Best Thai Language School

[MacWalen]

Well i started my thai language course in/at walen pattaya last monday.

On the monday my fellow students said, not to worry everybody is confused for the first couple of 'weeks'!

My second lesson ( on tuesday ) was even worse than the first. Having acknowledged that my classmates were 'veterans' of the course, (some still on book 1 after 3 months or more ) i was expecting some leeway from the teachers. Not a chance!

At my age when someone instructing me says 'do you understand', I have no compunction in saying back 'no, sorry I dont understand'. This doesnt seem to compute with the 'beauticians turned teachers' at walen pattaya.

I fear I've thrown away 10000 thb ( the money is not a big loss ), but I'll continue to attend if only to continue to fluster the 'beauticians'

In short this is the worst learning environment and teaching methodology I've ever experienced, and to put things in perspective I have a bachelors degree in commerce, one in psychology, and just recently completed the TEFL course.

In my working career in the west, I've attended countless training courses ranging from IT related subjects to Occ Health & safety, whilst being employed by in middle/senior management positions with blue chip mining companies and government. I dont believe I'm a basket case as far as learning is concerned.

As the old saying goes...You live and Learn..very darkly ironic in my current predicament.

You are quick to judge the method after 2 days. I encourage you to learn the Thai alphabet as soon as you can, during your lessons you have nonstop practice. Once you master the alphabet all will be much easier. The method definitely works, keep attending your lessons and you will tell us more after completing your course. http://thaiwalen.com/the_method.php the explanation of the method is here. Just quoting one part from this section.

The initial shock

"Some students on first being introduced to the Walen Method tend to be lost. They think they will never be able to remember all the work during the lesson. If, however, they persevere and revise for a few lessons, they soon realize that it is all quite easy and enjoyable, and that anyone can do it."

We are famous for not being an easy school but if you really want to learn Thai you came to the right place. I will be in Pattaya next week and will be happy to meet you and talk about it more.

Regarding criticizing my teachers, they are trained to follow the method. They can definitely teach you just give them a chance and judge by the results.

Walen School - first attend all your lessons and then judge by the results

[kriswillems]

Well i started my thai language course in/at walen pattaya last monday.

On the monday my fellow students said, not to worry everybody is confused for the first couple of 'weeks'!

My second lesson ( on tuesday ) was even worse than the first. Having acknowledged that my classmates were 'veterans' of the course, (some still on book 1 after 3 months or more ) i was expecting some leeway from the teachers. Not a chance!

At my age when someone instructing me says 'do you understand', I have no compunction in saying back 'no, sorry I dont understand'. This doesnt seem to compute with the 'beauticians turned teachers' at walen pattaya.

I fear I've thrown away 10000 thb ( the money is not a big loss ), but I'll continue to attend if only to continue to fluster the 'beauticians'

In short this is the worst learning environment and teaching methodology I've ever experienced, and to put things in perspective I have a bachelors degree in commerce, one in psychology, and just recently completed the TEFL course.

In my working career in the west, I've attended countless training courses ranging from IT related subjects to Occ Health & safety, whilst being employed by in middle/senior management positions with blue chip mining companies and government. I dont believe I'm a basket case as far as learning is concerned.

As the old saying goes...You live and Learn..very darkly ironic in my current predicament.

Why don't you try Pro language? It's only 50 meters from there and they use another method. Maybe that works better for you? I've studied there an I think it was not too bad. But if I compare pro language (or any other school that emphasize on the student VISA) to the schools in BKK that use the union method (I've studied in two of them), I think the schools in BKK are much better. Be sure to sit a test lesson before paying anywhere.

[makkam]

Well i started my thai language course in/at walen pattaya last monday.

On the monday my fellow students said, not to worry everybody is confused for the first couple of 'weeks'!

My second lesson ( on tuesday ) was even worse than the first. Having acknowledged that my classmates were 'veterans' of the course, (some still on book 1 after 3 months or more ) i was expecting some leeway from the teachers. Not a chance!

At my age when someone instructing me says 'do you understand', I have no compunction in saying back 'no, sorry I dont understand'. This doesnt seem to compute with the 'beauticians turned teachers' at walen pattaya.

