Learning Thai in about 35 days

[buffalo_bill]

Gentlemen ,

 

all i am really after is an intellectually stimulating ( negative ) answer to the question of all questions : " Dahlin , mummy ( Buffalo , brother , sister ) bloke leg , need sum monny kah "

 

After the 30 lesson Pimsleur did not arrive I went into a local ( Yeorman ) bookshop and bought my dream languagecourse : A cassette and a small transport-friendly booklet , called " Kauderwelsch " . The genius who put this together does not waste any time with grammar or Thai history but just assembles words after a wonderful system which I like it too mut : he fills pages with words he thinks useful and it's opposite meaning after this system : right-left / up-down / good -bad etcetera . Then another page with numbers , days, months .

 

I found out that it is possible to learn and speak about 8 words a day without letting this become a pain in the neck , multiplied with 5 weeks makes 280 words , more than this whole board of educated gentlemen will ever be able to recall .

 

I'll keep you posted .

 

BuBi

[Nervous_Dog]

I learnt my thai, which is enough to insult a bar girl, order a beer, and stop a business deal in 4 weeks. 2 lessons a week, 2 hours a lesson.

 

I told the person to teach me baby talk thai, simplest sentance structure possible, and all present tence.

 

It worked and I did it in AUSTRALIA, not Thailand.

 

Found a young student wanting part time cash!

 

(No sex)

 

DOG

[Flashermac]

There is a nice little tape cassette and book set called "Speak Thai in Seven Days". Now there's no way you can master the material in 7 days, but it is nicely broken down into 7 lessons.

 

It is purely conversational and designed for survival level. What I like about it is the mixture of male and female Thai voices on the tapes. You might want to look for that one. (Don't know if there is a German version.)

 

As to finding a Thai teacher, look for a student working part-time in a Thai restaurant. Some of them are happy enough to make a bit of extra money helping you. Might even meet some cute gals this way!

[Khun004]

Flashermac said: Now there's no way you can master the material in 7 days

Flashermac is exactly right.

I live in Thailand and have been studying Thai language here for two years.

Two years of concentrated, daily, study is just the appetizer to learning the language.

 

7 days or 35 days?

That's like 7 grains of rice, or 35.

In that time you can't even come close to being able to speak the tones or the vowel sounds.

You can't even begin to train your voice to the frequency scale used for Thai language.

 

Bottom line: the Thais will be polite, and will nod and smile at you, and they will say, "Oh, you can speak Thai," but, notice, they are replying to you in ENGLISH.

In reality they won't understand what you are saying, but they will do their best to "save face" for you, by pretending they are delighted "you can speak Thai" -- as they ask you to repeat in English.

 

As to finding a Thai teacher, look for a student working part-time in a Thai restaurant. Some of them are happy enough to make a bit of extra money helping you. Might even meet some cute gals this way!

Again, I agree.

Most of the women working in restaurants in the farang areas are there for the express purpose of meeting farang men.

However, therein lies a problem: most restaurant staff are women.

Women speak very differently: different word choice, different vowel lengths, different emphasis, different intonation.

Quote often I hear farang men trying to speak Thai -- and they sound like women, albeit with deep voices.

I know they learned from women.

If you are a man, learn to speak Thai from a Thai man.

.

[buffalo_bill]

Is there a word for " Smartass " in Thai ? Just a thought .

[Pescator]

Kauderwelsch? Great title

 

 

I did a crash course on my own prior to an extended trip to upcountry Thailand where a decent command of thai is rather essential.

The linguaphone course, which by the way in my country is available at the local libraries.

The course comes with 4 cassettes along with text books.

Contains some 4-500 words in 40 lessons, covering a wide array of everyday situations.

I did it in 5 weeks exactly, studying approx 3 hours a day, did have a longhaired dictionary available. Prior to doing this course I only knew a handful words or so.

It worked wonders. And I am neither a fast learner nor a gifted language student.

Bottom line: If I could do it in that time frame, most can as well

 

Good Luck BuBi

 

Considering opposites: Have you come across near/far yet? You will love this one

[Pescator]

I live in Thailand and have been studying Thai language here for two years.

Two years of concentrated, daily, study is just the appetizer to learning the language.

 

Ya gotta be kidding!

And I thought I was a slow learner, glad to learn that this is not the case.

If your "2 years of concentrated, daily study is just the appetizer to learning the language", may I suggest that you take up patchwork instead? ::

No offense, but statements like this will only serve as a disencouragement for new learners and what is the point in that? Add to that I find it wildly exaggerated, cmp my post above.

 

cheers

hn

[Khun004]

Hua Nguu said: I did a crash course on my own prior to an extended trip to upcountry Thailand where a decent command of thai is rather essential ...[snip]...I did it in 5 weeks exactly, studying approx 3 hours a day,

I'm not looking for a word brawl here, but I find that post interesting enough for further comment.

I'm not trying to parade any expertise in Thai language here; I am very far from a decent level of skill with the language.

But for any readers who want to learn Thai, I think it's worthwhile to point out that that learning the language will not be as effortless as Hua Nguu suggests.

 

First of all, I looked at Hua Nguu's location in the side bar:

In Thai language that would appear to translate to "City of Ice".

Without the Thai script I can't be sure, but I've never heard of that city anywhere in Thailand.

Your user name, "Hua Nguu", translates to "snake head": a very unsavory phrase in any Asian language.

I'm sure you are just having a bit of fun with us.

 

You mentioned "extended trip upcountry".

Usually, when people in Thailand speak of "upcountry" they mean "Lana" (the Northern region around Chiangmai), or, more likely, "Isaarn" (the Northeastern region of the Khorat Plateau).

Both of those regions have specialized dialects, quite different in sound than "Bangkok" or "central" Thai.

I would be amazed if the Linguaphone course offered anything beyond the central Thai dialect.

Your Linguaphone course probably gave you enough words to count and order some food and ask for a room with a double bed,.

But I doubt if you could understand the day-to-day conversation of the people you met "up country", after just a few weeks with a Linguaphone course.

 

Have you come across near/far yet? You will love this one

That's a frequent scare tactic thrown at beginners.

It was thrown at me the first month in Thai language school.

But with a clear understanding of the sound difference between the consonants "gaw-gai" and "kaw-kai" and the clear tone difference between "siang-dtoh" and "sah-man", the meaning easily becomes clear.

 

Hua Nguu I'll make you an offer:

Next time you find yourself in Bangkok, please allow me to buy you a beer.

I'm eager to observe your Thai speaking and listening skills.

If you can, indeed, learn conversational, upcountry Thai in 5 weeks from a Linguaphone course, I'll shout you all the beer you can hold in one go.

And I'll rush out to buy that Linguaphone course.

.

[WorldFun]

I'll be eager to hear how this meeting passes if it ever materialises.

If not I'll be pleased to read further posts from any of you two

[buffalo_bill]

Hua Nguu ,

 

did you poor soul ever notice that nobody understands you ?

 

BuBi