Thai Language Station Bangkok

[seank]

Hi there,

Their cost seems very competitive- http://www.tls-bangkok.com/english/tuition/

Does anyone have any experience (good or bad) with these guys?

Thanks in advance

Sean

Edited October 8, 2009 by seank

[Tod Daniels]

I know several of the thai language teachers who teach at that school. It predominantly caters more to the japanese/korean demographic, BUT, the teachers I know teach only private lessons there and have quite a few other nationalities of foreigners enrolled.

Their course books and methodology are well thought out, obviously designed by a native thai speaker (as opposed to a school which shall remain nameless), and they concentrate on getting you to speak FIRST and foremost.

Yes they use phonemic transcription (as do about 99.999% of the thai language schools in Bangkok, all except that 'un-named school'). The benefit of that is; while you must learn to read the transcription; it is not that difficult, and you get to start speaking right away.

Many students are put off by the necessity of frontloading the many hours it takes learning the thai alphabet, vowel, and toning system. I believe the text books have thai, english, and transcription on all the pages so you are exposed to what thai writing looks like right from the start. Then as the levels progress they teach you to read thai and then write it as well. I think it’s a very well thought out program in terms of logical progression in materials, teaching 'high value' words and working on common situational conversations, i.e.; taxi, restaurant, doctor, etc.

I would say TLS is comparable with Pro-Language and certainly better than Unity or that other 'un-named school' (which BTW are all in the Times Square building) as far as quality of education and "bang for the baht".

[MacWalen]

Hi there, Tod, did you take a course there? Because you certainly did at the 'un-named' school. I wonder why is that? The 'un-named' school is probably the only school you ever took a course at. Correct me If I'm wrong. I also agree it is a good school. I know the owner, he gives an impression of a good businessman and is indeed interested in what he does. It is not a direct method school and the 'un-named' school is, that is why we do not have the karaoke approach and instant gratification. We build on rock not on sand.

As the Walen is now offering a free week of lessons I believe that other schools will have no choice but to follow, the same as we started offering a free demo lessons and other schools had no choice but to follow Walen. So now one week free trial will become a standard, I hope new students will indeed have something concrete to compare. Not just read the forum and listen to different, often not objective opinions.

So from now on every student should not be afraid to ask for a free week's trial at a private language school as well as at universities! If schools follow the Walen school they will offer it, if not too bad for them as students will not have a full picture which school to choose. Most after learning for a week will conclude that the direct method is the only method that make sense in the long run.

Tod why are you negative about the Walen school? I have no idea, let us know, it will help us to provide better service. You were always treated well, you cannot deny it, can you?

So again, there are several schools in Times Square, the Walen school has two floors by the way, 3rd and 24th. Go to each one of them and ask for one week free demo lessons, you can certainly get your one week free trial at the Walen school.

Walen School - setting the standards

www.thaiwalen.com

Ps. We did not intend to post in this thread, but as the 'un-named' school meaning the Walen school was mentioned several times by Tod we joined. Again everybody, insist on one week free lessons!

Edited October 9, 2009 by macwalen

[desi]

This is just plain wrong...

[messa]

Hi there !

Im interesting by this school too TLS (23k year)... Someone have some feedback about that ?

Thxxx

[seank]

Thanks for all your comments, I think I will try the free week at Walen and let you all know how that goes.

-Sean

[HalfSquat]

I'd like to do the course starting in October at the Thai Language Station: http://www.tls-bangkok.com/english/whatsne...urse-ope-1.html

Does anyone know if you can just do a couple of lessons a week or do you need to do all of them as they are planned to be done together in order?

Or does anyone know a place in Bangkok where you can do one or two lessons a week during the daytime at beginner level?

Cheers.

Edited October 13, 2009 by HalfSquat

[Robertson]

About Thai Language Station.I've heard that this school teaching only for Japanese since they opened it.Now they're open the course for foreigner also cause the manager of this school has American wife.It's such a easy way for him to manage the courses and increase the customer.They're using Phonetic alphabet.That's why the student can learn how to speak so fast.

