Walen Or Pro Language?

[inu]

Hi Guys,

I have friend coming from Australia who wants to study Thai. She is applying for an ED Visa but is having trouble choosing between Walen and Pro Language in BKK.

Any thoughts or advice from people with experience of either school would be greatly appreciated.

[MacWalen]

The best is to come and sit on a free lesson, see the school, talk to students and staff. Also the method, some students really like to learn Thai using transliteration. Walen is not doing it, if your friend learns at our school she will be encouraged to learn the Thai alphabet and not after several books of study but right from the first day and first lesson.

Student numbers also usually give good indication whether the market things something is good or not. I do not see much participation of Pro in the Thai language forum, never seen them here, apart from having one small banner in the visa forum.

Walen, www.thaiwalen.com

Edited March 20, 2009 by macwalen

[jaithai]

On my last trip to Bangkok I dropped in to Walen and sat in on a lesson. Even though I was a bit ahead of the students in the class, I was very impressed by the teaching method. Having studied by book, computer program, podcast, internet, as well as one-on-one tutoring in Thailand, I think I'm in a good position to judge. I've looked at various schools and when I return to Bangkok for a time to study, Walen will be my choice.

[inu]

Thanks everyone.

My friend is still in Australia and needs to get her ED visa before coming to BKK- so is unable to sit in a class to check out the lessons- which is why she wants to find out about other peoples' experience.

[Tod Daniels]

Different schools use different methods to teach AND depending on the individual's needs i.e.: speaking, reading, etc, one school might be a better fit.

If it's purely speaking, and/or conversation; MTL, PRO, Piammitr, or Paradigm all have GOOD speaking and conversational thai classes which use basic every day situations to build your language skills on. They use a combination of thai characters and phonemic transcription so you can read thai words spelled with english letters. That is often called "karaoke thai" by some schools, but the advantage is you can get pretty close to speaking simple things right away without learning to read thai first. That is why it is important for the individual student to know what they want to achieve comes in.

Walen Thai, ONLY teaches reading, with very little interaction in the class other than reading the prescribed answer from the book to the teacher's question. I've yet to meet someone who has attended the school who couldn't speak thai before they began attending yet now can carry on a conversation in spoken thai, it just isn't that kind of school.

That being said, Walen school will teach you to read; although with the classes running non-stop for every book, often times when a new student joins the class you might start on page 80, and have other students in the class who've gone thru the book 3 or 4 times already. It can be off-putting, but I did a year there and my reading and comprehension increased markedly.

Bummer she can't sit some classes, as EVERY thai language school in Bangkok offers the free lesson dealy. I suggest perhaps a better course of action is that she gets a 60 day tourist visa in Oz; then comes here, to scope out the schools. She can go to a neighboring country's Thai Consulate fairly inexpensively to get the ED visa once she decides on the school and method which best suits her needs.

BE VERY hesitant about forking over the tuition money in advance of sitting at least a free class. Every school believe their method is the best, (which being businesses for profit, they should). However that is NOT the case as different people learn differently. With this being the glorious "Land 'O Thais" (whether the schools are run by foreigners or thai nationals), if you are unhappy, you will NEVER EVER get a refund AFTER you've paid, it just doesn't happen in this country.

Good Luck

[MacWalen]

You can type names of schools in google and see what you can find. Walen is a very popular school, definitely more popular than Pro.

Walen

www.thaiwalen.com

[MacWalen]

Different schools use different methods to teach AND depending on the individual's needs i.e.: speaking, reading, etc, one school might be a better fit.

If it's purely speaking, and/or conversation; MTL, PRO, Piammitr, or Paradigm all have GOOD speaking and conversational thai classes which use basic every day situations to build your language skills on. They use a combination of thai characters and phonemic transcription so you can read thai words spelled with english letters. That is often called "karaoke thai" by some schools, but the advantage is you can get pretty close to speaking simple things right away without learning to read thai first. That is why it is important for the individual student to know what they want to achieve comes in.

Walen Thai, ONLY teaches reading, with very little interaction in the class other than reading the prescribed answer from the book to the teacher's question. I've yet to meet someone who has attended the school who couldn't speak thai before they began attending yet now can carry on a conversation in spoken thai, it just isn't that kind of school.

That being said, Walen school will teach you to read; although with the classes running non-stop for every book, often times when a new student joins the class you might start on page 80, and have other students in the class who've gone thru the book 3 or 4 times already. It can be off-putting, but I did a year there and my reading and comprehension increased markedly.

