Jump to content

Thai Tutor On Skype. Recommendation?


dave32

Recommended Posts

  • 1 month later...

Never tried it before, but also came across a list of Skype teachers here:

http://womenlearnthai.com/index.php/learn-thai-via-skype-locating-teachers-and-schools/

 

I guess try 1 or 2 lessons and see how it goes.

 

Hey - thanks. Actually through Google ended up on the womenlearnthai website and it's a good source. I tried one instructor in Chiang Mai - we met for a trial lesson and she spent half an hour basically telling me how great the program was and to send 8k Baht in advance, they were charging $25USD a lesson (oh yeah, I found out the person I met with wouldn't even be the instructor). This one: http://learn2speakthai.net/

 

So, took a pass on that. But, I tried a couple others and they were pretty damn good, ie, I learned a lot more in one week than I did in a couple months going to the class they give at a Wat in Los Angeles.

 

One is a graduate student in LA from Bangkok, the other one is a Thai woman in Bangkok. Both are a lot different -- but talented instructors, and reasonable enough in price -- that I'll keep seeing them once a week for the near future.

 

Skype is impressive in what it can do now. You have your own tutor where you can record the sessions.

 

Anyway - thanks for the reply. Serious. And that Mod lady in the youtube is kinda cute... dang. Maybe I should try 3 instructors. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi - yep, the skype lessons have been a good experience for me. For one thing, I thought my spoken Thai was pretty good for a noob (just by parroting what I heard others say), but they set me straight on that right away. I said everything across the board in low tone and... that just won't work. Both identified that immediately. (For whatever reason, what gives me the most difficulty by far is high tone).

 

'Pamela' is supposed to be the #1 skype recorder but I found it a bit glitchy. One of them recommended skype mp3 recorder: http://voipcallrecording.com/ - and it works great. Towards the end of the lesson I'll usually stop it, then a start a new recording and ask them to recap the vocab and stress the correct tones (I hate listening to myself). Then I'll listen to that portion as a reference.

 

Thai people I see here every now and then (lady who cuts my hair, friend's wife, waitresses at local restaurant) already commented that I speak a LOT better and ask... girlfriend? haha.

 

The instructor in BKK charges $12USD an hour, and the grad student in LA $17. Both of them hit the ground running as soon as the lesson starts and often carry over the time but I cut it off because I'm tired. Serious. I need to send them a nice Christmas gift this year or something.

 

Both were found from the womenlearnthai list. The only one I didn't like was one mentioned in an earlier post, and I nixed that right after the trial lesson.

 

Good luck. Give it a try.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...