[languageexpress]

does anyone know a place in Bangkok where you can do one or two lessons a week during the daytime at beginner level?

Cheers.

To answer the third part of your question. Yes, Language Express has weeknight Beginners Thai courses on Mondays & Wednesdays or Tuesdays& Thursdays. From 5pm to 7pm. There are other times available.

[MacWalen]

About Thai Language Station.I've heard that this school teaching only for Japanese since they opened it.Now they're open the course for foreigner also cause the manager of this school has American wife.It's such a easy way for him to manage the courses and increase the customer.They're using Phonetic alphabet.That's why the student can learn how to speak so fast.

Using phonetic alphabet is not equal to learning to speak Thai fast, where did you get this idea from? It is actually slowing you down. It is like saying that Thai students would learn to speak English faster if English words were written with Thai letters. Would English teacher accept that way of teaching? Would it benefit Thai students wanting to learn English?

Walen School - Transliteration is wrong! Learn the Thai alphabet, you can do it.

www.thaiwalen.com

[SoftWater]

 I think macwalen misunderstands the purpose and function of the phonetic alphabet. It is not a way to learn how to write a language. The international phonetic alphabet represents the sounds of a language in speech in a consistent way and with a near-100% match (closer even than a speakers own native language does).

Many English teachers do use it to teach English - it is taught to trainee teachers on TEFL/TESOL training prorams, and it is recommended by many advanced and post-graduate language teacher training progams. Most good English dictionaries (like Oxford and Cambridge) will follow the entry of an English word with its spelling in phonetics, so that a learner who knows IPA but has never heard the word can accurately reconstruct its sound. It works too. Ask a linguist.

Edited December 16, 2009 by SoftWater

[MacWalen]

Hm...., maybe I am missing something here, so what about, say, learning Russian, do we also ignore the script and use the international phonetic system or perhaps it would be faster just to learn the alphabet?

[kikenyoy]

. It is like saying that Thai students would learn to speak English faster if English words were written with Thai letters. Would English teacher accept that way of teaching? Would it benefit Thai students wanting to learn English?

Walen School - Transliteration is wrong! Learn the Thai alphabet, you can do it.

www.thaiwalen.com

It depends on how long they have to study and what their goals are. Phonetic spelling in the native language can be useful for beginners to check that they are reading it correctly. I have a few "English Conversation for Thais"-type books and they display sentences like this:

It makes me sad

อิท เม้คส มี แซ่ด

มันทำให้ฉันเศร้า

[BlueTerrace]

I think macwalen misunderstands the purpose and function of the phonetic alphabet. It is not a way to learn how to write a language. The international phonetic alphabet represents the sounds of a language in speech in a consistent way and with a near-100% match (closer even than a speakers own native language does).

Many English teachers do use it to teach English - it is taught to trainee teachers on TEFL/TESOL training prorams, and it is recommended by many advanced and post-graduate language teacher training progams. Most good English dictionaries (like Oxford and Cambridge) will follow the entry of an English word with its spelling in phonetics, so that a learner who knows IPA but has never heard the word can accurately reconstruct its sound. It works too. Ask a linguist.

Well said! Transliterations are particularly useful in the initial stages of learning a new language with an unfamiliar alphabet. They allow students to focus on learning structures and vocabulary, at the same time that they are learning the new alphabet. It’s a great motivator, and helps take some of the grind out of the process.

A well trained teacher working from a well written textbook will soon have a student reading Thai, but it would be deceptive to claim they’ll become proficient overnight. Until then, transliterations allow more rapid progress in other areas like acquiring new vocabulary, expressions or grammatical structures.

A lot of people want to start speaking right from the first lesson. Even if it’s only basic structures, it feel s great to be able to express simple likes, dislikes, wants and needs.

[SoftWater]

There is a confusion here between using something like the IPA system and transcribing Thai words using the English alphabet and phoneme rules. The two are not equivalent. Could someone who has an IPA keyboard or input method please demonstrate the difference for the benefit of other members?

