Learn Thai In A Day?

[sabaijai]

This one-day Thai language seminar was posted on a popular social networking website this week.

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My mission is to help expats and long-term visitors to read and eventually communicate in Thai. Thai is one of those languages where it is almost impossible to communicate effectively without first knowing how to read. Learning phonetically results in a curious “farang” dialect that is almost useless outside of Bangkok and very difficult to unlearn. And trying to learn using the traditional Thai way is arduous, time-consuming and extremely dull.

NOW is the ideal time to Learn to read Thai the EASY WAY! If you have lived or intend to live in Thailand for a while, you’ve been saying to yourself, it would sure be great to know more Thai. Now is the time to do what you have always said you should do. Now you Can do it and have Fun too.

As you probably know, I am the author of the “Read Thai in a Day” e-book. It has proved to be very popular and successful.

(Visit www.learnthaionline.com to download a demo version.)

It is a self-study course and you can learn to read Thai by yourself.

However, some people find it a challenge to sit down by themselves to work through the e-book.

And there are a number of subtleties that are difficult to explain in writing.

So, to make it even easier and more fun and enjoyable, I will be giving an intensive one-day workshop where we will work through the exercises together and deal with any questions or difficulties you may have on the spot.

By the end of the day, you will be able to start to read Thai signs, notices, books and newspapers printed in the standard font. You will also be able to sound out the words using the correct tones. And in just a short while, you will even be able to recognize words printed in the more modern fonts, such as used in magazine headlines or certain advertisements.

What you will not be able to do is understand what you are reading.

(So what do you expect in one day!?)

Nevertheless, I will show you how to memorize words instantly so that you will begin to pick up Thai rapidly, simply by reading signs and notices that you come across in the street and in shops and offices.

By the end of the day, you will also have memorized around 400 Thai words easily. That’s the benefit of spending time with Bangkok’s only memory expert who teaches Thai !!!

Free Bonus All participants get a copy of the Read Thai in a Day e-book for free. You may wish to work through the e-book a little before attending the workshop so as to get maximum benefit. And if you have already purchased the e-book then the cost you paid will be deducted from the seminar fee.

Guarantee If you are not satisfied with the results by the end of the day then you will get your money back! I am that confident you will absolutely love this breakthrough seminar so much that I will take all the risk. And you get all the enjoyment knowing that you can read Thai in just one day!

And you get to keep the e-book for free! Not to mention the free lunch…

,

LOCATION: Boulevard Amari hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 5 (Nana BTS).

DATE & TIME: Tuesday 16 December 9am-5pm. Lunch 12.30-1.30pm.

INVESTMENT: 4,990 baht - includes refreshments & lunch.

SPECIAL DISCOUNT: Two or more people: 500 baht off per person. Bring your spouse and kids, friends!

Note:

The Read Thai in a Day system is suitable for children from the age of 12 up.

Special workshops can be held at your school for teachers, parents & students. Please contact me to arrange this.

The date & time is flexible, depending on demand. I chose this to coincide with the school holidays.

Please let me know if you prefer an alternative date & time.

The Money Back Guarantee only applies if you arrive on time and stay till the end. Obvious maybe, but it needs to be spelled out!

Please let your farang friends or anybody who you think could benefit from learning Thai more effectively know about this seminar!

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Kind regards,

Gary Orman, is a memory specialist in applied thinking and accelerated learning

Genggwaa Co Ltd - Smarter, not harder!

PS I have other programs for developing an ‘ear’ for the Thai language and for building a quick & ready vocabulary (TaughtUs Tales: Thai thru Stories). However, these programs are more effective if you can already read Thai.

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I excluded the payment details but they can be found here.

I'm sceptical but would like to be fly on the wall to observe the teaching techniques.

[Crossy]

I'm sceptical but would like to be fly on the wall to observe the teaching techniques.

Actually, as Thai is a phonetic language you could probably learn to "read" (i.e. make the right sounds) fairly quickly, I may give this a go (not the 16th though).

