Best Programs To Learn Thai (help Please!)

[bunnaag]

I started to learn Thai with a book called"The fundamentals of the Thai lanquage" by Stuart Campbell.I highly recommend it.The second book I can recommend is "Thai Phrase Handbook" by Eric Allyn.These books were published before Becker at al started their series.And also the books by Sriwilai Ponmanee are rercommendable.

[Kaojai]

I was just curious if Rosetta Stone would help with increasing my vocabulary, etc. I think it's good to use other sources sometimes.

When I first got Rosetta Stone it seemed totally confusing, but after doing some other personal study and then doing some work with a Thai instructor, I find Rosetta Stone one of several good reinforcements. Listening to what's said and then choosing the most appropriate picture helps to force you to listen and discriminate. Sometimes when I can't fathom what is being said, I go through a series with my Thai teacher so he can explain why one picture is the correct one and another very similar picture is not. Then I can go back and run through the checks many times when the teacher is not there.

I'm primarily a visual learner rather than an aural learner. Obviously if you're learning to speak or to understand spoken Thai you have to go the aural route, but having some visual reference helps me some.

I think if you are an absolute beginner and/or don't have a Thai speaker to assist you from time-to-time that Rosetta would be a poor choice, but as an additional resource for reinforcement, it's quite good.

Before I came to Thailand full-time, I used Pimsleur. I picked up quite a bit, but again, having a Thai teacher helped because Thais (naturally) speak a lot faster than the people on the CD's and the common way Thais have in expressing some basic ideas is nothing like the people on the CD's.

Tone & pronunciation remain a problem. I asked for "cha dam," black iced tea, the other day and was served a Chang beer and no matter what I do with "prik nam pla," I usually get looks of stunned incredulity. So my Thai or Laos friends have to translate "my Thai" into "real Thai" on many occasions. On the other hand, my friend from Central Thailand has sometimes gotten looks of incomprehension when he's ordered food in restaurants in either Phuket or Chiang Mai, so maybe I just have a regional accent. Maybe I should travel the provinces of Thailand asking for "prik nam pla" and re-settle in the first place I'm understood.

[Groongthep]

AUA still sells its old course books but I don't know if they also sell the ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY accompanying cassettes as well.

You can order the AUA cassettes and CDs from the Cornell University Language Resource Center at this link: Cornell Press Sales (click on the "Thai" selection). They are expensive though.

[mokwit]

http://www.fsi-language-courses.com/Thai.aspx

Foreign Service Course link

As for AUA, I personally don't like it, but people who I knew who used this course spoke good Thai and it is one of the few courses to go beyond tourist basics i.e 3 books, 2 reading/writing books, and a small talk book. If you can't buy it from AUA you may be able to get the books secondhand off Amazon.

The Mary Hass 'Spoken Thai' course is another long course available off Amazon but quite expensive and apparently in need of typesetting. I have the Vocabulary book and it seems to have a lot of words different to the ones I know - I don't know if this is because it is old (1950's) or whether it is a very 'Hi So' Thai course. I think I will ask a Thai friend to clarify on this.

If you really (really) want to speak Thai then its the Chula intensive course. The Mission based ones such as Piamitr are good, but everybody I know who took the Chula course has impressive Thai, but all felt it was just too intense.

It pays to study different courses e.g Fundamentals of the Thai Language finally helped me to click with the falling tone - say it as in 'I TOLD you' as you would intone told when you had already told somebody not to do something. Thai Teacher taught me that low tone is said as if you were totally bored and fed up with something.

The main thing is DO NOT learn Thai from a bar Girl if you interact outside that environment- it stands out a mile where you learned it as the accent is utterly distinctive and not easily corrected.

Also don't forget the 'Thai Reference Grammer' be eg Smyth and also the Higbie one.

P.S if you can't understand what the locals are saying it may be because they are speaking Isaan Thai/Lao or Khmer rather than Thai.

Edited January 4, 2009 by mokwit

[Kaojai]

1) To learn the Thai alphabet asap....

60 Minutes to Learn the Thai Alphabet

I clicked on this link, filled in a form with my email address, received a link in an email that Google assured me was unsafe. I clicked that link anyway assuming that Google was being overly cautious and my McAfee announced that it was blocking the download because of a Trojan threat.

Edited January 4, 2009 by Kaojai

[mokwit]

AUA course books available new from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Language-Center-Thai.../ref=pd_sim_b_1

[desi]

I clicked on this link, filled in a form with my email address, received a link in an email...

