Pro Language On Nimmanhamin; Any Good?

[heybruce]

I'm checking out one year Thai language courses that can help me get an education visa. I'm not just interested in a visa, I also want to improve on my very low level of Thai. The Pro Language school on Nimmanhamin is in a convenient location for me. Does anyone have any experience studying with them? Are they any good?

[heybruce]

Nobody, huh? Probably not a good sign.

[heybruce]

I am doing the second level conversation there, and like you, find the location ideal. They are also very flexible in regards to days and times that you want to study, and always very friendly. And at the prices they charge, one really cant go wrong.

Location and flexibility are good, but is your Thai improving?

[roger1999]

Where around Nimmenhaemin can I find this school? Thanks.

[Loaded]

Where around Nimmenhaemin can I find this school? Thanks.

The Amari Rincome end of the road on the Doi Suthep mountain side of the road. It's just along from Kasems and Mikes Burgers.

[bungalowbill]

I am doing the second level conversation there, and like you, find the location ideal. They are also very flexible in regards to days and times that you want to study, and always very friendly. And at the prices they charge, one really cant go wrong.

How many students are there per class?

[giibaht]

I am doing the second level conversation there, and like you, find the location ideal. They are also very flexible in regards to days and times that you want to study, and always very friendly. And at the prices they charge, one really cant go wrong.

How many students are there per class?

Minimum of 3 for a group, although they let just me and my friend get the group rate, so....

Do they teach reading and writing in the first year of the course? Also, any feedback on their admiinistrative service level, especially with regards to arraning ED visas for the 1 year thai course? Any feedback appreciated.

[naboo]

I found the attractive sales people on the front desk exceptionally good at selling me a package, though the meat and potatoes (no innuendo intended) wasn't all that.

[giibaht]

I found the attractive sales people on the front desk exceptionally good at selling me a package, though the meat and potatoes (no innuendo intended) wasn't all that.

Care to elaborate?

Apparently they won the price for best private school for 2010...

[naboo]

I found the attractive sales people on the front desk exceptionally good at selling me a package, though the meat and potatoes (no innuendo intended) wasn't all that.

Care to elaborate?

Apparently they won the price for best private school for 2010...  

Thaivisa policy seemingly dictates that we can only post positive things about places.

So Pro Language is a great place to go if you want really dry lessons and to have Christianity blabbered on about for half the time.

They did have a very well structured class, and I was able to use the structure (produced by people in Bangkok, I'd imagine) with friends to get a lot out of the class. Though the transliteration was odd.

[ChiangMaiFun]

I have just moved to Nimman (Hi Vibe!) and I'll walk along today and check them out.

I only need conversation - so I sort of gather they provide that? without all the grammer etc.?

[ChiangMaiFun]

I found the attractive sales people on the front desk exceptionally good at selling me a package, though the meat and potatoes (no innuendo intended) wasn't all that.

Care to elaborate?

Apparently they won the price for best private school for 2010...

Thaivisa policy seemingly dictates that we can only post positive things about places.

So Pro Language is a great place to go if you want really dry lessons and to have Christianity blabbered on about for half the time.

They did have a very well structured class, and I was able to use the structure (produced by people in Bangkok, I'd imagine) with friends to get a lot out of the class. Though the transliteration was odd.

Christianity? have I missed something? I want to learn Thai not Religeon

[giibaht]

I found the attractive sales people on the front desk exceptionally good at selling me a package, though the meat and potatoes (no innuendo intended) wasn't all that.

Care to elaborate?

Apparently they won the price for best private school for 2010...

Thaivisa policy seemingly dictates that we can only post positive things about places.

So Pro Language is a great place to go if you want really dry lessons and to have Christianity blabbered on about for half the time.

They did have a very well structured class, and I was able to use the structure (produced by people in Bangkok, I'd imagine) with friends to get a lot out of the class. Though the transliteration was odd.

They sent me a sample of their romanised transliteration and it seems similar to that used by the author Benjawan Becker. Is that correct?

As for blabbering about Christianity, that would be a major turn off, but I would imagine it may be a particular instructor who does it, or is that in the textbooks?

[naboo]

They sent me a sample of their romanised transliteration and it seems similar to that used by the author Benjawan Becker. Is that correct?

As for blabbering about Christianity, that would be a major turn off, but I would imagine it may be a particular instructor who does it, or is that in the textbooks?

