Hi guys,

 

I have been learning Thai for over 2 years now, studying at home and meeting once a week with my Thai teacher. I've made great progress. I can read (although still slow, like a kid) and I can have simple conversations in Thai. When I am in Thailand, I nearly only speak Thai with the girls, which is great ....

 

but I'm not quite there yet!!

When a Thai talks fast, or when I'm watching a Thai movie, I can't follow what they're saying, still due to a lack of vocabulary and also because it's just too fast. I also cannot really read Thai websites yet, because I can understand only about half of the words. The level of this material is just too high to be able to enjoy or learn from.

 

I would really like to read or see or listen to material which pushes my limits, but not too high of a level. Also needs to be fun, like a movie or just interesting subjects. I already am learning from different kinds of sources, which are all 'lesson-based'. But I like to learn from something 'real' and more fun now, like a movie or Thai website.

 

Anyone have any suggestions for me? How to take your skill level from beginner/intermediate to advanced in a quick but also fun way?

Edited August 28, 201115 yr by aazz123

 

how's that for you?

 

I pretty much listened to the level 5 stuff till i understood it, when i first started listening a couple years into learning thai I had to pause it every 5 seconds to catch up with how quick she speaks

 

Films etc though, i still have difficulty and would be lost without subs most of the time, chatting is easier as people are more easy going.

 

 

http://www.manager.co.th/Around/ViewBrowse.aspx?BrowseNewsID=9040

 

I try and read one article a day from here. Newspaper level though and I have to check a lot of the words

 

 

http://th.wikipedia.org/

 

this is good if you want to read about something you're interested in.

Thanks for your reply, herds.

 

The ALG video is really nice! It doesn't go too fast for me and I can understand about 80-90% no problem, so this seems to be exactly right for my skill level. But what if you don't understand a word, how do you look it up without knowing how to write it?

 

As for the wiki link and news-website, I think I'll have to save that for later... I am realizing that I really need to expand my vocabulary first before being able to learn from higher level content. I'm gonna try to learn about 100 new words a week on average, which means that I will know 5k more words in a year. I bet that I'll be ready to read advanced content at that point.

 

It's really weird advancing really quickly and noticing getting better at Thai every single week, but at the same time knowing that the goal of speaking fluently is still about 5-10 years away!

thailanguage dot com's dictionary supports kareoke thai so you can type it as it sounds into that, otherwise guess at what you think the word could be till you come across the right dictionary entry.

 

not sure how many of those 100 words a week you'll remember So many words I see in news articles now i'll look up and pay no effort to remember as the chances of them coming up in conversation are pretty slim, saying that I often surprise myself by remembering them if I come across them again. If something is worth remembering i'll anki it.

 

The main annoyance I have now is tripping up on the easy stuff, a bit like i can do my times tables now but I sometimes get stuck on my adding and subtracting.

Edited August 29, 201115 yr by herds

im in the same place as the both of you guys. one of the hardest parts for me is listening to a whole long sentence or speech and understanding it. i concentrate so hard on the beginning that i often dont even hear the end. then the sentence structure is backwards sometimes so i get half of what is said but not the other half.

 

ive been learning 1 year and 9 months and im doing very well or so im told.. sometimes i feel like im really getting ahead and speaking very well and then boom.. i have a week where i sound like a deaf person trying to sing the national anthem.. then ill have another learning spurt where ill acquire 20 to 30 new useable words and my grammar will improve and my tones spot on. i can catch the gist of 80 percent of all conversations.. 20 percent in detail. i also realized it depends on who is speaking to. my girlfriend i an understand 90 percent of when she talk to her family and friends.. but im never sure on the fine details.. ive accepted that i might never know.. i know most of the words for money and foreigner so im not worried about getting swindled.. lol.. just joking..

Sounds like you've made great progress in a short time.

 

 

 

 

These are killers at least for me. But this is like real young persons speach and high speed. At a push i'm understanding about 50% of her videos the first time round when I check the transcripts which I understand 100% I improve in listening quickly.

Edited August 30, 201115 yr by herds

nvm

Edited August 31, 201115 yr by kikenyoy