Learning Thai online..

[Yodsak]

Can anyone recommend any good Thai language/ learning sites online? Had a quick look but would be good if anyone has used a particular one that they have found useful? Thanks, Sam.

[7-Eleven]

http://www.thai-language.com/

[dave-]

As above, a very useful site

[Yodsak]

http://www.thai-language.com/

 

Okay thanks am now checking it out. And apologies for posting in wrong section. Thanks.

[misteregg]

+1

[slipperysam]

thanks, will do some lessons to brush up before my next trip.

[Buddy Edgewood]

I've found this one to be helpful too

 

http://www.l-lingo.com/en/learn-thai/index.html

[james0700]

I use this website

http://www.learningthai.com/

[DonTheJeweler]

Here's another great resource for learning Thai: http://thailanguagewiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page.

 

Really need to be able to read some Thai to get the most benefit from it, but good excuse to learn to read!

[jamesb]

Trying to learn on-line is a bear. I'd recommend finding a teacher and working in person or over the internet. Yes, it's more expensive but for THB300 - THB450 per hour you can really make fast progress. A teacher will also help you avoid learning incorrectly. I was amazed at how much I needed to un-learn once I started working with a decent teacher. It really depends on your budget and how fast you want to learn the language.

[Slacker]

Trying to learn on-line is a bear. I'd recommend finding a teacher and working in person or over the internet. Yes, it's more expensive but for THB300 - THB450 per hour you can really make fast progress. A teacher will also help you avoid learning incorrectly. I was amazed at how much I needed to un-learn once I started working with a decent teacher. It really depends on your budget and how fast you want to learn the language.

 

I agree. I tried unsuccessfully to master Thai basics from the internet, books and CDs. Unfortunately, without any feedback, what may seem like a good attempt will possibly be very wide of the mark when used. Tones are critical in spoken Thai and they have some god-awful vowel combinations that most Westerners struggle with. I only started making real progress with a Thai teacher and am now making solid progress with the alphabet with a view to reading & writing.

[kanderson]

I have found most useful:

 

i speak only a little thai - pom puut thai nid noi

speak slowly please. - puut cha cha kap

 

then they will bring out their english skills usually as you have shown your meager ability - so they don't lose face at that point.

 

immersion into the culture really helps - along with lessons if you have the time and ngern.

 

Some say as much as 90% of communication is non verbal.

[tokyo666]

http://www.thaipod101.com/

 

You can get a free trial with full access (also there are completely free parts of the site).

[jcnbkk]

Anybody coming across this thread know of a good thai language school in bkk? Preferably in the Sukhumvit area.

[Rapid Language Learning]

LearnThaiOnline

 

Start by learning to read.

 

 

And then start to pick up Thai from your environment (it's a living dictionary)...

 

The next step is to work through a structured course that does not use a transliteration scheme - like Everyday Thai For Beginners. Pay the extra for a private Thai tutor, someone who will follow your directions, not the conventional approach to teaching/learning Thai. Use skype online for convenience.

 

Briefly, the 'Rapid' strategy is (less, not more): spend 10 minutes per day (no more than 30) on self-study. Use Anki flashcards to memorize vocabulary (I add a mnemonic hint to each word in the answer section to reduce the times you need to review a card: e.g., It costs a lot of yen to keep sushi cool and fresh).

 

Then do one hour's lesson a week working through a chapter of Everyday Thai. Spend another hour a week on conversation practice, using just the vocabulary set that you've acquired so far.

 

It's important to practice pronouncing words and phrases by saying them repeatedly in a loud, exaggerated way - like mastering a tongue twister in your own language. It's physical exercise, not linguistic. Get your teacher to check that you are saying it right (insist on an honest opinion, because what you say will become very difficult to change in the future) and do these physical speech-therapy exercises to the point where you can say a phrase quickly and accurately without thinking about it.

 

Listen to your reading material. Don't bother to listen to stuff that you don't understand, it's inefficient and can lead to entrenching bad habits. Get a Thai speaker to record whatever you are studying and listen to the text repeatedly until you can 'hear' and understand a good 95% of what's being spoken.

 

Ideally, find a simple colloquial story about everyday events (a romance drama usually contains colloquial language about situations at home, family, relationships, feelings, shopping, work, etc.) and it's also fun to study and master songs (even if the language is sometimes a bit flowery).

 

At the intermediate stage, study a movie (not action/thriller with too much slang). Do this by reading and understanding the subtitles (in Thai) - you can usually rip the subtitles off the DVD, so study these with your Thai teacher as there'll be a fair amount of idiomatic usage and basic slang that you need to be explained to you. Then watch the movie (without the English subtitles) in sections, over and over again until you can hear & understand it fully.

 

This 'aural' training is the most effective way to be able to understand Thai people. Reading and speaking are relatively easy skills to master. (Forget writing, there is absolutely no need to be able to write - not until you read extensively and fluently.) But listening is a difficult skill that can be developed very efficiently if you first read and understand the material (almost to the point of memorizing it all) and then listening to the material many, many times until it suddenly pops out at you crystal clear.

 

When you get to this stage, you'll start finding that you can clearly pick out phrases and sentences in Thai conversation, even if that speech itself is garbled (or spoken in a 'lazy' way - which is most of the time...

 

Reading and listening to stories (and songs) is a really fun way to learn a language. Do it this way and you'll enjoy the journey... not to mention be genuinely loved, admired and respected by Thai women (and men)!

 

.

[honeysingh]

Livemocha best social language learning site

[Pattaya06]

woww thnx for site