redwood13 Posted February 3, 2003 Report Share Posted February 3, 2003 Just got home from my first lesson at Somchart language school. My lessons are not private as there is a young German lady studying with me. She's well educated & traveled, with excellent English. I think this is really a benefit as a one on one sessons would be very taxing for me. It's nice to have someone else screw up as badly as you do. Only problem might be if the second person's knowledge of Thai was considerably better than mine which in this case is not a problem. (I'm 65 by the way.) There is a Xeroxed copy of a workbook (50 Baht I think) consisting of 37 pages. We went over the following today: Aspirated and unaspirated consonants, short and long vowels, the 5 tones with examples, numbers, some short greeting phrases and a series of adjectives using various tones. So, by the end of the first 2 hours you've been exposed to a bit of vocabulary. I don't know how much of this I'll retain by Wednesday however. First impression is positive. They switch teachers for the second hour so you get a slightly difference in presentation. -redwood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BelgianBoy Posted February 3, 2003 Report Share Posted February 3, 2003 Redwood, Up to you I guess, the money you pay IS for private tutoring, but if you feel ok to have company, fine. I just feel I need to learn at my own pace, hence 1 on 1 suits me better, specially as after a few lessons, you have different questions and one can deviate a bit from the course. Yep, I have the same book Make sure to leaen your lesson at home as well, and make enough notes. Chok Dee ! Cheers ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shotover Posted February 7, 2003 Report Share Posted February 7, 2003 Three 2-hour lessons a week. Sounds like a reasonable schedule without causing too much stress or negatively impacting other activities. Have you determined yet the number of hours per week you'll be studying outside the classes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwood13 Posted February 8, 2003 Report Share Posted February 8, 2003 Says shotover: Three 2-hour lessons a week. Sounds like a reasonable schedule without causing too much stress or negatively impacting other activities. Have you determined yet the number of hours per week you'll be studying outside the classes? Yes, 2 hours per day especially from 15:00-17:00 is just about right. This gives me time to shop and take care of personal business before class. But, 2 hours is about the maximum I can take. I've done 3 two hour lessons thus far and by the 90 minute mark I've felt I've had enough. Excercises answering questions are especially effective in turning my brain to mush. An example being the equivalent to those French lessons, "What color is your aunt's pen? How much time outside class? It's really hard to say. It depends on what you hope to accomplish, how effective your studying is and what your outside resources are like. For some it might only be an hour a day and for others lots of hours per day. One student I talked to said they'd previously studied another SE Asian language at a European university for 3 years and given how much work that was the only thing they hoped to accomplish was to learn sufficient Thai so they could shop, order meals and generally communicate in a basic way in day to day affairs. The major problem I have is not having anyone to practice correct pronunciation of vocabulary with outside of class. I have a lot of difficulty hearing words and repeating them correctly. That is,my lips, jaw and/or tongue are completely mispositioned as compared to the teacher's. (I'm not alone with this problem I know.) -redwood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger Moth Posted February 16, 2003 Report Share Posted February 16, 2003 It has been some time since you posted: [color:"red"] The thai language school at Chiang Mai University is a very progressive school, and is probably the best in Thailand by far,though I dont think it would be cheap and would most likely only suit someone who has previously studied at Uni level (not necessarily a language ). The Dept. Head there is a women and she is very switched on. If you want more details Ive got her contact details somewhere so let me know. [/color] Would you still have some contact and any otyher information on the Thai language program(s)? Thanks a lot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daeng bireley Posted February 17, 2003 Report Share Posted February 17, 2003 Center for Teaching Thai as a Foreign Language Chiang Mai University Chiang Mai 50200 Thailand. Contact person: Associate Professor Sriwilai Ponmanee (Director). Faculty of Education (Dept of Secondary Education) email: Edsdi007@chiangmai.ac.th Tel: (6653) 221285 I'd be interested to know how it turns out. rgds db Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daeng bireley Posted February 17, 2003 Report Share Posted February 17, 2003 Center for Teaching Thai as a Foreign Language Chiang Mai University Chiang Mai 50200 Thailand. Contact : Associate Professor Sriwilai Ponmanee (Director). Faculty of Education email: Edsdi007@chiangmai.ac.th Tel: -66-53-221285 I'd be interested to know how it turns out. rgds db Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgtp Posted April 25, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2004 Well, since I started this thread and people were kind enough to reply, I thought I'd report on how things went. I did manage to spend 8 months in Thailand last year and I attended Unity Thai Language School in the Times Square Building on Sukhumvit. 20 hours per week (M-F, 8-12). Each module consists of 20 days/80 hours. I completed 6 modules during my 8 month stay. First 2 were basic conversation. In 3 and 4, the alphabet and beginning reading/writing are taught. You don't really improve your speaking skills at this stage as you are busy learning the alphabet, tone rules, etc. In 5 and 6, you start adding to both speaking/vocabulary and reading/writing skills. Overall, I found the program to be very good, but while 20 hours a week of classroom time is all that's required for the first two modules, once you get into reading/writing there's a few hours of homework per day, too, if you want to keep up. Just how much depends upon how good your memory/learning skills are and at my age, they ain't what they used to be. Price was 6000 baht/module plus 200 for textbook. Here's the schools website, it's a little out of date http://utlbkk.hp.infoseek.co.jp/welcome!!-e.htm I basically did mod 1-4 then took a month off to travel, then 5-6 and another month to travel. During my last month I had a great time travelling around the north and Isaan. I was able to hold basic conversations and while I still couldn't read a Thai newspaper, I had no trouble at all with street signs and menus. I hope to get back to Thailand for about 10 months in 2005 and plan to study further at UTL. In summary, I think it's a good program, but you must be disciplined to keep up. Did I say there were quite a few hot J-girls studying there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 25, 2004 Report Share Posted April 25, 2004 Did I say there were quite a few hot J-girls studying there Did I hear you right? Did you say J-girls? HOT J-girls? You mean to tell me that this school not only provides Thai language instruction, but also the motivation to go to class? Sweet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted April 27, 2004 Report Share Posted April 27, 2004 O.k. my current plan is not working, so...I will win the lottery and move to LOS, study at this school and bang hot J girls when I get tired of Thai women, or along with, as a means to spice it up a bit...simple plan, no idea why I never thought of it before... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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