High Speed Thai Course

[SoftWater]

I feel there must be more behind yvangc's post...So the fault is your own.

I haven't tried this program, but I'm already convinced it must be pretty amazing. Aside from shiny things marketed by Steve Jobs, it's rare indeed to come across a product or brand that inspires such evangelical loyalty. What's particularly impressive is the way loyal customers don't just rave about the product and spend a great deal of time detailing its magnificence, but that they also appear en masse and largely out of nowhere to come out and discredit anyone that dares to differ .

The most charitable explanation for this extraordinary customer loyalty is that Vincent's really put together the best programme for learning Thai ever devised. If so, congratulations to him and all those that are satisfied with High Speed Thai. We've certainly learned a lot about what it contains and how it works thanks to the contributors above, and a lot about Vincent's excellent post-sales customer support, too. Long may it continue.

As for yvangc, I hope the unfair personal attacks you've received just because you didn't agree with the High Speed Thai faithful don't put you off from contributing to the language forum in the future.

Best of luck to all in your efforts to continue to learn Thai, be it at either high or low speed.

[SICHONSTEVE]

I feel there must be more behind yvangc's post...So the fault is your own.

I haven't tried this program, but I'm already convinced it must be pretty amazing. Aside from shiny things marketed by Steve Jobs, it's rare indeed to come across a product or brand that inspires such evangelical loyalty. What's particularly impressive is the way loyal customers don't just rave about the product and spend a great deal of time detailing its magnificence, but that they also appear en masse and largely out of nowhere to come out and discredit anyone that dares to differ .

The most charitable explanation for this extraordinary customer loyalty is that Vincent's really put together the best programme for learning Thai ever devised. If so, congratulations to him and all those that are satisfied with High Speed Thai. We've certainly learned a lot about what it contains and how it works thanks to the contributors above, and a lot about Vincent's excellent post-sales customer support, too. Long may it continue.

As for yvangc, I hope the unfair personal attacks you've received just because you didn't agree with the High Speed Thai faithful don't put you off from contributing to the language forum in the future.

Best of luck to all in your efforts to continue to learn Thai, be it at either high or low speed.

I Submit!!!, no more barbed attacks from me - I'm calling a truce on events now. I must admit you've pricked my conscience (softwater) and made me feel rather guilty now!! I hope, like you do that yvangc continues to submit articles to forums, as in truth, it is posts from people of different/opposite persuasions and arguments that make forums interesting, and work so well as they do.

One last thing - I would like to know what your moniker is all about (yvangc) as it is rather unusual to say the least. Accept my offer???? Better, and more conciliatory posting!!!??????? Come to think of it -you've got a pretty strange one too (softwater). Please can you let me into the derivation of yours as well. I will explain mine - my name is Steve and I live in Sichon, Nakhonsithammarat, so plain and simple!! Yours are more inventive and intriguing than mine I concede.

[etotheipi]

...

Best of luck to all in your efforts to continue to learn Thai, be it at either high or low speed.

I should add one more comment about the program. I noticed some people (at least in other reviews I've read) have complained that this program is not really "High Speed," because they weren't able to learn what they wanted in the one month before going to Thailand. And to that point, I agree. But that's not how the program was designed. I really think the program is "High Speed Thai Fluency", meaning that's it's got the longer term goal of teaching you the whole language, from the ground up, as efficiently as possible (though the program only leaves you conversational at the end, not fluent, but you can progress quickly beyond that with your perfect understanding of reading and grammar ). Given a set of programs with the goal of teaching you perfect pronunciation, effortless reading, and fantastic grammar, I can't imagine any program doing better than HST (in quality and efficiency),

This means spending 2-3 weeks on reading, and learning more grammar than vocab at the beginning. This does not make it ideal for preparing for a short trip to Thailand. I almost feel like you have to go the vocab lesson 20-25 to have enough breadth of vocab to be completely functional on a Thailand trip, but you will be absolutely amazing when you do. This is not to say you'll be useless before that, but there will be some many concepts that will you'll be missing, making it difficult to get through diverse conversations.