Bummer she can't sit some classes, as EVERY thai language school in Bangkok offers the free lesson dealy. I suggest perhaps a better course of action is that she gets a 60 day tourist visa in Oz; then comes here, to scope out the schools. She can go to a neighboring country's Thai Consulate fairly inexpensively to get the ED visa once she decides on the school and method which best suits her needs.

BE VERY hesitant about forking over the tuition money in advance of sitting at least a free class. Every school believe their method is the best, (which being businesses for profit, they should). However that is NOT the case as different people learn differently. With this being the glorious "Land 'O Thais" (whether the schools are run by foreigners or thai nationals), if you are unhappy, you will NEVER EVER get a refund AFTER you've paid, it just doesn't happen in this country.

Good Luck

What a nonsense, some students are indeed reading from their books (100% in Thai) as are not strong enough to make full answers themselves in early stages of their studies but as soon as they improve they can answer themselves. They are learning to read and write at the same time. I am disappointed with your distorted presentation of our school. Never mind. Difficulties of the Walen are similar to those of Callan in early years. Callan however proved to be the fastest way to teach English despite critics, each and every one considered himself to be a better English teacher than Callan, but they all were proven completely wrong, so will the critics of Walen. Walen is the Thai equivalent of Callan. Very much similar. Saying that students cannot learn to speak Thai at our school is complete rubbish.

Walen

www.thaiwalen.com

Edited March 23, 2009 by macwalen

[kriswillems]

I joined the Thai language test organized by Thai ministry of education last year. There where more than 250 students doing the test. Almost every student studied at a language school. Walen claims to be the biggest school in Thailand (or even in the world). I was disappointed to see that none of their students joined the test. This way all claims of this school about the quality of their course stay unproven.

I studied 1 month at pro language in Pattaya. The course was not too bad (in fact it was better than many other course in Pattaya). They had many high quality handbooks (written by them) both for beginners and advanced students. I think the course was not as good as the courses offered in the schools that follow the Union method. So, I decided to continue at one of these schools (in BKK).

When you choose a school you should think about which level you want to reach and what is most important that for you. Some school offer excellent visa services at a minimal total cost (thus you get only 180 or 200 hours per year), other school focus on giving students the opportunity to study until higher levels and/or giving a good education at a minimal cost.

Don't believe anything a school claims.

Ask to see all the handbooks: how many books do they have? Do the books look well structured? Do they have their own books?

How many of their students did join the level test of the Thai ministry of education? And what was their average score?

How many hours per week are you going to study? (More is probably better if your main objective is studying Thai).

How many separate levels are there? Make sure advanced students are not slowed down by beginners and beginner don't feel frustrated sitting between much more advanced students.

Compare prices per hour, not per year.

How many students are there in a classroom?

What do other students say?

Don't be fooled by advertisement about visa services, all schools recognized by the ministry of education offer the necessary documents.

[ben2talk]

The best is to come and sit on a free lesson, see the school, talk to students and staff. Also the method, some students really like to learn Thai using transliteration. Walen is not doing it, if your friend learns at our school she will be encouraged to learn the Thai alphabet and not after several books of study but right from the first day and first lesson.

Student numbers also usually give good indication whether the market things something is good or not. I do not see much participation of Pro in the Thai language forum, never seen them here, apart from having one small banner in the visa forum.

Walen, www.thaiwalen.com

That said, the method of pronouncing the word, and then spelling it means that you never actually learn how to read the words, you just memorise the words you already learned. For example, the word 'rice' is spelled 'koo aa woo kaaw' and then you add a tone marker 'mai too' and then repronounce with the new tone.

Using Walen, they don't spell like Thai's spell, they just spell the whole word and say it. This is frustrating, as my Thai is quite good, but I cannot read new words correctly. I'd like to learn to read properly.

[MacWalen]

Thanks for your post ben2talk. The whole issue of tones is more complex than in your example. Also saying that we do not spell like Thai people do is at least misleading. I don't know what you really mean. You mean that we pronounce long form of letters? Is that the case? Because pronouncing the full name of letters you cannot read? Not sure what is your point, can you elaborate on it? I am happy to see you at school for a free consulatation with our teachers. I am sure we can help you.

