1-1 skype thai teacher who is skilled in teaching the tones and reading tones

[thaivisa999]

i have emailed a few teachers online that i found but didn't hear back so maybe the emails are out of date on the websites...

i can speak and thai at communicate level but i can't really recognise the tones so would like a recommendation for a teacher (or can be anyone who knows what i want to learn below and happy to teach doesn't even have to be thai native speaker provided they know what they are doing and can lead me through this learning process a bit) who can....

1 teach the tones how to speak and hear them and the either traditional method tone rules or shortcut tone hack rules i have across on internet (?) but either way long or short way is fine...the stuff i want to learn is in the links below but just dont have the energy to do it all on my own so want someone who can teach me that stuff i.e. tell me what to memorise and check i am getting the tone deduced per rules and then pronouced okay when i read a thai word from thai script...that is all i want to do at this time...(i don't expect them to be able to teach me to HEAR the tone they speak as that could take me a very long time but knowing other tonal langs. never found it a problem as the context always makes it clear so has never been an issue and i gotta be realistic in my expectations so just read/pronouce would be great)

http://www.thai-language.com/ref/tones
http://www.thai-language.com/ref/consonants#learnclass

by the way it would be really cool if someone really knows these rules/tones etc well and knows HOW to teach them to a farang...what i want to learn is really specific so would be really cool if i could come across a thai tone teaching expert teacher who really knows how to teach them and has a system etc so that i can feel good about the learning process.....that would be a pleasure...

2 do lesson via skype or line etc only (so guess they should be in thailand or nearby otherwise timezone problems if person is in the US although could try)

3 ideally 200 baht per hour but if the person really know hows to teach the tones well then could pay more western rates as anyway would only expect to have about 10 lessons to start and really just need to get the tones foundation better established..

4, of course must be 1-1..don't to wait for some other farang learner to try and fail to differentiate between ngo and ngoo endlessly...haa haa that is fun for a while but not something to be repeated too often....

probably would do weekend classes load up the hours there i expect like saturday AM sunday AM or PM etc something like that but flexible...wanna just get this done ASAP before i lose my enthusiasm.time/eneryg etc...

Edited January 31, 2014 by thaivisa999

[babyjesus]

where are you located?

[NancyL]

I've been studying Thai for 5 years and I've got to say those links you supplied are amazingly dense and W-A-Y beyond useful for a beginner. Yes, I understood them, but look at my opening words.

Unfortunately, to really understand tone, you have to be able to read Thai. The best introduction to reading Thai (at least to the extent of understanding the tone rules) is "Reading Thai is Fun" by James Neal. Combine that with the excellent series by Benjawan Becker (Thai for Beginners, Thai for Intermediate Learners, etc) and you've got some good book. All you need is someone to guide you by Skype, maybe. to answer questions or in person to answer questions and give you the discipline to do homework.

I wish I could recommend a good teacher. I'm between teachers now. I started at the YMCA, but it sounds like the OP couldn't work with their schedule. Come to think of it, I think I could benefit by going with a Skype teacher. I've gotten involved with some projects and kept cancelling with my private lesson teacher (but still paying her) because I hadn't had time to do my homework.

Anyone know a good Skype teacher who can teach Thai reading/writing at the sixth grade level?

[DavidMavec]

I know of an excellent Thai teacher who has experience with very advanced students as well as beginners. I worked with her for almost a year myself. She has taught at the U.S., UK, and other embassies and has helped students become very fluent in the language in speaking and reading.

Unfortunately, she is totally booked right now and working full time but I believe this will change in the coming months. She may be available to teach over Skype, I am not 100% sure. If you're interested in studying with her, send me a PM and I will pass it along.

Edited January 31, 2014 by DavidMavec

[LazyYogi]

I sent you a PM with the name of a good Thai teacher here in CM.

Her schedule is pretty full, but she does have time on Saturdays and Sundays.

[LazyYogi]

Actually, I could teach you as well. I wrote the iPhone app "Reading Thai" and hosted a Thai learning podcast, so I know what I'm talking about.

[thaivisa999]

Hi,

Just want to say many thanks for all this really useful info and I have received Lazyyogi message so have emailed that teacher sounds ideal as a fair price too! I am in Chiang Mai...but just want to do via skype so that is ideal.

Just FYI my circumstances are a bit unusal as normally someone would be learning a language mainly or only for communication purposes...but I am doing reading lessons via one of the schools where I am basically just reading Thai news and such like which I can do, but I can't read with the correct tones as I don't know the tone rules and can't pronunce the Thai tones well.

I would like to be able to do that excellently so that is why I only want these classes...you might say that is kind of totally pointless or whatever as you should be focusing on useful words etc...but I just want little frisson of excitment or low level thrill I will get from reading the Thai sentences with all the correct tones...is somewhat useless out of the class without all the useful vocab. etc but I don't mind just doing it for this small guilty pleasure I will get...

I have acutally had a similar experience before when I was learning Mandarin in Taiwan really intensely. I found a really excellent sinologist who taught me the tone and tone change rules (not everyone knew about those tone change rules at that time and it wasn't taught) in mandarin and cantonese and after months of daily pratice without doing anything else I was able to get the Mandarin tones...and it was quite funny as having been someone in the class who sounded like all the other foreigners it suddenly sounds like there was chinese person in the class...people were totally amazed and classmates were saying - <deleted>? how did you do that? what happened?...basically by not doing anything else for months apart from using a dictaphone type device and recording and comparing etc endlessly..basically lot of doing that and nothing else for hours on end...

unfortunately i never acheived the same success with cantonese still don't sound cantonese at all despite moving to that area to try and learn (was full or northern chinese in dongguan where i was so totally failed but improved mandarin instead so was okay i guess)...when i decided to learn thai i deliberately tried not to take it too seriously as if let myself i can get addicted to learning languages but it doesn't make you happy...when knowing these languages is quite fun but at the end of the day it really doesn't always help, it can be so much better to be happy, ignorate dude who can't understand anything at all then you don't know what anyone is saying as there is no off switch on your ears so just can't shut it out...that way u may be happier...having seen these threads on thai visa i have seen that view echoed many times and could be really worth listening to that advice...

unfortuately if i am not careful i could get totally addicted to learning thai as it does seem to be a brilliantly complicated language if you really try and get into the intricacies (which I haven't yet)...will see how it goes...

i may update this thread in a few months or so and let you know it worked out for me or not..

Edited February 1, 2014 by thaivisa999

[thaivisa999]

lazyyogi would be happy if you teach me alternatively as i am sure you would be an excellent teacher given your experience and having gone through the process yourself would have a lot of insights as to the problems etc...what would u charge me per hour...can PM pls...

Edited February 1, 2014 by thaivisa999