Fell in love with the real Thailand only in Jan this year.. have been there a few times b4 this .. But just to tourist attractions... This year I have been captivated by the Thai culture, Beaches, value for money shopping!! Polite/friendly people.. most of all The loads of Yummy Thai Food! So far have been to thailand 6 times this year since Jan 2006!! Love it!!!! This year has seen me through Krabi(4 times), Ko Phangan, Ko samui, Bkk, hatyai, Ko phi phi(twice),Ko lanta(twice).. looking forward to Bkk again next month!! Pity will not be there for the TF party though!!!

Tried learning the Thai language since April this year!! But to no success!! So far I have only managed to get to only the simple polite sayings! Like karp kun na ka... chiok li, tum ah rai u.. etc.. When will I be able to speak the language fluently!!! Hate failing at anything!! And this is one of them!!! When can I get thru a conversation with out stammering or trying so hard to recall certain words! Am so jealous when I see farangs on the streets speaking thai fluently.. how did they get to that stage.. so far having thai friends..buying thai cd roms... and dictionaries... are still not helping... Thinking of enrolling in cambridge language school in a couple of months for a thai course!! Hehehe.. then maybe I can show off my thai language skills by the end of the year! Wish me luck!! Why not being able to speak thai really disturbs me?.. coz.. so far I can get myself around in neighbouring countries without help! Like I speak Malay, Indonesian, Mandarin.... And travelling alone .. if u know the language... it's so much easier! After I master the thai language.. If ever!!!! Next goal is tagalog!!! hehehe.... ambitious huh??

I know the feeling. FOr me it was the beaches of Koh Samed, Koh Chang and down in Krabi at Railay. And the food, and a million other things that keep me coming back. I went to a private school for about 10 days and got a start on things -- I guess as MIss Love says above, it's mostly up to you -- you just have to keep at it, and by the sounds of things you will. Good luck! For the record, I also took at crack at Tagalog when I was living in Manila over the spring months -- can't get my head around the grammar. Never seen anything like it. Maybe I took too much time drinking san miguel, and not enough time studying

I'd say get Thai for Beginners by Benjawan Poomsan Becker if you want to improve your Thai, best to get the CD too. I bought almost every learning Thai book I could find and found this one to be the most helpful. Almost as soon as I moved to Thailand people refused to believe I'd lived here less than 2 years, and thats mostly due to studying from this book. You can get it on Amazon but of course it's everywhere in Thailand. And the trick is to study for 10-20 minutes as often as you can. Every day is best.

The Becker CD is good because it forces u to speak Thai. Also highly recommend learning the thai alphabet. It makes everything a lot easier. I am not fluent but getting there. But I do 3 90 minutes lessons a week.

Learning new languages is not easy..

I'm trying to learn Malay and get all fed up that I dont really put all my effort to that.... very disappointing!

As people who have visited Grooved_Arete know (for those non-cognizatii, a famous rock climb on Tryfan in Wales), one of my biggest regrets when I first came to Thailand in 1996 was not to study the language immediately. I made steps in 2002 to rectify the situation by attending AUA (the American University Alumni language centre) situated in Ratchadamri Road but in retrospect should have probably attended more consistently than I have done! AUA was recommended to me by a friend who considered that its students pronounced the best tones of all the different learning?systems? that are used.

The system that is used at AUA is developed on a system called automatic learning growth and how children develop language skills (please see their website for details http://www.auathailand.org/ ) but in essence for the first 1,000 hours or so of learning, it involves LISTENING; no note taking, no dictionaries, no speaking and no homework. The student listens to two native Thai speakers role play in different situations and the student is encouraged NOT to speak Thai, perhaps contrary to perceived wisdom, rather to listen to the conversation, not focusing on any particular words but gaining an overall understanding and meaning of what has been said. The topics range from cooking (actually in the class room), to slang, politics, newspapers, family, anything in fact from the serious to the humorous.

Farangs come to Thailand with their own native ?tone-map? (for want of a better word) and in a perfectly understandable effort to learn the language as quickly as possible, they try and squeeze the Thai tone-map onto their own. For speakers whose native language is non-tonal, the result is usually a disaster. Thai?s are far too polite to tell you that they can not understand a word you are saying and even if they can, you have probably mentioned a horse when you meant to refer to a dog, or that you are jealous rather than concerned?the list could go on!

From my experience of the course at AUA, I think it most effective if you can spend around 20 hours a week upwards. Once at level 5 (listening level five), after around 1000 hours, one is permitted to study reading and writing. After this period, students start to speak Thai ?naturally? (at about the standard of a three year old). Admittedly, the AUA system is not for everyone but on its foundations students can improve in the subsequent years.

Finally, contrary to Lynn's assertion that she hears farangs speaking fluently, in ten years in Thailand, I can count the number of farangs speaking good Thai on one hand. Khun Lynn, I hope these notes on my own experience will be useful to you.