Walen School - Helping you always

www.thaiwalen.com

[Rionoir]

Why is this thread back at the top, she asked the question 6 months ago... =P

[worldfun]

umm happy to help at walen is it?

how many of your students ever took the government exam & if any what kind of results have they gotten?

have to say your hourly rates are some of the highest in town (~150bt/h) while others/competetion typically range 80-100bt/h be it union/unity type of schools or others like AUA etc.

cheers

[MacWalen]

We are not the cheapest school, but the best value.

Walen School - The best value

[worldfun]

That's a fair answer. Thank you very much :-)

Unfortunately however for me I prefer to study intensively in as short time span as possible say 2-4 months, but as your maximum weekly hours offered is only 9 vs. 20 hours by the competition one might say your school would have to be more than double as efficient as the intensive programmes/universities in order to be the best 'choice'.

Regarding 'value' I guess it really depends. If only talking 'Thai language study' I think we all know where it stands, but of course if for the ones who need to factor in 'visa cost' or ability to remain in country well let me just say I'm not one of those enough said.

wf - almost settled on the 'best value' school

[MacWalen]

That is not entirely correct, you can take as many as 30 lessons a week, simply need to attend more classes at the same level, it works very well. If you master one book then you move to another. We have quite a few students doing that.

Walen School - Most intensive program

www.thaiwalen.com

[worldfun]

mw, very interesting reply about 30 hours/week courses available.

however I've heard that some 20 hours would be plenty to cope with & is a recommended 'maximum' progress number generally in langyage study.

so if say I wanted to start book 1 (beginners course reading/speaking) with 20 hours monday-friday how would my class schedule look like for example at Walen (Bangkok)?

thanks!

[BlueTerrace]

Choose Langauge Express, I have been studying there for a couple of months, great teachers, god clear book, and they have a really good system.

[MacWalen]

There are more and more schools teaching Thai. Clearly the market is growing and being the biggest Walen is happy to have contributed to it in some small degree.

All Walen schools are growing also as the number of happy customers is growing. We have plans to expansion in Thailand to other locations also.

For those who would like to apply to learn Thai in Thailand from the Philippines, our new school in Angeles City is accepting applications.

Walen School - you will not be disappointed!

[saintofsilence]

Do you also teach Thais to speak English if so what is the cost?

[MacWalen]

There are more and more schools teaching Thai. Clearly the market is growing and being the biggest Walen is happy to have contributed to it in some small degree.

All Walen schools are growing also as the number of happy customers is growing. We have plans to expansion in Thailand to other locations also.

For those who would like to apply to learn Thai in Thailand from the Philippines, our new school in Angeles City is accepting applications.

Walen School - you will not be disappointed!

Sorry for some typos.

[MacWalen]

Do you also teach Thais to speak English if so what is the cost?

120 lessons cost 24,960 Baht. Can try for free first to see if student like our system of teaching, no risk involved. Also DCS comes with it so if somebody wanted to learn for free it is also possible.

Edited October 1, 2011 by MacWalen

[saintofsilence]

Thanks for that I will keep this info for future if reqd

[Satcommlee]

What is "The big fish eat the little fish" in Thai, I need to renew my ED visa tomorrow

[reiziger]

Hi there,

I personally took 2 Thai courses with Pro Language and I am totally satisfied. They processed the ED visa applications for me and my

girlfriend very quickly too.

As for the courses, I would definitely recommend private classes if you are a beginner or your Thai is very basic.

You can go and attend a free trial class and then decide if you want to buy the 10-lesson package.

I personally found it a good value for money.

Cannot say anything about Walen.

Lars

[khaan]

Hi there,

I personally took 2 Thai courses with Pro Language and I am totally satisfied. They processed the ED visa applications for me and my

girlfriend very quickly too.

As for the courses, I would definitely recommend private classes if you are a beginner or your Thai is very basic.

You can go and attend a free trial class and then decide if you want to buy the 10-lesson package.

I personally found it a good value for money.

Cannot say anything about Walen.

Lars

I was ' handed down ' books 1 to 3 from Pro Language by my neighbour who has since returned to USA

because I had mentioned I wanted to enrol on one of the courses so I have been quietly reading through

these first before I will also choose between Pro Language and Walen.

What I have noticed about Pro Language is that the presentation of their coursework is just a bit

' sloppy ' because if they are standard notes they give to everybody, you would think they would have been

properly proof read these before being printed but it is obvious they were not.

For example the word lists which are meant to provide a source of reference for the example dialogues

in some cases are totally incomplete and don't provide a meaning for some words and yet in other cases

you have the same word appearing in two different word lists?

