best easiest way to learn thai.

[MrBrad]

The fastest way is with an intensive course such as the South-East Asian Summer Studies Institute (SEASSI). In 10 weeks you will have studied the equivalent of 1 year of a university-level course in reading, writing and speaking Thai. (Academic credits can be applied upon completion, if desired.) It's expensive, but you will accomplish what you set out to do. And it's not for everyone, of course, but it works.

http://seassi.wisc.edu/

[Benmart]

be born thai.

Appears useless and devoid of mature thought.

[jcnbkk]

Click on the link to Highspeedthai.com that appears all over this forum. I did so in February and I can read, write and speak Thai passably now. You won't regret it.

Read, write and speak in 4 mo. is quite an endorsement, of either your aptitude and work ethic or the site itself. I'll certainly check the site.

[jcnbkk]

Click on the link to Highspeedthai.com that appears all over this forum. I did so in February and I can read, write and speak Thai passably now. You won't regret it.

Read, write and speak in 4 mo. is quite an endorsement, of either your aptitude and work ethic or the site itself. I'll certainly check the site.

I just typed in highspeedthai.com in my bowser and it came back site not found.

I'll look around thaivisa.

[SaintLouisBlues]

Why bother? I guess if you want to understand what the Thais are saying about you when they think you don't understand ...

[Strangebrew]

Easy forget passport do time in Thai prison get friendly with Thai locals. Bingo!

[boughtoncestrian]

Yes JCNBKK Ihad the same result

[Glock3am]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Click on the link to Highspeedthai.com that appears all over this forum. I did so in February and I can read, write and speak Thai passably now. You won't regret it.

Read, write and speak in 4 mo. is quite an endorsement, of either your aptitude and work ethic or the site itself. I'll certainly check the site.

I just typed in highspeedthai.com in my bowser and it came back site not found.

I'll look around thaivisa.

Yes JCNBKK Ihad the same result

Add www. to the front of that name.

Edited August 1, 2014 by Glock3am

[gemguy]

For some reason when I listen to Thai children talk I remember the words they say more so than when an adult Thai person speaks.

At the nursery where I take my 21 moth old child to every morning I stay and play with my son for about 15 minutes before I leave.

All the other Thai children are talking and learning also so I actually learn some more words listening to the Thai children.

[gemguy]

Easy forget passport do time in Thai prison get friendly with Thai locals. Bingo!

Ha ha ...good one....and yes you would learn Thai very fast if you were in prison.

[Tom Lane]

Get started with some self study, check out the videos here. The pronunciation videos are great! https://www.youtube.com/user/ThaiStyleLanguage

Then, find yourself a teacher as there is no substitute for learning Thai with a Thai speaker. It is the best way to learn and keep motivated. It is also very important to get feedback on your pronunciation and tones from native speakers.

Edited August 2, 2014 by Tom Lane

[Scott]

Posts with foreign script have been removed. If you want to post in Thai, please use the Thai language forum.

[vincentvhst]

Sorry, moved the website to a new server. highspeedthai.com was not directing to www.highspeedthai.com. Both should work now.Thanks

[Banjamin23]

dukelanguage.com/ They're not an ED Visa Factory. Students that enrol at Duke are enrolled for the one purpose, which is to Learn Thai. They teach Thai the easiest way. Good Luck to you!

Edited December 26, 2014 by Scott
Direct link removed.

[maxbass]

There is a relatively well known YouTube personality who has lived in Thailand about 15 years. He constantly gets complimented on his Thai. Of course, he lived in the village with a Thai wife for many years. He said his one regret was not having learned the alphabet first. My impression was he picked it up conversational Thai through immersion.

I'm curious if anyone has had experience with an English - Thai exchange on http://www.conversationexchange.com (conversation exchange dot com)? Apparently two participants use the site to meet & teach each other their own language presumably over Skype or some other video sharing service at no cost. I see a few drawbacks to this approach. It would seem both participants would need at least an intermediate ability to speak the foreign language. In addition, unless you use a screen sharing tool or flashcards, it might be challenging to learn more than conversational skills.

Curious if anyone has tried Conversation Exchange? For me, the 12 hour time zone difference could also present scheduling challenges. I'm not aware if you stick with one person or if you just grab the next person in cue.

[drasgard]

I have been practicing with https://www.learnthaiping.com. As well as learning to type in Thai it's a great resource for beginner reader material. It is hard to find good readers that aren't kids books.

