High Speed Thai Course

[ozsamurai]

I have seen that a previous thread on this course was unavailable as perhaps they are a forum sponsor. I would still like to know if anyone has use this and what their opinions are on the effectiveness, at $140, is not too bad if it delivers as promised.

Oz

[WeirdFishes]

I'm also very interested in this course. Hopefully, we can get some feedback or reviews here.

[longway]

I bought this course a couple of months ago, and started using it a little over 1 month ago. So far I have been impressed by what the course offers in structure, layout and content.

What you get: a 1000+ page ebook, accompanying practice lessons with full audio using a program called ANKI, this software basically allows you to drill the practice lessons, and schedules the drills according to how well you are progressing, but this is completely flexible and you can schedule as you wish.

I have only just started the course so can only comment on the tone and reading sections, these are the first things taught, mastering the tones and learning how to read. I really liked the format of the tones as I can play them again and again in a very flexible way. On the downside, I found the pronounciation of many of words (mainly the exagerated stretching out of long vowels) made the tones difficult to hear and some even seemed like the wrong tone. Its hard for me to judge as tones are my weak spot, so it could be just me.

The reading section was excellent, I already know how to read, but had never learnt the names of the letters, I found the course very effective in teaching me all the letters and vowels and learning the rules for reading again reminded me of things I had forgetten, my reading skills have defintely improved quickly. The audio accompanying this section, and the training on pronoucing each or the letters and vowels was very good and corrected my mistakes in prounciation and clarified alot of pronounciation issues for me.

There are a few typos here and there in the ebook, but these are only minor niggles as I enjoy doing the course and spend about an hour or more a day on it, without feeling the least bit bored.

Out of 10 so far I would give it an 8. ( I would have given a 9 or even 10 if it wasnt for some of the accompanying audio).

Is it worth the $140? Hard to judge so early on, but I have no regrets so far.

[SoftWater]

I bought this course a couple of months ago, and started using it a little over 1 month ago. So far I have been impressed by what the course offers in structure, layout and content.

What you get: a 1000+ page ebook, accompanying practice lessons with full audio using a program called ANKI, this software basically allows you to drill the practice lessons, and schedules the drills according to how well you are progressing, but this is completely flexible and you can schedule as you wish.

I have only just started the course so can only comment on the tone and reading sections, these are the first things taught, mastering the tones and learning how to read. I really liked the format of the tones as I can play them again and again in a very flexible way. On the downside, I found the pronounciation of many of words (mainly the exagerated stretching out of long vowels) made the tones difficult to hear and some even seemed like the wrong tone. Its hard for me to judge as tones are my weak spot, so it could be just me.

The reading section was excellent, I already know how to read, but had never learnt the names of the letters, I found the course very effective in teaching me all the letters and vowels and learning the rules for reading again reminded me of things I had forgetten, my reading skills have defintely improved quickly. The audio accompanying this section, and the training on pronoucing each or the letters and vowels was very good and corrected my mistakes in prounciation and clarified alot of pronounciation issues for me.

There are a few typos here and there in the ebook, but these are only minor niggles as I enjoy doing the course and spend about an hour or more a day on it, without feeling the least bit bored.

Out of 10 so far I would give it an 8. ( I would have given a 9 or even 10 if it wasnt for some of the accompanying audio).

Is it worth the $140? Hard to judge so early on, but I have no regrets so far.

Thanks for this. Would be great to have some updates as you go along, too!

[ozsamurai]

Appreciate that review, you can never entirely believe those on the sellers site, as if they would say it's crap whilst trying to sell it hey!? Keep us informed.

Oz

[vincentv]

Hi There,

This is Vincent from HighSpeedThai.com, I will keep it brief and to the point.

"On the downside, I found the pronounciation of many of words (mainly the exagerated stretching out of long vowels) made the tones difficult to hear and some even seemed like the wrong tone. Its hard for me to judge as tones are my weak spot, so it could be just me."

The syllables in the initial tone exercises are indeed pronounced slowly and clearly, as some people have troubles hearing the tones at their native pace when they are first starting out. However, I am sure that they are correct. You will find that as you progress further and further with the program the pace of speech gets faster and faster. For instance in the reading section you are exposed to hundreds of syllables at a more regular pace, this further helps one tune his ears into the tones. By the time you get to the end of the program you will be listening to Thai at is natural pace, as the audio in the last section of the program is extracted from a Thai movie. So the first tone exercises are only a minute part of the whole picture, and must be looked at in context. By the time one finishes the program he will have a very good grip on the five tones. And if one was to come back to do the initial tone exercises I am sure he would breeze through them with no problems.

"Appreciate that review, you can never entirely believe those on the sellers site, as if they would say it's crap whilst trying to sell it hey!? Keep us informed."

That is true, I have tried to portray the program as accurately as I can on the website, as you probably saw there is a guarantee in place, so if I was to falsely represent the product I would be loosing money as the guarantee covers two way postage.

That’s it from me. Thank you

[longway]

Thanks for clarifying. I knew that the stretching out was deliberate, but was not sure as to the purpose, for me though the stretching out blurs the tones somewhat. However it just could be me, for example I still have alot of trouble differentiating between low and mid tones on a consistent basis, so my ear for tones is poor.

In the end though I have to say that the system does work, when I listen to other material I have with words pronounced at a more natural pace, my ear picks up the tones much better than before.

I hope I dont sound to gushing, but I think that your program stands out head and shoulders above other offerings, the time and effort spent on developing the course is self evident.

[SiamWallaby]

I bought this course a couple of months ago, and started using it a little over 1 month ago. So far I have been impressed by what the course offers in structure, layout and content.

What you get: a 1000+ page ebook, accompanying practice lessons with full audio using a program called ANKI, this software basically allows you to drill the practice lessons, and schedules the drills according to how well you are progressing, but this is completely flexible and you can schedule as you wish.

