I Would Like To Help My Wife..

[Totster]

My wifes spoken English has improved drastically in the last couple of years... but the one thing she is lacking is reading and writing skills and it frustrates her.

I would really like to help her make a start with these skills when I return in a couple of months.... but I don't even know where to start...seems like a daunting task for me.

Help

totster

[westybrook]

Yeah and me too, my wife bless her is a good speaker, and I believe she is good at reading and writing a little, but she could improve lots if I too was to do what Totster is going to do, so now there are 2 people to help

[johnh101]

My old boss in bangkok got his thai wife lots of Thai / English word puzzle books and simple crosswords and the difference in 6 months was remarkable.

Dont'know wher you buy them though.

[OxfordWill]

Pretend you are teaching your child to read and write - use kiddies books, patronising but effective, surely.

Start with the alphabet, get it perfect..

Subtitles on all tv programmes..?

Fiction in English, half an hour reading together before bed..?

Or, you could always hire a real teacher to do it for you, which might make for less potential arguments etc.

[The_Moog]

My wifes spoken English has improved drastically in the last couple of years... but the one thing she is lacking is reading and writing skills and it frustrates her.

Is English her first language or is she from another country?

If she is from UK then she probably needs to go to an adult illitaracy class run by the local education authoriites.

If English is her second language then she needs to do something else.

Moog

[Totster]

My wifes spoken English has improved drastically in the last couple of years... but the one thing she is lacking is reading and writing skills and it frustrates her.

Is English her first language or is she from another country?

If she is from UK then she probably needs to go to an adult illitaracy class run by the local education authoriites.

If English is her second language then she needs to do something else.

Moog

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Cheers Moog... good advice

totster

[Monkeypants]

What about ESOL classes at your local college, these are usually free if she holds an ILR.

They have different levels, and the college will evaluate her and put her in the appropriate class.

If she is in LOS then sorry I don't know

regards

[the scouser]

......illitaracy.......

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Will you be referring yourself to an adult education class then, Moog?

Scouse.

[IvanLaw]

......illitaracy.......

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Will you be referring yourself to an adult education class then, Moog?

Scouse.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not nice Scouser

Funny but

Not nice

[chownah]

You could write out labels for common items on post it notes and put them on the items....for example make a post-its with "door" on them and put one on every door....plate, bowl, spoon, refrigerator,........every day lots of little lessons....Also there is a book available at Thai book stores that contains different pages for different aspects of daily life and then has pictures with thai and english word....there would be a page for grocery shopping, one for at home, one for at the doctor's office, one for ..........there pretty good and I think it covers mostly practicle stuff. Also, get her a dictionary if you don't have one already and show her how to use it.....this may take awhile as there are really a lot of features in a dictionary and it takes awhile to teach a native english speaker about all of them.

[withnail]

3 suggestions

1. Children's Books.

2. Get a grammar book such as Essential Grammar in Use by Cambridge University press. This may sound boring but if your wife is seriously interested in learning it will be very helpful. It starts off very basic and every page is followed by a page of reading/writing exercises. There is by the way a Thai edition which may make things easier.

CUP also have vocabulary books but I haven't seen these.

3. Find a friend she can chat to on MSN Messenger.

[Davey]

My wifes spoken English has improved drastically in the last couple of years... but the one thing she is lacking is reading and writing skills and it frustrates her.

I would really like to help her make a start with these skills when I return in a couple of months.... but I don't even know where to start...seems like a daunting task for me. 

Help

totster 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Can you speak Thai Totster? if you can think of the methods which helped you learn the language and apply them with your wife, even adapt them slightly...

When I began to learn Thai I liked to use flashcards, a picture of the meaning, the meaning in transliteration and Thai characters.

I also made audio tapes recording myself speaking thai and would play them back to myself before I would go to sleep (this helped a lot)

I also had the thai alphabet pinned up in my room with other key phrases which would obviously be the last thing I saw at night and the first thing I saw in the morning

I would and still do listen to a lot of native speakers, I also speak with my aunty (who is thai) over the phone at least once a week. This was really difficult as I had to get the pronounciation almost perfect to be understood as there was no other way to convey the message other than through speech. I would not reccommned this method with a low proficiency of the language as it can become very frustrating for both parties and can also be relatively discouraging for the person trying to learn the language.

Probably most of all, be patient and I'm sure she will grasp it sooner rather than later.

[Bryan in Isaan]

Hi Totster. I'm a little late joining this thread, but maybe can still add my $.02 worth. I can relate, because I am trying to teach myself to read Thai. Your wife has a good head start because she can already speak and understand, unlike me. My wife is fluent in English and lived in the States for many years. We always speak English so I don't get any practice in speaking Thai, Lao, Putai, etc...

My wife and I have been frustrated trying to teach English here in Kalasin, because it seems like no one knows anything, including the English teachers. There is no place to begin - to find anything for most students to relate to - to get them to begin speaking English. Your wife has an advantage over those students.