I fear I've thrown away 10000 thb ( the money is not a big loss ), but I'll continue to attend if only to continue to fluster the 'beauticians'

In short this is the worst learning environment and teaching methodology I've ever experienced, and to put things in perspective I have a bachelors degree in commerce, one in psychology, and just recently completed the TEFL course.

In my working career in the west, I've attended countless training courses ranging from IT related subjects to Occ Health & safety, whilst being employed by in middle/senior management positions with blue chip mining companies and government. I dont believe I'm a basket case as far as learning is concerned.

As the old saying goes...You live and Learn..very darkly ironic in my current predicament.

You are quick to judge the method after 2 days. I encourage you to learn the Thai alphabet as soon as you can, during your lessons you have nonstop practice. Once you master the alphabet all will be much easier. The method definitely works, keep attending your lessons and you will tell us more after completing your course. http://thaiwalen.com/the_method.php the explanation of the method is here. Just quoting one part from this section.

The initial shock

"Some students on first being introduced to the Walen Method tend to be lost. They think they will never be able to remember all the work during the lesson. If, however, they persevere and revise for a few lessons, they soon realize that it is all quite easy and enjoyable, and that anyone can do it."

We are famous for not being an easy school but if you really want to learn Thai you came to the right place. I will be in Pattaya next week and will be happy to meet you and talk about it more.

Regarding criticizing my teachers, they are trained to follow the method. They can definitely teach you just give them a chance and judge by the results.

Walen School - first attend all your lessons and then judge by the results

I've now had 9 lessons of the 60 I've paid for.

You believe I should wait until I'm 50% through till I know my own mind?

I've heard differing stories about your 'teachers' ranging from the remuneration to their actual teaching acumen, but hey there are plenty of native speakers teaching english who couldnt pass a GCE in English never mind teach it. Force feeding answers which I have no idea what the question was never mind the answer is not education. To then be told, 'very good ' for an answer I have had no input to is quite frankly ' <deleted>'.

The 3 teachers I get over the 3 lessons each time i attend are taking no account of my ability compared with the rest of the class, which as I stated above, they are miles ahead of me in terms of attendance.

Being publicly belittled because I'm not as good as them is a no no in any environment. Getting a sullen response when I say 'No' to their question ( often posed ) 'Do You Understand' doesnt do much for my enthusiasm not to mention my ego.

I have paid my money and will keep attending under my conditions. These will include no browbeating and belittling, which I will be letting the 'teachers' know very early in the piece.

Your offer to meet and discuss is noted but I expect little more than tokenism from you..after all it's a business.

I've expressed my opinion, and in truth I should have paid heed to my initial thoughts after the demo. On expressing my reservations I was 'sweet talked and cajoled' by one of your east european 'beauticians' that i was worrying unnecessarily.

Your suggestion '' I encourage you to learn the Thai alphabet as soon as you can' astounds me''

44 consonants, not to mention vowels, tone marks and the structure of how syllables are made up, and various spelling conventions, with not one jot of guidance..sure thing piece of cake.

[makkam]

Well i started my thai language course in/at walen pattaya last monday.

On the monday my fellow students said, not to worry everybody is confused for the first couple of 'weeks'!

My second lesson ( on tuesday ) was even worse than the first. Having acknowledged that my classmates were 'veterans' of the course, (some still on book 1 after 3 months or more ) i was expecting some leeway from the teachers. Not a chance!

At my age when someone instructing me says 'do you understand', I have no compunction in saying back 'no, sorry I dont understand'. This doesnt seem to compute with the 'beauticians turned teachers' at walen pattaya.

I fear I've thrown away 10000 thb ( the money is not a big loss ), but I'll continue to attend if only to continue to fluster the 'beauticians'

In short this is the worst learning environment and teaching methodology I've ever experienced, and to put things in perspective I have a bachelors degree in commerce, one in psychology, and just recently completed the TEFL course.

In my working career in the west, I've attended countless training courses ranging from IT related subjects to Occ Health & safety, whilst being employed by in middle/senior management positions with blue chip mining companies and government. I dont believe I'm a basket case as far as learning is concerned.