I have only just started the course so can only comment on the tone and reading sections, these are the first things taught, mastering the tones and learning how to read. I really liked the format of the tones as I can play them again and again in a very flexible way. On the downside, I found the pronounciation of many of words (mainly the exagerated stretching out of long vowels) made the tones difficult to hear and some even seemed like the wrong tone. Its hard for me to judge as tones are my weak spot, so it could be just me.

The reading section was excellent, I already know how to read, but had never learnt the names of the letters, I found the course very effective in teaching me all the letters and vowels and learning the rules for reading again reminded me of things I had forgetten, my reading skills have defintely improved quickly. The audio accompanying this section, and the training on pronoucing each or the letters and vowels was very good and corrected my mistakes in prounciation and clarified alot of pronounciation issues for me.

There are a few typos here and there in the ebook, but these are only minor niggles as I enjoy doing the course and spend about an hour or more a day on it, without feeling the least bit bored.

Out of 10 so far I would give it an 8. ( I would have given a 9 or even 10 if it wasnt for some of the accompanying audio).

Is it worth the $140? Hard to judge so early on, but I have no regrets so far.

I am also a relatively recent customer of the HighSpeedThai product. After using Thai for Beginners, and attending classes, and a tutor, I'd have to say its the best so far.

Of course it doesnt hurt that I have a native speaker available to practice with. ANKI is very impressive and makes it really easy to practice regularly and focus your practice on the concepts/works/sounds that arent' quite sticking as fast.

I had some issues with the file soon after purchase, and Vincent was right on the ball giving me a new copy that I could work with, and has also sent follow up emails to me to inquire on my progress and solicit feedback. I'd say he's earned my respect as to a decent company/person to do business with. Is it worth the price? Yes its a bit scary at first, and a bit of a risk I'd say. Only because you're not too sure what your getting prior to purchase, even with the amount of time he's put into the samples and video samples. Once you get everything, I think its obvious that he's put a lot of effort and thought into the program and just seeing the progress i've made so far I cant' fault the price one bit.

There's a few other people I know who have been trying/struggling to pick up Thai and I've recommended it to them as well. So I'd give it a definite thumbs up.

Keep in mind however, Thai is not an easy language to master. And learning any new language takes diligent work and practice. I'm wondering how the Thai's do it lol I've studied/spoken Spanish, French, German, Russian and nothing comes close. Of course the latin based languages can be expected to be easier, but I picked up Russian far easier than Thai for sure.

So if you're committed to learning this difficult language for whatever reason, make sure you've put some thought into it, and INVEST the time and money in the best tool out there..is my opinion.

[nivram4491]

I have been very disappointed with the High Speed Thai course.

For the high cost of the course I would have expected the text and sound to be linked in the PDF file making up the entire course. While I understand the need for copy protection having the entire course as one gigantic PDF file makes it very difficult to keep track of where you are in the course and is not conducive to effective learning.

[vincentv]

Hi there,

Please see the attached image.

This is how your screen should be laid out when working with the program. Once you set it up once it will stay that way.

What you can see in this image:

In the top right hand corner we have Media player which plays the audio files. It is important to re-size this so it doesn't clog your screen. Make sure Media Player is using the 'Corporate' skin as this allows you to make it really small as you see in the image.

Below Microsoft Media Player we have the appropriate folder open for the lesson are working on. In this case, we are working with the Speaking exercises in the Tones section. As you can see all of the audio files we need for this section are listed here. You will notice that these files directly correspond to the files mentioned in the PDF, to open them, simply double click on them.

In the bottom right we have voice viewer. This free application allows you to see your tones on the screen which realy helps when refining your pronunciation. The program recommends to keep this application open when you are performing the tone exercises.

In Adobe you can see that the Bookmarks section has been expanded this allows you to quickly browse though the program and go straight to where you left off.

Some of these features are new additions so if you don't have them let me know.

When the screen is setup as below you should be able to open files quickly, browse between sections in seconds and the length of the PDF file won't have any impact what so ever on your studies.

If you have any questions send me a PM.

Regards

.

[Ratsima]

I've been using the High Speed Thai course for about six months now. I'm about half way through the 999 page main PDF file.

This is definitely not an immersion type course. You have to study, you have to concentrate and you have to do a certain amount of memorization. Study and concentration are up to you. Memorization is greatly facilitated by the many included ANKI flash card decks. If you follow the course plan carefully and diligently you will:

• Learn the Thai alphabet
  
• Learn the Thai consonant classes
  
• Learn the Thai tone rules
  
• Learn how to read Thai and "sound out" Thai words
  
• Learn many useful, everyday words and how to use those words in everyday Thai speech.
  
• Learn how to recognize the words you have learned in the Thai speech you hear around you every day.
  

There are two things no self-study course, including High Speed Thai, can do:

• Give you the personality transplant that people like me need to go out and actually use the Thai you know.
  
• Help you much with your Thai pronunciation. For that you need a real Thai native speaker.
  

I'm extremely pleased with the course and think it was a good investment. I have recommended it to others.

[yvancg]

I am one of the unlucky person who tried High Speed Thai.

I was very excited at first when reading the description, so after a while i decided to order the programme, being comforted by the no question asked money back guarantee.

I quickly received 2 DVDs, which i installed right away, or i should rather say copy. Because HighSpeedThai is not a programme. It's a bunch of files. 5GB of data. And my disk count is giving me around 12 000 files (probably including some of the inside software files).

So basically you buy this programme thinking you will get something fully integrated like Rosetta or other language software. But this one is VERY different. You basically goat a 1000+ black and white text only PDF file (yes over one thousand pages of text!), and a bunch of files in different folders that you need to open one by one) and you quickly end up having your pdf reader open, your music player open, your video player open, the few related folders open, and on top of that you have the Anki software. Anki is something like the Rosetta software, but a very basic version. Again text only.

OK. I had bought it, so i said why not give it a try anyway. Or at least try to. Believe me it is the most user unfriendly system i have ever seen in my life! After a couple of weeks, I did contact the maker of this system to suggest him some much needed improvement, but he constantly replied by copying clients testimonials (which of course were all positive about his programme) and more or less saying that his programme couldn't be any better and that everybody is happy about it. I was kind of "motivated" to give it another try, and passed the 30 days money back guarantee without really paying attention. After a while, and many attempts to try learning with this unfriendly system, i decided to give up and contacted again the maker of the programme asking him about the money back guarantee.

