKAsok]

Greetings,

I just wanted to file a reply to this to help those looking into Thai classes. I looked into the Chula course, but balked at the then 25,500 Baht price tag.

Instead, I opted to take the Speaking and Listening course offered by Thammasat University at the classic Tha Prachan campus.

Details:

5 weeks, 3 hours/class, 2 classes/week for the Speaking and Listening course. Writing and reading is offered on alternating days.

5,500 baht - can use the library. I got a letter from the university, but failed to get an ED visa from immigration (tried twice) because it was 'part-time.'

The ajarn was an excellent professor of Thai at TU who taught this class, and I learned an excellent base of Thai that got my speaking basic sentences with native Thais by the end of the class. About 8 students, from Viet Nam, Korea, Taiwan, France, Australia, USA (myself).

Not the same as Chula, but a hellavu lot cheaper and more than adequate getting you learning how to speak. My highest recommendation.

How often do these classes at Thammasat University run? Do you have any contact details for someone I can call - that speaks English of course?

Many Thanks

See this post for more info on the Thammasat courses.

[Groongthep]

Thanks to the OP EthicsGradient for a very informative post.

[RAZZELL]

Thanks to the OP EthicsGradient for a very informative post.

Seconded

Did the OP study anywhere else?

RAZZ

[Halfaboy]

Thank you ! A very informative post, which comes just in time as I hope to start the intensive (level basic 1) at October 6th.

If I can add something to this post (which I doubt) I will let you know.

[MKAsok]

You can schedule a placement test for 500 baht, and you can also buy their textbooks.

Not sure if the OP's still around, but anyway, here's a few questions:

Where can you buy their textbooks (I assume at Chula, but any tips where on the campus specifically)? How much do they cost? Are there textbooks available for all the levels? Can you buy them if you don't enroll?

Thanks

mk

[EthicsGradient]

Sorry to be away, got back to my home country and things have been a bit busy.

Thanks to the OP EthicsGradient for a very informative post.

Seconded

Did the OP study anywhere else?

RAZZ

Nope, my only experience was at Chula. So unfortunately I can't really offer a first-hand comparison with other places.

]

Not sure if the OP's still around, but anyway, here's a few questions:

Where can you buy their textbooks (I assume at Chula, but any tips where on the campus specifically)? How much do they cost? Are there textbooks available for all the levels? Can you buy them if you don't enroll?

Thanks

mk

The Intensive Thai office is in the first floor of the Mahachula building (or maybe the other, identical building attatched to it, I get the names mixed up). It's the old Thai-style building across from the Faculty of Arts. They're somewhere between 100-300 baht each if you're buying them seperately. There are textbooks for Basic 1-3, there wasn't a textbook for the articles/etc of Intermediate, but there were books for the grammar. I'm pretty sure you can buy them if you don't enroll, but I think you would have difficulty using them as stand-alone study materials.

[MKAsok]

The Intensive Thai office is in the first floor of the Mahachula building (or maybe the other, identical building attatched to it, I get the names mixed up). It's the old Thai-style building across from the Faculty of Arts. They're somewhere between 100-300 baht each if you're buying them seperately. There are textbooks for Basic 1-3, there wasn't a textbook for the articles/etc of Intermediate, but there were books for the grammar. I'm pretty sure you can buy them if you don't enroll, but I think you would have difficulty using them as stand-alone study materials.

Thanks for the info. Wanted them out of interest really and as supplementary materials. Will definitely either go down there and have a look or ask a girl I know who's just started at Chula to check them out...

mk

[Halfaboy]

Just a practical question EthicsGradient, where did you stay and can you recommend this place ?

[andyc2006]

I dropped by Chula today and picked up the brochure for next year's intensive Thai programs.

Photos of brochure, as well as my very crude map of where to find the office on campus, are here: http://picasaweb.google.co.th/acassidy/200811Chula#

[Blusher]

Thank you so much for this awesome report...

i'm looking next year for an intensive thai program like an university same like that, i'm not a native english so maybe i didn't understand a part of your thread report but :

at the end of the program (which you succeed of course), do you have a certificate or a degree certified by the university ?

the kind of paper you can show to a company when you seek a job in Thailand and you can add a line to your CV.

i ask this because when you finish the one year program, you can speak mostly like a thai men OK but how you can prove you did it and suceed it ?

how much was the TOTAL of the one year program included all the courses ?

thank you again for this report, looking forward to your reply.