Yeah .. I guess that most prob I would have to stay in Thailand for at least 6mths b4 getting anywhere with the language.. no point trying to learn it when I don't have pals here in singapore to practise it with.. thanks so much for taking the time to reply to my journal postings!! Give me a buzz if any of you venture to singapore.. that way I can learn the language faster!! hehehe...

You can also get the Thai for Beginners Book / CD here

http://www.buythaibooks.com/customer/product.php?productid=7

Don?t know if it?s a better deal than Amazon

I can?t work out if Amazon includes the CD?s or not

The bookshop is linked to this web site

http://www.learningthai.com

You can listen to conversations written by the schoolchildren on this web site

http://www.learningthai.com/listen/index.html

Hope it helps to give you a bit of practice before your next visit

Thanks Jay!! Need all the help I can get!! Only thing now is.. choosing the best of the suggestions.. I have already wasted enough dough on other materials that was not very effective.. or maybe It's just me!!

Arete..

Thanks so much for taking the time to come up with a detailed write up on AUA. And abt the farangs that u mentioned .. abt how few u have met that can speak good thai.. it depends.. maybe to me anyone that can carry a conversation in thai is fantastic!! From one that speaks none!! But hopefully not for long!!!

Grooved_Arete: Although I think that everybody finds success in different learning styles, the system at AUA -- the "automatic learning growth" based on children's L1 acquisition patterns -- is really a rehash of the AudioLingual Method from the 1950-1960s . It's the same basic ideology employed by the Berlitz School. And it's considered to be, by most experts in Second Language Acquisition outdated, and one of the most labour intensive, expensive and inefficient methods on the market.

One basic problem is that it promotes learning without translation back to your native language. This forces the program to start with colours, simple nouns and other concrete or easily demonstrable language. In general, this does not reflect the immediate wants or needs of adult learners. There's also the avoidance of learning the written script. Given the enormous amout of language that both native speakers and second language learners learn through reading, asking students to wait to learn Thai script just gets in the way of adult second language acquisition. If I were you, I would not get locked into any specific program that has a dogmatic methodology. Best to find a teacher you get along well with who will teach you what YOU want to learn (not what they decide to teach you) in the way that YOU want to learn it.

The Becker CDs are good if u are not in Thailand. I practised with them for 6 months and made a lot of progress. U might also try to see if u can find a thai teacher in Singapore...there are plenty enough Thais there. Perhaps try a search on TF for members living in Singapore and PM them asking for any advice.

Think I would have to be a premium member if I wanted to do a search for tf members in sg? Anyway.. most of them would be sigaporeans.. and as I noticed... from all the responses and mails that I get most of the ppl here that are not gals are farangs.... lol!!!

So far I have gotten to know only 1 thai guy from TF and he speaks good english!!!

There has been some very useful comments on this topic from members already, showing the diversity of members language acquisition needs; I can also endorse the Becker texts (and dictionary) to which some members refer. It is worth pointing out that there are some excellent other texts that TFs may wish to enquire about, two of which I mention below:

1. AUA publish ?Reading & Writing (mostly reading)? prepared by the scholar J Marvin Brown in the late 1970s and;

2. David Smyth in Routledge?s Essential Grammars series has authored an excellent: ?Thai An Essential Grammar?. Although very comprehensive, it is also accessible to others who are not necessarily university students of Thai (!) as it comes with parallel transliteration for those not yet up to speed with the Thai alphabet.

Mike (Inamorato) has come up with a valid different view point in terms of learning and the specific needs of adults (and thanks for the historical context). Yes, there is more than one method around which language acquisition can take place and it is probably true that the learning process for individuals is never completely identical. So it would be churlish to rule out any particular method if it is effective.

Just to correct a misperception however, reading and writing is encouraged at AUA but you either have to be a speaker already and familiar with the Thai sounds, or at ?AT 5? level (around 1000 hours). Also, in terms of cost effectiveness, it is worth pointing out that students attend when they have the time and inclination to do so and for those working, this may provide a good alternative. You only pay for lessons that you take.

It is not my intention to promote any cause here, rather to reflect on my own experience for the benefit of others. It remains the case however, that if you want to speak Thai well, you need to listen very carefully and the course(s) at AUA encourage you to do just that.

My best pal Accuframe gave me a few more sites.. have yet to test them... will get to it!!

www.learningthai.com

http://www.thaifocus.com/phrases.htm

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

http://www.thaiforlovers.com/

http://www.seasite.niu.edu/thai/spokenthai/default.htm

http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/hello/thai.html

it will help u alot if u have thai friends to speak to and listen to. It's more difficult to learn if u just visit here for a while and not stay here for long

All I can say is, I miss Thailand. There's soo many reasons that I love Thailand and I'm sure you share the same reasons. Learning Thai was at first a challenge but once you figure it out, it just comes natural.