It took my (then) Korean GF about a week of evenings to teach me to read Hangul (another phonetic but non-tonal language) so I reckon this 'aint far off base.

[desi]

You can pay almost 5000 baht for his seminar, or you can pay peanuts (under US$10? 20?) to the guy who originally came up with the ebook idea.

"60 Minutes to Learn the Thai Alphabet"

I've seen both and 60 minutes is superior. Not for the graphics, but for the linking ideas. He put a lot of thought into it as far as imagery goes and it shows.

[Jay_Jay]

From what I understand, it's one in the same - Gary Orman's course.

I know Gary - I've heard that he personally put in a lot of $$ and effort in putting the product together. Gary is a very creative guy - I think he may hold the De Bono license for 6 hats here. I've looked over the original material - I think there were a few linguistic glitches there in the versions that I saw, but on the whole, the concept works.

I'm a strong advocate when teaching Thai to get people into reading the Thai script and understanding how it relates to the tone rules as soon as possible. For many, this seems to be a huge obstacle. Hopefully Gary's programme can help a lot of people get over that speed hump.

As for the cost - if it works, I think it's worth it. I've seen people spend a lot more over years and still struggle with it.

(Just for the record... i have no business connection what so ever with Gary or the programme. )

[therealthing]

Id agree with the other person above, avoid Gary Orman's rubbish like the plague, the guy is just a con-artist and a rip-off artist. The other guy who is backing him up, is quite obviously in league with him. I purchased Gary Orman's , and it's a complete rip-off of the 60 minutes to learn the thai alphabet book available at EasyThaiAlphabet.com, and which has been available since 2004.

as a testament to how effective 60 minutes to learn the thai alphabet is, it has also been ripped off by the guy at learn thai podcast!

[genggwaa]

I've just come across these comments about me and my Read Thai course and I think it's worth righting a few misconceptions.

Firstly, the 60-minutes idea was arrived at independently. I had already developed my ideas several years before, having produced an online course to learn basic Hebrew within 40 hours (in 1997). Besides, Rudolf Steiner beat both of us to the post by inventing this technique 100 years ago (I only discovered this after I had already developed my Hebrew course). Not to mention that the Chinese and Japanese have used similar approaches to teaching children to read centuries ago.

I was hoping to collaborate with Damian (author of 60 Minutes). I pointed out that our approaches were similar, but that his images were ineffectual. Also, some of the concepts were just plain wrong (e.g. that consonants have different sounds at the ends of syllables*). But he said his project was a failure anyway and he was working on other things. ฺำBesides, he didn't really know much Thai anyway, having only spent six months in Thailand.

Desi, you echo the sentiments of many prospective customers who seem to think that 5,000 baht is expensive for a seminar (or 1,800 baht for the self-study e-course). Some participants have flown to Thailand especially to attend my weekend seminar (currently 9,000 baht) and others have told me that they have already spent close to 20,000 baht and 100's of hours (think of the lost productivity) in Thai classes, but still can't read.

At the start of the second day of my workshop, participants were able to read a basic conversation in Thai, and by the afternoon, they were reading a short one-page story (albeit very slowly).

60 Minutes was a nice simple concept, but inadequate: it didn't address the issue of tones, which is everybody's nightmare yet is addressed in an easy way in Read Thai in a Day. 60 Minutes also didn't address the issue of how words are put together and how vowels are tacked onto consonants. Read Thai in a Day is a very comprehensive e-course, providing interactive reading exercises, notes on various subtleties, a story-based approach to applying the tone rules, and a way to build up a solid vocabulary by using stories and visual associations.

therealthing, I'm a bit surprised at your vehemence. What have you got against me? And what makes you think I'm a con artist? You say you purchased the ebook from me - but you obviously don't seem to be satisfied. I've only had one request for a refund, but that was a very long time ago. The workshops are guaranteed: your money back if you are in any way dissatisfied. I also have a 30-day money-back guarantee (more than enough time to learn to read and then get your money back if you want to be unscrupulous about it). In your case, please get in touch and I'll refund you, even if you are beyond the 30-day limit!

