Cd Thai Common Phrases And Typical Conversation

[Nepal4me]

I can't seem to find any good CD's for helping me practice listening to Thai.

It seems that I have the opposite problem from most people learning the Thai language. I have an ability to memorize words and after over 1.5 years of studying Thai, have a very reasonable vocabulary. I very often really surprise Thai people by the words I know. My problem is an inability to be able to hear Thai and understand what the heck is going on. I've studied at Unity and Union and have gone thru level's 1 thru 6 and have even done a couple of electives after level 6. This has greatly increased my vocab but really hasn't greatly helped my listening skills.

I tried a AUA year or more ago and will give it another go. I first went to level 1 and 2 at AUA and was bored poopless. I just went there last week, a year later and after a quick casual test, they put me in level 3, I can understand 60% of the level 3 content at AUA.

I watch Thai TV, even when I watch soap operas, I can only understand 25% of what they are saying and that's not enough to figure out what is going on, at least for me.

I'm a native English speaker and have never learned a 2nd language before and am over 40.

I've also gone thru Benjawan Poonsan Becker's Beginner, Intermediate and Advance books. I can read Thai quite well. I have he CD's for the Beginner and Advanced books but the advanced book/CD is very textbook-like. It's nothing at all like real passaa poot.

Does anybody know of a CD that utilizes common spoken Thai language, maybe 2 hours in length. Utilizing commen Thai particles that you never see in print eg. "na". i.e. real passaa poot. Ideally it would have an accompanying script of the content, most ideally in Thai script as well.

Maybe I'm asking for a lot but I'm so frustrated with my inability to understand Thai. My wife is even Thai but she understands my level of Thai understanding and speaks accordingly, not like Thai people speak so I don't get to hear the common phrases and particles etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[meadish_sweetball]

What you are looking for would be useful for many people.

Hearing comprehension can be tricky - the key to success is probably perseverance in whatever method you choose.

The best way to learn it for me personally has been to hang out with Thai friends as a fly on the wall, listening to their conversation and participating when you actually know what is being discussed. If you don't have this option, watching the soaps should eventually pay off if you are patient enough. Maybe also reading about what happens to sounds in casual language - how /khw/ can be pronounced as /f/, how the 'l' and 'r' in second position of consonant clusters such as 'pl', 'phl', 'kr', 'khr' disappear (or the 'r' becomes an 'l' or the 'l' becomes an 'r'), how particles are contracted - 'khráp'/'khá' into 'há' for example... These things should help a bit.

In my experience, the best book/tape for authentic-sounding Thai conversation is still David Smyth's Teach Yourself Thai. The conversations resemble the ones all of us farang will have with Thais, they relate to food, learning the language, going shopping, getting to know somebody's family, etc.

This is not to say the conversations in the book are as casual as the street Thai you actually hear in the streets of Bangkok (rather often, what you hear is actually Isaan Thai), to my knowledge there is as yet no learning material that deals with street slang and truly casual Thai.

But if somebody else knows of one, I would buy it too.

[yoot]

Try this-Multimedia by Manager online. There are many stories to listen with scripts.

http://www.manager.co.th/Multimedia/Default.html

[Nepal4me]

I found a very expensive course. They have level's 1 and 2. Each level is 17 CD's, a 300 page book and is US$220. A bit steep unless it really is a good product.

It is done by FSI, or the Foreign Service Institute. Can see it at:

http://www.learn-how-to-speak-thai.com/thai-II.htm

Anybody happen to know anything about this product?

BTW, thanks sanman for the great link to Thai particles.

http://www.geocities.com/siamsmile365/thai...aiparticles.htm