As the old saying goes...You live and Learn..very darkly ironic in my current predicament.

Why don't you try Pro language? It's only 50 meters from there and they use another method. Maybe that works better for you? I've studied there an I think it was not too bad. But if I compare pro language (or any other school that emphasize on the student VISA) to the schools in BKK that use the union method (I've studied in two of them), I think the schools in BKK are much better. Be sure to sit a test lesson before paying anywhere.

Thanks for the suggestion, I may just do that.

TBH the 'education sector' in pattaya seems to be dominated by charlatans and bagmen.

My TEFL course experiences gave me a clear education that they want your money first and what you get out of it is of little consequence.

Walen hasnt disavowed me of that impression.

Again thanks for the suggestion

[makkam]

thanks to all including the pm's. I will investigate further.

I will continue the walen course if only to get a better handle of how dated and poor the callan/walen methodology is.

Only another 51 character building hours left

Edited July 31, 2011 by makkam

[MacWalen]

I am ex-Walen-school student. I can even say I helped to start first thai class ever over there

(I gathered 6 people). I tried this method about 3 years ago, for 3 months. Sadly my class was

dismissed due to low frequency. I tried another class but didn't feel comfortable, so I resigned.

I enjoyed the method at beginning. It was similar to Callan, so I started to speak and read quite

fast. When I left the school, system was changed (I tried it about half year later and it was

disaster - students just repeat and repeat spelling thai alphabet.. and new students just slow

everybody down what was frustrating). I am not sure how it looks now, maybe it's better.

Later on, school owner asked me to help with finding students for his school. More than 20 people

joined, for some of them I got commission, but lets say none of them try to study there. They joined

for obvious reason - visa.

But the funniest thing is. I know already 5 people who pick up this school for visa reason (school can

arrange it pretty fast) and at the same time they study in regular school. SIMPLY - TO LEARN THAI

-------------------

Anyway, due to owner school promise - this is my last post on thaivisa.com. He said if I write anything

about his school he will suspend my account, because he pay a lot of money for banners and stuff..

Sad to say goodbye, I am here 7 years already. Bye bye

Interesting post.

It's a sad indictment that people cant express views or opinions for fear of being gagged.

Almost ''orwellian''!

I have now found a new school and I'm content. A PROPER teacher, with a PROPER methodology.

This is obviously rubbish, go ahead. What else did I say? Sure if people break the forum rules they can be banned but it applies to all forums not only to this one. I also was almost banned. So yes, even sponsors can be banned.

Walen School - check for yourself and not listen to haters.

[poanoi]

I sort of agree with @kikenyoy that at some point, karaoke thai doesn't fully cut it, unfortunately.

But a fundamental principle of teaching is to make it enjoyable/endurable,

and being force fed with Thai consonants-words whose meaning i have yet to learn doesn't cut it for me either, to top it off there is no feedback in the form of home work. Repeating like a parrot may work in french foreign legion, they haven't got an option anyway, but i do and i am paying.

I know of another school who recently adopted a similar "technique"

- for the soul and expressed purpose by the owner of a focus being shifted from teaching, into cranking out ED visa, and this method requires neither skill nor effort from the teacher, especially since explanations are largely omitted too.

However, it is my understanding that Walen is indeed a good option if read/write is the soul objective, just don't expect to learn speaking structure, because the structure in text is different from the structure in speech. It is also my understanding that students who never tried anything else has a much easier time of accepting this method than those that can compare.

Edited August 5, 2011 by poanoi

[poanoi]

Too late to edit now, but it would be interesting to get a positive view from a student that has learn with this method:

What do you like about this method ?

Do you have anything to compare with ?

[sbk]

Well, it seems this thread has completely lost its purpose and turned into advertising, or flaming or defamation.

I don't know that it serves a useful purpose anymore if members can't stay on topic. Please re-read the title thread and post your positive experiences at Thai language schools here, thanks. All other posts will be deleted and if it continues off track will just be closed.

[sbk]

Re-read my post before posting. Any further posts in this vein will result in the closure of this thread as my patience is now at an end.

[Lite Beer]

What has become just a slanging match in the school playground has been closed.