(Oh and btw, I wrote to Jo at learn-thai-podcast. Apparently, he has Damian's full backing for making use of 60 Minutes. I downloaded the video tracks and I've found them to be quite useful, particularly for beginners.)

Jay is not in league with me at all - but I wish he were! He runs his own programs on learning Thai and developing your memory. And he is fluent in several languages. He also pointed out an important fact: the course was expensive to develop (over $60,000). I am unlikely to ever recoup the R&D costs, but it's part of an ongoing program involving all the major languages; so I'm hoping to make a profit eventually in some other way.

Sabaijai, thank you for posting the blurb about my workshop. You are welcome to attend my next workshop in September and see for yourself whether it works or not - just pay the venue & food costs, OK!?

For more details about the course and to download a demo version please visit www.learnthaionline.com.

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* Except for the letters ล ร ญ which change to an "n" at the end of a syllable, all other consonants are the same. 60 Minutes makes the mistake of teaching students the transliterated endings (e.g. where ด is either "d" or "t". In reality, Thais simply do not sound the final consonant of a syllable, unless it has a continuous sound like "n" or "m". They form the letter in their mouths, but do not express the sound as we do in English. We expel a little air to enunciate the final consonant clearly. That's why a final "d" or "ch" or even "s" sounds almost like an English "t" - but it isn't.

[phaethon]

INVESTMENT: 4,990 baht...

Investment... LOL

[kriswillems]

I believe that almost anyone, with the help of a good book can understand the Thai writing system in one day. And with the help of the same good book and a teacher you'll be able to read very, very slowly (let's say 1 random short word per minute).

The step between this level and really being able to read well is still huge. And saying that you can learn Thai (reading, speaking and writing) in one day is, in my opinion, nothing more than making advertisement.

Learning a language is much more than understanding the writing system of that language or knowing a few basic words.

If you think learning a language is knowing 400 words and understanding the writing system, every native English or German speaker will never need to study French, because English or German and French have more than 400 words in common and their writing system is very similar. In reality English or Germans don't understand any French unless they really studied it, which takes much more than 1 day. So understanding the writing system and knowing 400 words, is not the same a learning a language.

Edited April 11, 2009 by kriswillems

[loong]

* Except for the letters ล ร ญ which change to an "n" at the end of a syllable, all other consonants are the same. 60 Minutes makes the mistake of teaching students the transliterated endings (e.g. where ด is either "d" or "t". In reality, Thais simply do not sound the final consonant of a syllable, unless it has a continuous sound like "n" or "m". They form the letter in their mouths, but do not express the sound as we do in English. We expel a little air to enunciate the final consonant clearly. That's why a final "d" or "ch" or even "s" sounds almost like an English "t" - but it isn't.

I'm sorry, but you are talking (or typing) rubbish.

First you say

Thais simply do not sound the final consonant of a syllable

Then

That's why a final "d" or "ch" or even "s" sounds almost like an English "t"

So do they sound it or not, you are contradicting yourself.

Certainly, most thais do not pronounce the final consonant clearly and it almost seems that you have to train your ears to hear the difference, but it is there.

[orish]

* Except for the letters ล ร ญ which change to an "n" at the end of a syllable, all other consonants are the same. 60 Minutes makes the mistake of teaching students the transliterated endings (e.g. where ด is either "d" or "t". In reality, Thais simply do not sound the final consonant of a syllable, unless it has a continuous sound like "n" or "m". They form the letter in their mouths, but do not express the sound as we do in English. We expel a little air to enunciate the final consonant clearly. That's why a final "d" or "ch" or even "s" sounds almost like an English "t" - but it isn't.

