Beyond getting the Pimsleur 10 lesson set for learning Thai, I had never previously found many resources for learning to speak Thai. A quick Google search last night, however, led to several online resources.

Some of these sites will even teach you how to read Thai. This had been of a particular interest to me, since I have always wondered why the hell there are no spaces in their writing.

Here are the links:

http://www.learningthai.com/
http://www.learningthai.com/speak_thai.html
http://www.learn-thai.com/
http://www.pattayacity.com/pattaya/speak.html

The LearningThai.com site seems to be very comprehensive.

While you're stateside, I recommend just borrowing language tapes from the local library for free. Hearing & repetition --meaning repeating it out loud-- are mandatory. Forget computer-based training --get cassette tapes and a Walkman with a rewind button so you can repeat a particular phrase over & over as much as you want.

If it seems like you're not getting anywhere, you will make better progress in Thailand, I promise you.

In Thailand, consider taking classroom instruction at one of the many AUA (American University Alumni) language centers. They're all over the country. There's a great one in Chiang Mai, and more than one in Bangkok. They have all kinds of basic conversational courses. For example, you can go twice a week, for a month, for a measly 3000 baht. They even have a "small talk" course! Is that perfect for us or what?

Also in Thailand, get some little books that Thai preschoolers use to learn the letters, the ones you actually write in, like a coloring book. They're very cheap, about a dime each. A Thai teacher I met at AUA told me to do that and it was a great idea. By the way, her first language was Thai! (Most of your girlfriends will speak Thai as a second language, and have Esarn or another language as a mother tongue.) You can also take private lessons at AUA.

You might learn a few bits & pieces from a bar girl, but really learning the language that way is unlikely unless she speaks English exceptionally well and has taught before.

The lion's share of the printed Thai you will see is written with only about twenty letters of the alphabet. Two letters are not used at all any more, and another letter is so rarely used that even some Thais stop to think about it when they write it.

The better you speak the language, the deeper and more fulfilling all your experiences will be.

Well I spent quite a bit of money as I want to learn some Thai before I go to maiden LOS trip. My experience is I enjoy myself a lot more when I can communicate with working girls. In TJ I don't ever speak English. In Brasil, I speak pretty much fluently.

I am disappointed in Rosetta Stone, it's very hard unless they have a strategy I don't understand. They have 98 lessons which is great except lesson 6 is already hard for me so I am doing it here and there. Basically I can hear some differences but I cannot repeat any sentences.
I was pissed when i saw the book was entirely in thai, meaning no western thai translation.

Pimsleur is again awesome and has given me a head start. I will not be able to speak but I will be able to have several phrases I can repeat with right pronounciation. Basically poo ying is going to have a good laugh. Pimsleur has only 10 lessons which is a shame as it is great.

I also have the Instant Immersion Languages CD pack which includes 1 CD for thai. And that helps me as beginner CD.

Major problem for me with books is western alphabet used to help westerners is not reliable when it comes to consonant so I cannot pick up any word unless it is similar to words taught in pimsleur. Western alhpabet helps with vowels as it displays the long ones with double letter.

Having said that, 2 books are worth buying, Thai for lovers and English-Thai Bar Guide, latter is best as pocket book size so I can see myself carrying it in pocket and display it to girls when it comes to asking questions. Only downfall is it does not contain as many graphical words as in thai for lovers. It's more for the "romantic" hobbiest.

For general phrasebook, I got the latest lonely planet and it is good enough.

I was worried about the 5 tones but that's not my problem.
Thai does not have a single way to say yes or no. Words are all reversed, for example you say you eat can.
For asking question, you add at the end of the phase, so for example you would say: you eat can, right? Again right varies depending on the sentence then the answer will vary depending on the right used.

I also bought a CD "Improving your Thai pronunciation", totally useless.

When I am told, girls speak English, I have a hard time believing this, maybe they can repeat some phrases but I will be quite surprised if it goes beyong this.

Bottom line, I am just trying to pick up a few phrases and will not be able to learn the language. I'd say spanish and Portuguese are easy language to learn, German would be difficult, Thai is extremely difficult.

I listened to the Pimsleur CD and was very dissapointed. It contained minimal vocabulary and was mostly about sentence structure. Kept repeating the same damn conversation over and over. There is no quick way to learn Thai. I've been learning for years and still have problems when the conversation gets fast and informal.


The girls English varies tremendously. Some barely speak -others do quite well. You can make that part of the interview process in the bar if you're looking for a girl you can talk to. Most of us appreciate a girl who quietly goes about her business. Moans and screams are the same in any language.

>>>I listened to the Pimsleur CD and was very dissapointed. It contained minimal vocabulary and was mostly about sentence structure. Kept repeating the same damn conversation over and over.

The biggest disappointment with the Pimsleur Thai course for me is that it stops at 10 lessons. Definitely won't get you very far. With Pimsleur you need at least 30 lessons to be even minimally conversant. As for the repetition - that's part of the process - repeat the same (or similar) things until it really starts to sink in. It's like how we learn our first language. After a while, it just starts to "sound right".

Athos - try to get far enough in the Pimsleur to learn "Khun khowjai pasa ahngrit, mai khrup" ("You understand language English, no?"). I found "khun" (you), pom (I), "khowjai" (understand) and "mai" ("no") to be pretty useful, as in:

"Khun khowjai, mai?" (You understand, no?)
"Pom khowjai." (I understand.)
"Pom mai khowjai." (I no understand.)

