Self Study Thai Language Resources

[Longbow212]

Hi,

I have a basic grasp or practical everday Thai and can now read and write at a basic level. I am looking to really push hard now and improve as fast as I can from self study. I have used a few resources so far some bad and some good. I feel multimedia packs are the most efficient because they offer a variety of visual and auditary stimuli to aid learning. However there appears to be a lack of this for Thai learners.

To date I have found the pimsleur audio book by far the best for both practical context and teaching style and would highly reccommend it however they only have one book for Thai. The rosetta stone is ok too but does not really teach word by word what things are. I have also found my little lonely planet Thai book very useful at the advanced beginner stage onwards.

I recently bought the visual dictionary series from panthip. It shows a picture in which you click on certain characters in a particular setting and they speak, The idea is brilliant in my opinion and it shows a sentence in Thai and English language and the English transliteration but one major criticism I have is that it does not show what each individual word means. Therefore you learn a sentence but have no idea what words you are saying only the general meaning of the whole sentence.

I would be very interested to know what other Thai language resources people find useful.

[desi]

I would be very interested to know what other Thai language resources people find useful.

Everyone learns differently of course, but I when I'm bored I need a range.

Some of these are absolute beginners, some more advanced.

Byki grows with you (add your own sound/text files)

Langhub

Thai 101

its4thai.com

60MinutesThai (absolutely the best for getting the Thai alphabet and numbers into your head)

Learn Thai Podcast

Thailand CyberU

Thai Flash Cards

There are so many decent free resources available that I compiled a page of the free learning Thai resources here (the top sites are there too)

Three of my favourite books (beginners+):

Everyday Thai for Beginners

Introduction to Thai Reading

Reading Thai is Fun

I'm out of time but if I get a chance I'll add more books and resources...

[tgeezer]

Hi,

I have a basic grasp or practical everday Thai and can now read and write at a basic level. I am looking to really push hard now and improve as fast as I can from self study. I have used a few resources so far some bad and some good. I feel multimedia packs are the most efficient because they offer a variety of visual and auditary stimuli to aid learning. However there appears to be a lack of this for Thai learners.

To date I have found the pimsleur audio book by far the best for both practical context and teaching style and would highly reccommend it however they only have one book for Thai. The rosetta stone is ok too but does not really teach word by word what things are. I have also found my little lonely planet Thai book very useful at the advanced beginner stage onwards.

I recently bought the visual dictionary series from panthip. It shows a picture in which you click on certain characters in a particular setting and they speak, The idea is brilliant in my opinion and it shows a sentence in Thai and English language and the English transliteration but one major criticism I have is that it does not show what each individual word means. Therefore you learn a sentence but have no idea what words you are saying only the general meaning of the whole sentence.

I would be very interested to know what other Thai language resources people find useful.

All you need is a good dictionary, reading the definitions of words is a great way of gettng syntax, also, you will see that the words which really matter are the shortest ones. พจนานุกรมฉบับราชบัณฑิตยาสถาน is the authority; a mighty tome and the most expensive book which you will ever buy on Thai language. Then go to a good bookshop and look at kids books, find one which looks readable and see if you can understand everything, you probably wont understand the introduction or teacher's notes, but if so forget what I am saying, buy the book you like and study it. Forget about communicating with people in society for a while, it will grow naturally, and when you do talk to them about the language they will know what you are talking about.

Edited September 26, 2009 by tgeezer

[Rionoir]

http://www.fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Thai

You might get something out of the FSI course if you aren't turned off by the lack of pictures...

[desi]

I would be very interested to know what other Thai language resources people find useful.

I guess I should have asked... overall? Or intermediate?

[Harcourt]

Keep a lookout for Softwater's thread, "Want To Learn Thai?" on this forum. At this stage it may be elementary for you, but who knows how advanced it will get?

[Longbow212]

I guess I should have asked... overall? Or intermediate?

I would guess overall, classifying yourself as intermediate/beginner/advanced seems to be different from one person to the next.

Thanks for the links above they seem pretty decent. There is also some good material on youtube particularly for learning to write.

[desi]

http://www.fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Thai

You might get something out of the FSI course if you aren't turned off by the lack of pictures...

That nasty 'ole thang?

I'd at least wait until we've spiffed it all up

[Thewayup]

I would guess overall, classifying yourself as intermediate/beginner/advanced seems to be different from one person to the next.

Thanks for the links above they seem pretty decent. There is also some good material on youtube particularly for learning to write.

If you are looking for good (free) Thai reading material, there are thousands of articles on th.wikipedia.org , mostly interesting, well-written and good reading practice. I can spend hours on Thai Wikipedia, but maybe that is just me!

[SoftWater]

Thanks Thewayup, that's an excellent tip!