Again i had a flow of clients testimonials who were all agreeing that this is the best programme in the world to learn Thai. May be I am the only one to find it absolutely off-putting and uninviting. I was always told that learning should be a fun process, and the 4 other languages i speak have been learnt in a fun way.

Having said that, the maker of the programme offered me a deal, that if i complete 10 lessons and still don't like the programme, he would give my money back. I did accept the challenge, and forced myself through the 10 lessons. Passed the calvary of a couple of hundred pages of plain text in PDF format, and the juggling with files and folders, i completed the 10 lessons. But our programme maker was still not satisfied, and wanted to know all the details of my boring learning, adding here and there very positive testimonials of other clients.

So i just gave up and forgot about asking my money back. It is just not worth the ordeal really.

So may be it is just me not liking this programme. I don't know. If any of you wish you buy my version, I will be more than happy to get rid of it at a discounted price. I would even let you try it before you buy and show you how the whole thing works. I wouldn't want you to feel tricked the way i did!

[SICHONSTEVE]

I am one of the unlucky person who tried High Speed Thai.

I was very excited at first when reading the description, so after a while i decided to order the programme, being comforted by the no question asked money back guarantee.

I quickly received 2 DVDs, which i installed right away, or i should rather say copy. Because HighSpeedThai is not a programme. It's a bunch of files. 5GB of data. And my disk count is giving me around 12 000 files (probably including some of the inside software files).

So basically you buy this programme thinking you will get something fully integrated like Rosetta or other language software. But this one is VERY different. You basically goat a 1000+ black and white text only PDF file (yes over one thousand pages of text!), and a bunch of files in different folders that you need to open one by one) and you quickly end up having your pdf reader open, your music player open, your video player open, the few related folders open, and on top of that you have the Anki software. Anki is something like the Rosetta software, but a very basic version. Again text only.

OK. I had bought it, so i said why not give it a try anyway. Or at least try to. Believe me it is the most user unfriendly system i have ever seen in my life! After a couple of weeks, I did contact the maker of this system to suggest him some much needed improvement, but he constantly replied by copying clients testimonials (which of course were all positive about his programme) and more or less saying that his programme couldn't be any better and that everybody is happy about it. I was kind of "motivated" to give it another try, and passed the 30 days money back guarantee without really paying attention. After a while, and many attempts to try learning with this unfriendly system, i decided to give up and contacted again the maker of the programme asking him about the money back guarantee.

Again i had a flow of clients testimonials who were all agreeing that this is the best programme in the world to learn Thai. May be I am the only one to find it absolutely off-putting and uninviting. I was always told that learning should be a fun process, and the 4 other languages i speak have been learnt in a fun way.

Having said that, the maker of the programme offered me a deal, that if i complete 10 lessons and still don't like the programme, he would give my money back. I did accept the challenge, and forced myself through the 10 lessons. Passed the calvary of a couple of hundred pages of plain text in PDF format, and the juggling with files and folders, i completed the 10 lessons. But our programme maker was still not satisfied, and wanted to know all the details of my boring learning, adding here and there very positive testimonials of other clients.

So i just gave up and forgot about asking my money back. It is just not worth the ordeal really.

So may be it is just me not liking this programme. I don't know. If any of you wish you buy my version, I will be more than happy to get rid of it at a discounted price. I would even let you try it before you buy and show you how the whole thing works. I wouldn't want you to feel tricked the way i did!

It seems that you are apparently one of the very few not to have appreciated the virtues of this course.

I notice that you have learnt 4 other languages and have enjoyed learning all of them (in a fun way) as you describe in your negative review of the 'HighspeedThai' course. What you must appreciate is that Thai is unlike any other language in it's structure and make-up and can even seem weird, illogical, over complicated ie: 44 consonants+32 vowels - some short and others long, with dead and live endings and ALL complex in their written form, 5 tones and 4 tone marks, special symbols and rules for certain consonants such as Or Aahng and Ror Reuua (Thai's pronounce thier R's as L's occasionally) and some consonants that change their sound completely to a different one depending on where it lies within the syllable

(at the beginning or end). These are just a FEW examples of the many strange and unorthodox things you must learn, all off-by-heart, which can put some people off from learning Thai - you included by all accounts. I think you would be better off learning a different language as I don't think this one is for you really!! I cannot comment on any other means for learning Thai personally, as this is the only program that I have used for this purpose. My main message to you about 'Highspeedthai' is that I think it difficult/impossible to present the learning of Thai as "fun" as it doesn't really lend itself to this due to the unique language structure involved. Can I just ask you how you would change the program concept to improve it, as there is no getting away from the 'having to plough through' the vast reams of text and speech aids memorising everything on the way if you are intent on learning to both read and speak Thai. You are in a minority of 1 as to the teaching effectiveness of this course as all of the other reviewers who have (I note) mostly tried other means and different courses to this one, previously, and are therefore in a better position than me to pass judgement seem to be of the same opinion - and that is that this course is the most comprehensive and best on the market, extolling it's virtues to different extents over the other courses out there - mostly highly favourably so on a comparative basis.

Either you are wrong in your assessment or maybe everybody else is, to a man (or woman).

One final point, why? if you we're so disillusioned and dissatisfied about this course from the very beginning did you not attempt to claim your money back within the 1 month time period as you were entitled to!!! I don't think that you can complain about this aspect as it was your lack of attentiveness and action on this that caused to you miss this the 'money-back' guarantee promise.

May I suggest you attempt to learn Chinese instead as I'm sure that it would be "great fun" - but it might take you some time as Thai characters are a doodle compared to Chinese ones (assumes this isn't one of the four you have mastered already, that is)!!!!