I'm sorry, but you are talking (or typing) rubbish. First you say Thais simply do not sound the final consonant of a syllable. Then

That's why a final "d" or "ch" or even "s" sounds almost like an English "t" So do they sound it or not, you are contradicting yourself.

This is precisely why I tell people to avoid learning Thai using transliteration. It creates a great deal of confusion and one learns an incorrect form of Thai that is impossible to fix.

There is no written way to represent the fact that Thais do not enunciate the final "stop" consonants. In many languages like English or German, the final consonant is expressed quite clearly by expelling a short powerful burst of air. If you pay attention, you can hear it quite clearly. "Pack" has an explosive "kuh" at the end. "Bat" has an explosive "tuh".

But in Thai, you only shape your mouth and teeth and tongue into the correct position; you do not expel any air. Try say "bad" without actually enunciating the "d". This is pretty close to the sound for "eight" in Thai (so long as you don't vocalize the "b").

Yes, it does sound contradictory to say that a final "d" is like a "t". This is how it is transliterated and - you are right - it doesn't really sound like a "t" at all. If you listen very carefully, you can hear the subtle distinction between a final "d" or "ch" or "t".

I spend some time belaboring this point in the workshop. Think of "shaken but not stirred": you form the letter in your mouth as if you are about to say it, but you don't make any further sound and you don't expel any air.

As for saying that you can learn to read Thai in a day just be getting a good book on the Thai writing system, well everybody I've spoken to so far have told me that it's incredibly complicated and, even after spending several months at a class to learn reading and writing, they still can't do it except for the more basic words. As for the tones, they don't even bother.

What I've done is to simplify the entire system - you only learn what you need to know in order to read accurately. It isn't necessary to know whether a vowel is long or short - it's pretty obvious from the subliminal cues I've embedded in the course. And instead of complicated classes and tone tables, I've used a story-based mnemonic system based on boys, girls and ladyboys.

Essentially, it is a mnemonic system for helping you to remember the letters and the tone system in one go, without having to memorize an arbitrary system of rules. Many letters are also initially quite confusing, so it will take a great deal of boring and repetitive reading drills to learn to recognize them all and distinguish between those that are similar.

It can be done of course, but why do it the hard way when I've done all the work for you already?

It only takes a few hours to learn the system, but the bulk of the course is to help consolidate the ability to read actual words. As in any language, but perhaps more so in Thai, it does help to know the meaning of the word in order to be able to read it quickly. By building up a vocabulary of basic words - again using a visual association method - the course makes it that much easier to be able to read Thai in the real world.

I think I make it quite clear in my advertising that you will not necessarily be able to understand what you are reading. I don't pretend to teach Thai, nor do I promise to teach how to write Thai either. It's only a start. A very important start. One learns Thai more effectively through reading and I strongly recommend a book by Wiworn Kesavatana-Dohrs entitled Everyday Thai for Beginners as well as podcasts (e.g. www.learn-thai-podcast.com) or introductory websites such as www.its4thai.com. Just make an effort to look at the Thai script, not the transliteration.

Learning to write is a very advanced skill that should be left until much later. Writing comes with reading: by being able to recognize the spelling of different words. You shouldn't try to write longhand. Learn to touch-type on the keyboard instead, and check your spelling with the thailanguage.com dictionary or thai2english.com.

Of course 400 words isn't going to be sufficient to learn the language. I really am amazed at some of the responses I get from people. Many don't believe that one can learn to read in only one day and so think I'm a charlatan. And then there are others who except to be able to speak, understand and write Thai as a result of the course when I clearly make no claim.

However, if you are at least able to sound out Thai words accurately then you will find it remarkably easy to pick up Thai "on the go". If you can't read then you are like a blind person: Thai words on the street will just consist of meaningless squiggles. Indeed, there is so much you can learn from your environment, simply by paying attention to street signs and shop notices.

And then you will find that learning Thai using a more formal method will be relatively easy and logical.