So, in that regard, this program is high speed is you are committed to learning the language as a whole. And I think the teaching of the reading/tones/vowels alone was worth $150, but I wouldn't recommend it for the casual traveler wanting to learn a few phrases before they head off to Thailand on a 2-week vacation. Then of course, that is exactly what I did, cramming 4-6 hours a day for a month before my first trip, learned all the reading, tone rules, etc, and got to vocab lesson 10. I was extremely happy with the results... but I'm a rare creature

Cheers,

-Alan

[longway]

As for yvangc, I hope the unfair personal attacks you've received just because you didn't agree with the High Speed Thai faithful don't put you off from contributing to the language forum in the future.

Ok ok yvangc is just wonderful. :jap:

Edited December 11, 2010 by longway

[Artey]

Let me share my feedback about the HighSpeedThai system.

Before I started the program I had done a little self study and also completed a short course at a university in Thailand. After completing this university course, my tones were not good, I could not read Thai and my vocab was too small to be useful.

I then started with HighSpeedThai. So far I have completed around 45 lessons and I have learnt a great deal. Now my tones and pronunciation are MUCH better. I can read Thai quickly. I can understand and take part in day-to-day conversation. Recently I have been working 14 hour days at work so have not had much time to learn Thai. But I can assure you that if you complete the lessons you will learn and you will learn quickly. I hope to get back to my studies ASAP.

I have recommended the product to many of my friends will keep on doing so.

The program consists of the PDF, audio exercises and Anki exercises. The PDF explains the concepts and tells you what files to open. I had no trouble completing the lessons.

I feel the program is very well thought-out and structured. If you spend some time with the program, follow the instructions there is no way you can not learn.

[rebbu]

How much is the course? Where is it available?

[Rumblecat]

It's available by mail order from the website. $159.95, although you get a $20 discount if you sign up for the newsletter.

[nivram4491]

It's available by mail order from the website. $159.95, although you get a $20 discount if you sign up for the newsletter.

I think $140 is a lot of money to pay for a program sight unseen. How can you try the program to see if you like it before buying it?

If I had been able to try it out before buying it I would not have bought it.

Back in the 1980's a lot of computer programming was done using BASIC. BASIC was great for tiny programs but as the size of the programs increased, they quickly became unmanageable. This is why BASIC is often referred to as spaghetti code. Modern languages use block programming in which a number of program blocks are accessed from the main program.

HighSpeedThai reminds me very much of a large BASIC program. There is a lot of data in the program but it is very difficult to access efficiently. Around a thousand pages of information requires a multilevel system of linked menus. It can all be done with Adobe Acrobat and the audio and video files can be embedded safely into individual PDF files which can be accessed from menus.

This is what I expected when I bought the program and was very disappointed when I saw one massive PDF file. The material inside the PDF file is good but the access to it is primitive.

[bhoydy]

I would just like to say i have also been surprised at the overall positive response from this course. I don't think the format appeals to my learning style and having passed the basics would probably have difficulty knowing where to start in this course. However, i would be interested to see what the later lessons entail, not enough to fork out the $150 though. Anyway well done in producing a course that has received such positive feedback on a forum which can quite often give a lot of negativity on such courses.

[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.

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.

HST was my first choice, I was not happy with it, I mentioned it with some suggestions to improve it, but that was taken on the negative side, like i didn't know how to arrange the windows properly.Sorry I i was mislead by your response, as vincent has vincenttv ID here as well as highspeedthai. And you reply was very much on the same tone of voice. My apologies.Even with the iPhone, which is a top of the range product, there as many unhappy comments and they don't hide them. It is hard to believe that i am the ONLY unhappy person about HST. I have already had a few other person contacting me and saying that what I was saying was what they felt about the programme. Again I am not saying it is a bad system. There is a lot of work done behind it, but the way it it presented, and the way it is marketed, is just nowhere close to the market reality.HST COULD be a great programme if it took the user into consideration. For now it is just 1000+ pdf file with a 1000+ files to organize on your screen. It doesn't cost much to integrate all this into one software and make it user friendly.I don't think my comments are unjust, i just related a story that happened to me. As for the Mandarin Chinese I have learnt, I took 2 years courses at the KMT 2 in Tahiti (traditional Mandarin from Taiwan, not the simplified form from mainland China). Please feel free to contact Rose Wong there, who is the lead teacher. I can supply her email address in private if you want to check by yourself. She taught me to read, speak and write. The reason why I decided to learn Mandarin Chinese and not Bikya is probably because Mandarin Chinese is obviously one of the most spoken language in the world (source: http://www.krysstal.com/spoken.html).Anything else you want to clear I will be happy to clarify with you.Now if you want to share your own story about the benefits of HST for YOU, please feel free. But don't tell me that I must like it because all the testimonials we get from HST are all highly positive.Having said that, i am glad that you managed to learn your way through HST, and if you know anyone who want to buy a sample of this programme at a discounted price, please feel free to refer him or her to me.