[longway]

So basically you buy this programme thinking you will get something fully integrated like Rosetta or other language software. But this one is VERY different. You basically goat a 1000+ black and white text only PDF file (yes over one thousand pages of text!), and a bunch of files in different folders that you need to open one by one) and you quickly end up having your pdf reader open, your music player open, your video player open, the few related folders open, and on top of that you have the Anki software. Anki is something like the Rosetta software, but a very basic version. Again text only.

If you wanted a programme like Roasetta stone, why did you not order Rosetta stone?

I did not find that user unfriendly, but it requires some thought and the ability to follow step by step instructions to set up, its not a click of a mouse button type of programme, but not that bad either. Once it is set up its fairly straight forward. It uses free software found on the web: mainly voice viewer, vnc viewer and anki and incorporates their use to the course.

I get the feeling that you don't just want to be spoon fed, but have the thai language downloaded straight into your brain through a usb connection.

As for anki, it is not text only, it is text and sound, you can play each anki card as many times as you like and with a plug-in you can record yourself speaking the anki card very easily and as many times as you like with just a click of a mouse button each time. Once you have finished with the card you can either have repeated again quickly or periodically depending on your proficiency with that card. You can even set it up to sync between several computers if you use more than one. So what do you mean it is very basic? What exactly do you expect it to do beyond what is done now?

The course can definitely be improved, but compared to all the other methods I have tried it stands out as the one that actually allows me to use the thai language on a daily basis. After 3 years of learning thai through other means, from around Lesson 10 onward I was learning brand new stuff that I had not covered before.

[BoonToong]

I'm afraid I didn't have time to give you any lengthy feedback but here goes. I have been teaching in various forms most of my life and was developing Curriculum for a few years too.

I can say that this course is fantastic. I have completed all of the sections that teach you to read and write Thai and I regularly receive praise from Thais about how skilled I am in this area. I'm about 6 lessons into the Vocabulary and those sections too are superb. Again, the little that I do speak is well-praised.

Overall, a fantastic course and I strongly recommend it to anyone.

Go for it!

[canuckamuck]

I find that as far as I have gone in high speed Thai it has been excellent. I was zipping along and got about 600 of those 1000 pages done, and then got distracted by life, so it has been two months since I have worked on it. I do plan to get back to it very soon.

I think this is a great course, but the desire to learn is all on you because this is a self directed course. So far this course has taken from Taxi Thai to entry level conversational. HST has all the tools, the rest is how you apply them.

[yvancg]

I am one of the unlucky person who tried High Speed Thai.

I was very excited at first when reading the description, so after a while i decided to order the programme, being comforted by the no question asked money back guarantee.

I quickly received 2 DVDs, which i installed right away, or i should rather say copy. Because HighSpeedThai is not a programme. It's a bunch of files. 5GB of data. And my disk count is giving me around 12 000 files (probably including some of the inside software files).

So basically you buy this programme thinking you will get something fully integrated like Rosetta or other language software. But this one is VERY different. You basically goat a 1000+ black and white text only PDF file (yes over one thousand pages of text!), and a bunch of files in different folders that you need to open one by one) and you quickly end up having your pdf reader open, your music player open, your video player open, the few related folders open, and on top of that you have the Anki software. Anki is something like the Rosetta software, but a very basic version. Again text only.

OK. I had bought it, so i said why not give it a try anyway. Or at least try to. Believe me it is the most user unfriendly system i have ever seen in my life! After a couple of weeks, I did contact the maker of this system to suggest him some much needed improvement, but he constantly replied by copying clients testimonials (which of course were all positive about his programme) and more or less saying that his programme couldn't be any better and that everybody is happy about it. I was kind of "motivated" to give it another try, and passed the 30 days money back guarantee without really paying attention. After a while, and many attempts to try learning with this unfriendly system, i decided to give up and contacted again the maker of the programme asking him about the money back guarantee.

Again i had a flow of clients testimonials who were all agreeing that this is the best programme in the world to learn Thai. May be I am the only one to find it absolutely off-putting and uninviting. I was always told that learning should be a fun process, and the 4 other languages i speak have been learnt in a fun way.

Having said that, the maker of the programme offered me a deal, that if i complete 10 lessons and still don't like the programme, he would give my money back. I did accept the challenge, and forced myself through the 10 lessons. Passed the calvary of a couple of hundred pages of plain text in PDF format, and the juggling with files and folders, i completed the 10 lessons. But our programme maker was still not satisfied, and wanted to know all the details of my boring learning, adding here and there very positive testimonials of other clients.

So i just gave up and forgot about asking my money back. It is just not worth the ordeal really.

So may be it is just me not liking this programme. I don't know. If any of you wish you buy my version, I will be more than happy to get rid of it at a discounted price. I would even let you try it before you buy and show you how the whole thing works. I wouldn't want you to feel tricked the way i did!

It seems that you are apparently one of the very few not to have appreciated the virtues of this course.

I notice that you have learnt 4 other languages and have enjoyed learning all of them (in a fun way) as you describe in your negative review of the 'HighspeedThai' course. What you must appreciate is that Thai is unlike any other language in it's structure and make-up and can even seem weird, illogical, over complicated ie: 44 consonants+32 vowels - some short and others long, with dead and live endings and ALL complex in their written form, 5 tones and 4 tone marks, special symbols and rules for certain consonants such as Or Aahng and Ror Reuua (Thai's pronounce thier R's as L's occasionally) and some consonants that change their sound completely to a different one depending on where it lies within the syllable

(at the beginning or end). These are just a FEW examples of the many strange and unorthodox things you must learn, all off-by-heart, which can put some people off from learning Thai - you included by all accounts. I think you would be better off learning a different language as I don't think this one is for you really!! I cannot comment on any other means for learning Thai personally, as this is the only program that I have used for this purpose. My main message to you about 'Highspeedthai' is that I think it difficult/impossible to present the learning of Thai as "fun" as it doesn't really lend itself to this due to the unique language structure involved. Can I just ask you how you would change the program concept to improve it, as there is no getting away from the 'having to plough through' the vast reams of text and speech aids memorising everything on the way if you are intent on learning to both read and speak Thai. You are in a minority of 1 as to the teaching effectiveness of this course as all of the other reviewers who have (I note) mostly tried other means and different courses to this one, previously, and are therefore in a better position than me to pass judgement seem to be of the same opinion - and that is that this course is the most comprehensive and best on the market, extolling it's virtues to different extents over the other courses out there - mostly highly favourably so on a comparative basis.

