You can read Thai pretty well but your language learning has hit a wall? Try this..

[Chubzilla]

Have been stuck at intermediate level Thai for a while now, finding it hard to progress. Getting a bit stale reading text books and my learning has slowed right down. 

Tried a different approach yesterday which might help those in the same boat. Bought the following book from the book shop in Big C Pattaya Klang (SE Books or something?), it has lots of "Aesop Fable" type stories or stories relating to famous idioms (e.g. in the photo below the story is about "out of the frying pan into the fire") that are written in Thai and also have an English translation underneath.

So far found it to be of very good benefit. Cover up the English and try to read and make sense of the Thai and then the words you don't know learn them from the translation. They are simple stories using non-complex language (probably about 7-9 year old level of reading ability/comprehension) with the added benefit that they have a moral or life-lesson within so you get something extra out of them! 

Anyway so far have read a few stories and really enjoying learning like this for something different. As I say in the subject title though, you need to be able to read Thai properly to best use it, there's no tone marks or transliterations as this is not really a text book. 

171 pages of stories (as the front cover says, there's 50 stories) so there's a lot to get through. 199 baht, great value I think. Well worth a shot if you're struggling to progress, this is a fun way to learn and it doesn't smack you over the head like a text book does. 

 

 

[Oukiva]

Yes, looks like a good find , and from the cover looks like you may get the MP3 to hear these story (?)

 

That made me think to a more adult book "Thailand Fever" that I bought because he also has English and Thai same text.

They have a website http://thailandfever.com/ and you can see what it looks like inside there: http://thailandfever.com/inside_en/022.html

A good book

[Chubzilla]

4 minutes ago, Oukiva said:

Yes, looks like a good find , and from the cover looks like you may get the MP3 to hear these story (?)

 

That made me think to a more adult book "Thailand Fever" that I bought because he also has English and Thai same text.

They have a website http://thailandfever.com/ and you can see what it looks like inside there: http://thailandfever.com/inside_en/022.html

A good book

Oh yes forgot to mention the MP3 CD, that again could be a great tool, especially for me, my major problem is listening comprehension... listen to the story paragraph, decipher it in your head then see if you got it right (haven't played the disc but I assume it's the same layout as the book).

Thanks for the tip on Thailand Fever, the concepts there are more relevant to most of us I guess though the themes and language look to be more complex. Will definitely seek that one out next time at the book shop  

[jayjo]

Where exactly is this bookshop? Can you explain which soi is near? Thanks. (No i dont know where the Big C is)

[Oukiva]

8 hours ago, jayjo said:

Where exactly is this bookshop? Can you explain which soi is near? Thanks. (No i dont know where the Big C is)

Ask GoogleMaps:

https://www.google.co.th/maps/place/Big+C+Extra/@12.9338777,100.8907281,15.54z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x310295fc924aa6df:0xbf2f2a855c90a4db!8m2!3d12.935258!4d100.894809

Enter BigC Xtra and the bookshop is on the far-right corner, near the car-park access. 

[Chubzilla]

2 hours ago, Oukiva said:

Ask GoogleMaps:

https://www.google.co.th/maps/place/Big+C+Extra/@12.9338777,100.8907281,15.54z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x310295fc924aa6df:0xbf2f2a855c90a4db!8m2!3d12.935258!4d100.894809

Enter BigC Xtra and the bookshop is on the far-right corner, near the car-park access. 

If you are not too familiar with Pattaya, there's two book shops in Central Festival that would definitely have this book too. Asia Books level 5 or 6 and there's one on the lower ground floor, can't remember name. Just show the photo of the cover of the book to the staff they will find it. 

[MrLek]

It makes complete sense. We learned to read as children reading simple stories. Dick and Dora plus the cat in a hat stuff. To,learn a foreign language using the same formula is completely logical.