[yvancg]

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.

Sorry to say that but there is nothing easier to pirate the programme the way it is now. A PDF with a password??? Google it and you find 10 freewares to unlock it, or shareware for 10$. It is also widely available as a torrent file, although not many people download it for free apparently.

[yvancg]

How much is the course? Where is it available?

I am selling my original copy for 120$ - discounted price

[edwardandtubs]

This thread is full of sock puppets. If the course is so great, why hasn't it been published by a mainstream publisher?

[rebbu]

How much is the course? Where is it available?

I am selling my original copy for 120$ - discounted price

Hope you find a buyer. I'll download it with a Torrent client.

[philisok]

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!

[philisok]

Do you still have the programme, interested in buying.

[email protected]

[douglori]

I bought the High Speed Thai course, and have been using it almost everyday now for 8 months. I am now working on lesson 10. ( I am trying to do what the program suggests, and that is to learn each lesson well before I move on to the next one) I am from Canada, and my wife and I will retire in Chiang Mai in about 3 years.

I was in Thailand recently with my brother and law and another friend, and they have both ordered the program now. They wanted to get the HST program because they witnessed me communicating in Thai. I was actually able to communicate in Thai from what I've learned from HST. They couldn't believe that I could actually use whole sentences. I am not at the point where I can have any kind of an in-depth conversation, but I can get by with directions, buying things, asking where things are, asking simple questions, enough to engage a Thai person in a small way, in their language.

I have tried Rosetta Stone, and a couple other books that come with CD's, but HST gives more practical, usefull things to say. I have all but dropped the other programs now. I think HST is about as good as being in a classroom and having someone teach Thai from scratch. It builds upon what you have learned in a logical way that you can easily and quickly see progress. It teaches you sentences right from the beginning once you get through the reading sections. When you learn new words, they are quickly added into sentences, so when you get to Thailand to try what you've learned, you actually have useful things to say.

For me, it's not much good, and not very useful when you get to Thailand just to know single words, and that's what the other programs I have used seem to do. I would say that the other programs have helped me increase my vocabulary, but HST teaches you to put words into sentences. Once you know how to structure a sentence, you can easily replace new words that you learn into a sentence.

I put all the dialogs on CD's and listen to them when I am driving in the car. I find that very helpful, because you are practicing sentences all the time. For me the most important thing is how to structure a sentence in Thai, and this program teaches you very clearly how to do that. It takes lots of repetition to learn how to do that, but before I move on to the next lesson, I am able to answer every "How do you say" question on the CD without hesitation, and this is what has helped me the most, more than anything else when I am in Thailand.

สวัสดีครับ

[wineman]

What with all the "for" and "against" comments, I simply can't make up my mind to go ahead and buy HST or not.

[desi]

What with all the "for" and "against" comments, I simply can't make up my mind to go ahead and buy HST or not.

I'm neither for or against either (he sent over the draft over and I haven't seen it since it got cleaned up).

BUT, with a guaranteed refund, what's stopping you from trying it out?

Guarantee: If you are not happy for any reason, please send your product back within 30 days of the date of purchase and we will happily refund all your money and all postage costs.

[yvancg]

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.

There is nothing easier than copying a PDF document and removing the security on it. The way it is made doesn't prevent copy. In Pantip you find copies of softwares made by multinational companies that spend millions of dollars to try to protect them.

