Learning Thai

[supaprik]

I have recently moved to Thailand and hopefully can/will remain here.

I have not actively attempted to learn the Thai language as yet but i would be really interested to know, what are the best methods for learning the language? I also think that knowing how to read and write would be also an advantage, could anyone with experiance point me in the right direction...

Cheers

[Rumblecat]

Kicking off with this book and the accompanying CD is a good start-

- especially for learning to read and write the language. Very well written and useful, it's broken up into lessons with 'tests'. I've bought many many 'learn thai' books and this one definitely stands above the rest.

[Peppy]

I second Rumblecat's suggestion, and I would add Easy Thai by Gordon H. Allison (for writing) and Teach Yourself Thai by David Smyth (for reading, writing, and general conversation and vocab) as well. Finish all three, and throw in the next two Benjawan Poomsan Becker books for good measure, and you'll have a great foundation towards fluency.

(As an aside, the most important thing when it comes to learning anything isn't how you go about doing it--it's how often you do it. Twenty minutes a day for a year will get you far better results than ten hours a day for a week, so keeping yourself motivated for the long term is really far more important than the method you use to study. Good luck! )

[Tod Daniels]

I know of several private thai language schools in the Bangkok area which rely almost exclusively on Benjawan Becker’s books; Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced in their programs for teaching thai to foreigners. (Dunno what Benjawan thinks about it though , lol!!)

Even though a person may possess a high number of thai vocab words, nouns, verbs, time markers, etc, unless you know how the thai language is structured you're gonna still be wading in the shallow end of the pool as far as thais understanding what you’re sayin’ when you speak thai.

After you go thru the Beginner book of Benjawan's, where you can read thai to some degree I'd suggest getting a book called "Everyday Thai for Beginners" by Wiworn Kesavatana-Dohrs. I say AFTER you go thru at least the first Benjawan book because "Everyday Thai for Beginners" is written ONLY in thai!! There is NO karaoke thai written with english and a mish-mash of other characters, no pronunciation guides, just thai and the english translation. This book teaches thai language structural patterns, using situational settings to introduce vocab, verbs, how to answer questions, how to ask questions, etc. It also has an accompanying c/d which makes it a fair value for its price of 695฿.

I would also caution you; DON'T buy the Benjawan books without the c/d, even though they are cheaper. Without the c/d's those books are about as worthless as 'tits on a tomcat' .

Oh, one other good thing about the first three Benjawan books is; there is a website which has extra study aids on it. They have word matching, jumbled sentences, comprehension, and other online exercises for free.

Here's the link to the exercises for the first book;

Beginning Thai Exercises

Good luck, good learning,

[siam2007]

it depends where you actually live. Bangkok ? Chiang Mai ? Pattaya ?

If one of these places, it would be relatively easy to find a decent GROUP CLASS and a schedule / pace to suit your needs.

do NOT try a 1-1 course/class as a beginner. it is BORING and somehow demanding.

starting to learn in a group is always more fun and you are together with others on the same level.

when I moved to LOS, I felt the need to be fluent within a few month, and signed up for a 1-1 class, which was rubbish. the pace was too fast in a 1-1 teaching, I still didn't understand the culture, the teacher was boring, didn't speak much English (so most of my questions remained unanswered).

I then skipped my learning process and had no motivation for the next 2 years.

After that, I decided to start once again in a GROUP. I took 4 classes at 60 hrs each, all in a group, the teacher was great and we had LOTS of fun and laughter, I was fully motivated and looking forward to go to school every single morning. Now, as I have reached a certain knowledge, it would make sense to do 1-1 teaching, as for advanced levels there are not many group-courses on offer.

I know what I need and I know what I want, so I could make sure to find a teacher for 1-1 teaching that suits my needs and does it MY way, reads: does it the way I am able to learn and adopt things.

books are okay, and - at least for beginners - there are quite a lot of good books available nowadays. But Thai is difficult (and I speak 6 languages more or less so I consider myself able to judge), and you definitely WILL NEED a professional course. books can accompany you and you may be able to do some work or exercise on your own, but without an organized group class it is almost impossible to learn THAI.

just think about all the tones: If you don't have a teacher around you, you won't be able to find out if your pronunciation is correct or entirely rubbish. Plus you can not read the fonts, and the transcription varies in all books and is somehow difficult to understand (particularly for English native speakers, as they don't have those Ä Ö Ü in their alphabet).

[nokina]

To learn language , it's better to learn how to speak and listen, cuz thai language have many alphabets, vowel,tone mark etc... I'm sure its easy for u to make friends with thai people here learn from them. No need to pay for school , at first move.

[emsfeld]

My opinion as someone learning second languages - grammar is the most important aspect. Get the grammar right and the rest is just plugging in vocab. I am not a fan of learning by listening and memorising phrases/ words and personally would NEVER sign up for a school where writing takes a secondary role. Writing/ reading should be integral part of the course! Memorising/ picking up vocab on the go works for children growing up, but generally not for adults. You'll hit a wall pretty soon into the learning process and adopt very bad habits. Best way is reading IMHO - it'll just take you so much further grammar and vocab-wise. My Thai teacher at uni exposed us to the letters/ alphabet from the first lesson onwards and that's the way to go IMHO.

[tombkk]

I know of several private thai language schools in the Bangkok area which rely almost exclusively on Benjawan Becker's books; Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced in their programs for teaching thai to foreigners. (Dunno what Benjawan thinks about it though , lol!!)

Even though a person may possess a high number of thai vocab words, nouns, verbs, time markers, etc, unless you know how the thai language is structured you're gonna still be wading in the shallow end of the pool as far as thais understanding what you're sayin' when you speak thai.

After you go thru the Beginner book of Benjawan's, where you can read thai to some degree I'd suggest getting a book called "Everyday Thai for Beginners" by Wiworn Kesavatana-Dohrs. I say AFTER you go thru at least the first Benjawan book because "Everyday Thai for Beginners" is written ONLY in thai!! There is NO karaoke thai written with english and a mish-mash of other characters, no pronunciation guides, just thai and the english translation. This book teaches thai language structural patterns, using situational settings to introduce vocab, verbs, how to answer questions, how to ask questions, etc. It also has an accompanying c/d which makes it a fair value for its price of 695฿.

I would also caution you; DON'T buy the Benjawan books without the c/d, even though they are cheaper. Without the c/d's those books are about as worthless as 'tits on a tomcat' .

Oh, one other good thing about the first three Benjawan books is; there is a website which has extra study aids on it. They have word matching, jumbled sentences, comprehension, and other online exercises for free.

Here's the link to the exercises for the first book;

Beginning Thai Exercises

Good luck, good learning,

OK, we have had different opinions in this thread. I myself only went to school during my first month of staying here. I didn't like the teacher, so I discontinued. Yes, it has to do with the teacher whether it is easy or difficult to learn a language.

I then continued to study on my own and with my Thai friends - I don't think it is possible to learn the language without using it in a native environment, i.e. talking to your friends.

I have been living here since 1990 and completed my Thai-language efficeny exam (6th grade level) at the Ministry of Education around 2003. I am currently pursuing my PhD in a Thai-language program.

If I can master the language, so can you!