Intensive Thai Programme Chulalongkorn University

[Disco]

Hi All

I start the Intensive Thai Programme at Chula Uni after New Year (v excited but a tad nervous). Is there anybody out in TV land that either attends this Uni or studies elsewhere in Bangkok?

BTW thanks to all those who have commented on various schools and language courses on the forum as it helped make my final decision.

Disco

[bubbaba]

Hi All

I start the Intensive Thai Programme at Chula Uni after New Year (v excited but a tad nervous). Is there anybody out in TV land that either attends this Uni or studies elsewhere in Bangkok?

BTW thanks to all those who have commented on various schools and language courses on the forum as it helped make my final decision.

Disco

Is this program for beginners or advanced. Can you provide any other information? Telephone number for the school, costs, etc?

Thank you

[Casanundra]

Is this program for beginners or advanced. Can you provide any other information? Telephone number for the school, costs, etc?

Thank you

Details can be found on the Chulalongkorn University website here:

http://www.arts.chula.ac.th/~asc/intensive...nsive_thai.html

[Prudent_rabbit]

Dont know about Attendees from Thai Visa, but in my apartment block (Evergreen PLace) there is about 20-25 students from Overseas that study at Chula for a semester (?) all different nationalities but mainly American, prob around the late teens early 20's age group

[Disco]

Dont know about Attendees from Thai Visa, but in my apartment block (Evergreen PLace) there is about 20-25 students from Overseas that study at Chula for a semester (?) all different nationalities but mainly American, prob around the late teens early 20's age group

O my Buddha Prudent Rabbit "late teens early 20's age group" I know I look good for my age, but really aint gonna get away with that age bracket!!!

[siamaloha]

I attended Basic I at Chula a year ago... and lasted 3 of the 5 weeks. I'm no spring chicken. The seven others in my group were Oriental 20- and 30-somethings, and one Czech. Most had previous Thai language instruction. They don't call it Intensive Thai for nothing!

[bkkmei]

best of luck!

let us know how it goes.

[Disco]

I attended Basic I at Chula a year ago... and lasted 3 of the 5 weeks. I'm no spring chicken. The seven others in my group were Oriental 20- and 30-somethings, and one Czech. Most had previous Thai language instruction. They don't call it Intensive Thai for nothing!

'20- and 30-somethings' that sounds better to me....I taught myself to read basic Thai years ago but have forgotten most of it, same with my verbal skills, although I can still understand a considerable amount. I have deceided to start on the basic 1 course, to make sure I'm not to overwhelmed by it. I believe that if I'm going to study, I might as well do it full on. Not sure how long I will be able to keep up though, hoping for about the 1st 5 levels for now, but having said that I'm not a natural at languages so we will have to see....

[Acquiesce]

I would love to know how you got on, can you update us please Disco?

Thanks.

Acq.

[JohnnyThai]

i heard these classes are filled mostly with Asian businessmen.

[Desertexile]

i heard these classes are filled mostly with Asian businessmen.

Bump

[kunjet]

I highly recommend it though it is a major time commitment.

10 - 3 everyday for 13 months if you complete the program at a cost of 225,000 THB

each course is 100 hours (20 hours per week for 5 weeks) for 25,000 THB.

About half the students are Japanese, mostly in their 20s. The other half are other Asians and farang. The Japanese students are known for their diligence, many study at home the same amount of time as in class. There is a 4 hour exam at the end of every course. You must pass to go on to the next one.

Students who have never studied Thai before have a very difficult time with this program.

They rotate approximately 8 instructors per level, so you can hear different accents, which helps to get by in the real world.

Basic 1 focuses on conversation. Basic 2 teaches all the rules of reading and writing, the exam is on Friday, wish me luck.

I studied 5 years ago at Payap in Chiang Mai and really liked that program. Also intensive, but only 5 levels. I did level 1 and 2 there.

I also studied for 2 months more or less full time at AUA 4 years ago. Since their program is drop in, you come and go as you please and pay for only the hours you attend, which is convenient. I did intermediate and advanced classes there are thought I learned very little. Good for learning slang and fun, but their method is out of touch with reality. You don't practice speaking, just listening to "understand" and absorb with the hopes that after 2,000 hours of sitting there a light bulb will go off in your head and you will suddenly be able to speak in Thai without an accent. Nonsense I say.

BTW, I took these other courses because the Chula program is frequently on wait list, especially in the summer months when Western students are on holiday. Reserve early if you are interested. It's not like AUA where you can just show up and start the same day.

[kunjet]

After being in this program for half a year, I can say that it is good, but has its limitations.

Their focus is on reading and writing academic Thai, so if you are interested in listening and speaking skills, this is probably not the program for you.

