Recomendation Needed - Piatr Or Utl ?

[asia_pilot]

Hello,

I am about to sign up to learn Thai. I would like to start my course next week, so my time is about to sign up. I have read alot in this forum and tend between 2 schools. Which one would you recomend and why ? I am tending towards PIATR.

PIATR - Morning Class 9.00 -12.00 ( Total 60 Hrs ) 5,500 Thai Baht

UTL - Morning Class 8.00 - 12.00 ( Total 80 Hrs ) 7,200 Thai Baht

I understand both schools are using them same method.

Thanks for your imput.

[kriswillems]

I think you mean piammitr, right?

Both school use very similar methods. Some teachers also know each other. Most handbooks are (almost)identical. I think both schools are equivalent. I went to Piammitr last week and the director told me there are very little students now. This could be an advantage, because there will be only a few people in the classroom, giving you the opportunity to speak more. But UTL might also have not that many students at this moment.

[Tod Daniels]

Unless I am mistaken; the Union based method for teaching thai was initially developed for missionaries coming here to learn thai to convert thais to other faiths. It became the most promoted method of teaching because, as soon as the thai teachers working at the first Union based school saw that this was a viable method to actually teach thai to foreigners they broke away and formed their own schools. Often they didn't even bother to re-write the text books, just copied them with a new logo.

Personally I dislike UTL, and go out of my way to discourage people from attending their school, but that is from personal experience and your mileage may vary. I don't believe their method is any better or worse than the other Union clone schools.

A friend of mine went to Piammitr several months ago. He felt he got good value and learning from them. There was only himself and another person in the "group" so it was more like one on one, than group lessons.

I would look less for a strictly price point comparison, and more for "bang for the baht". Go take a free class from each school you're interested in and see what one clicks with you most. I've taken free lessons at nearly 20+ thai language schools, examined their materials, (and paid attending students to let me copy the textbooks I thought had merit, lol).

DON'T be in a rush to pay for the school until you know you'll get some value from the class. This is thailand and believe me the word "refund" is NOT in ANY schools vocabulary.

Good luck.

[Tod Daniels]

As an add on to my earlier post, I just went to Piammitr School off Sukhumvit on Soi 13. I sat in on about 20 minutes of their Book 1 class, and then did about 30 minutes of Book 3.

All the beginner books are in "Karaoke" (or phonemic transcription). The thai words are represented by a series of english letters with specialized characters to represent thai sounds not easily written strictly in english.

I think IF you're wanting to learn to speak thai that Piammitr would be an excellent school to attend. The guy that runs it is friendly, and both teachers whose class I sat in on were animated and out-going (even given that I am over 6 feet, wear black KISS shirts, rarely smile and walk with a cane, obviously not the most 'thai-friendly' appearing person in the world).

After book 3 they begin teaching reading and writing, and I skimmed through Book 6 which has short stories in thai, and then a q/a after for comprehension and structure.

I thoroughly enjoyed the school, the material is well written, and the staff is great. As an added plus; most classes I saw only had 2 or 3 people in them MOST. It'd be almost one on one learning for the price of the group lessons.

BTW: I don't get anything for recommending them as a school, and am not affiliated with ANY thai language school.

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[kriswillems]

If you go to Piammitr, you don't like phonetic script and you can already read Thai, book 1 to 3 are also available in Thai. I took the Thai version of these books. The teacher will write in phonetic script on the whiteboard. But if there are only a few students in the class you can ask the teacher to write in Thai too.

The reason that the first books are in phonetic script is probably that they don't want to discourage beginners and they want that people can speak basic Thai as soon as possible (so students that only study for 2 or 3 months will also be able to speak basic Thai).

Piammitr offers a good course, UTL probably too. Weather you'll be successful or not probably depends on your motivation and talent and less on which of the 2 schools you'll choose.

[frenchfarangjomtien]

Hi,

Any update about these schools ?

I guess that any school is ok as they even are useless for someone with enough motivation to learn alone at home ?

So the best would be to find the cheapest school to get an education visa, do you know which one ?

Thanks a lot.

[jolos]

Hi,

Any update about these schools ?

I guess that any school is ok as they even are useless for someone with enough motivation to learn alone at home ?

So the best would be to find the cheapest school to get an education visa, do you know which one ?

Thanks a lot.

UTL in TIMES SQUARE have many students mostly KOREAN.

this KOREANS have problems with learning foreign languages.

since you going for a class schedule it means that you have to wait long time until you can speak or pratice.

PIAMITR in the TRENDY building has fewer students

sometimes just 2 or 3 in a higher class

so that means you have more time for speaking

the method and books are almost identical.

both school offer a free day trial if you ask.

so check it out by yourself!!