Either you are wrong in your assessment or maybe everybody else is, to a man (or woman).

One final point, why? if you we're so disillusioned and dissatisfied about this course from the very beginning did you not attempt to claim your money back within the 1 month time period as you were entitled to!!! I don't think that you can complain about this aspect as it was your lack of attentiveness and action on this that caused to you miss this the 'money-back' guarantee promise.

May I suggest you attempt to learn Chinese instead as I'm sure that it would be "great fun" - but it might take you some time as Thai characters are a doodle compared to Chinese ones (assumes this isn't one of the four you have mastered already, that is)!!!!

One of the 4 languages i have learnt IS mandarin Chinese.You do write as if you are Vincent though.:-)I am just relating my own personal experience and doing a review of this product which in my opinion is definitely not the best choice for learning Thai. Walen is a much better choice.

[yvancg]

So basically you buy this programme thinking you will get something fully integrated like Rosetta or other language software. But this one is VERY different. You basically goat a 1000+ black and white text only PDF file (yes over one thousand pages of text!), and a bunch of files in different folders that you need to open one by one) and you quickly end up having your pdf reader open, your music player open, your video player open, the few related folders open, and on top of that you have the Anki software. Anki is something like the Rosetta software, but a very basic version. Again text only.

If you wanted a programme like Roasetta stone, why did you not order Rosetta stone?

I did not find that user unfriendly, but it requires some thought and the ability to follow step by step instructions to set up, its not a click of a mouse button type of programme, but not that bad either. Once it is set up its fairly straight forward. It uses free software found on the web: mainly voice viewer, vnc viewer and anki and incorporates their use to the course.

I get the feeling that you don't just want to be spoon fed, but have the thai language downloaded straight into your brain through a usb connection.

As for anki, it is not text only, it is text and sound, you can play each anki card as many times as you like and with a plug-in you can record yourself speaking the anki card very easily and as many times as you like with just a click of a mouse button each time. Once you have finished with the card you can either have repeated again quickly or periodically depending on your proficiency with that card. You can even set it up to sync between several computers if you use more than one. So what do you mean it is very basic? What exactly do you expect it to do beyond what is done now?

The course can definitely be improved, but compared to all the other methods I have tried it stands out as the one that actually allows me to use the thai language on a daily basis. After 3 years of learning thai through other means, from around Lesson 10 onward I was learning brand new stuff that I had not covered before.

I did buy Rosetta which for me proved to be a better investment.

[msg362]

Cam this work on an iMac ( ?? quick time??), not Windows Media Player ?

[harrry]

The course may be an excellent on in that it teaches thais but any proffessional program (or suite of programs) which require the user to change the settings of his media player etc so that mp3 files are handled in the way the writer wants is not a good one. THe first rule for a programer is to make no changes that persist after the program is exited and not to reqire manual changing of application preferences.

I suggest if it is such a well designed course getting it proffesionally programmed.

[longway]

So basically you buy this programme thinking you will get something fully integrated like Rosetta or other language software. But this one is VERY different. You basically goat a 1000+ black and white text only PDF file (yes over one thousand pages of text!), and a bunch of files in different folders that you need to open one by one) and you quickly end up having your pdf reader open, your music player open, your video player open, the few related folders open, and on top of that you have the Anki software. Anki is something like the Rosetta software, but a very basic version. Again text only.

If you wanted a programme like Roasetta stone, why did you not order Rosetta stone?

I did not find that user unfriendly, but it requires some thought and the ability to follow step by step instructions to set up, its not a click of a mouse button type of programme, but not that bad either. Once it is set up its fairly straight forward. It uses free software found on the web: mainly voice viewer, vnc viewer and anki and incorporates their use to the course.

I get the feeling that you don't just want to be spoon fed, but have the thai language downloaded straight into your brain through a usb connection.

As for anki, it is not text only, it is text and sound, you can play each anki card as many times as you like and with a plug-in you can record yourself speaking the anki card very easily and as many times as you like with just a click of a mouse button each time. Once you have finished with the card you can either have repeated again quickly or periodically depending on your proficiency with that card. You can even set it up to sync between several computers if you use more than one. So what do you mean it is very basic? What exactly do you expect it to do beyond what is done now?

The course can definitely be improved, but compared to all the other methods I have tried it stands out as the one that actually allows me to use the thai language on a daily basis. After 3 years of learning thai through other means, from around Lesson 10 onward I was learning brand new stuff that I had not covered before.

I did buy Rosetta which for me proved to be a better investment.

I think you felt faint when you were confronted by 1000+ pages information without any pretty graphics and cartoons in sight, and never got over it.

[SoftWater]

Either you are wrong in your assessment or maybe everybody else is, to a man (or woman).

Why must this be the only conclusion? Can't you let someone who has invested their own money in a product have their own opinion about it? I suppose if you go into a restaurant and don't like the food you should keep your mouth shut. After all, the other customers all say its great...

[SoftWater]

I get the feeling that you don't just want to be spoon fed, but have the thai language downloaded straight into your brain through a usb connection.

More unnecessary personal attacks. Have you bought this program yourself? Do you like it? And if so, why does that mean everyone else in the world must like it too?

[nivram4491]

I find that as far as I have gone in high speed Thai it has been excellent. I was zipping along and got about 600 of those 1000 pages done, and then got distracted by life, so it has been two months since I have worked on it. I do plan to get back to it very soon.

I think this is a great course, but the desire to learn is all on you because this is a self directed course. So far this course has taken from Taxi Thai to entry level conversational. HST has all the tools, the rest is how you apply them.