And of course "sawatdee" (hello/goodbye) and "khob khun" (thank you) are used all the time. Pimsleur drills you on those too.

But I have to agree - for my westernized brain - learning any Thai is a bitch. The words are NOTHING like western speech. I made it through 30 Pimsleur spanish lessons in about a month or two. If Pimsleur had 30 Thai lessons, it'd probably take me a year to master them.

And even if all you do is amuse the locals, at least you've accomplished something.

(Message edited by Phoenixguy on March 12, 2005)

Athos

Khun kit mak (you think too much). My first trip to Thailand consisted of me stepping off the plane in Bangkok. I did ZERO prepwork, didn't research a darn thing. I got off the plane and headed to Soi 4 to look for a hotel.

With NO Thai (and accidentally speaking a few phrases in Tagalog as the girls LOOK like Pinays) I had a WONDERFUL first trip. Yeah, I've barfined girls that have spoken wonderful English and others that speak three words. The deal is if you just go into it and TRY to have fun then you're 99.99999999% likely to be successful.

Thais have a word you may have learned in your lessons: Sanuk. Speaking Thai is not a requisite for fun in Thailand. Don't think about it - just go and enjoy.

E

I agree pimsleur does not go far enough but at least I can pronounce several sentences that I could not learn from reading book.
I like girls that are quiet anyway so maybe this will be the silent trip almost like a real date.

That's great -- after spending $80 and wasting 2 hours listening ,you know enough Thai to ask someone whether or not they speak English.

You could find that out by asking them in English and using the $ 80 to screw a couple of Thai pooying -- in English or Thai.

The best learning tool is a book that sells in Thailand called "Essential Thai", it's impossible to learn Thai by just repeating phrases or listening to tapes. The tapes help in understanding the pronunciation but you have to break down the structure and grammar of the language before getting into vocabulary of individual words. This book takes out all of the bullshit and strips the language down to its basic premise of what words you use the most. It comes with a couple of tapes or probably CD's by now and that just helps you with the pronunciation. All of the monks whom teach Thai here in San Diego used to use the Beginner's Thai books but now they only use the Essential Thai books after I bought them a few for their classes. Like any language, the most important thing to learn is the basic pronouns and about 20 verbs or so...the rest of the vocab you will learn by trial and error and just rote memorization. The great thing about Thai is that the verbs structure never changes, unlike Spanish which fucks that language up IMHO. In Thai you use monikers to determine whether the verb is future or past tense...very simple.

A fun way to learn Thai is to get a Thai girl naked in your room and start pointing to body parts and asking how to say it in Thai. Once you get to the part where you point and she says "hoi", then the lessons are over and its time to get to business.

I too have the Pimsleur set and found it almost completely useless. I've never understood how people would rather have 20 phrases memorized vs. 20 useful words whose uses are completely understand allowing a mix/match process to be used.

Trust me - you find a "fun" girl and it doesn't matter if you can't speak a word of each others language. Hell, on this LAST trip KM hooked me up with a FOB that ended up being an INCREDIBLE companion for most of my trip...

E

That's because all you had to do was point and she would suck or give up whatever you pointed at - you horndog.

You turned an innocent little Big C clerk into a total whore. Way to go my man !!

Of course in between you had to listen to a lot of " Fa teenai. Tom teenai ? " LOL

I never pointed - she showed "initiative"...

Hey, wouldn't YOU put up with a lil' bit of "Faa gap KM teenai?" at 6am for a cute, spinner sexual terrorist like her?

E

Hey Epi,

Are you learning anything from those Thai CD's I sent you?

I really liked learning basic Thai from "Thai for Beginners". I just played it while in the car, and had the simple stuff down on my first trip. They have a book that goes with it to teach basic verbs and writing, but I didn't bother with the writing. Too much work. lol

Ah man...KM, Epi, I've got to hook up with you guys on one of your future trips...you guys have such a blast over there. Picking up non pro hotties from the mall....too awesome.

For those who like Pimsleur language courses, I thought I'd mention they recently released a Comprehensive Thai I course. This is a full 30 lesson Level I course, not the little 10 lesson course that ends before you learn enough to be useful. If it's true to the form of other Pimsleur courses it should provide a vocabulary of several hundred of the most frequently used words, as well as lots of pronunciation practice.

I am making progress in the course, but I'm finding it really slow going, as Thai words have absolutely no semblance to English equivalents (no surprise there). This makes it much tougher for me to (1) remember the vocabulary and (2) associate the word with its meaning. It is sinking in, but MUCH slower than with a romance language like Spanish.

The 10 lessons DID NOT end before I had almost insurmountable difficulty, LOL.

Are the first 10 lessons the same in both courses?

Av8tr--Don't know about Epi, but I ended up learning a (very) little from your CD's. Thanks.

The first 10 CD's are similar in content to the prior basic course, but they apparently redid them. I know they had some things in the old 10 lesson course that aren't in lessons 1-10 this time around, and vice versa.

Anyone have a PDF or HTML version of the Pimsleur Thai vocabulary or lessons? I've got the audio, but it's painfull slow to find and review the words I want to review (plus I learn more easily when I have a visual to accompany the audio). Send me a private message if you do!

Louis