Having said that, I found a great resource online to learn Thai, and it is completely FREE: it is called Learning Thai and you can google it (the link is these 2 words without space and dot com at the end).

[Ratsima]

Anyone know if the Anki files that come with HST are compatible with the iOS (iPad iPhone) version of Anki?

[flnu]

Ok, complete technophobe here, so it is ridiculous that I'm replying but for what it's worth, I received what I believe is an ipod touch for Christmas. No phone. I assume it is whatever the latest version is. Anyway, bought the $25 dollar app, followed anki directions for media syncing on anki website (using the dropbox option), and put the HST anki media files to dropbox, and, voila, it works. Be SURE to do the "check media" step before attempting.

Edited to add: BTW, it is a total pain because there are *so many* stinking media folders (I'm just in the reading lessons now). And you have to do a manual re-direct for each (one-time). I'll probably just use it for the master files not the individiual files in the future.

Edited January 4, 2011 by flnu

[Ratsima]

Thanks flnu.

I also downloaded AnkiMobile app and came to the same conclusion about the media folders. Way too many. (294?) So, I'm just going to install the master files on the iPad. I opted to go the iTunes route. But, that only works if you use the 1.0.1 version of Anki desktop, not the 0.9 something version that comes with HST.

Did you move EBook PDF file to the iPad? I tried, but all the pages were blank. Turns out the iPad cannot display PDFs that are encoded with JPEG2000 so I had to re-encode with plain old JPEG. This worked but had the effect of quadrupling the file size.

[sante]

Ratsima, update Anki to the current version. I'm learning Thai with HST (love it) and the new Anki upgrade works fine with the files.

[Ratsima]

Ratsima, update Anki to the current version. I'm learning Thai with HST (love it) and the new Anki upgrade works fine with the files.

Thanks, I did and it works fine. Still wonder why the author of HST is using an older version.

[vincentv]

Hi there,

This is Vincent here.

I would like to add my comments.

As you can see here, there are many people who are very happy with the program. The people who are reporting great results are the ones that have actually completed significant parts of the program. The ones that have not so positive feedback do not state which lessons they have actually completed.

Students do need to expect to spend a few hours learning how the program works and getting familiar with the tools that come with the program. It is very hard for one to assess the program without actually completing the lessons. Even if someone was to complete the first couple of lessons and give up it would be unfair for them to comment on all of the other lesson types in the program, as each type of lesson has a different structure and there are many different lesson types. The program is designed to be completed in a sequential manner as you will need to learn how to pronounce and distinguish the tones before you move onto the reading lessons. You will need to be able to read before you can do the vocab lessons and you will need to know the intermediate vocabulary before you move onto the advanced vocabulary lessons.

Every single file that is included in the program has its place in the learning process. Saying that the program is a bunch of unlinked files could not be further from the truth.

Protecting the program from piracy is obviously and important factor and sometimes this results in small changes that may have a very minimal impact on usability. The system is not programmed in any language. The program is made up of text which is in a PDF file, audio which are mp3s and wmas along with Anki files which are opened in the program Anki. The program does also include images and videos.

Text, audio and imagery are very powerful mediums and if used effectively can teach a language very effectively.

I would like to briefly talk about the user named “yvancg”.

On October 7 2010 he stated that he had stopped on page 48 of 1000 because the eBook was too large to print, the eBook should be in a horizontal format and there are too many files and folders. I offered my help here. I know that hundreds of people have completed these lessons and I have watch people complete the lessons first hand so I know the process well.

While the program is obviously not perfect like anything in this word, if one follows the instructions and completes the lessons he will get very good results, as you can see from the feedback that other users have provided.

The user suggested embedding the audio into the pdf, I thanked him for his feedback and noted it down as I keep all feedback from all users. Prior to his email I had researched doing just this but there were many problems doing it with Acrobat 9. Thankfully now Acrobat 10 offers more options to link pdfs to external files.