The vocabulary is rather difficult. I am in Intermediate 1 (the 4h class of 9) and we are expected to learn a lot of complicated words which I rarely use in everyday life. We do presentations in Thai, which I find interesting. But sometimes I wonder about the utility of such work when our pronunciation is generally bad because they just keep moving on and the students focus so much on the reading/writing that their speaking/listening is not clear.

FYI, some of the students go to private tutors just to keep up with this program. Most of my classmates study for several hours at home every day.

[CaptHaddock]

After being in this program for half a year, I can say that it is good, but has its limitations.

Their focus is on reading and writing academic Thai, so if you are interested in listening and speaking skills, this is probably not the program for you.

The vocabulary is rather difficult. I am in Intermediate 1 (the 4h class of 9) and we are expected to learn a lot of complicated words which I rarely use in everyday life. We do presentations in Thai, which I find interesting. But sometimes I wonder about the utility of such work when our pronunciation is generally bad because they just keep moving on and the students focus so much on the reading/writing that their speaking/listening is not clear.

FYI, some of the students go to private tutors just to keep up with this program. Most of my classmates study for several hours at home every day.

Kunjet,

I am interested in the Chula program as well. How are you doing with the 800 new words per 5 week course? Can you really master 30 new words per day? I have experienced an intensive language course, but we didn't approach that rate of acquiring vocabulary.

I am especially interested in reading and writing because I think, in the long run, the student learns such things as sentence structure more thoroughly that way and I like to read. However, I am disappointed that their focus on reading & writing comes at the expense of speaking and listening practice. Do you speak Thai in your daily life? Since my wife is Thai, I am wondering if daily conversation with her and her circle would fill in this gap? What is your experience? Also, since I expect to remain in Thailand after the course, I would expect to develop those skills in the long run anyway.

May I ask why you chose the Chula program? Do you expect to be in Thai academia? As far as I can it, Chula's seems to be the only intensive program in BKK. Is that correct?

How far ahead should I apply for the October program?

Thanks for your valuable information.

Capt H

Edited July 1, 2009 by CaptHaddock

[montrii]

Their focus is on reading and writing academic Thai, so if you are interested in listening and speaking skills, this is probably not the program for you.

The vocabulary is rather difficult. I am in Intermediate 1 (the 4h class of 9) and we are expected to learn a lot of complicated words which I rarely use in everyday life. We do presentations in Thai, which I find interesting. But sometimes I wonder about the utility of such work when our pronunciation is generally bad because they just keep moving on and the students focus so much on the reading/writing that their speaking/listening is not clear.

FYI, some of the students go to private tutors just to keep up with this program. Most of my classmates study for several hours at home every day.

Hi, Khunjet, good post. I probably met you, I was just in Intermediate 3 (I recently made a separate post on this under a different heading). Passed the test, but will be waiting till October to take Advanced 1, which is, I think, when your group will also arrive at that point, so we might be in the same class.

I agree with you that they could work more on pronunciation. This was not a problem for me, because I've spoken pretty good Thai for many years and am quite particular about speaking correctly, and had tested into the program at a high level already. But I saw that nearly all of the other students, who had started at the beginner level with this class, were difficult to understand when they spoke. I think that this is something the course planners should deal with early on: maybe they should add another five weeks at the basic level and give a higher priority to speaking correctly.

That said, I think that in my class we had plenty of opportunity to work on our speaking, and the teachers were very helpful in correcting us. The fact that they do, indeed, just keep on moving no matter what makes things more difficult, but it's also a great challenge. They were talking normal Thai to us at a normal (sometimes quite rapid) pace, and listening, understanding, and responding was exactly the right kind of practice for me. I don't agree about the course being oriented toward academic Thai, with a lot of words which aren't used in everyday life. It's true that to ask directions or buy things in a store you won't need that level of vocabulary, but if you want to understand TV (an everyday event, for sure) or read newspaper headlines (which is child's play for most Thais) you will need that vocabulary. Learning a language well involves exactly the kind of interaction and comprehension that we were doing in Inter 3.

I think you really do have to spend at least 3 or 4 hours a day outside of class in order to get a lot out of it. I sure did. That's why I'm waiting 2 and a half months to go on to the next level (that and the huge expense of the 5 weeks). It takes up your entire life, you have hardly any time to do anything else. But it was a big help for me, I could really feel the difference in my comprehension of both written and spoken Thai after only 5 weeks, and that's saying something, no? So I'd recommend it to anyone who is really serious about getting their Thai up to a higher level.

[ozsamurai]

update on the link, 25,000 a course

http://www.arts.chula.ac.th/~asc/itp_howtoapply.html

Oz

[Gaccha]

There is an exhaustive thread on this here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Intensive-Th...Ad-t212821.html