I live in the north but nowhere near any of the bigger cities that have Thai courses. I have a Thai teacher who's helping me using my very basic books and of course some like 'Teach yourself Thai' by David Smyth. The teacher is a retired English teacher and hasn't taught beginner level before. She was recommended to me by a friend and so far she's teaching me well. The only thing is that I can't seem to get hold of a proper set of course books.

I previously asked about AUA but I'm told that the teaching style and books aren't aimed at one on one teaching. They changed the teaching style some years ago and I get the impression that the old books are probably not that great. I heard that Chiang Mai YMCA hold courses, but I've had no response to enquiries. I would be grateful if someone could recommend a language school that I could approach that would sell me a copy of their course books.

Benjawan Poomsan Becker's stuff is all good. Obviously start with 'Thai for Beginners' and go from there. Her dictionary is good too.

There is a lot more online these days than even a year ago, and I am personally getting to the point that I think books are something of a hinderance. If you need pointing at some sites just ask - I don't know if detailing sites which might conflict with advertisers would enrage the mods, so I won't do it on spec; There is also a number of books now downloadable or online. Certainly in books, Becker is the ideal starting point, but the grammar in it is relatively weakly done. Switching between books though, for relatively minor issues confuses some (me...) because I find I am failing to understand something due to changes iin transliteration, and so start going directly to the Thai script instead.