I wish I had learned to read earlier, it would have made my pronunciation much better.

I don't agree with the brute force memorisation of the alphabet method though. It is easier to memorise the letters once you can associate them with words, and you can easily start reading some basic Thai before you have memorised all the names of the consonants.

[mike324]

Actually, you tube is the best.

if you still remember how to read, youtube karaoke! forces you to learn to read fast

[vogie]

The cheapest and most effective way to learn Thai is in a Thai jail.

1 year and you will be fluent.

No distractions, plenty of friends to practise with.

Yeah but on release you will be deported and have no one to talk to.

[vogie]

Thai-style.co.uk created by thais to teach non thais - reasonable enough approx. £12 an hour for 1-1 which you'll need if you lack the discipline to follow CD's/tapes/online audio etc etc as most people do

Have looked at this website recently and it looks very good. There is an initial registration fee then it states that 1 to 1 lessons are 300 baht?

[Duriana]

Guys, has anyone learned Thai with Jcademy packages and/or Thai Fluency1 -- Glossika GSR and GMS?

[ravip]

How is the book & CD Thai for Beginners by Benjawan Poomsan Becker?

Has anyone progressed alone on this?

[futsukayoi]

How is the book & CD Thai for Beginners by Benjawan Poomsan Becker?

Has anyone progressed alone on this?

It is reasonable. The words and patterns it uses are well selected. Also a lot of freelance teachers like to use it as it is widely available. It will get you off to reasonable start but of course it only goes to a very elementary level.

[ravip]

How is the book & CD Thai for Beginners by Benjawan Poomsan Becker?

Has anyone progressed alone on this?

It is reasonable. The words and patterns it uses are well selected. Also a lot of freelance teachers like to use it as it is widely available. It will get you off to reasonable start but of course it only goes to a very elementary level.

Thank you.

Would it be possible to follow the book without a teacher?

[futsukayoi]

How is the book & CD Thai for Beginners by Benjawan Poomsan Becker?

Has anyone progressed alone on this?

It is reasonable. The words and patterns it uses are well selected. Also a lot of freelance teachers like to use it as it is widely available. It will get you off to reasonable start but of course it only goes to a very elementary level.

Thank you.

Would it be possible to follow the book without a teacher?

It would be possible to do a lot of the work on your own in that the audio tracks help with pronunciation and there are a lot of drills that you can practice. However I think you would need at least occasional input from a teacher to help with things you may not pick up yourself. for example I thought I was correctly distinguishing between "d" (ด) "dt" (ต) and "t" (ท). without a teacher pointing out how wrong I was I would have continued to be misunderstood and reinforced a bad habit making it harder and harder to overcome.

[ravip]

How is the book & CD Thai for Beginners by Benjawan Poomsan Becker?

Has anyone progressed alone on this?

It is reasonable. The words and patterns it uses are well selected. Also a lot of freelance teachers like to use it as it is widely available. It will get you off to reasonable start but of course it only goes to a very elementary level.

Thank you.

Would it be possible to follow the book without a teacher?

It would be possible to do a lot of the work on your own in that the audio tracks help with pronunciation and there are a lot of drills that you can practice. However I think you would need at least occasional input from a teacher to help with things you may not pick up yourself. for example I thought I was correctly distinguishing between "d" (ด) "dt" (ต) and "t" (ท). without a teacher pointing out how wrong I was I would have continued to be misunderstood and reinforced a bad habit making it harder and harder to overcome.

Thank you very much for your very helpful advise.

[streboris]

In many western countries, we have very diverse societies with many different nationallities and people move around a lot so we get exposed to different accents and different pronunciation. This makes it easy to understand what someone is trying to say even when they are not saying it correctly.

But it's not the same for us in Thailand, I notice that thai people can be very pedantic with regards to pronunciation and tone. If you get it slightly wrong, they don't understand what you are trying to say.

In UK, if somebody is foreign and trying to speak English we understand that English is not their first language and if they say something that doesn't make sense we assume that they are having difficulty saying what they mean. We don't assume that they are stupid.

In Thailand if you say something that is slightly wrong, they assume that you mean what you say and are just stupid.

You can't learn to speak thai from books alone. Trying to can give you bad pronunciation that is difficult to correct after time.

You need feedback from a thai to help you get it right from the start.