Good Series of Children's Thai Learning Books?

[squarethecircle]

I've started to study Thai with the goal of doing it the way children learn it. I'm watching AUA's videos online (and would like to enroll there in the future) but now I will go to the book store and buy some children's learning books. A youngster next to me on the train the other day had a good book with Aesop's Fables, which broke down the vocabulary into Thai and English (so all the new vocab was easily accessible), but I couldn't find the same book in the local book store. Everything was either entirely in Thai, or in huge paragraphs of Thai with the English paragraphs below.

So I'm curious if anyone can recommend a series or specific books I can ask for in the store. I've gone through the "Go Gai Kho Khai" books and the "Sala E" books (consonants and vowels) but want to move up. Maybe this is too vague but I'm sure others have gone this route, studying a language as a child learns it. Very fun too. Thanks for any advice.

[squarethecircle]

OK I have found something like I am looking for on the se-ed website, but after one hour in the local bookstore couldn't find the exact kind of book, the one with the Thai words and English words (very useful for studying IME). The ones where they give the entire paragraph in Thai and then the entire paragraph in English are useless, as are most of the "studying English for Thai people" books. Now it is clearer to me why the country has (in general) poor English skills but maybe hypocritical as I've been in the country for over a year total and can barely order a beer. OK cheers.

https://www.se-ed.com/product/%E0%B8%A5%E0%B8%B9%E0%B8%81%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%9B%E0%B9%87%E0%B8%94%E0%B8%82%E0%B8%B5%E0%B9%89%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%88-The-Ugly-Duckling.aspx?no=9786167091730&utm_source=%E0%B8%A5%E0%B8%B9%E0%B8%81%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%9B%E0%B9%87%E0%B8%94&utm_medium=name&utm_term=[9]_9786167091730&utm_campaign=WebSearch

[phuketsub]

OK I have found something like I am looking for on the se-ed website, but after one hour in the local bookstore couldn't find the exact kind of book, the one with the Thai words and English words (very useful for studying IME). The ones where they give the entire paragraph in Thai and then the entire paragraph in English are useless, as are most of the "studying English for Thai people" books. Now it is clearer to me why the country has (in general) poor English skills but maybe hypocritical as I've been in the country for over a year total and can barely order a beer. OK cheers.

https://www.se-ed.com/product/%E0%B8%A5%E0%B8%B9%E0%B8%81%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%9B%E0%B9%87%E0%B8%94%E0%B8%82%E0%B8%B5%E0%B9%89%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%88-The-Ugly-Duckling.aspx?no=9786167091730&utm_source=%E0%B8%A5%E0%B8%B9%E0%B8%81%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%9B%E0%B9%87%E0%B8%94&utm_medium=name&utm_term=[9]_9786167091730&utm_campaign=WebSearch

I don't think it is the lack of learning materials that is responsible. Thailand enjoys a much better infrastructure for EFL learning than any of its neighbors and the place is teeming with active and wannabe English teachers/backpackers; this latest mushrooming in TEFL training school is a good example.

I am certain the country pays more for foreign instructors, yet fails miserably compared to them on standardized testing.

A big part of the problem is the huge class sizes they throw the foreign teachers into, which make it almost impossible to teach effectively, at least using TEFL-bot techniques.

I has always struck me that in Phuket they need to have scores of ethnic Nepalese from Burma (no reference to their assumed Immigration status or how 'system' works, since the work is reserved for Thais) touting suits and other crap. Is it because they can't produce enough Thais capable of saying, "Excuse me sir, would you like to buy a suit?"

Back when I lived in Bangkok they actually used deaf-mutes to do this along Sukhumvit! You can't make it up.

Anyway, to the OP: suggest you check out used book stores as well. They have been making books that fit the description of what you need for at least 25 years and I can't think of the number I have bought and then given or thrown away. You might try some of the Thai comic books as well.

As for your reported difficulties ordering beer, remember: 'practice makes perfect'.

[squarethecircle]

"Anyway, to the OP: suggest you check out used book stores as well. They have been making books that fit the description of what you need for at least 25 years and I can't think of the number I have bought and then given or thrown away. You might try some of the Thai comic books as well.

As for your reported difficulties ordering beer, remember: 'practice makes perfect'."

Haha, I was being sarcastic about ordering beer, I even know how to order with ice, but the goal today is to figure out how to order the straw.

So if I want to ask for the secondhand book shop I guess it would be:ร้าน ขาย หนังสือ ที่ใช้แล้ว (rahn kai nansyy tee chai leew, ie: store sells books at/that used already), no?

[starrdog]

ร้านหนังสือมือสอง

[GLOPglopMAmaTONG]

ChezeIt....

""A youngster next to me on the train the other day had a good book with Aesop's Fables, which broke down the vocabulary into Thai and English (so all the new vocab was easily accessible),""

Please Take a look at the Mary Haas Thai Reader.

I am fairly sure that this is what you are looking for, and it may even be that the book said youngster was using was the THAI READER by Mary Haas.

You can download the whole thing for free from the Seasite web site.

Cheers.

[squarethecircle]

Thanks for the recommendation, am reading Mary Haas now, but it was a SE-ED book. I wish I had taken a picture of it as I looked through dozens of the Aesop's Fables books in the local book shop but none had the convenient lay-out giving all the new English words and their corresponding Thai translation (useful for me working backwards, studying Thai using a book for Thai kids learning English). Cheers!

[GLOPglopMAmaTONG]

Thanks for the recommendation, am reading Mary Haas now, but it was a SE-ED book. I wish I had taken a picture of it as I looked through dozens of the Aesop's Fables books in the local book shop but none had the convenient lay-out giving all the new English words and their corresponding Thai translation (useful for me working backwards, studying Thai using a book for Thai kids learning English). Cheers!

It is all right here, everything you could ever want and more, I think.

And, it is all downloadable, and free.

It has all the vocabulary in glossaries.

It has pronunciation.

It has Thai readers reading the text.

It shows you how to write the Thai characters.

Need I go on?

I would, but it is better to just go to the seasite site:

http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Thai/thaireader/frameset.htm

There is very little available around the world that is as helpful to Thai language learners.

The Thai Reader by Mary Haas is the BEST you can find. You read it for the vocabulary. But, the stories are amazing, of course, as generations know well.

Cheers.

[squarethecircle]

Thanks again GlopGlop, the Manee reader is fantastic, not what I originally asked about but in fact better. Cheers again

[rak sa_ngop]

I have mentioned this a few times in this forum (although with very little feedback from other members) that I found the series of Scooby Doo books to be very useful in my development of reading skills. Not sure if they are still available in the shops as once they get sold they tend not to be reprinted.

They are thin booklets, about 45 baht each, with English and Thai text. They are intended for learners of English (slangy American English) but the Thai translation is relatively simple to follow (about intermediate level).

About 24 titles in the Scooby Doo series, and also other dual language booklets available at the time (over 5 years ago now). I have now moved on to reading the Jack Reacher series of books, about 7 of which have been translated into Thai. So I do not know what dual language books are available. But you have to look in both Thai and English sections of bookshops to track them down.

[debrakfurlow]

Does anyone have a Thai Rosette Stone, or Pimsler. To sell.

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