After the user’s trial period expired he sent me an email stating he would like a refund. Well it is clearly stated on the website that the guarantee lasts for 30 days after the program arrives in the mail. I again offered to help him get going with the program as I know there are so many people using the program with great results I was sure that I could help him get started. He then mentions that he is really on page 38 of 1000 doing the pronunciation lessons. These are the first lessons in the program.

Anyway, as I was generous enough to make a deal with him even though he was outside his guarantee period. The deal was made on the 16^th of November 2010. The deal we made was that he was to complete up to Vocab lesson 10. If he still did not like the program after completing up to this lesson I would refund his money even though his guarantee had expired. This deal meant that he had to complete 26 lessons. I would estimate a student would spend at least 60 hours completing these lessons.

On the 30^th of November I received an email from yvancg saying that he had completed the lessons. I was surprised. When making the deal I was expecting to hear from him after a couple of months as I know how long it takes students to complete these lessons. I then emailed back asking him approximately how many hours a day he studied. He said “I try to learn everyday for around one hour, sometimes more, sometimes less”. This made me even more surprised as I know that it is impossible to complete these 26 lessons in 14 hours. Many of the lessons would require more than 2 hours to complete. Maybe yvancg is a really smart chap with a computer like memory, so I asked him to send some of his files to me, this would have allowed me to see that he had actually had performed this momentous feat. Conveniently he told me that he had already deleted all of the files. He stated that his girlfriend has been helping him with the language and that he was already familiar with some of the sections in the program.

I then proceeded to ask him a few more questions about what lessons he had done so I could verify he had done what he said he had. He refused to answer my questions and told me to keep the money.

A couple days later he sent me an email that he is going to post his experience on a number of forums because I am not a man of my word???? At this stage I replied saying there is one easy way for us to verify that you have completed what you have said you have done and that is for me to give you a five minute call on Skype. This way I would be able to ask him a few very simple questions about the lessons he had done. Here is what I said.

“I am not saying anyone is a cheater or a liar. I was generous enough to give you a deal, I assume that you would be happy to demonstrate that you have completed your part.

Unfortunately you have deleted your files. Perhaps the best way to finish this off is for me to give you a call and ask you a few simple questions on the material that you have completed. I guess this would not take more than 5 minutes. I assume you are on Skype, we can do this over Skype.”

Yvanyc stated that he had enough and he was going to post on some forums. I sent this reply

“Hi Again,

I think my responses are fare, reasonable and only to be expected. As I have said, out of my own generosity I gave you this deal. I have hardly done the wrong thing.

If you do not want to spend a few minutes on the phone answering a few very basic questions that you would be able to answer quickly and easily that is your choice.

Now in regards to you problem: It is concerning that you feel you are unable to complete the lessons due to the layout. The reason it is concerning is that there are hundreds of people using the program without this problem. In the program I invite the user to send his feedback many times. And I have directly asked a number of users, "do they find the files hard to locate?" they have stated they are having no problems finding files or doing the lessons.

I agree it would be better to link the PDF to the files, but I have experimented with this and there are many problems doing this. I have contacted Adobe about this too.

The other option would be to convert the pdf to a HTML file, but even with html files there are still problems. Some browsers ask the use to download and save the file before they open it. Then there is the issue of piracy, there is no protection in HTML files. These days piracy protection measures are an unfortunate necessity.

So with the program the way it is now, the user has the eBook on his screen, reads through the content, the content will state which file to open. He simply clicks the audio or Anki file and listens to the audio or completes the exercise in Anki. The files are organized in a logical fashion which is explained in the eBook.

The pronunciation lessons state that it may be beneficial if one records himself, I am thinking of getting rid of this as some users may find opening an external audio recording problematic if they are not so good on the computer. I should be able to transform these exercises into Anki exercises. Anki has an inbuilt recording function.

As you are a Mac user, perhaps there is something on the Mac which is making doing what is instructed difficult. Do you think you could tell me what this is? Only about 7% of users are using a Mac. I want the program to work well on a Mac too.

I have been thinking more about what you have said. I think I will make a short video on how the user should use the program. This way they can watch the video before they start, this will give them a good idea of how to use the program easily and efficiently. This will also help them see if something on there computer is prohibiting them from using the program as they will be able to see how it should work correctly.