The transliteration on the course I was on (over a year ago now) was nothing like the Benjawan Becker books (which I find very good). It was horrific.

Everyone who works there is (was) Christian, and my instructor, the overweight one, blabbered on about it for far too much time.

[kawtot]

In the first year of the 4-7 hours-per-week-flavoured course Pro covers 4 modules: conversation 1-3, then reading/writing. You can buy a 500B reading/writing supplement at any time and work through that before you start the 4th module.

In out-of-class conversations I've discovered that a couple of staff are active christians, but haven't heard a peep about it during lessons, even when great 'sales and marketing' opportunities arise. I can't find any overtly christian vocabulary in modules 1 to 3 (e.g. worship, pray, church, minister/priest, hellfire and brimstone :-) etc, etc, etc).

The phonetic system at Pro is quite different, and less user-friendly, than the Paiboon system. Paiboon's current (late 2009) English/Thai Script/Thai Sound dictionary is a valuable tool regardless of where you do your basic studies. Once you learn Thai pronunciation and script, though, phonetics are of limited use - its worth the pain of getting past phonetics asap.

The classes at Chiang Mai Pro move along faster than CMU's, possibly because of the class sizes (5 or 6 students). My class spends a lot of time laughing and going (constructively) off-track. Your mileage may vary.

Visa support (for ED extensions) is the usual 2-ish weeks turnaround. I think you can only apply for an initial ED visa outside of Thailand.

Edited November 2, 2010 by kawtot

[CMX]

Any idea why their web site does not show rates?

Any idea about current rates?

Samplings of class hours/options would be helpful, since one is not moved to go to a place, or even telephone, where such info. is not available on the web. (IMO - could be wrong on this one)

Edited November 3, 2010 by CMX

[ChiangMaiFun]

Any idea why their web site does not show rates?

Any idea about current rates?

Samplings of class hours/options would be helpful, since one is not moved to go to a place, or even telephone, where such info. is not available on the web. (IMO - could be wrong on this one)

Yes - what are the rates?

[kawtot]

Any idea why their web site does not show rates?

Any idea about current rates?

Samplings of class hours/options would be helpful, since one is not moved to go to a place, or even telephone, where such info. is not available on the web. (IMO - could be wrong on this one)

Go to the Pro Language website. On their top menu choose the "courses" dropdown, then "Thai courses" from the submenu. You'll find curriculum, schedules, prices there.

[giibaht]

In the first year of the 4-7 hours-per-week-flavoured course Pro covers 4 modules: conversation 1-3, then reading/writing. You can buy a 500B reading/writing supplement at any time and work through that before you start the 4th module.

In out-of-class conversations I've discovered that a couple of staff are active christians, but haven't heard a peep about it during lessons, even when great 'sales and marketing' opportunities arise. I can't find any overtly christian vocabulary in modules 1 to 3 (e.g. worship, pray, church, minister/priest, hellfire and brimstone :-) etc, etc, etc).

The phonetic system at Pro is quite different, and less user-friendly, than the Paiboon system. Paiboon's current (late 2009) English/Thai Script/Thai Sound dictionary is a valuable tool regardless of where you do your basic studies. Once you learn Thai pronunciation and script, though, phonetics are of limited use - its worth the pain of getting past phonetics asap.

The classes at Chiang Mai Pro move along faster than CMU's, possibly because of the class sizes (5 or 6 students). My class spends a lot of time laughing and going (constructively) off-track. Your mileage may vary.

Visa support (for ED extensions) is the usual 2-ish weeks turnaround. I think you can only apply for an initial ED visa outside of Thailand.

How long before they start teaching the reading and writing of Thai script? I've always been a firm believer that beginning to read and write early on helps a lot in the language learning process.

Also, after 1 year of the course, what's the level of command of the language one can expect?

Cheers

[Bubbalicious]

 

Visa support (for ED extensions) is the usual 2-ish weeks turnaround.  I think you can only apply for an initial ED visa outside of Thailand.

You can change a tourist visa to an ED visa (or any other type, I believe) in Bangkok. You need to have sufficient time remaining on the tourist visa (cant recall if it's 2 or 3 weeks). Not every school visa person may know how to do this.

Sometimes I think that visa people at schools, when in doubt, will tell you to go outside of the country and get the new visa/transfer from one 'work' visa to another, etc. (at least that was the case for friends who taught at a particular university at the foot of Doi Suthep, when people I know at other schools didn't have to go on a visa run when they changed visa/work status) .