Before pooh-poohing a new approach, why not try it out? You can pick up a lot from the demo version and if you buy an access code then you can try it for a month before requesting a full refund. I've put my money where my mouth is: if it doesn't work for you then all you will lose is a few hours of your time.

And then you can take the money and put it towards a regular Thai language school. Many schools claim to teach you to read and write Thai in around 200 hours for a cost of 25,000-30,000 baht. Keep in mind that this isn't the only cost: add in the travel costs, the drinks & meals, and the time out of your life.

Happy reading.

[THAIPHUKET]

I am one of the farang who came to this country almost 5 years ago and I was shocked about the many men who didnt speak a word of Thai, communicating with their women in the most horrible pidgin mixture of whatever. How arrogant I was!

Now, 5 years later, my own Thai is non-existent. But my wife studied hard and learned English well. No pidgin talks.

IN SHORT= it´s never too late. Therefor please put me on your mailing list for the next course.

I will be more than happy to pay for a 1 day appetizer and I sure would never claim a refund.

[meadish_sweetball]

If you listen very carefully, you can hear the subtle distinction between a final "d" or "ch" or "t".

That's interesting. As far as I am aware, there is no such difference in terms of sound, the difference is in spelling only. One possible exception is English loan words where educated Thais might sound out the final - but I've never heard this in "original" Thai words.

I wonder, if you had a native Thai read out these syllables to you in random order: บัด บัช บัต บัจ บัส บัท บัถ บัธ บัซ บัษ บัศ ...how many finals would you get right if you tried to write them down?

Maybe I am wrong but I sincerely doubt you'll score better than what chance would dictate.

[loong]

* Except for the letters ล ร ญ which change to an "n" at the end of a syllable, all other consonants are the same. 60 Minutes makes the mistake of teaching students the transliterated endings (e.g. where ด is either "d" or "t". In reality, Thais simply do not sound the final consonant of a syllable, unless it has a continuous sound like "n" or "m". They form the letter in their mouths, but do not express the sound as we do in English. We expel a little air to enunciate the final consonant clearly. That's why a final "d" or "ch" or even "s" sounds almost like an English "t" - but it isn't.

I'm sorry, but you are talking (or typing) rubbish.

First you say

Thais simply do not sound the final consonant of a syllable

Then

That's why a final "d" or "ch" or even "s" sounds almost like an English "t"

So do they sound it or not, you are contradicting yourself.

Certainly, most thais do not pronounce the final consonant clearly and it almost seems that you have to train your ears to hear the difference, but it is there.

If you listen very carefully, you can hear the subtle distinction between a final "d" or "ch" or "t".

That's interesting. As far as I am aware, there is no such difference in terms of sound, the difference is in spelling only. One possible exception is English loan words where educated Thais might sound out the final - but I've never heard this in "original" Thai words.

I wonder, if you had a native Thai read out these syllables to you in random order: บัด บัช บัต บัจ บัส บัท บัถ บัธ บัซ บัษ บัศ ...how many finals would you get right if you tried to write them down?

Maybe I am wrong but I sincerely doubt you'll score better than what chance would dictate.

First I thought that you were responding to my post, then I realised that you replied to Orish.

It made me look at my post again and I see that I hadn't made my point clearly.

I was disputing the statement that "Thais simply do not sound the final consonant of a syllable"

After all, there is a definite difference between the final "p", "k" and "t" sounds. So Thais do sound the final consonant, albeit not too clearly.

I agree that if there is a difference in the final "d" or "ch" or "t" sound, I cannot hear it.

With some people I think that I can hear a slight difference with a short or long vowel. Ie 7 and 8, the ด in 7 (short vowel) sounds slightly more like a "t", whereas in 8 แปด (long vowel) leans more towards a "d", but that may just be my ears.

[Puschl]

Quite confusing thread with a quarrel between http://www.learnthaionline.com and http://EasyThaiAlphabet.com supporters that don't wear coloured T-shirts to make it easier to tell them apart. I'm still not sure whether Gary=genggwaa=orish (learnthaionline/one day faction) and Damian=desi=therealthing (EasyThaiAlphabet/one hour faction), or not?

