Quote:

---

For me, one of the biggest pleasures is being able to read.

---

Now, how many Americans can say that? We're so happy for you, dear. Remember, just a few more baby steps and you'll reach that pinnacle of American academic achievement - high school equivalency.

Edited by: Yimsuai  at: 9/11/05 1:42 am

Rosetta Stone: Thai is definitely NOT what I would recommend if you want to learn Thai. I've been studying Thai for a year now, and recommend this method:



1) Buying and learn Pimsleur Thai. There are only 10 lessons in this course but it is very good. You'll learn alot and it's fairly painless.



2) Buy Thai For Beginners. Get the Book/CD course. This is reading/writing/speaking/listening. Don't ignore the written language. If you learn the written language it will help you with correct pronounciation.



3) Goto Thailand



4) Off a boy that will help you practice Thai. Often they'd rather practice their Engrish, than your Thai. Find a brainy boy who will help you.



5) attend a Thai language course in Thailand. I recommend not to bother with this until you've already learned some Thai on your own. In my opinion there's no need to have someone else sit down and teach you to count in Thai, or learn the days of the week, etc. You should be able to do that on your own. I haven't gotten to the point of hiring a teacher yet.







Dboy

 

homintern is on your IGNORE list.

Dboy:



Thanks for the lead on Pimsleur Thai; they have other languages as well that I'd like to at least get even a little bit of skill, ie Romanian



Here's a link I founf for others who might be interested:



www.multilingualbooks.com/pims-thai.html



Less expensive than Rosetta Stone and options for a short 10 lesson course or "comprehensive" 30 lesson course.



 

Pimsleur is simply the best there is. They have a unique system, where you learn something, then learn something else, and then go back and hit you with the first thing you learned...building from there. Someone else here might be able to explain the method in more scientific terms than I can, but I can say it really does work.



I do think it's important to do this Pimsleur course before Thai For Beginners. TFB is an excellent course, but its a much harder learning curve to start with that one.



I studied TFB by making one copy for each of my cars, another copy for my desktop computer, and yet another for the laptop. Also ripped a copy to put on my mp3 player. That works! You can't help but start thinking "bri-sa-nee" instead of "post office".



I've also developed my own method of learned Thai script if you're interested. You can learn multiple symbol-sounds while only memorizing one thing, so its more efficient that simple flashcards. There's memorization involved, just less of it.



Here's how it works. I wish I knew how to do Thai fonts on this board but I dont. Ok, what you do is pick simple words that you can remember. Some words work better than others for this, but lets use the thai word "nana" like Nana Plaza. I like this example because its easy to remember the symbols for the Nana BTS station.  The "n" sound looks similar to an English "n" except for the circle-y thing on the lower right, the "ah" sound looks like a cane. If you can remember what "nana" looks like, you've just learned 2 Thai characters and their sounds. Works better with short words like chicken "gai"... So I started out memorizing letters/sounds that way, then made the flashcards to test myself with. The written language looks beautiful to me, so I guess I was motivated. Also the boys are impressed when I can (sometimes) spell their names in Thai:-) It works wonders for making friends.



Dboy

 

Gearguy: it looks cheaper to get the 10 lesson course, but if you're serious about learning the language go for the 30 lesson instead. It's a smarter buy, here's why. The 10 lesson course is also the first 10 lessons of the 30 lesson. Sooo, if you deside to want to learn more, you'll end up re-buying those first 10 lessons when you get the longer course.



Sadly in the case of Thai they only have a 10 lesson course, which really sucks. I would request/complain/bitch to someone at Pimsleur of I only knew who to talk to. I tried once, but they are owned by some evil monster like Simon and Shuster or somebody and I ended up giving up after getting nowhere, and burning up my cellphone time calling new york.



Dboy