Thanks”

Before receiving this email yvanc posted his view on every thread about HighSpeedThai he could find.

The moral of the story is that this user had the program to try out free and if he did not like it he could send it back within 30 days. He did not do this. I was generous enough to make a special deal with him. He stated that he completed his part of the deal in what seems to be an unrealistic time. Upon asking to spend 5 minutes on Skype with the user verifying he had done what he had said he declined and posted negative feedback about me and the program.

Who knows really how much of the program yvancg completed? He said he was on the first couple of lessons when he stopped. He was never willing to prove he had completed any of the program on request so I guess we will never know for sure.

If you want to get a real idea of what the program is like youu should pay attention to those reviews by people who have completed significant parts of the program. And as you can see there are many of them and they are reporting great progress. A number of them go into great detail.

Perhaps the program did not meet yvancgs strict standards, perhaps something on his computer was prohibiting him from using the program as directed, perhaps he was too busy to put time into the program. It is hard to say.

Here is a video showing how the program is used: http://www.highspeedthai.com/HowToUse.avi

Ratsima: Users are told they can upgrade Anki once they know the basics. The course should work fine with the latest Anki. The program does not come with the latest version as they seem to release a new update every week. I am not able to re-write the instructions and verify the thousands of files work with the new version every time they release a new version. I will update the version of Anki that comes with the program over the next month.

One user asks why the program hasn’t been published through a mainstream publisher. Well this will never happen and it is the last thing I want. The HST program will constantly be improved and updated, it is not the type of product that will be sold in bookshops due to its size and price. It is almost impossible to protect books sold in stores from piracy and in the end the publisher’s fee will be around %80.

I would like to thank those that have posted or emailed their feedback. I am always working on improving the program and most of the updates are as a result of users feedback.

If you have any questions feel free to email me.

[harrry]

Your reply seems to indicate that the user contacted you prior to the 30 days stating he had a problem with the course. Instead of giving a no fuss refund then you got him to try something else and continue he then contacted you advising that your solution was not practical. You then still did not give a refund but added further conditions...then you welched again.

This is not good business practice regardless of how good you think your course is. I have more sympathy for the OP than I did before as he advised you within the 30 days.

Sorry Vincent the loss of customers you suffer through this is through your oown actions, not those of the OP.

[vincentv]

Thank you for your input. The user contacted me in regards to the program layout. Not requesting a refund. The problem that the user was having should have not stopped him from using or learning from the system.

In fact, recently I have set my website to email a note to users explaining that they can extend their guarantee by requesting an extension. This is useful because some people may be too busy in the initial 30 days to give the program a good go.

All users get a full 30 days to trial out the program, if they feel it is not for them in this time all they have to do is send the program back to me.

Edited January 11, 2011 by vincentv

[bmore99]

A friend of mine bought the program. He asked my help as he had no clue how to match the text and the sound. He expected a normal computer program.

So the big question is: "why isn't this a normal computer program?'

In Thailand it is not that hard or expensive to get an IT student to do some programming.

At the very least Vincent could have put hyperlinks into the pdf to the anki files. You don't need to be a computer guru to do that.

When showing my friend how to use the course (or actually data files), I heard some of the sound.

Really terrible quality, not up to date standard. These sound files must be very old and re-mastered many times. Therefore I assume they have been copied and not produced for this course.

Without reading the text, I was completely unable to find out what was said (at the barber shop).

I advised my friend to ask his wife to listen to the sound without her seeing the text and then ask her if she can repeat what was said.

I'm happy I learned Thai by using a real, yet simple, computer program with perfect sound for less than 1000Baht (now it's a bit more I guess)

Paiboom's Thai for beginners computer program. You can even buy the book and the 3-way dictionary as well and still spend less than the High Speed Thai course

[desi]

When showing my friend how to use the course (or actually data files), I heard some of the sound.

Really terrible quality, not up to date standard. These sound files must be very old and re-mastered many times. Therefore I assume they have been copied and not produced for this course.

Curious at your response about the sound, I just spent five minutes listening to different sound files and I can't find any that are not clear and easy to understand. Are you sure that it's not your friend's computer?