I will add that when I was first shown IPA I was quite resistant. However, as I had to learn it as part of my teacher training, I came to realise its power and advantages. Later, I tried to introduce it to my classes on several occassions, but found the same resistance from students that I myself had felt. In their case, however, there was no compunction to learn it, just a teacher's enthusiasm, and I have always found it impossible to persuade English-language learners of its merits. It's one of those things that you just have to go along with till you can do it (because there is quite a steep learning curve to start with), then you will see its benefits. Alas, its so long since I gave up trying to convince students to use it I have pretty much lost my own knowledge of it.

Am I right in thinking that the IPA for Thai is modified to represent the tones? Does anyone know? (It is not, for example, identical to the one used in the FSI, or at least not the version I learned). It would be nice if anyone had links to IPA for Thai.

Edited December 16, 2009 by SoftWater

[Parvis]

From my "limited experience" I still feel to learn Thai - or any other language it is best - but not necessarily easiest - to learn in the script of the language. However, in the case of Thai it's been my experience (in hindsight) my "beginning" would have been easier with phonetics.

As it has been said before - when one can use the language learned starting with lesson #1 - this becomes a strong positive motivator.

Therefore, it is always a question of the teaching Material. Words such as "adjective - verb - and various other grammatical terms" do nothing to improve once understanding of the language - nor once ability to learn - nor once ability to communicate (especially when the teachers are instructed "never to explain"). The emphasize of the teaching material should be "high value words and expressions" that one can use immediately.

To quote from the book of a recent Language School I attended - who "shall be unnamed":

"Kii mii glin men - chai mai"

Verrrrry useful.

(Shit stinks - right?)

p.s.

I am not a teacher - as has been incorrectly assumed before.

[SoftWater]

I still think people are missing the point here. It's not a choice of 'either learn thai script or learn transcription' - there's no doubt in my mind that becoming literate in your target language as early as possible is desirable.

A proper phonetic system like IPA (not a half-arsed transcription into English letters like those used in 99% of Thai learning books) is supplementary to being able to read native script. It's purpose is to represent the sounds of the words as they are actually spoken and heard. While Thai script arguably shows much less variation than English between how words are spelt and how they are said, as anyone knows who follows this forum regularly will know, there are many differences between 'formal' RI spellings and the way Thai sounds when people actually speak it. The better my Thai becomes, the less I am convinced of the match between Thai spelling and Thai speaking.

By way of illustration, here is the IPA chart and an explanation for English

Edited December 17, 2009 by SoftWater

[Modori]

I'm Japanese live around sukhumvit.I had taken thai lesson at Thai Language Station about 10 month.

I am not sure for forigner but this school most famous school in japan.because they have thai school in tokyo

osaka in japan.and they run it long time.i think their method get many students.

use phonetic alphabet at first.and after middle level thier textbook use thai letters.

Now i work with thai language.

if i didnot learn thai language with thai lanugage station,

i might not use thai language like now.

i do not know another person , but i thank thai language station and their teachers.

[roalty]

This "school" is kind of joke. Teachers are 20 years old. They don't have any experience with teaching or any other work. They changing every 2 weeks, really.

Don't waste your time and money with Thai Language Station. Try to find school with experienced teachers.

[kriswillems]

I think using a pure phonetic alphabet (like IPA)to study Thai enables the new language student to quickly speak some Thai.

If speaking "some" Thai is your final goal there's no reason to learn the Thai script.

If your goal is to reach a higher level than very basic Thai it's probably smart to go right to the Thai script. There's no need to learn IPA because Thai dictionaries use their own phonetic script based on Thai to explain how a word is pronounced (for the exceptions). This system works just as good as IPA.

For people that want to go further than basic Thai phonetic script (with roman letters) works contra productive. When we learn to read we make a link in our brain between our visual memory and our auditive memory. It's very hard to undo this link when you learn to read Thai. In other words, it's very hard to forget the phonetic script and reading and writing becomes more difficult.

Edited October 24, 2010 by kriswillems