Then when they provide what is supposed to be the equivalent dialogue in Thai script and

Romanised script, there are huge discrepancies.

Anyway I will reserve my final judgement until after I have attended a trial lesson at both of these schools

for comparison.

Edited November 15, 2011 by khaan

[MacWalen]

And this is the best way of doing it. Try first, observe a lesson, talk to students and staff, have a good look at the school.

Walen Chiangmai is a very busy school and we are getting more and more students. We still have our regular 6 teachers and we might be recruiting some more as they are already very busy. I am attaching the picture of them taken recently.

We have very low rotation of new staff as I take good care of my employees.

Walen School - just try us

[jak2002003]

I am currently studying a Thai cours with Pro Language and I am verysatisfied with the school. I tried a couple of other schools before deciding on which one and choosing Pro Language was a very good decision. She will be able to choose a private one to one class, or to work in a small group. Many of the other schools only offer classes in large groups, which I did not find productive for me.

Its very important that she choose a good school that is able to get her the Student Visa easily. Pro Language has been established for years now and I have always found the Visa application to run very smoothly. The staff are really friendly and helpful, and the teachers are very professional.

Another note about Pro Language, is that the teaching materials are very 'user friendly'. The way its organised means that they can take time to explain in detail anything that she might not be grasping well. Also they are very open to gearing the classes around the individual students needs.

On a final note, i found them very good for scheduling the classes around times to suit me, and also they are very good at putting you into a class at the right level for you.

Please recommend Pro Language to her. I am sure she will not be disappointed.

NB The teachers are all highly qualified and have good teaching experience at Pro Language. Some of the other school I went to had very poor teachers, who were nervous and did not know what they were doing!

Hope this helps you.

[MacWalen]

I am currently studying a Thai cours with Pro Language and I am verysatisfied with the school. I tried a couple of other schools before deciding on which one and choosing Pro Language was a very good decision. She will be able to choose a private one to one class, or to work in a small group. Many of the other schools only offer classes in large groups, which I did not find productive for me.

Its very important that she choose a good school that is able to get her the Student Visa easily. Pro Language has been established for years now and I have always found the Visa application to run very smoothly. The staff are really friendly and helpful, and the teachers are very professional.

Another note about Pro Language, is that the teaching materials are very 'user friendly'. The way its organised means that they can take time to explain in detail anything that she might not be grasping well. Also they are very open to gearing the classes around the individual students needs.

On a final note, i found them very good for scheduling the classes around times to suit me, and also they are very good at putting you into a class at the right level for you.

Please recommend Pro Language to her. I am sure she will not be disappointed.

NB The teachers are all highly qualified and have good teaching experience at Pro Language. Some of the other school I went to had very poor teachers, who were nervous and did not know what they were doing!

Hope this helps you.

Thank you for your experience. Glad to know it works for you.

Walen School

[khaan]

I am currently studying a Thai cours with Pro Language and I am verysatisfied with the school. I tried a couple of other schools before deciding on which one and choosing Pro Language was a very good decision. She will be able to choose a private one to one class, or to work in a small group. Many of the other schools only offer classes in large groups, which I did not find productive for me.

Its very important that she choose a good school that is able to get her the Student Visa easily. Pro Language has been established for years now and I have always found the Visa application to run very smoothly. The staff are really friendly and helpful, and the teachers are very professional.

Another note about Pro Language, is that the teaching materials are very 'user friendly'. The way its organised means that they can take time to explain in detail anything that she might not be grasping well. Also they are very open to gearing the classes around the individual students needs.

On a final note, i found them very good for scheduling the classes around times to suit me, and also they are very good at putting you into a class at the right level for you.

Please recommend Pro Language to her. I am sure she will not be disappointed.

NB The teachers are all highly qualified and have good teaching experience at Pro Language. Some of the other school I went to had very poor teachers, who were nervous and did not know what they were doing!

Hope this helps you.

Thank you for your experience. Glad to know it works for you.

Walen School

I wonder if anyone who can speak ,read and write Thai exceptionally well has ever provided an INDEPENDANT

critique of the methodology adopted by these two schools? it would be nice to read about the

advantages and disadvantages from the perspective of an observer of both methods ( as opposed to the

proprietor of the business ).

Edited November 18, 2011 by khaan

[MacWalen]

I cannot comment on all other schools but I am sure these 6 ladies will do excellent job at teaching you Thai. Also no transliteration. You will learn Thai in its purest form.

Walen School Chiangmai - we will take good care of you!