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learning to speak thai..


malcyx

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Hi, im interested in learning thai.. any of you have information on where to do this.cost

for lessons, preferably in Pattaya.. Would be good to hear from those who have done this .. thanks

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Hi, im interested in learning thai.. any of you have information on where to do this.cost

for lessons, preferably in Pattaya.. Would be good to hear from those who have done this .. thanks

 

 

http://www.thaiwalen.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psvL2eYQ7YM&feature=related

There are three sides to every argument: your side, my side and the right side.

Thank God I'm an atheist.

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Walen is a good school as far as I am concerned.

 

Visit the school and just sit in for an hour or 3.

 

They do not teach transliteration in this school and I think transliteration

is a waster of time anyways.

 

Some people prefer transliteration...I think they think it is easier which it isn't

because very little to nothing in Thailand is written that way.

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I've tried both Walen and Pro Language and I found Pro Language a better experience. A lot fewer students per class (unless you do 1on1 lessons of course) and the staff is friendlier. Walen seems more professional at first, but I found it to be a rush job.

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I've tried both Walen and Pro Language and I found Pro Language a better experience. A lot fewer students per class (unless you do 1on1 lessons of course) and the staff is friendlier. Walen seems more professional at first, but I found it to be a rush job.

 

I went into Pro language and looked at the text book. Transliteration is not for me.

 

Talked to some of the students and they seem happy there.

 

I would say that Walen may be a little difficult for people who are just starting out with Thai.

(Best would be to at least learn the Thai script first - the alphabet)

 

What I do know though is that you are better off to move away from transliteration as soon as you can.

It is a waste of time. The sooner you can read Thai the faster you will learn.

 

The other thing with learning Thai in groups is that you have many "students" who are just there for the ED visa.

 

That can slow things down and people don't have a real motivation to learn the language.

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  • 5 months later...

I went into Pro language and looked at the text book. Transliteration is not for me.

 

Talked to some of the students and they seem happy there.

 

I would say that Walen may be a little difficult for people who are just starting out with Thai.

(Best would be to at least learn the Thai script first - the alphabet)

 

What I do know though is that you are better off to move away from transliteration as soon as you can.

It is a waste of time. The sooner you can read Thai the faster you will learn.

 

The other thing with learning Thai in groups is that you have many "students" who are just there for the ED visa.

 

That can slow things down and people don't have a real motivation to learn the language.

 

Having done 15 months at walen with the three books, I have to say they are a terrible place to learn Thai. You're right, getting off transliteration is a great idea, but since they never teach students how to read, what's the point. (I learned on my own for the first 10 or so months of my 15 months during which time I went to class only to renew my visa).

 

Reading Thai is about 3 things - knowing the consonants, the vowels, and the tone. At no point (except some random points i book 3 - the last class they offer) do they teach you how to read the tone of a word. Heck, the teachers (other than the manager) never actually knew what tone a word was when asked (of course, they said words perfectly; ie they implicitly knew the tone, but not explicitly). Also, they definitely aren't hard enough on students about their pronunciation IMHO.

 

The other thing is almost none of the sentences - supposed patterns - are very useful in spoken thai. I think they just try to stuff random vocabulary in there as there's a question in book 3 that goes something like "now that you know 2,000 words in thai, do you think you can speak about simple things in thai."

 

In the pro intermediate class (they seem to have only beginner and intermediate), there's no transliteration used on the whiteboard although there's some in the book.

 

Someone who's taken both AUA and Pro told me AUA is better - don't know.

 

The honest truth is (IMO) if you want to learn Thai, either go to a school in Bangkok or you have to design your own program if you live in Pattaya.

 

But, if you already read Thai, but your pronunciation is terrible, Walen will help you improve - and maybe a lot if you are bad. BUT, why not just buy the book from Walen or use another book and then pay a private tutor 200-300 baht an hour to work on your pronunciation? I did that with Andrew Bigg's book for learning English - written in Thai - and my pronunciation improved at a much better rate than at Walen.

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El Jefe...

 

good post.. I did Thai-Walen as well. I tried buying Book 2 and 3, they would not sell it to me, so I xeroxed off a student. I thought Duang a great teacher but Max dissed her and she quit under fire. Too bad. She was easy on the eyes besides being a great teacher. She still lives in Pattaya.

 

You nailed it good--- "random vocabulary."This was my take as well with the T/W methodology.

I went through various Thai tutors and found an old Thai guy highly recommended..Pi Cham.

The guy is a character, knows his tones. He always works you over on your tones...

 

I was glad that I took Thai-Walen as I can read okay and got up to speed with Pi Cham.

I thinking hitting it hard and letting it slack is smart.

You cannot do it everyday.

 

The Thai slang, as in newspapers---is tough. Benjawan Poomsan Becker books and CDs are good.

I just wrote out a Thai dictionary laid up in a hospital for weeks and that was excellent therapy, each to his/her own.

I also love Thai TV, the soaps and comedy shows and I learn much. TGs like it that I like it.....

good for an extra root....

ALL girls like it in the Ass. Not all know it....yet!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi, im interested in learning thai.. any of you have information on where to do this.cost

for lessons, preferably in Pattaya.. Would be good to hear from those who have done this .. thanks

an other option is http://www.excelanguage.com/

contact An, she one of the best teacher from Thai Walen who started her own school near Big-C Pattaya Tai

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