I agree with some of the other posters about the children's books, including school textbooks. Get the full set of them starting from about 3rd or 4th grade. We see that some of the textbooks we have seen are actually good, and dirt cheap. I think the lack of English proficiency here in NE Thailand is not the fault of the books. There are other factors, possibly the school system, culture, or other things. Have a native speaker like myself or you, add audio on tape or better yet, computer CD if your wife has easy access to a computer. Then she can learn phonetics+reading by practice.

Is your wife in Kalasin city? We are in Amphur HuaiPhung in the east end of the province. We plan to start English teaching in an adult education facility in town. There is probably not much money in it, but we hope we can be successful in helping at least a few people learn English. This is not meant to be a plug, we have plenty of students waiting for this already. I admire your wife's interest in learning how to read. I hope we can get some serious, genuine students like her in our class.

Bryan

[DavieA]

My wifes spoken English has improved drastically in the last couple of years... but the one thing she is lacking is reading and writing skills and it frustrates her.

I would really like to help her make a start with these skills when I return in a couple of months.... but I don't even know where to start...seems like a daunting task for me. 

Help

totster 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah and me too, my wife bless her is a good speaker, and I believe she is good at reading and writing a little, but she could improve lots if I too was to do what Totster is going to do, so now there are 2 people to help

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'll teach them for you.

250 baht per hour per student. If you pay in advance for the month, I'll give them a discount. LOL

[Totster]

Hi Totster.  I'm a little late joining this thread, but maybe can still add my $.02 worth.  I can relate, because I am trying to teach myself to read Thai.  Your wife has a good head start because she can already speak and understand, unlike me. My wife is fluent in English and lived in the States for many years.  We always speak English so I don't get any practice in speaking Thai, Lao, Putai, etc... 

My wife and I have been frustrated trying to teach English here in Kalasin, because it seems like no one knows anything, including the English teachers.  There is no place to begin - to find anything for most students to relate to - to get them to begin speaking English.  Your wife has an advantage over those students.

I agree with some of the other posters about the children's books, including school textbooks.  Get the full set of them starting from about 3rd or 4th grade.  We see that some of the textbooks we have seen are actually good, and dirt cheap.  I think the lack of English proficiency here in NE Thailand is not the fault of the books.  There are other factors, possibly the school system, culture, or other things.  Have a native speaker like myself or you, add audio on tape or better yet, computer CD if your wife has easy access to a computer.  Then she can learn phonetics+reading by practice.

Is your wife in Kalasin city?  We are in Amphur HuaiPhung in the east end of the province.  We plan to start English teaching in an adult education facility in town.  There is probably not much money in it, but we hope we can be successful in helping at least a few people learn English.  This is not meant to be a plug, we have plenty of students waiting for this already.  I admire your wife's interest in learning how to read.  I hope we can get some serious, genuine students like her in our class.

Bryan

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Many thanks Bryan for taking the time to reply. I will contact you by PM

totster

[Ijustwannateach]

It is lucky for you that SHE wants to learn- otherwise it'd be the old "lead a horse to water" thing.

A lot of good suggestions here- don't forget the English-language versions of magazines that she would normally be interested in her own language- fashion and so forth- anything to keep her interest in what she's reading. Is she much of a reader in her own language?

"Steven"

[mijan24]

Totster Just Type in "learn english" I think you will find some good advice for example:http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/

[richard10365]

She can try chatting on the internet. It will teach her to type in English too. Yahoo has many chat rooms to do that with.

[phibunmike]

My wifes spoken English has improved drastically in the last couple of years... but the one thing she is lacking is reading and writing skills and it frustrates her.

I would really like to help her make a start with these skills when I return in a couple of months.... but I don't even know where to start...seems like a daunting task for me. 

Help

totster 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A couple of the things we use are:

1) English sub-titles on Thai movies - useful for both of us;

2) English karaoke VCDs - leads to some curious turns of phrase, but useful...

Neither of these are formal approaches, and it doesn't feel like work.

Edit: I just discovered that bulleted list using a, b, followed by a right parenthesis, doesn't work - you get a smiley.

[mijan24]

Another avenue is the Text and Talk site type "text and talk bangkok" open their site scoll to the bottom of the page and Opne Free English Lessons (adv in Green) there are 5 lessons with exercises and answers.

[lorilei.lee]

when I was in Thailand for a few years of grade school 90-93' I would bring Archie comics to school to read. Some of the english teachers would ask to borrow them to read.... I know you can buy them in Thailand, also. Although I think having english subtitles for film/TV is good, they might be a bit fast to read for someone who can't read well. Women's magazines is also a good idea, but not for someone with very low reading skill. They also tend to have a lot of modern/hip language that may confuse a non-native speaker.

My pick: comic books. They don't have too much text lumped together, and there's lots of pictures Something less juvenile than Archie comics though...maybe Tin Tin? Or if she likes action/gory stuff, then Sin City (from which the movie was based).