I am sure there have been 1000s of such journals but ....

Can anyone recommend a good Thai language teacher for private lessons?

Please advise.

Sorry if my comments are not helpful, but to be brutally honest there really aren't any good private Thai language teachers that I know of.

I'm not blaming the teachers! The facts are:

* Compared to the wealth of resources for learning English, there are relatively few good resources for learning Thai. There are some decent websites and some ok textbooks, but really they don't measure up to their English language counterparts. There's also a lot of really awful textbooks

* There aren't schools or courses for teaching Thai people how to teach Thai to farangs.

Because of the above two factors, Thai teachers will often try to teach by rote or by "total immersion" (a discredited method) or by their own quirky self-taught methodology. Natural teaching ability and the right personality can overcame the lack of training and resources, but you need to have relatively low expectations.

On the other hand, Thai teachers are very cheap when compared to English. And any structured teaching is probably better than no teaching.

(I am completely self-taught in Thai though)

I recommend Ghee for the cafeteria department of the new TF school

King

there are schools which can be useful (and pricey). I dont know any.

I agree with the comments above by Niranahm, in general.

The best thing is to get the AUA books (might be out of print, I dont know) - reading and writing workbooks, both. And do the lessons and at the same time find a Thai person who has patience and can follow you in the books.

Definitely learn to read as you go. It will accelerate things exponentially after you can read a few sounds, then words, then.....

Go up or down country depend on what dialect you want to learn. You can also consider some border province for Laos Burma or Khmer language. Rent a house for a few month and force you self to learn. Alternative get a gf that does not speak a word of English and force her to learn you.

What ever you do not use Whalen school they suck

I have hired schools to teach Thai to my farang staff in the past. Not too impressed...

The AUA books are good, and some of the websites are useful. I think best not learn from the gf until you have the fundamentals -- otherwise you risk picking up bad habits.

Books are cheap and they will annoy with their different phonetics, but you can pick up something from most of them. The Becker books get a lot of praise, but really they are quite ordinary. It's just that there's so much worse out there.

It's also best to learn central Thai to start -- that works everywhere, including Laos.

why not study at my uni? u will meet new friends from all over the world ... lol

check at www.chula.ac.th and go to faculty of art link

why don't you have thai gf? 555

I think that Niranahm and PJack have given the same advice that some of my Thai friends that have lived in America had said.

And if you are learning your vocabulary and pronunciation from your Thai gf, then I suggest that you make sure that she has proper grammar and pronunciation.

A few years ago I had private lessons at Jentana & Associates

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

I thought the teacher was good but my problem was a lack of practice between lessons and lacking confidence to try and not worry about getting it wrong.

I?m looking to start again but I think a class may be better than private lessons.

I?ve got a list of previously recommended schools at work and will post them tomorrow.

The Andrew Biggs Academy was planning to offer Thai lessons but it doesn?t seem to have happened.

Depending on what time suits you, if you?re interested in a class or sharing a teacher, let me know.

Sorry, going to have to go against some of what's said here.

Firstly, AUA books good? come on. I've seen them. Some of the shittier texts i've seen..and I've seen many.

And if the Becker series has gotten a lot of praise, then it's well desereved. When compared to what else is on the market, the Becker series is a little more than just 'ordinary'. I would've actually said her books make up the better series of Thai Language learning books currently availiable.

And as far as schools are concerned. I had once done some brief study with www.tlaschool.com. At that time TLA had some quite helpful material and what appeared to be quite dedicated teachers..