No prob. I didn't take it as you having a go. And really, I did need to be nudged about it. Wikis are a new wonder world so I'm betting there will be other things you'll need to remind me of, so please don't hold back.

There was a move to the wiki but some people felt more comfortable using both.

Edited September 12, 200916 yr by desi

SoftWater -- apologies, I didn't realize you'd set yourself to "no email". The thing about a Google Group is that it works like email. You can get it through email, but also reply to threads directly through email. That's the chief advantage over a regular forum, as I see it, and one of the reasons why I started it. (I kept using it because it's easier for announcements. You might want to set yourself to "abridged email" instead, which will send one email summary per day.)

I also thought that our discussions, especially the more nitty gritty ones, needed their own place. As Desi said, this place is open territory. People might well chime in who have no interest in actually helping, and while people are entitled to their opinions, it just seemed appropriate to take the discussions elsewhere.

For those who are totally confused, we're working on adding Thai script to the FSI Thai Language Courses. I didn't want to be constantly posting links to this site or that, since the ThaiVisa forum has strict linking rules that I'm supposed to uphold. When the project is done, I think an announcement here will be appropriate. In the meantime, if you're interested in helping type out some of the Thai lessons (or code the wiki pages we're going to put them on), then send me a PM.

SoftWater -- apologies, I didn't realize you'd set yourself to "no email".

Me neither! If i set this I probably thought, in my ignornace, it had something to do with spam control!

Anyone wants to help on this project?

The FSI Thai language course is a high quality language course which is in the public domain. At this moment not many people are using this course for several reasons:

- The layout is old fashioned, it's made by typewriter.

- It contains no Thai script

- Some dialogues are outdated

- It's not being actively promoted

The FSI Language course has several strong points:

- it uses a very systematic way of teaching

- there are hundreds of exercises in the course

- the course book is perfect for classroom use, but also for individual use.

- there's a lot of audio material available.

The goal of our project is to convert the scanned FSI documentation into text (which can be edited later) and to add Thai language for all transliterations/phonetics script. We're convinced that the result will be a language course that can compete with and might be even better than some (rather expensive) commercial products.

What do you get from helping?

- the opportunity to practise your Thai

- the opportunity to work with new technologies (wiki)

- the opportunity to give something to something back to the Thai learners community

- a free high quality language course

- eternal fame!

How do we work?

- Our working platform is a "wiki". This is a kind of web-site that can be edited by many people at the same time. You don't need to be a computer expert to use it.

- We might convert the information into other electronics formats, like PDF later.

Who can help?

- Anyone with a bit a free time and an interest in Thai language.

- You don't need to be able to type Thai. You can work on the English part.

- If you don't know how to use a wiki, you can use the templates we prepared for you.

Please send a PM (personal message) to Desi if you're interested.

Edited September 15, 200916 yr by kriswillems

All,

Just let me know when you have it ready for the public. I'd be more than happy to link to it.

-VP

I totally have been ignoring this thread cuz I thought u were talking about something else. LoL Is this course that one Barron's (I think) used to have in all the bookstores? With the red box and a million cassette tapes? Anyway thanks for the link, lot of nice clips there for my listening practice... I noticed that by the end they are holding the microphones against their foreheads while they talk so it is more difficult to understand... hahahaha

Anyway sent a PM.. can type either language pretty quickly thanks to too many video games and I got plenty of time right now. ;P

I got plenty of time right now. ;P

Pm on the way!

[Edit: Merged from separate thread]

A few months ago I wrote a message about our work on www.thailanguagewiki.com

(I can't find that thread anyomore, so sorry for starting a new thread)

This website is a non-commercial project done by volunteers.

We intend to put the FSI thai language courses online in a format that's easy to use.

Many people on this forum helped building it.

At this moment we still need to do the following:

- add sound files to most of the lessons. The sound files are available but need to be cut and cleaned. We use audacity for this. I think helping on this might help to improve your listening skills.

- adding phonetic transliterations. We want to automate some part of the the process of adding transliterations, but we've are missing some experience with web development. Is there somebody interested in helping us out?

- reviewing the lessons. Please have a look at our lessons. They have not been reviewed yet. All feedback and corrections of mistakes are useful for others.

- writing FSI Thai reference grammar

Please have a look at the website. If you like it and you would like to help improving it, please send us a message. If it's not very hard and you don't need to have any special technical experience.

Thanks.

Kris.

Edited December 5, 200916 yr by Rikker

I always thought the FSI course could be an extremely powerful tool if cured of its most fundamental flaw: no Thai script. You've done this and put it all in one place in a coherent form. That's outstanding work. Big thanks to everyone involved in this project. I'd be happy to help with this. I don't have a great deal of spare time, but I'll do what I can. Feel free to PM me.