Soas

[Jack Jones]

I'm thinking of enrolling on an evening class at the University of London SOAS. Has anybody taken one of their courses and comment on the effectiveness of the teaching?

I can speak, read and write basic Thai and would be keen not to go back to transliteration. Would I be able to enroll on a lower intermediate course or would I be missing something at the beginners level?

All comments welcome.

Ps. Has anybody achieved fluency by learning at the university?

[sabaijai]

I'm thinking of enrolling on an evening class at the University of London SOAS. Has anybody taken one of their courses and comment on the effectiveness of the teaching?

I can speak, read and write basic Thai and would be keen not to go back to transliteration. Would I be able to enroll on a lower intermediate course or would I be missing something at the beginners level?

All comments welcome.

Ps. Has anybody achieved fluency by learning at the university?

I can't offer any opinions on SOAS, although I was once accepted to a doctoral programme in Thai studies there (and decided to move back to Thailand instead). Prior to that I took two years of Thai language instruction at a university in the US -- eight courses in all, from high beginner to independent study & translation of classic literature -- and while I can't say it made me fluent I did learn more Thai during that two years than I did studying the language independently for two years in Thailand before that time.

For most adult English-language speakers (I was 23 when I started), relative fluency in Thai takes several years to develop, no matter how you go about it. Enrolling in a Thai university would probably accelerate the whole process somewhat as you'd be using what you learned outside of class.

There are a couple of long threads on Thai 'fluency' in this branch of the forum. It's a controversial topic to say the least.