help.....about language school.

[Ravex Tulip]

hi friends,i planned to take language course at piammitr....do anyone have any comment or anyother idea about that?...

[Lara Alex]

Are you sure that the school name is 'piammitr'? coz i've never heard about this school before. Is there another name of the school?

[DavidHouston]

Are you sure that the school name is 'piammitr'? coz i've never heard about this school before. Is there another name of the school?

http://www.piammitrschool.com

[HeavyDrinker]

The only comment I'll make is to go and see if it suits your way of learning.

Language schools have different methods of teaching, some of which suit others better than some.

[Lara Alex]

Are you sure that the school name is 'piammitr'? coz i've never heard about this school before. Is there another name of the school?

http://www.piammitrschool.com

Thank you David! hahah to be honest, i even thought that the school name sounded like 'Cambodian.' got it now.

[Ravex Tulip]

thank you very much for all your advise...

[DavidHouston]

I noticed that in Piammitr syllabus the first three books use phonetics to reflect Thai sounds and introduce the Thai writing system only in Book 4. Many people, including myself, believe that the Thai writing system should be introduced very early in the learning process. Others may disagree.

[HeavyDrinker]

Many people, including myself, believe that the Thai writing system should be introduced very early in the learning process. Others may disagree.

I think few would David.

[AyG]

The school uses the Union method, which is probably the most serious of the approaches used here, apart from Chulalongkorn. It requires a serious commitment in terms of time (including homework most days which can take a couple of hours). I did the same course at UTL. After level 2 almost all farang dropped out, leaving only Japanese, Korean, a few Chinese students and me.

If you are a complete beginner (with no knowledge of Thai at all) you will struggle with the level 1 since it introduces a lot of vocabulary very quickly.

Until you're past level 6 there's very little opportunity to practise conversation.

[Ravex Tulip]

The school uses the Union method, which is probably the most serious of the approaches used here, apart from Chulalongkorn. It requires a serious commitment in terms of time (including homework most days which can take a couple of hours). I did the same course at UTL. After level 2 almost all farang dropped out, leaving only Japanese, Korean, a few Chinese students and me.

If you are a complete beginner (with no knowledge of Thai at all) you will struggle with the level 1 since it introduces a lot of vocabulary very quickly.

Until you're past level 6 there's very little opportunity to practise conversation.

Thanks for your advise,but do you have any idea to share with because i coming to learn thai with zero knowledge.

[AyG]

If you are a complete beginner (with no knowledge of Thai at all) you will struggle with the level 1 since it introduces a lot of vocabulary very quickly.

Thanks for your advise,but do you have any idea to share with because i coming to learn thai with zero knowledge.

I'd suggest doing a 40-50 hours at a school that doesn't use the Union method, then transfer to one of the Union method schools if you're really serious about learning Thai to a high level.

[Ravex Tulip]

If you are a complete beginner (with no knowledge of Thai at all) you will struggle with the level 1 since it introduces a lot of vocabulary very quickly.

Thanks for your advise,but do you have any idea to share with because i coming to learn thai with zero knowledge.

I'd suggest doing a 40-50 hours at a school that doesn't use the Union method, then transfer to one of the Union method schools if you're really serious about learning Thai to a high level.

im leaving everything and coming to learn thai,even i have to work part-time for my leaving.i not even know what is Union method,i searched the cheapest place to stay in sathorn 200bath per day,did anyone know lesser than that?....all your help and info is valuable.

[ProblemSolver3]

I can not stress enough how important it is to learn to read.

Once you learn to read, you will automatically know what 'tone' a word has. No need to separately remember the "word" and the "tone" separately.

I started learning with transliterations like "mai(h)" = wood.... it is terribly burdensome for anything other than Pidgin Thai.

Best of luck!

Mike

[AyG]

i not even know what is Union method

Back in the 1950s, I think it was, a Thai language course was put together by Union Language School. After a few years a group of teachers defected from Union and set up Unity, taking the course materials with them. Since then the materials have basically been left unchanged, apart from a few minor alterations. Now there's a handful of schools around Bangkok using the same materials and approach. The course was originally designed to help missionaries quickly learn the language upon arrival in Thailand, though there's no Christian content in the materials. (Some of the schools - particularly Union - do still attract a fair number of god-botherers.) The course works well for people with a serious commitment to learning the language (such as missionaries). However, the learning approach is certainly not trendy. It is, however, thorough, with good recycling of vocabulary and grammar at different levels, and well-structured.