Contact him?

[klons]

I know you can get Pimsleur on one of the torrent sites. I got it, and found it intensely annoying. Why? Because I am British, and Pimsleur is American. The idiomatic Americanisms do NOT suggest to me the concept which is being presented in Thai, and so the exercise fails. It may be good for Americans, but it won't be so good for other English-speakers.

- Roger -

As a supplement for learning after being through a basic Thai self study course, I bought a 2 CD set called Colloquial Thai by

John Moore. It is narrated by a Brit who speaks proper English. All in all I thought it was pretty good . It is all audio and

the narrator only gives a brief account of what the dialogues are about. Definitions are not given for all the words used but can

be figured out with a little effort. Some of the Thai dialogues are also amusing. I bought it in used condition on the internet.

It should be suitable for those annoyed by Americanisms.

[learnthaipodcast]

Have a look at our Premium Course. We have already more than 25 hours of videos and audio files online that will get you started with Thai in no time. It's just 14.95$ a month if you sign up for 6 month.

http://learn-thai-podcast.com/signup.php

Let me know if you have any questions.

[kriswillems]

As a non-native English speaker, I am really surprised the difference between American English and British English is so big that it's hard for a native English speaking student to listen to the other version of English. I expected that it would be at least possible to understand enough to be able to study Thai with the CDs. For me both versions of English are equally good or bad when used as a tool to study Thai.

[tonytidbury]

Can anyone tell me what happened about the "virus" in "Learn the Thai Alphabet in 60 Minutes"? I dare not open the link at this point. It contains an executable, and this may be what google objects to. But "a trojan horse"? That is a different matter.

[desi]

Can anyone tell me what happened about the "virus" in "Learn the Thai Alphabet in 60 Minutes"? I dare not open the link at this point. It contains an executable, and this may be what google objects to. But "a trojan horse"? That is a different matter.

From what I understand, it's objecting to the .exe

I can't send or receive any .exe's over gmail for the very same reason.

[mgjackson69]

Tone & pronunciation remain a problem. I asked for "cha dam," black iced tea, the other day and was served a Chang beer

Well, you did forget the "yen"

I think this is more of a problem of the waiter/waitress not listening to you...they are expecting you to speak English, so they are not listening for Thai. I occasionally have this problem with my wife...she will be listening for English and I am using Thai. I have experienced similar situations in South America when trying to use Spanish.

and no matter what I do with "prik nam pla," I usually get looks of stunned incredulity.

That might just be surprise at the fact that a farang is ordering it.

Try the "Isaan" or "baan nawk" pronunciation, "peek naam blah" or even "peek naam bah".

Edited January 17, 2009 by mgjackson69

[meadish_sweetball]

Record yourself saying it as well as you can, attach the sound file to your post, and we can try to help you with the pronunciation.

It's almost impossible to do it in writing, since we don't know what you sound like.

I agree with mgjackson69 - the first hurdle to overcome in speaking Thai, is to have the Thai person 'tune in to the right channel' which is 'Thai language with an accent FM', not 'Yikes, the farang is speaking in an English accent I can't understand OMG this won't end well FM'.

[desi]

A good new product which has sold out already at Asiabook Paragon is Thai Reading For Speaking by Sweetland.

Thanks for the mention of Thai Reading For Speaking. As I was curious, I contacted DCO who located it for me in Bangkok, then delivered by motorcycle taxi. I won't have an opinion until I go through the book and CD (always great to have a CD!), but it's looking good so far.

Learning how to read Thai is such a hurdle for so many, it's great to see new stuff come on the market.

[sakrunakap]

For self study, or even if you have a Thai tutor, I recommend the series by Benjawan Poomsan Becker. She has written a series, Thai for Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced. It teaches speaking, reading, and writing, and easier to follow than other books I've seen or used. Each level is available in a set containing a book and CD's or cassette tapes. There is also a computer program for the Beginner course that is good for practice and testing yourself, it covers listening and reading.

Her series is far less expensive than the others mentioned, and I think far more effective for learning the language. Available in many book stores, and was available at Amazon.com the last time I looked.

I recommend this book, too. It's been a great help in my attempt to study Basic Thai. On another note, speech community exposure is also an essential component for succesful 2nd language learning so I encourage you to practice the language with the locals once you get to Thailand. It's only then that your theoretical Thai is tested. Consequently, if you are successful in getting your meaning across using the target language, you become more confident and motivated in learning the language.

