How To Choose A Language School

[HTWoodson]

I caught this video of author Tim Ferriss on Ted.com the other day and was really impressed with this guy's tips on learning languages, among other things. It's a good video, worth watching.

Anyway, I looked up his blog and he has some really well written posts on picking a language school and how to study languages most effectively. Ferriss is a little bit of a weirdo and some of his posts are just bizarre, but the language stuff is pretty good.

From his blog:

Seek a school with daily homework assignments that eliminate—effectively fire—students from the class who don't perform. The school should have a strict curriculum that doesn't bend for a minority of the class who can't cope. Downgrading students is only possible in larger schools with at least five proficiency levels for separate classes—beginner, intermediate, and advanced is woefully inadequate. Students can only be moved if the jumps between classes are relatively small and there are a sufficient number of students at each level for the school to justify paying separate teachers.

At the Hartnackschule in Berlin, Germany, where I studied for 10 weeks after evaluating a dozen schools, there are at least 20 different skill levels.

This is one of my biggest gripes with AUA. They let anybody sign up for any class they want, and you end up with people that are way behind, but refuse to repeat a class even when they are holding everyone up.

Anyway, here's the original blog post: Why Language Classes Don't Work

It's a pretty good read and so is the video.

Cheers

Liam

[harrry]

THe problem with theis approach is that only a few shools have enough levels and discipline to do this. Chulalonkorn is one but not everyone can live in bnk

[kriswillems]

Schools that teach based on the union program have 7 levels and a few levels that are about specific subjects, so all together about 12 levels. Most of these school will open the class even if they only have a few students on a specific level, because they want to guarantee the continuity of the education.

I agree with Tim Ferriss and I don't like the schools that have very few levels or where you can start anytime and join (as a new student without any knowledge) a class with students that have been studying for a while.

You'll find very few schools that will fire students because don't make homework or come late. Most school are commercial businesses and they'll take any student they can get. However, at the end of one level bad students will not be allowed to go to the next level.

I also think if you want to progress quickly you need to study hard: at least 3 hours class per day and 2 hours homework. Much more than that is, I think, not more effective.

Please also have a look at this thread about "the best thai language school".

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Thai-Languag...0&start=200

Very well hidden between the advertisement of the sponsoring schools, discussions between schools and discussions between students and their school, you might find a few posts that are useful for you.

Edited May 18, 2009 by kriswillems

[aussiebebe]

Hi all, I am looking for a Thai Language School to study at during July.

I was looking at the 'best thai language school' thread and agree with the previous poster;

Very well hidden between the advertisement of the sponsoring schools, discussions between schools and discussions between students and their school, you might find a few posts that are useful for you.

Most of the posters seem to have their own agenda and are far from impartial. It's still very confusing.

I want to enrol on a novice course for a month (during my vacation) and then continue at evenings and weekends thereafter. I live in Bang Kapi, so how do I find/choose a school? Is there a database of schools giving summaries or prices and locations? So far, I've ruled out Chula because of price and location and decided that I could afford and get to UTL near Asoke. So how do i find others, let alone evaluate them or find out how many skill levels they have?

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated!

[rgs2001uk]

Aussiebebe,

I replied in another post, Thai language schools I think.

Where abouts in Bang Kapi do you live? My reason for asking is , I know of 2 schools in the area, one on Ramkhaemheng rd, soi 63/1 I seem to remember, and another on Lat praw rd, soi 112 I think.

I am in no way involved with either of these schools, neither am I trying to push you to them, I was thinking more of the travel involved.

Probably better if you go there and check them out, whats on offer, course content, competance of teachers, homework etc.

I went to a so called Thai school 3 years ago, complete waste of time and money, the teacher told me so and she in fact was leaving the school to go work elsewhere, pm for details if you wish.

I attended UTL in Times Square building, I found it to be excellent, but hard work.

Another school is Piammiter, I believe its now located in the Trendy complex on Suk soi 13, a lot of the pupils in there tended to be ex UTL students who couldnt keep up with the pace of UTL.

From what I remember both schools have basically the same syllabus, but Piammiter seemed to be more laid back.

Ask yourself what is it you want out of the school, the reason I say this is, these schools are a business and teaching Thai is their way of making money, they want your money first and if you pick up some Thai along the way its a bonus.

The reason I say the above, UTL seemed to be geared up for pupils to do the P6 exam, anyone who wasnt cutting it was weeded out and not allowed to progress to the next level, there were tests every 2 weeks, if the staff didnt think you were up to progressing to the next level you wouldnt, this was the schools way of achieving a higher success rate in the P6 exams, which of course made the school look better in terms of the %age pass rate of their students.

Do you have any Thai language knowledge? my reason for asking is I have seen students dropping out after a couple of weeks because they couldnt keep up with the content. Also UTL and Piammiter will talk to you in Thai if you go to the school for a general chat before enrolling, that way the teachers can assess your competance and decide which level to put you in.

If you have no knowledge I suggest you buy a book such as Thai for beginners by Benjawan Booker I think is the author, this book contains a couple of cds that compilment the chapters.

I suggest you check out the website for the UTL school, they should have a schedule of the classes for all of this year, I would imagine you will start in level 1, thes classes dont always start from the first of the month, and may in fact run from the 15th of one month to the 13th of the next month.

If you are travelling from Bank Kapi, you can get the boat from, Wat Sri boon ruang, Bang Kapi, The Mall Bang Kapi, Maha Thai. If you are going to UTL, get off the boat at Nana Chart ( suk soi 15 ), the stop after Asoke and before Nana Nua ( suk soi 3 ). From Bang Kapi the boat takes about 30 minutes, when you get off the boat there will be motorcycle taxis, tell them, pak soi, and give them 10 baht when you get to Suk rd, the fare may have gone up, but if its any more than 15 baht they are taking the piss.

Any more you need to ask feel free, plenty of others on here who can advise you better than I.

[kriswillems]

I went to Piammitr. They use the same books as UTL. Most of the students are Korean missionaries, but lately they also got a lot of other nationalities.

I like the school and the study method. I think UTL is very similar to Piammitr. We had 1 student from UTL in our class. He told me that he decided to move to Piammitr because at that time Piammitr had less students, so it was almost like private teaching.

I did the Thai language competency test that now replaces the ป.6 test and got a level 5 for reading, listening and talking and a level 3 for writing. There are 6 levels, and level 3 matches with the the ป.6 level from the old test.

I agree with the last post that there are also very bad Thai language schools and I went to a few of them, all located in Pattaya. In fact, because I was not able to find any good school in Pattaya, I decided to sit every day 4 hours on the bus only to study Thai in Bangkok.

During 1 month I studied both at Piammitr and AAA Thai language center (near Chitlom), so I studied 6 hours per day (3 hours before noon and 3 hours in the afternoon). Besides that I had to make homework and sit 4 hours on the bus, so I pretty motivated to learn Thai.

AAA Thai language center uses the same method as the 2 other schools and they select their students, especially the students that are allowed to do the competency test.

Just to be clear: I am also not related to any language school.

All school I went to were pretty cheap for their classroom courses ( 100B per hour or less). Always compare prices per hour, never per year. School with low prices per year almost systematically seem to have high prices per hour.

Private courses are of course much more expensive.

Edited May 19, 2009 by kriswillems

[aussiebebe]

Thank you to the last two posters for the replies - I found them very helpful especially the travel considerations. As I wrote, I am a beginner - I actually own the 'Thai for Beginners' book already. Given the advice, here and elsewhere, I'll contact UTL and see the courses fit with my vacation schedule. Thanks very much.