The course starts using a pretty good form of romanisation of Thai for the early levels. The thinking is that this quickly gives you a core vocabulary which you can use in daily life. Reading and writing in Thai are gradually introduced from month 4. Whilst others who've already posted stress the importance of learning to read/write Thai, personally I think it's a distraction at the early stages where the priority is to be able to communicate. The Thai alphabet is large, the tone rules are complex, Thai spelling is complex with unpronounced characters and multiple ways of writing the same sound. Becoming fluent at reading and writing Thai takes years of practice, whilst with (Haas-based) romanisation it only takes an hour or two to become confident.

[Ravex Tulip]

i not even know what is Union method

Back in the 1950s, I think it was, a Thai language course was put together by Union Language School. After a few years a group of teachers defected from Union and set up Unity, taking the course materials with them. Since then the materials have basically been left unchanged, apart from a few minor alterations. Now there's a handful of schools around Bangkok using the same materials and approach. The course was originally designed to help missionaries quickly learn the language upon arrival in Thailand, though there's no Christian content in the materials. (Some of the schools - particularly Union - do still attract a fair number of god-botherers.) The course works well for people with a serious commitment to learning the language (such as missionaries). However, the learning approach is certainly not trendy. It is, however, thorough, with good recycling of vocabulary and grammar at different levels, and well-structured.

The course starts using a pretty good form of romanisation of Thai for the early levels. The thinking is that this quickly gives you a core vocabulary which you can use in daily life. Reading and writing in Thai are gradually introduced from month 4. Whilst others who've already posted stress the importance of learning to read/write Thai, personally I think it's a distraction at the early stages where the priority is to be able to communicate. The Thai alphabet is large, the tone rules are complex, Thai spelling is complex with unpronounced characters and multiple ways of writing the same sound. Becoming fluent at reading and writing Thai takes years of practice, whilst with (Haas-based) romanisation it only takes an hour or two to become confident.

do you recommend any language school?....

[AyG]

do you recommend any language school?....

To get started it probably doesn't matter too much which school you pick. What's important is that you practise what you learn in class in the "real world". So, pick a school that's close to you to keep down travelling time/costs. There are plenty of other topics on this forum which discuss schools. Have a look at them. Also, try and get to watch a lesson for free once you've got a shortlist.

After that, if you want to get to a high standard in Thai, sign up for one of the Union-based courses. Probably doesn't matter which one - they're all pretty similar. However, not all the schools which use this method run the more advanced modules very frequently. But that's an issue for a later stage. You can easily switch between schools using the same method.

[rgs2001uk]

If you are a complete beginner (with no knowledge of Thai at all) you will struggle with the level 1 since it introduces a lot of vocabulary very quickly.

Thanks for your advise,but do you have any idea to share with because i coming to learn thai with zero knowledge.

I'd suggest doing a 40-50 hours at a school that doesn't use the Union method, then transfer to one of the Union method schools if you're really serious about learning Thai to a high level.

im leaving everything and coming to learn thai,even i have to work part-time for my leaving.i not even know what is Union method,i searched the cheapest place to stay in sathorn 200bath per day,did anyone know lesser than that?....all your help and info is valuable.

im leaving everything and coming to learn thai,

Whats the reason for learning Thai if you dont live here?

even i have to work part-time

Eh, dont know about that, you do know about work permits etc?

i searched the cheapest place to stay in sathorn 200bath per day,

If you intend to study at Piammitr (Suk soi 13) why would you choose to stay in Sathorn?

did anyone know lesser than that?

Yes plenty of places such as , On Nut, Lat Prao and Ramkhamhaeng for starters.

As has been pointed out, this method throws vocabularly at you fast and furious, probably about 20 new words per day from what I remember.

I am sure glad I had previous Thai language knowledge prior to starting, as already has been pointed out, the drop out rate is high, some guys dropped out after a week, they couldnt keep pace.

I would buy Beckers Thai for beginners and self teach myself with the aid of the CDs for a couple of months before enrolling at any school.

[asiaexpat]

Get a Tourist Visa, come to Bangkok, visit as many schools as you can for trial lessons and visa offers. Then you can decide which school you want to invest in. I have tried a number of methods and found that learning to read and write Thai helped develop my vocabulary faster than the Union method. People vary in the way they aquire language, so check out the various methods.

Edited October 22, 2013 by asiaexpat

[Ravex Tulip]

thanks for all your info,ill come to thailand and check by myself......and i will come back to you guys.

[Lara Alex]

I noticed that in Piammitr syllabus the first three books use phonetics to reflect Thai sounds and introduce the Thai writing system only in Book 4. Many people, including myself, believe that the Thai writing system should be introduced very early in the learning process. Others may disagree.

I agree with you. in my opinion if anyone wanna learn Thai in the most effective way especially reading and writing, Thai writing system(hard thing) should be introduced to them very very early.

Edited November 15, 2013 by Lara Alex