Blusher - Paris

Edited December 29, 2008 by Blusher

[montrii]

Thanks, that was a wonderful read, very informative. I've been wondering how to ramp up my Thai to a really high level, so that I can easily read newspapers and get the jokes in sitcoms (the non-slapstick ones--not worried about the ones where they slap each other on the head and funny noises are played). I've been speaking Thai for an embarrassingly high number of years, and taught myself to read and write, even to spell pretty well, but I seem to be stuck at a high intermediate level, progress comes slowly. One advantage this course has is that it is really intensive, once you start you're in it for 5 weeks at least. I think I'll do the entrance exam, anyhow . . . the name "Basic" puts me off, I don't think of my knowledge as basic, but maybe it's just a word, and the Basic 3 course will be just what I need, esp. if it's intensive. I suppose one way to find out is to take tests for basic and intermediate courses. My problems with Thai right now are primarily related to 1) needing more vocabulary, there are just so many words for every single thing! 2) catching the idioms that no one knows how to explain to you, and 3) comprehending rapid-fire sentences. Depending on what's being said, I often find myself thinking "now what was that word?" and not even hearing the rest of the words.

[goski]

I did the intensive thai about 4 years ago, only farang in that class to go all the way through advanced 3, it was all very good. I remember that the teachers were all professional but that a few of them were going to stop teaching after my class finished advanced 3.

My class sat along for the interview procedures for the new teachers and eventually settled for a woman that seemed both skilled in didactics and had a profound knowledge of Thai. The rest that came for the interview that day were all a bit... weird to be honest.

Anyhow, my question to the OP is what teachers are still there?

I also found the advanced level to maybe not be so informative but really useful because in my case we could all use previous experience for the assignments we got and that also gave us a lot of freedom and it felt good to be able to handle Thai in that manner.

[Blusher]

Hello,

Can an administrator or a moderator give me the email of "EthicsGradient" (the topic's creator)

i will suscribe very soon to the Chula thai intensive program and i have some serious questions to ask him and i send him a private message but he doesn't answer since 2 weeks now...

thank you a lot by advance, it's an urgent issue for me now.

Blusher

[Blusher]

Hello,

Can an administrator or a moderator give me the email of "EthicsGradient" (the topic's creator)

i will suscribe very soon to the Chula thai intensive program and i have some serious questions to ask him and i send him a private message but he doesn't answer since 2 weeks now...

thank you a lot by advance, it's an urgent issue for me now.

Blusher

once again sorry by advance, can an administrator a moderator give the email of "EthicsGradient" please ?

he doesn't reply my MP, thank you by advance for your help.

Blusher

[Maestro]

In his personal profile a member can configure whether he wants to receive messages by email or not. The OP has not activated this option, which leaves only the possibility of sending a PM.

Just like some busy people may not check their email every few minutes, some Thaivisa members may not check there PMs frequently.

Aside from that, perhaps a Thaivisa member may not want to enter into an exchange of PMs with another member, preferring that questions relating to his post be asked in the topic so that other readers may benefit from the questions and answers.

--

Maestro

[Blusher]

it is not help me....

but thx.

[montrii]

Thanks again for the great course description (I thanked you the first time a few months ago). My goal is to get to native-level fluency, which is still a long ways off, and your comments influenced me to test into the course . . . I tested in at Intermediate 3, the last level before advanced, started the course in mid-May, and have 2 weeks to go before the test. I'm enjoying it immensely: the teachers are, as you said, great, and so is the material. I can't get used to how many words there are to learn, I speak German and French, have read and written at a high level in those and in Latin, and none of those presented anything like such a long learning curve, but that's mostly due to the fact that this isn't an Indo-European language, I'm sure.

The course is, as you say, very time-consuming. I haven't been able to do a whole lot else besides go to school and do the homework, but the knowledge is pouring in.

I find there's a lot more speaking at this level than you suggest; perhaps that's changed. We are discussing things in class all the time, the teachers asking us for our opinions and analysis quite a bit. Plus the listening is a very big deal. I have spoken good Thai for quite a long time, but have had trouble listening to it spoken, mostly when unfamiliar vocabulary is used, at high speeds. This is helping a lot with that.

I am planning on taking a long break when the intermediate module is done on June 19, continuing my study on my own, then taking the first advanced module when it comes around again in October. I'm hoping the teacher you mention as the only bad one will have already gotten the PhD and will be doing something else. Will report back on that later on.

Thanks again, and to all who read this and are thinking about doing it, courage! You can do it if you really want to!

I studied Chula's intensive Thai program from May 2007 -April 2008. I've seen it get mentioned a lot here although it seems like not too many people have firsthand experience with it, so I thought I'd make myself available to answer any questions people might have about it. (I've got a week in Bangkok to kill before I go back home, and lots of free time to type this up) I was originally typing this as a reply in the pinned thread, but it seems a little long for that now. . . .

