I Want To Learn Thai. I Want A Cheap Good Tutor Or Teacher

[pinballwizard]

I have info on mindyourlanguage.com. I am looking at other alternatives. Are there any others near Bangrak?

I speak English as a native language. We could also do a swap for Thai.

Feel free to private message me. Thanks in advance.

-Pinballwizard

[honeydew]

Hi,

Could you tell me more about yourself at EMAIL REMOVED? I work around Bangrak area. I may can help you.

brgs,

honey

Please contact via PM.

[samuicanuk]

"cheap"...and "good"... and you will "teach" them English as you are "native" (teacher)....good luck, admire and encourage your desire and initiative to learn Thai...too few of us guests do, but, good luck

[gotlost]

Cheep and good have never gone together.

[Birdman]

think twice about your sin sod ideas

[ahinkel]

I want, I want. Sure your not Canadian?

[pinballwizard]

Wow, the signal to noise ratio is pretty lousy here!

Lots of very cynical expatriates. Its very unnerving. In all the countries have been to, Thais are probably the most crapped on and they seem to respond quite cool about it.

I just want to do my part to show as much respect as I can and maybe make a few people smile.

Oh, here is one option you all might like: Livemocha.com. Its a website where people can swap one language for another. Cheap quality instruction for the cynics

I am looking for a popular dating site in Thailand... that might be time efficient, but the virtual world tends to be wasteful compared to the real one.

A few expats already have directing me to get rosetta stone "for free" or get some computer discs from the store that will teach me. I may go that route too.

But I think my best bet is putting up fliers looking for a language swap.

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mindyourlanguage.com seems expensive

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The best thing is a cute Thai "friend".

Thanks,

pinballwizard.

Edited April 7, 2010 by Rooo
Removed details. Rooo.

[makescents]

Rosetta Stone is awful mate I wouldn't waste your time.

Buy a copy of "Thai For Beginners" or "Teach Yourself Thai", learn to read and write, then get a tutor to help with speaking and listening.

Reading and writing Thai is easy, it's a fairly logical system and will pay dividends in your language learning.

You might want to wait if you're ordering "Teach Yourself Thai" as there's a "Teach Yourself Complete Thai" pack that is on pre-order; not quite sure what's extra but they're similarly priced.

[Traxster]

Cheap and good isn't that a trifle 'oxymoronic' ?

[JimShortz]

Rosetta Stone is awful mate I wouldn't waste your time.

I beg to differ - it can be very useful, but to do most of the exercises you do need to be able to read Thai. I'm at a low intermediate level I guess and I am currently using it to reinforce sentence structures and pick up some additional vocabulary (I try and use it for 15 or 20 minutes on the days when I have no Thai lesson). It's also really good for reinforcing reading and speaking with the correct tones - ones you have learnt the basics of the rules...

It's not great, but Rosetta Stone certainly has its plus points and I make good use of mine.

[MattCinderey]

The best book in my opinion is Learn Thai by David Smyth. It's excellent. He also teaches you to read and write it through the book, it has audio cd's as well.

Learning Thai without being able to read and write it is a complete waste of time in my opinion. You can't romanise Thai. For example if you understand the Thai alphabet and you're trying to learn a new word, then you can ask someone Thai to spell it using the Thai alphabet. That way you can learn to pronounce it correctly.

Getting the vowels down is a must. For example in English there is quite a different between sheet and sh*t...

Oh and avoid the bars and bar-girl talk at all costs! Unfortunately in my first year here I picked up a lot of my Thai from bar-girls... I've had to unlearn a lot of words, seriously, you don't want to be sat at a Thai dinner party with middle class Thai folk to ask them "where's the toilet? I'm busting for a piss.... or I'm aching for a shit"

I have to admit I've completely lazy when it comes to learning Thai, my David Smyth book has been on my book shelf for the last 3 years... However, I've picked up enough to get along...

Being on Samui you have Southern Thai which is very quick and different to central Thai. You really want to be learning central Thai (Glang)

Good luck!....

Matt.

[Jonathanpattaya]

Cheap or good? You usually can't have both!

[pinballwizard]

The best book in my opinion is Learn Thai by David Smyth. It's excellent. He also teaches you to read and write it through the book, it has audio cd's as well.

Learning Thai without being able to read and write it is a complete waste of time in my opinion. You can't romanise Thai. For example if you understand the Thai alphabet and you're trying to learn a new word, then you can ask someone Thai to spell it using the Thai alphabet. That way you can learn to pronounce it correctly.

Getting the vowels down is a must. For example in English there is quite a different between sheet and sh*t...

Oh and avoid the bars and bar-girl talk at all costs! Unfortunately in my first year here I picked up a lot of my Thai from bar-girls... I've had to unlearn a lot of words, seriously, you don't want to be sat at a Thai dinner party with middle class Thai folk to ask them "where's the toilet? I'm busting for a piss.... or I'm aching for a shit"

I have to admit I've completely lazy when it comes to learning Thai, my David Smyth book has been on my book shelf for the last 3 years... However, I've picked up enough to get along...

Being on Samui you have Southern Thai which is very quick and different to central Thai. You really want to be learning central Thai (Glang)

Good luck!....

Matt.

Thanks for the encouragement.

Getting the vowels down is a must. For example in English there is quite a different between sheet and sh*t...

Yeah, I learned a bit of Estonian when I was living there. I bet its the most vowel centric language in Europe. It actually comes from Asia (Siberia). When you mess up the vowel sound (which consists of lots of scandinavian vowels plus dipthongs, tripthongs, three different vowel lengths on top of that) then you are screwed. You end up repeating yourself over and over again knowing you just learned it, and they keep telling you that its gibberish. You think you are right and they are just messing you, but they honestly just don't understand you. Can anyone relate to that? lol.

There are no such thing as ugly tourists, just lazy tourists.

Thank you.

Edited April 8, 2010 by pinballwizard

[ibngazelle]

Sorry, just had to say something...good luck with learning Thai, it's not at all easy and will require hard work and patience.

However, by reading the title to your post I'd assume English wasn't your native language and probably wouldn't want to pick up some s*** language tips from you. First up - order of adjectives...good comes before cheap in this instance and requires a comma. (good, cheap tutor). Second up Big Buddha is a proper noun so needs capitals. Finally..."I could swap you for English" - what the f*** does that mean?

No offence intended - just thought that before you go advertising yourself as an English teacher you should at least make yourself sound a little bit proficient in your own language.

[koheesti]

Cheap or good? You usually can't have both!

I thought that was why most guys came to Thailand in the first place.

Oh, and I'm talking about the FOOD.

Edited April 8, 2010 by koheesti