[MKAsok]

Thanks for the mention of Thai Reading For Speaking. As I was curious, I contacted DCO who located it for me in Bangkok, then delivered by motorcycle taxi. I won't have an opinion until I go through the book and CD (always great to have a CD!), but it's looking good so far.

Where did they find it desi? How advanced does it get, or is it all pretty basic? Oh, and how much? Ta...

[desi]

Where did they find it desi? How advanced does it get, or is it all pretty basic? Oh, and how much? Ta...

I'm not sure if there are any left, but this one came from Asia Books in Seacon Square, 395 Baht.

For level... I'd say pretty basic.

I ran across an advanced Thai reading course but it was gone before I'd made my mind up to purchase it. And since I only saw it once, I can't remember the name. It was at Paragon, so I'll keep checking.

Also at Paragon was the Mary Haas Thai-English Dictionary. And again, I missed it because I didn't grab it at the time (paeng maak!)

Thai Reading for Speaking takes you from absolute beginner to reading Thai and knowing where each word falls in the alphabet (so you can look up words in a Thai dictionary). Includes writing and over 1000 words. All through, it gives tips on being able to read Thai easily.

Each of the consonant lessons give you a handful of consonants to memorise - sounds, number they are in the alphabet, name in transliteration, initial and final. After lesson one, you start creating tables to put the consonants into their proper positions. Each lesson, you build consonant tables from the previous lesson.

He's big on lessons. There are tips on tone rules, with lessons to follow. Excellent tips btw...

Then you are started on the vowels. Again, in small bunches with lessons. Followed by numbers.

By section 5, you can read all the names of the consonants in Thai script, using the proper tones. You then move onto Thai cities and towns, then common signs. Lessons included.

By page 105 (total of 181), you reach the Tables and Appendices and a Thai-English dictionary (all very useful).

The transliteration doesn't have tone markers, but it's not needed as you are reading from the beginning.

He predicts it takes around 40 hours to go through 5 sections.

[G54]

Not sure if it is available to you but I have Multimedia CDs from Visual Dictionary Gold Series. They have been helpful and are in Thai / English. Have pictures, spoken phrases and tests.

www.perfectvision.co.th

[MKAsok]

^ Thanks for that desi. Sounds quite useful, but as you say, fairly basic. I'll definitely have a browse if I see it anywhere...

[mangkorn]

...the first hurdle to overcome in speaking Thai, is to have the Thai person 'tune in to the right channel' which is 'Thai language with an accent FM', not 'Yikes, the farang is speaking in an English accent I can't understand OMG this won't end well FM'.

Outstanding, meadish.

[desi]

^ Thanks for that desi. Sounds quite useful, but as you say, fairly basic. I'll definitely have a browse if I see it anywhere...

For an intermediate reader, I checked around TV and came up with Thai Cultural Reader Book 1 and 2 by Robert Jones

It looks a bit old (see it in Google Books), but doesn't mean they are not good. I'm interested enough to see if I can locate them in BKK.

Becker has Intermediate...

And there are English-Thai books around (but they don't explain anything).

[desi]

I started to learn Thai with a book called"The fundamentals of the Thai lanquage" by Stuart Campbell.I highly recommend it.The second book I can recommend is "Thai Phrase Handbook" by Eric Allyn.These books were published before Becker at al started their series.And also the books by Sriwilai Ponmanee are rercommendable.

Due to mentions here, I picked up Thai Phrase Handbook and now prefer it over others on my shelf. It has an old-fashioned design, but it is easy to read read and get around, so no problem. It's also packed with decent cultural tidbits so it's perfect to give as a gift to those new to Thailand.

The Fundamentals of the Thai Language is free online.

[desi]

And also the books by Sriwilai Ponmanee are recommendable.

After you posted this, I googled to see what others were saying. I won't link to a competing forum, but you can easily find the same comments as I did.

I couldn't find the the books, so I contacted Danny at DCO books. He contacted the author, Sriwilai Ponmanee and now carries the whole set at his online store. They aren't up there yet, so if you do want them, wait a few days (or contact DCO).

The set:

Speaking Thai 1

Speaking Thai 2

Speaking Thai for Advanced Learner

Learning to Read Thai

Reading to Learn Thai

45 Thai Stories (comes with cassette so I'll have to see if mine still works)

I haven't had the time to look at them, but my Thai teacher thumbed through and quite liked the layout of the lessons.