Mike Goodtime Posted April 28, 2008 Report Share Posted April 28, 2008 I am looking for some sage wisdom from the people who have a pretty good grasp of the Thai language. In particular, I want to know what strategies you use to learn Thai to include what course materials you would recommend. I am familiar with and have studied Sanskrit, Japanese, and Korean. Currently I am studying Thai every day from two to four hours. I can read and write Thai script. I can also speak a bit of Thai. Listening to Thai is the hardest part for me in learning Thai. In terms of learning aids, I would recommend Paiboon Publishing materials. I do not like Rosetta Stone-to much work with little benefit from it. I do not like Rosetta Stone's teaching method. Rosetta Stone seems to have a massive marketing machine, but the content is horrible. The website www.thai-language.com is amazing. I use it every day when I instant message my Thai conversation partners. www.sharedtalk.com is also an amazing resource for finding good conversation partners. Get about five partners, so everytime you go online you will have someone to talk to. Writing, speaking, reading, and listening to a native speaker is the fastest way you will improve on the language. I live in America and breaking into the Thai community is tough unless you want to marry a Thai girl-then they are all over you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jitagawn Posted April 29, 2008 Report Share Posted April 29, 2008 You say you can read and write Thai script but cant speak it??? I speak Thai with an almost native accent (I am told) but read just the signs menus etc etc-Seem slike yo are well on your way friend...The first thing is to understand the alphabet and the attendant rules... then the rest is easy.Choke dee krap Go ahead and get a Thai GF-its th best way to learn ...just dont marry her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted April 30, 2008 Report Share Posted April 30, 2008 << I speak Thai with an almost native accent >> So do I ... a native speaker of English! I acquired basic fluency in the language by a combination of language classes 6 hours a day, 6 days a week - plus living in the country and using it every day (courtesy of the US Peace Corps). That obviously isn't possible if you live in the States. Watching movies with subtitles can help some, as can watching song videos with subtitles. The main thing is to use the language as much as possible. Peace Corps gave us good motivation: after the first week, they stopped feeding us! We had a daily allowance and had to learn to feed ourselves or go hungry. Also, when we moved half way across the country during our training, we were told where to go, given enough money to get there and told to be there within 4 days. It was sink or swim, but very effective. I've always liked a little book and tape set called "Speak Thai in Seven Days". Obviously, you can't learn a language in 7 days. But it is divided into 7 sections, all of which are very practical. It is completely conversational - social vocabulary, travelling, telling time, shopping etc. The voices on the tape are both male and female, so you are exposed to both. The text is also in Thai, so you can read it as you listen. The book is a bit old now - 1990s maybe - and might be a bit hard to find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted April 30, 2008 Report Share Posted April 30, 2008 p.s. The Rosetta Stone CDs are good for practicing a language, provided you already have a fair level of ability in it. As far as learning from scratch, forget it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted April 30, 2008 Report Share Posted April 30, 2008 << Go ahead and get a Thai GF-its th best way to learn ...just dont marry her. >> Just remembered something. The head of our Thai language training told the guys to bar fine a girl so we'd have somebody to talk to. God bless that wise old sage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jitagawn Posted April 30, 2008 Report Share Posted April 30, 2008 FM I would guess you speak better Thai than you have any idea. For whatever reason I have a very good accent in numerous languages but damn cant remember some of those little phrases sometimes. (memory losss from w---d?) Learning Thai is never ending-I have not spoken it in 2 months but it came rolling out last nite i a business call to BKK all in Thai-Its like changing a chip in the old brain it seems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted May 1, 2008 Report Share Posted May 1, 2008 When the board used to meet at Woodstock, I sat at a table one Friday night with some Yank and his Thai wife. (Don't know who the guy was, but he wasn't a board member.) The Farang was speaking "Thai" a mile a minute, but I could barely understand even 25% of what he said. He used the wrong consonants, the wrong vowels and the wrong tones (or more correctly ... no tones). Later, the wife said something to me and I replied in Thai. Her jaw dropped and she asked me why I spoke such "good Thai". I don't think I do, but compared to her husband it may have sounded that way. On the Peace Corps language proficiency scale of 0 to 4, I scored a 3 in 1978. It was high enough that the head of language training came out to congratulate me personally. In fact, I just barely made a 3. Apparently, the average PCV scores a 2. But a 2 is really much more than enough to survive in Thailand. Main difference between a 2 and 3 is better pronunciation and a greater vocabulary. I don't know anyone who has scored a 4, though there are a few long term residents I'm sure could do so. (Two former PCVs come to mind - both married to Thai men and one of them known to another poster on this board.) The proficiency test consists of a one hour long 1 on 1 interview by a certified examiner. I remember him asking about Thai movies - and I had to explain the plot of one to him. Then he wanted to talk about American politics! Since my political vocabulary is minimal, I got around that by explaining how I hadn't set foot in the US for several years and hadn't even voted in the last election. A funny but true story: one PCV had been a civil action vol, which meant he worked upcountry with Thais who didn't speak English. When he took his proficiency test, the examiner knew something was wrong because the PCV's score was only a level 1. (Level 1 = basic command of the language, but poor pronunciation, faulty sentence structure, poor listening comprehension etc. Level one is where a PCV should be at the end of training.) The examiner asked the PCV where he had worked. Seems he'd spent 3 years in Sakon Nakhorn! PC arranged for the guy to come in for another exam - in Isaan Lao! Then he scored a level 3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pescator Posted May 2, 2008 Report Share Posted May 2, 2008 I did the Linguaphone thai course in `93. Took a month, 2-3 hours of study a day. Very recommendable, but you are obviously beyond that already Mike. For the rest: Immersion! That sure works wonders. Especially when you fuck up and get corrected, that sticks. Being thai married, obviously helps too. We still speak thai whenever we leave the house, just to have private conversations. I don`t have the same extensive vocabulary as Flashermac, but I can hold my conversation in any everyday situation. Having had much thai language exposure helped me to get the pronounciation right. I`ve spoken to thais on the phone who didn`t believe that I was a foreigner, instead they wondered what province I came from. Good friend of mine cannot read nor write, but he is the best damned thai speaker I ever met, apart from native speakers that is He never even lived in Thailand. Never opened a thai language book in his life, sucks at other languages (I write that down to lack of motivation) but his thai is amazing. All learnt by immersion. cheers hn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted May 3, 2008 Report Share Posted May 3, 2008 Actually, reading Thai is an excellent way to improve your pronunciation. When I started reading, I was amazed at the poor pronunciation our languages teachers had let us get away with. I was shocked to see how far off my pronunciation had been on some words. Nowadays, I know what correct pronunciation is. Coming out all the time with it is another matter. Reading is also the way to increase your vocabulary. Otherwise, you find yourself in the same situations over and over. You reach a plateau where you are not picking up any new words. I'm guilty of that myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted May 3, 2008 Report Share Posted May 3, 2008 Actually, reading Thai...I know what correct pronunciation is. Coming out all the time with it is another matter. Aye. Truer words were never spoken! Cheers, SD -- has crap tonal ability really! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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