I am planning to visit Bangkok in November to study Thai language. Can any recommend a good language school?

Thanks!

well i dont know another people's experience, but i have been living here for one year now and it is almost impossible to find a good thai language school,in the most of them you are only gonne spend your money and probably afeter attending three month still no able to read, i advise you to buy the boocks THAI language the autor name is Benjawan Poomsan Becker(that its a serie composed of three boocks thai for beginners,thai for intermediate learners,and thai for advanced readers) and the other necesary thing that you should do in order to learn thai properlly is to get a thai girlfriend.learning thai is not difficoult so go ahead :jap:

I think most of the 'Schools' are mainly a waste of money. What you need to do is find a good tutor. I used to know one, but that was 10 years ago. Maybe someone can suggest good tutor.

I think it depends on your age, your study habits, and your style of learning. Therefore, I suggest you take a free lesson at every school that you can find (almost ALL let you sit in for a one-hour class free), and take a few notes for later analysis/comparison.

The Union Language School and its derivatives are, in my opinion, good for younger, well-disciplined students, who want to learn at a fast pace. They consist of about 20hrs/week in class, and another 10-20 hours of homework, which MUST be done to keep up. I did it once, and at 55 years old, it was strenuous.

At the other end of the spectrum is AUA, where you go as often as you like, there is NO homework (indeed, they discourage you from speaking Thai during the first 1000(!) hours or so. The approach being that you need to learn as a child does, by listening and forming associations.

I have met speakers from both methods who spoke Thai well, and some who did not. At the end of the day, the schools are merely tools - it's how you use them that determines the outcome. I do think, however, that listening is KEY, so I might favor a school where listening is emphasized, all other things being equal.

To illustrate:

At this stage, I can read, albeit slowly, and my pronunciation and tone are pretty well set in stone, having used both methods; I would, if I lived anywhere near it, go back to AUA for the vocabulary and day-to-day conversation, and to expand my context a bit. I occasionally break out my Unity Thai Language (a Union clone) workbooks, for a refresher on tone rules.

Etc.

Good luck.

AUA

Check out this epic thread- Best Thai Language School - especially useful is tod-daniels reviews of the different schools, which can be found in the last third of the thread. All schools will allow you to sit in on classes first, so it's useful to do that before signing up.