Thai Language Schools Thai Courses

[macanello]

Hi

I was just wondering how many people out there studying Thai at a language school are happy with their lot.

I have studied at three language schools and all have been good at a particular part of teaching, but lacked the continuity to see their promises through.

Apathy to students seems to be the number one problem. Suggest something or ask for a specific thing to be implemented seems to nbe too much trouble for them. It seems they want to carry on where the Thai government school mentality left off.

The material is ok and the teachers fine, but what students really need is to be fully immersed in a language in order to make any great progress.

Course CDs are a must in order to practice reading at home. Better still open an intranet for the school and make all the sound files available to school students via MP4 files etc. I suggested this to my school but nobody seems to care about this important learning sequence.

Oh well, that's got that off my chest. I just wish schools cared more about their product rather than their bank balances

Macanello

[ChristianPFC]

I went to Thai Language Solutions (Phaya Thai Branch) for about 80 h of lessons in three months, and even though with hindsight I would attend different courses than I did (I made the mistake to start with romanization and switched to reading and writing Thai later), it was enough so I can now continue studying on my own back in Europe.

Where did you study Thai (and for how long) and what did you not like?

"what students really need is to be fully immersed in a language in order to make any great progress" I assume you are in Thailand now, so you are immersed in Thai 24/7! You don't need to go to a Thai language school to be immersed in Thai language in Thailand.

Why don't you get a private teacher? A bit more expensive than studying with others, but you have his/her full attention and he/she can do what you suggest.

Edited August 28, 2011 by ChristianPFC

[bifftastic]

I rely on sound files quite a lot, I also use internet resources, youtube videos etc.

But that's because I'm not in Thailand!

If you want to hear what Thai sounds like, talk to someone!

I don't really understand why you think that your ideas should be implemented by the school. They might be what you want, but not what works for everyone else.

I don't think that not doing what you want them to do can necessarily be described as apathy, which is not wanting to do anything. They just don't want to do what you think they should do.

[jak2002003]

Hello,

I study Thai using various materials. I find the most beneficial one to be actually going to a well run language school several times a week, combined with using the language yourself every day.

The problem is finding a school that suits you! There are many bad schools out there, as you will see by reading these forums. I have been very lucky and found a great school called Pro Language.

It sounds to me like you have some ideas that you would like to develop with your learning that many schools do not offer. I would advise you to think about doing a course of private lessons at Pro Language. You will see they have very modern, interesting and clear structured lesson material. You can add to this with ideas of your own, as the teachers are very flexible and they school does everything it can to make learning Thai fun and interesting. The school has been running for many years so the teachers have lots of experience.

Using books to teach yourself is very time consuming and you will find you will make many mistakes with the tones and pronunciation of the works. Using computer CDs and tapes might be a better idea, but again, as you have no REALThai person to give you live feedback about your progress, you can also makemistakes, and once they are ingrained into your brain, they are often hard to put right. (well they were for me lol).

If you immerse yourself with Thai friends and use the language in everyday situations,such as at restaurants, shopping, talking to local people, watching Thai TV etc, then you will find your Thai will improve quite quickly and you will subconsciously learn new words.

I really recommend you go to a school and don’t try to teach yourself. The school gives you discipline to learn and also proper structure and immediate feedback of your progress. The Pro language school also does fee trial lessons, so may be give that a try.

Hope all this help you. Good luck!

Edited August 30, 2011 by jak2002003

[poanoi]

I Using books to teach yourself is very time consuming and you will find you will make many mistakes with the tones and pronunciation of the works........ really recommend you go to a school and don’t try to teach yourself.

I can second that, i started pronounce a word wrong, and seems i'm stuck with it but for the few times when i really remind myself before i talk.

[macanello]

I rely on sound files quite a lot, I also use internet resources, youtube videos etc.

But that's because I'm not in Thailand!

If you want to hear what Thai sounds like, talk to someone!

I don't really understand why you think that your ideas should be implemented by the school. They might be what you want, but not what works for everyone else.

I don't think that not doing what you want them to do can necessarily be described as apathy, which is not wanting to do anything. They just don't want to do what you think they should do.

[/quote

The school where I am studying originally gave all students a CD to accompany the material which they exclusively produce. However, they revamped their books about 3 months ago and did not bother to produce CDs to go with the new books. When I asked them why, they replied that it would be too time consuming and cost too much to produce for the ever increa

sing number of students at their school.

( I did remind them that as the students were paying 30000 Baht for the course the least they could do was to upload sound files to their website for student reference)

The problem here is not just practising and speaking Thai. The tests they implement follow the books exactly to the words taught. Being a teacher myself I know that this is not the best way to learn a language. I speak French, Italian, Spanish and English but Thai is my first tonal language. I just feel with practice and listening to their exact dialogues I could make better progress

Many students at the school feel the same way but the management doesn't seem to want to listen.

[leosmith]

I speak French, Italian, Spanish and English but Thai is my first tonal language.

First language with a different script too. It's a hard combo.

[connor6063]

Emerse your self in a group of thai people trying to speak as much as you can and trying not to speak english despite everyone wanting to practice their english with you. You will learn very quickly. Thats how i learned when i was there for a year as an exchange student in a thai public school with a thai host family. It might be slot at first but you will eventually pick up on things.