I also bought HST and tried to use it. It is a very good program for the 1990's but this is 2010 and technology has improved tremendously over that period of time. The PDF files should be linked and the audio and video files embedded. As it is, it is very easy to get distracted from the process of learning. If you get distracted and take a break it is very difficult to start again unless you go right back to the beginning.

It could be a great program if it were properly integrated. From the promotional material I saw, from my own knowledge of developing multimedia learning materials and particularly from the high price of HST I was bitterly disappointed because I expected a learning Thai system, not a conglomeration of individual Thai learning files.

[canuckamuck]

I also bought HST and tried to use it. It is a very good program for the 1990's but this is 2010 and technology has improved tremendously over that period of time. The PDF files should be linked and the audio and video files embedded. As it is, it is very easy to get distracted from the process of learning. If you get distracted and take a break it is very difficult to start again unless you go right back to the beginning.

It could be a great program if it were properly integrated. From the promotional material I saw, from my own knowledge of developing multimedia learning materials and particularly from the high price of HST I was bitterly disappointed because I expected a learning Thai system, not a conglomeration of individual Thai learning files.

I think a big part of the reason that HST is setup the way it is, is to stop people from pirating it. If he made the entire thing a piece of software it would be on the shelves of Pantip tomorrow. As it is they have done what they could to avoid that situation.

[longway]

I get the feeling that you don't just want to be spoon fed, but have the thai language downloaded straight into your brain through a usb connection.

More unnecessary personal attacks. Have you bought this program yourself? Do you like it? And if so, why does that mean everyone else in the world must like it too?

Its my opinion of his opinion. Its not as if its the only thing I wrote addressing his critique either is it? If you had read anything other than that line you quoted then your would realise your questions are redundant. Somebody is grumpy today. (There I go with the personal attack again)

It could be a great program if it were properly integrated. From the promotional material I saw, from my own knowledge of developing multimedia learning materials and particularly from the high price of HST I was bitterly disappointed because I expected a learning Thai system, not a conglomeration of individual Thai learning files.

It would be good if he could make a programme with all the bells and whistles, perhaps it will come in future editions. The only thing I found very very off putting was before anki had the sound recorder plug-in option. Using the computer sound recorder tool was a real pain.

[SICHONSTEVE]

I am one of the unlucky person who tried High Speed Thai.

I was very excited at first when reading the description, so after a while i decided to order the programme, being comforted by the no question asked money back guarantee.

I quickly received 2 DVDs, which i installed right away, or i should rather say copy. Because HighSpeedThai is not a programme. It's a bunch of files. 5GB of data. And my disk count is giving me around 12 000 files (probably including some of the inside software files).

So basically you buy this programme thinking you will get something fully integrated like Rosetta or other language software. But this one is VERY different. You basically goat a 1000+ black and white text only PDF file (yes over one thousand pages of text!), and a bunch of files in different folders that you need to open one by one) and you quickly end up having your pdf reader open, your music player open, your video player open, the few related folders open, and on top of that you have the Anki software. Anki is something like the Rosetta software, but a very basic version. Again text only.

OK. I had bought it, so i said why not give it a try anyway. Or at least try to. Believe me it is the most user unfriendly system i have ever seen in my life! After a couple of weeks, I did contact the maker of this system to suggest him some much needed improvement, but he constantly replied by copying clients testimonials (which of course were all positive about his programme) and more or less saying that his programme couldn't be any better and that everybody is happy about it. I was kind of "motivated" to give it another try, and passed the 30 days money back guarantee without really paying attention. After a while, and many attempts to try learning with this unfriendly system, i decided to give up and contacted again the maker of the programme asking him about the money back guarantee.

Again i had a flow of clients testimonials who were all agreeing that this is the best programme in the world to learn Thai. May be I am the only one to find it absolutely off-putting and uninviting. I was always told that learning should be a fun process, and the 4 other languages i speak have been learnt in a fun way.

Having said that, the maker of the programme offered me a deal, that if i complete 10 lessons and still don't like the programme, he would give my money back. I did accept the challenge, and forced myself through the 10 lessons. Passed the calvary of a couple of hundred pages of plain text in PDF format, and the juggling with files and folders, i completed the 10 lessons. But our programme maker was still not satisfied, and wanted to know all the details of my boring learning, adding here and there very positive testimonials of other clients.

So i just gave up and forgot about asking my money back. It is just not worth the ordeal really.

So may be it is just me not liking this programme. I don't know. If any of you wish you buy my version, I will be more than happy to get rid of it at a discounted price. I would even let you try it before you buy and show you how the whole thing works. I wouldn't want you to feel tricked the way i did!

It seems that you are apparently one of the very few not to have appreciated the virtues of this course.

I notice that you have learnt 4 other languages and have enjoyed learning all of them (in a fun way) as you describe in your negative review of the 'HighspeedThai' course. What you must appreciate is that Thai is unlike any other language in it's structure and make-up and can even seem weird, illogical, over complicated ie: 44 consonants+32 vowels - some short and others long, with dead and live endings and ALL complex in their written form, 5 tones and 4 tone marks, special symbols and rules for certain consonants such as Or Aahng and Ror Reuua (Thai's pronounce thier R's as L's occasionally) and some consonants that change their sound completely to a different one depending on where it lies within the syllable

(at the beginning or end). These are just a FEW examples of the many strange and unorthodox things you must learn, all off-by-heart, which can put some people off from learning Thai - you included by all accounts. I think you would be better off learning a different language as I don't think this one is for you really!! I cannot comment on any other means for learning Thai personally, as this is the only program that I have used for this purpose. My main message to you about 'Highspeedthai' is that I think it difficult/impossible to present the learning of Thai as "fun" as it doesn't really lend itself to this due to the unique language structure involved. Can I just ask you how you would change the program concept to improve it, as there is no getting away from the 'having to plough through' the vast reams of text and speech aids memorising everything on the way if you are intent on learning to both read and speak Thai. You are in a minority of 1 as to the teaching effectiveness of this course as all of the other reviewers who have (I note) mostly tried other means and different courses to this one, previously, and are therefore in a better position than me to pass judgement seem to be of the same opinion - and that is that this course is the most comprehensive and best on the market, extolling it's virtues to different extents over the other courses out there - mostly highly favourably so on a comparative basis.