[GoingToThailand]

Hey you all!

I am from Germany and hope to start the Basic II course in November. I will soon have a phone interview determining whether I can enter into the course. Does anybody have experience with such an interview? I have studied Thai since April with a private teacher. We have covered all the topics they gave me so far that will be studied in Basic I. Can anyone tell me how fluent they expect you to be after you had Basic I?

Thanks a lot.

[Rionoir]

I've taken through Intermediate of the Chula course, and I will caution those of you who want to learn Thai for your everyday life via this program. Basic 1-3 is great, and recommended for anyone that has the time. Intermediate, OK if you want to learn to read. Advanced - useless unless you want to be capable of writing term papers in Thai.

I have a Thai friend who is one of the floating instructors (teaches at all the levels) with this program, and he said many of the advanced students are capable of reading the news, watching FORMAL Thai shows on TV (i.e., news), and can write better term papers than a lot of Thai students can. HOWEVER, most of them can't understand something as simple as a Thai soap opera, because the Chula program does NOT teach slang, almost NO slang literally, and they do not teach colloquial Thai... they teach formal, academic Thai.

I know it sounds very nice to learn "hi-so" Thai... but it's useless if you want to use it to speak with your Thai friends at an advanced level and useless to watch many Thai movies, etc... that is what my friend has told me. Proceed with caution... or at the very least make sure you are learning Thai slang on your own with some other method. (not that you are going to have time to study anything besides what you learn in class lolol)

[SoftWater]

I have a Thai friend who is one of the floating instructors (teaches at all the levels) with this program, and he said many of the advanced students are capable of reading the news, watching FORMAL Thai shows on TV (i.e., news), and can write better term papers than a lot of Thai students can. HOWEVER, most of them can't understand something as simple as a Thai soap opera, because the Chula program does NOT teach slang, almost NO slang literally, and they do not teach colloquial Thai... they teach formal, academic Thai.

I'd love to take this course, but it only appears to be offered full-time, so is out of the question for anyone working in Thailand (ironically, apart from exchange students, the very group that would probably be most interested in it!).

Anyway, personally I wouldn't find the fact that it doesn't teach colloquial thai a problem. The course must develop your listening and speaking skills (from what the others have said) to a high enough degree to be able to converse with 'thai friends' at some level, and they are the ones to turn to for the real education.

Its similar in English ESL teaching too. Students cannot learn from a textbook or class practice how a couple of lads in a London pub will talk on a Saturday night - you can't teach that, you can only experience it and learn it in the actual setting. At least if you can read and talk about the news, you will have something with which you can start a conversation, and you'll soon pick up the way people in the street talk about these things. It's all about practice and experience, not classroom study.

[Rionoir]

The majority of the students are Japanese people that are sent there by their companies to learn Thai because they will either be working in Thailand once they finish the course, or they will be dealing with Thai via their business in Japan and need to speak Thai. A full-time intensive course obviously isn't designed for someone currently working in Thailand... but there are plenty of other courses u can take part-time in Bangkok, including a private tutor.

[dippytart]

The majority of the students are Japanese people that are sent there by their companies to learn Thai because they will either be working in Thailand once they finish the course, or they will be dealing with Thai via their business in Japan and need to speak Thai. A full-time intensive course obviously isn't designed for someone currently working in Thailand... but there are plenty of other courses u can take part-time in Bangkok, including a private tutor.

Hi Rionoir, there are indeed plenty of schools and courses around, but do you (or anyone else!) know of any specific schools that teach a similar academic program to the one at chula?

[roverforlife]

Hi guys! I'm also looking into taking the course, hopefully joining from the Basic 2 class in November this year. I've done a 300 hour course previously and have some basic knowledge of the script, though I feel that I'm sorely lacking in vocabulary. In any case, I'm hoping to get placed into Basic 2. I've emailed the school but have not received a reply, hence I thought I shall seek your help here.

Can anyone advise on how I could arrange to take the qualifying test (which decided which level you are emplaced to)? What requirements would they have of someone trying to get into basic 2? What is the test format like? How long does it take to get the results?

Many thanks in advance!

[Rionoir]

Hi Rionoir, there are indeed plenty of schools and courses around, but do you (or anyone else!) know of any specific schools that teach a similar academic program to the one at chula?

I have looked at ProLanguage's website, and their curriculum seems similar to Chula, only at an easier pace. I have no experience with their actual classes though, but from what I gathered in speaking with them it would be worth a trip in to check them out.