Language Schools in the Chiang Mai area (San Sai in particular)

[tropicalfarmer]

Hey Thai Visa folks,

I am have been visiting and considering different language schools in Chiang Mai and trying to choose one for a year long program (or even multi-year). I am looking only at schools that are offering Ed Visa programs because I want to stay in Thailand for while and get (hopefully) to near fluency in basic conversation and reading and writing Thai. I’m here on a tourist visa so I think I will need to exit-reenter Thailand no matter which school I choose, but I may try to extend my current visa a little longer at local immigration (my actual visa doesn’t expire until Oct). I visited a number of different schools in CM but I’m sure there are many many many that I am not aware of. Here is my very quick and hasty assessment of several schools. Jump in and defend them if you want, but I’m mainly listing them to explain what I seeking not to criticize, etc.

I visited Payap quickly but was turned off by the University atmosphere and all the young kids, etc (made me feel old and the hours are morning only which doesn’t work for me, plus the payment is by term and the visa is a big hassle it sounds like).

CMU I did not visit but I heard they cancelled their program at one point in the recent past and many students losts their visas, etc, etc. I’m not sure if that is true. So many Internet myths It’s hard to say. Mainly I’m staying away form the Universities and looking for a small school that is reliable.

Walen was very strange. I don’t like their Thai only (no phonetics or transliteration) approach, especially since they are not teaching you readinging and writing from the beginning. It may work for some people, esp with above average IQ, but after looking at their textbook (which is not for sale to the general public, by the way, unless you register with them) I thought this is not for me. The proprietary/restricted textbooks was a big red flag for me. I came to the conclusion it was not for me and left.

Pro Language let me buy their first textbook for the slightly steep fee of 500b. I like that they have so much material but it seems like endless pages of dialog and and there is no charts, etc, breaking down the sentence structure just lots and lots of dialogs and words to memorize. According to my informal Thai tutor their dialogs focus on very polite and formal usage of Thai (hence “Pro” Language). There are many mentions of corporate settings, etc, in their textbook. Not exactly my thing but I have yet to sit in on a lesson, so I can’t say for sure. Their location is a little far from me as well. The price is affordable and they seem to be interested in helping resolve visa issues, etc, etc.

Easy Study Thai (Pantip Plaza) seems great to me (except for a few things which I’ll get to in a moment). They seem very focused on getting students the visas they need and in a timely fashion. A big plus. Their books focus on informal Thai that can be used in everyday situations, and their textbooks have charts the breakdown the sentence structure in an easy to understand fashion, etc. Like Pro Language they focus on conversation for many books before reading and writing (which I’m already studying on my own). The school is affordable. The only downsides I saw is that due to location the classrooms would probably be a little noisy and also I really don’t like the transliteration/phonetic system in their textbooks (I can’t stand the backwards “e”s and the backwards “cc”s, etc, etc). I will go through and rewrite all the words in Thai-Language.com phonetic style, which I can actually stand to look at and pronounce. This school is my top choice for the moment, but doesn’t seem completely ideal for me (slightly far, minor issues with textbooks, possible noisy/cramped classrooms, etc).

Can anyone recommend Thai language schools with ED visa programs in the northern side of Chiang Mai (particularly the San Sai and Maejo area)?

Just to be clear I’m not dissing any of these places. I don’t want to start another thread about Walen, for example, I’m just saying what I personally thought of the schools and their material.

Thanks for reading and hopefully somebody out there knows of something!

[MacWalen]

There are great many happy students at Walen. If you want to learn Thai using Latin characters you are doing it wrong. This much I can tell you. Learning Thai script is easy and do not take much time. I gather this is your first attempt at learning a foreign language and you have your own ideas how to do it. All the best to you but we know how to do it. The materials were obviously in Thai so you could not read it without karaoke. That is indeed a problem and it is not going to change as Thai people will not change their language to suit your individual needs. You need to decide if you want to learn this language or not. You do not need a high IQ, just need to take a demo lesson in a basic class and see it is actually easy and anybody can do it. Talk to students who learn with us, you would get a better idea. Seems it was a 15 minute judgment. If you learn Thai sooner or later you will need to learn the Thai alphabet.

So guys, any recommendations of schools using transliteration system?

Edited August 25, 2013 by MacWalen