Either you are wrong in your assessment or maybe everybody else is, to a man (or woman).

One final point, why? if you we're so disillusioned and dissatisfied about this course from the very beginning did you not attempt to claim your money back within the 1 month time period as you were entitled to!!! I don't think that you can complain about this aspect as it was your lack of attentiveness and action on this that caused to you miss this the 'money-back' guarantee promise.

May I suggest you attempt to learn Chinese instead as I'm sure that it would be "great fun" - but it might take you some time as Thai characters are a doodle compared to Chinese ones (assumes this isn't one of the four you have mastered already, that is)!!!!

One of the 4 languages i have learnt IS mandarin Chinese.You do write as if you are Vincent though.:-)I am just relating my own personal experience and doing a review of this product which in my opinion is definitely not the best choice for learning Thai. Walen is a much better choice.

First of all, I am not Vincent - otherwise this posting would appear as being from Vincent, wouldn't it!!!! Its alright, I do detect that there is more than a hint of sarchasm in your comments and have taken it as such.

If your first choice would be Walen (whatever that is) then why did you buy HighspeedThai? I can see that some other 'less complimentary' reviews about this course have surfaced meaning that you are not the ONLY one out there who has been dissatisfied with this course. I just think that the tone you adopted wasn't justified and maybe this was reflected in my reply which may have been somewhat OTT as a consequence. I'm not sure that I'm convinced about your claim of Mandarin Chinese being one of the four languages you claim to have learnt (I bet that if I had said Bikya you would have claimed to have mastered this) and in doing so, would be the only native speaker left on the planet - with nobody to talk to, obviously.!!!

Of course, you are perfectly entitled to give your side of events in what you think about this course, but I should also be entitled to criticise your comments if I perceive them as being unfairly over-critical, one-sided and plain unjust, to boot, as well.

[etotheipi]

I bought HST a year ago, and have gotten through 38 of the 40 vocab lessons so far (2 vocab lessons and 7 video lessons remaining) Therefore, I've gotten through about 800 of the 1000 page booklet. For reference, I am a pure Farang. Grew up in the US, never learned any other languages. Ultimately, I think HST program is absolutely fantastic, with a few caveats. I'll list the positives first, then list the few pieces of criticism I have, at the end. I warn you though, this is a complete review, and very long....

++The vowel/tone/alphabet/reading training is phenomenal. Some people may try to zip through it, but I guarantee it's worth every minute to do it exactly as it was designed. Each of the 15 lessons teaches you more vowels, more letters, more tone rules, and uses a program called Anki to schedule them optimally. You revisit the letters & syllables more frequently if you have more trouble with them. Along the way, you should constantly hit the "replay" button to hear the syllables over and over and match them exactly with your own voice. The end result is amazing. I have been complimented endlessly on how perfect my pronunciation is. I had a couple hill tribe people making fun of me for speaking too clearly/perfectly, because it makes me seem overly-educated (compared to hill tribes, which is true). One Thai had me pronounce a bunch of things for him so he could try to locate my accent. In the end he said I just sounded like a slow Bangkok resident! That is truly amazing, considering how much trouble most Farang have with the language.

++Additionally, by teaching the reading so well, I find Thai reading to be completely natural. I'll never forget a vowel or tone because I can always remember the shape of the word in my head, and that's enough to instantly recall such subtleties most other people forget. Again, due diligence in learning the reading and tone rules, pays off in the end. And I don't think there's any more efficient way to teach this. Personally, I know plenty of farang that would pay $150 alone to have perfect pronunciation and and effortless reading skills.

++I spent approximately 8 months, 5-10 hours per week, going through 38 vocab lessons studying mostly from the book (which I had printed and bounded for about $25 at Staples). I also did some speaking tests in the car sometimes on the way to work. I felt like I was flying through the lessons, and never once did I look at a transliteration. Part of this was due to the solid foundation you get in reading, and the way he presents the words and gives you dozens of examples. Every word you learn, you learn it completely, instead of learning a lot of words poorly. There's never really memorization, as you will have the words "memorized" by the time you've read the tried to translate the 20th sentence that used the word. Because of this, grammar comes naturally, as you learn to use all of your vocab in almost every possible way it can be used.

-- The biggest downside for me was that Listening is not exercised at all (although Vincent sent out some supplemental Anki files at about month 9, that are perfect to fill in this gap). I spent 3-4 months learning to speak from the program before I even found any Thai people to practice speaking with where I live. What I found was that while I could speak a complex, 20-word sentence with perfect grammar, tones and pronunciation, the simplest two-word response would go right over my head. I'd have to have them repeat it many times before I'd figure it out, usually quite embarrassing. The reason for this is, while there are THOUSANDs of audio clips throughout the HST program, they are all clips of sentences where you know what word to expect next, usually because you just tried to construct the sentence yourself, and now the audio is telling you the "answer". You never really get any experience hearing an unanticipated Thai sentence, and having to figure out what was said. Frequently, someone will speak a full sentence to me, and I will recognize that I know every word in the sentence, but have to spend 5 seconds after they're done, scanning back over each word in my head, and reconstructing the setence. Yes, it gets better with practice, but I didn't get that practice through HST. However, Vincent did send out an Anki file with 4000 listening cards which should fill in this gap nicely, but it's not directly part of the program, so you have to remember to do it on your own. I think if I had spent time on listening exercises as part of every lesson, I'd have no problem, but it was more complicated to learn 30 lessons of listening all at once. (BTW, this point has NOTHING to do with reading--if a paragraph is written with only words I know, I can read it and understand almost as fast as a native Thai. It's only the audible speaking that is difficult to understand)