From outside, learnthaionline looks more trustworthy because they give a preview on the programme, while easythaialphabet elaborates over several pages on oh how good the product is and how happy the customers are. Also learnthaionline links to other thai language resources*, so maybe their programme is competitive enough. I'm astonished that none of both websites has an imprint (unthinkable on a european e-commerce site), but maybe PayPal ensures that the customers have a handle on the vendors.

If you listen very carefully, you can hear the subtle distinction between a final "d" or "ch" or "t".

Could you come up with a list of examples that pinpoint your claim? I searched audio-files for meadish's list of syllables, and found only very few ( บัดกรี, บัตร บัสแตร ). Indeed I could hear a difference between -ต and -ส, but as he said

One possible exception is English loan words where educated Thais might sound out the final - but I've never heard this in "original" Thai words.

Orish, I fancy your doctrine** helps to remember the spelling of words. If you form a ช in your mind, then you remember the word ends in ช. But I doubt I could learn to 'form a ส in my mind' and suppress the hissing sound (and still utter what sounds like a -t).

Thumbs up for emphasizing the importance of learning to read thai quickly. I'm struggling to get rid of the german ü and ö accent in my อื's and เออ's that I've learnt by too much reading the transcriptions in my suisse textbook withouth carefully listening to the tape.

Note * : I'm overly happy that I found this approach to learning the consonant classes, by following a link on learnthaionline, and reading on. For me, seeing underlying structures facilitates learning.

Note **: the english word doctrine sounds a bit strong, read the german word 'Lehrmeinung' instead

[orish]

If you listen very carefully, you can hear the subtle distinction between a final "d" or "ch" or "t".

That's interesting. As far as I am aware, there is no such difference in terms of sound, the difference is in spelling only. One possible exception is English loan words where educated Thais might sound out the final - but I've never heard this in "original" Thai words.

Yes, you are probably right. It is very difficult to hear the difference, if at all. Those people who can tell the difference can probably pick up a difference in the quality of the sound. In English, it isn't possible to tell between "read" and "red" except from the context. But, there is a very subtle difference between "so" and "sow" that a native speaker can hear.

Nevertheless, you can probably hear the difference in the following pairs of words:

พัด พัก

ตด ตก

[meadish_sweetball]

Nevertheless, you can probably hear the difference in the following pairs of words:

พัด พัก

ตด ตก

Yes, for sure - in those cases there is a definite difference that can be heard with some practice.

The reason for this would be that the tongue lands at completely different places for final ด (alveolar ridge) as opposed to ก (soft palate), whereas in the case of final ด ต ถ ส ศ ษ ซ ช จ ฉ ท the tongue lands at essentially the same place (alveolar ridge).

[learnthaipodcast]

Id agree with the other person above, avoid Gary Orman's rubbish like the plague, the guy is just a con-artist and a rip-off artist. The other guy who is backing him up, is quite obviously in league with him. I purchased Gary Orman's , and it's a complete rip-off of the 60 minutes to learn the thai alphabet book available at EasyThaiAlphabet.com, and which has been available since 2004.

as a testament to how effective 60 minutes to learn the thai alphabet is, it has also been ripped off by the guy at learn thai podcast!

If you would know what you were talking about you would know that learning languages with the help of mnemonics is common practice and since the 90s books to learn Japanese Kanji and other foreign alphabets have been around. (Even for the western alphabet: http://www.highlandsenrichmentprogram.com/...tickers_abc.jpg )

Anyway, for anyone interested in learning to read and write Thai our Reading & Writing Course has just kicked off and besides mnemonics for all Thai consonants and vowels we walk you step by step through all aspects of the reading and writing system for just 9$ / month. Read on for more details.

Edited April 20, 2009 by learnthaipodcast