Any Experience Wiht Private Lessons?

[jumbo]

Does any of you have any experience wiht private lessons/tutors in Bangkok.

How did you go and was it worth the money and such.

I want to give it a go, but am not quite sure how to choose a good teacher so I would like to rely on your experiences and references

thanks

[Theosong]

I don't have experiences in Bangkok, but I do have three experiences with Thai lessons of wich two were private lessons.

I had lessons from a Thai professor in English. He graduated in the USA as an PHD in English language. I cannot say the lessons were bad, but he took the longest way and I think also the hardest way to teach me Thai. After this I tried another private teacher. His aim was to teach me fast the daily usable verbs. This worked out good for a short time, but when many subjects have passed by it appeared to be difficult to contiue in the same way and the end-result was just learn as much as possible by heart, wich was more and more difficult to remember every specific sentence. Because no basic grammar information was offered, the random use of the language appeared to be very difficult, not to say impossible. After a short time I experienced with both teachers that they had not enough didactic knowledge of how to teach a person Thai who's first language is not Thai.

I had a third, really a previous, experience. Also a Thai teacher; a 40 year old Thai woman living in Belgium with her Belgian husband. She could teach a little bit more from the dutch-speaking point of view, helped by her husband. I went from The Netherlands every week to Antwerp to take her lessons, wich are very good! I learned more Thai in Belgium and more easy, than in Thailand. I wish she (and her husband) would come to live in Thailand. I would be her first student again!

Theosong