-- Vocab: the program only has one kind of vocab teaching: which is full-context teaching. You learn a word, and see it in dozens of sentences in many different ways/contexts. So while you'll never use a word incorrectly, you learn less words overall. Perhaps I only learned a couple body parts, a couple professions, a couple animals, a couple fruits, etc. Of course, once you know how to talk about one fruit, you could learn a dozen more with low-context learning, but that's not how the program works. In the whole program, you only learn 1400 words total. At least, if the program is going to be extreme, I'd prefer this kind of extreme, instead of the other extreme (jamming words down your throat through and rote memorization without teaching you grammar/usage). But I think it's possible to blend both styles. Therefore, before going to Thailand, I fired up Anki, created a deck of 500 words from the Th-En Oxford Picture Dictionary, and was actually able to learn them all in less than 2 weeks. Anki is perfect for memorization, and I find that most vocab is just combinations of words you already know, or basically transliterations of the english words. Extremely easy to memorize. So while I spent 40 weeks learning 1,400 words, I learned 500 more in just 2 weeks (and I used at least half of them in my last trip to Thailand).

--Program design: I think this could use some work. As others may have mentioned, the structure could use some work, as you'll typically use 4 different programs through the course of the vowels/tones/reading lessons. And I think the directory structure is non-intuitive. But after a couple lessons, you get used to it. But, I think the many users don't give the program a real chance, because they start off with a bad impression, being frustrated by the seemingly disorganized system. From my perspective, it's worth mentioning, but I wasn't too bothered by it. Clearly, other people were...

+++Overall, I am extremely pleased with the program. If Vincent integrated the listening exercises as part of each lesson, and maybe threw in some low-context vocab every 5 lessons, I could give the program 100/100 rating. However, as is, I still give it a 96/100, because it's positive qualities far outweigh any deficiencies. I can't imagine learning the Thai language any more efficiently. Also, I contact Vincent occasionally with recommendations or concerns, and he is very responsive, typically helping me figure out how to fill in the gaps or adapt the program to my needs

If you have any questions about my experience, feel free to email me at etotheipi [at] gmail [dot] com. I have been recommending the program to everyone I meet that shows any interest in learning Thai, and I am happy to help anyone who is feeling doubtful that it's a good program.

-Alan

Edited December 11, 2010 by etotheipi

[Amras]

I'd agree with the all the positive posts above. There are some minor things that could be imporved to make the program better of course, but how many programs do you know that could not sure some improvement. Even Microsoft has to constantly update a program they spend millions on developing.

Don't forget that this program also teaches you to read, it's probably the most efficient manner I have seen. I am only up to vocab lesson 15, mainly due to both time and a small degree of 'laziness' and I have at times be frustrated at my ability to retain what I have learnt. The biggest thing I noticed though, is that you must be consistant in what you study. Thai is not a language you can learn in a few hours a week, here and there. It takes committment and dedication as all those who have learnt it well will no doubt tell you.

I feel there must be more behind yvangc's post. Maybe a bit of resentment and anger that Vincent didn't automatically give him his money back after the 30days and wanted to acually see he gave it a real shot before he did. Fair enough. 30 days is more than enough to see if the program is right for you, if not, return it. Simple. After 30 days, you don't have to get your money back just because you want it. You bought it with those conditions. So the fault is your own. Although as you said in your post, it seems like Vincent was happy to discuss it further if you had shown that you gave it another real shot, because he truly believes in his product and that it works and is an efficient system.

As an example to how well this program works, I started to attend weekend Thai classes here in Melbourne as I haven't yet made the move to Thailand (where I want to study more intensely). I was automatically put into grade 3 intermediate class just from my ability to be able to read and the bits and pieces I can speak. My pronunciation of Thai was much better than the majority of people in my class (who had been at this school nearly three years) and the Thai teachers were actually quite suprised when I told them that everything I had learnt was self taught using an at home study Thai course. I haven't tried any other course, but have looked at books etc which just seem a much harder way to learn Thai (even the study material at school isn't as easily set out, bombarding you with 40-50 new words every lesson).

Yes it teaches you only 1500 words, but it also teaches you to read (I learnt in a matter of months studying after work) and provies a lot of audio to listen to. As with anything, the first few thousand words are going to be the most difficult, especially going from English to an non latin based language.

The shortcomings etotheipi pointed out I would agree to to an extent, however there is no real way of using/developing a program that is truly interactive (let alone at a small cost) I am sure there will be one day, but speach recognition has to come a long way before we can use this type of thing for learning a language. There is no substitute ultimately for interaction with a real speaker.

Everyone learns languages at a different pace and I find it hard to believe that yvangc has such an affinity to be able to speak 4 languages (apparently including Chinese which by the way has less tones then Thai, but I'm sure you know that right?) but can't get anything out of HST. Knowing how to speak 4 languages is no small feat and automatically shows you must have a brain that just naturally connects with language. So I really find it hard to fathom how you can't learn anything from HST, when myself and so many others who are only learning a language for a second time, have and are. Unfortunately for me my brain doesn't acquire languages easily, however my girlfriend is like a sponge when I teach her english. Thai is hard, there is no way getting around it.Yes learning Thai is boring and not fun, but even when I was studying German, I felt the same.

I would like to know how much effort you put into using the program only a daily basis YVANGC, as unless you are studying for 4 or more hours a day, I can't see how in 30 days you could have gotten past the initial reading and if you did then it must have been easy. How long did it take you to do the 10 vocab lessons? I was averaging about 2 lessons a week (when I was studying about 8-10 hours a week) and I didn't do enough listening revision.

And no I'm note Vincent, just incase you were going to put that out there.

[longway]

^ A gripe about the reading is that all the thai words are separated from each other, when you come across thai as it is written normally with no gaps I find it more difficult than it should be. I think from around Lesson 30 or so he should write all thai sentences as we would find them in the real world.

Also from about Lesson 30 or so I found the material quite complex and found it difficult to process and the lessons far too long. I would have preferred 45-50 shorter lessons, I am redoing Lessons 30-40 again as I have not retained as much as I did from previous lessons.

Edited December 11, 2010 by longway