duanja Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 Hi.... I am in Sweden now and I want to teach Thai language for swedish. I am going to apply a job at Folkuniversitetet next week. But I never teach Thai before, so I need help from friend who have experience in teaching or learning thai language. My target is Swedish who want to travel to thailand and would like to know the language. My course objective is to teach : 1. to be able to pronounce Thai alphabets and syllables 2. to write thai words, and short sentence. 3. Thai lanuage structure 3. Speaking Thai in everyday life. There are two choices about class schedule: 1. 1 times a week.....but i think it is too short for learning language. Based on your experience, what do you think ? 2. 2 times per week.....i think i will choose to teach two times a week... but i am a bit worried that the course will be so expensive. I think I will take not more than 10 in each class. Is it good number for learning thai language? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niranahm Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 I have both learned and taught Thai (but mainly taught English). I'll try to get some time to answer you seriously with some tips soon..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttesta Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 need advice on teaching Thai Isn't that like asking, hey, I have a car, need advice to drive .... Everybody should stick to his trade ... make up a business plan this is not even funny ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kayle Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 10 people in the class, I think there are too many. I guess they will be pretty much at beginner level, I think they need more attention from you. I would suggest a class of 3-4 people should help them learn better and also have some fun during the lesson with their classmates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeAussieGuy Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 Suggest you dont teach how to write Thai and concentrate on speaking and understanding. Your talking about tourists, so the time spent writing and reading would be a waste of time and probably would never be accomplished in a short time, better spend the time teaching how to survive here. Suggest you break it down into modules - taxi - like left, right, stop, slow down etc. And restaurant talk, courtesy talk like hello, thank you and excuse me (are there two such words in Thai language lol - yes I know there is so dont bother telling me people), etc. Get onto the websites and take some note of their structure, particularly Benjawan Poomsan Becker. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inamorato25 Posted May 4, 2006 Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 3-4 people should help them learn better and also have some fun during the lesson with their classmates. I agree 100%. More than 4 and it becomes a "class." Keep it small and personal. Suggest you dont teach how to write Thai and concentrate on speaking and understanding..... Suggest you break it down into modules - taxi - like left, right, stop, slow down etc. ... Get onto the websites and take some note of their structure, particularly Benjawan Poomsan Becker.. 1. I'd suggest leaving the choice of reading and writing up to the student. You should ask them first what their "goal" is in terms of proficiency. If they say they want to become fluent in Thai at some point, then they should learn the writing system in the beginning (but AS they learn the speaking -- not as a separate thing before teaching speaking). If, on the other hand, they just want "survivial Thai," then I agree with Mike that it's best just to work on conversational Thai. But if a student expresses a strong opinion about learning / not learning the writing system, then you need to listen to this first. 2. I also agree with Mike that you should break it into modules. One of the more common ways of looking at language now is "genre-based" learning. So instead of just teaching vocab and grammar points, you think of a complete social situation. For example, ordering food, asking directions, inviting a friend to go out, telling about personal info such as your job, etc. You then teach whatever vocab or grammar the learner needs to achieve those objectives. Doing this gives the student a context, which makes learning more meaningful, motivating, and easier to acquire. 3. Yes, Benjawan Poomsan Becker has probably the best beginner book on the market, appropriately titled, "Thai for Beginners." She also has the writing system in there as well. Although that book isn't the best in the world for teaching writing, if your students have you there to help them, it should be good enough. Just remember to teach writing as students learn words from conversation. Basically, teach them to spell the words they already seem to know. They'll get a feel for the writing system, THEN you can get more systematic and start with the Medium, High and Low consonant systems, vowels, tone marks and so on. Anyway, good luck!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyper223 Posted May 4, 2006 Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 1. I'd suggest leaving the choice of reading and writing up to the student. You should ask them first what their "goal" is in terms of proficiency. If they say they want to become fluent in Thai at some point, then they should learn the writing system in the beginning (but AS they learn the speaking -- not as a separate thing before teaching speaking). If, on the other hand, they just want "survivial Thai," then I agree with Mike that it's best just to work on conversational Thai. But if a student expresses a strong opinion about learning / not learning the writing system, then you need to listen to this first. Long term versus short term: The 3 week tourist probably just needs help with a phrasebook. Have them purchase a thai phrasebook (ala Lonely Planet) and drill them on it. Add other materials as desired, but the point would be to get them pronouncing the words correctly. They'll have the book with them as they travel, and when they look up something in it they'll remember your teachings. The 3 week tourist should not bother with learning to read and write. As for the long term speaker, my experience indicates that they should learn to write before anything else. Not concurrently with learning new words, unless those new words exclusively use the letters of the Thai alphabet that they've already learned. Why? Because in order to effectively learn new words one needs to be able to read and write them. And the phonetic systems used to represent Thai are confusing. Benjawan Poomsan Becker's book is good, and has a consistent phonetic alphabet to use. If you pay attention to the rules, you can fairly accurately reproduce the correct vowel sounds. But, the farang speaker has a natural tendency to view words printed in latin characters (english alphabet) as being pronounced as they would be in their own language. A teacher can counteract this to some extent during the lesson by correcting the student, but I think that the early introduction of a completely new alphabet would take care of this problem more effectively. What does ¡ sound like? Like 'g' or like 'k'? If it's a new letter, it sounds like what you tell them it sounds like. How about ä¡è ? Is it "gai?" "kai?" The official transliteration is "kai," but most farang think of it as "gai," because that's what it sounds like to them. If teaching writing, teach the consonant classes in the beginning as well. They won't assimilate it all at once, but make sure they know the tone class of each one when they learn it. It's too important to leave it for later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duanja Posted May 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 Thank you. I have to talk with the manager about Thai language course first, dont know if they would like to hire me. There are only two Asian language courses in this school : Chinese and Japanese. ghee...Tammasat Uni let you sing chang chang chang! it would look awesome... Does they tell you to dance chang chang too? Every thai children in kindergarten school loves it so much. Thank you for your suggestion about funny stuffs... I think I will give them Thai Karaoke to sing too. But to teach chang chang would be dangerous for me, coz I think I can't help laughing while I teach. Sadly, There is not yet Wat Thai in my town.... I think I might divide Thai langues course into 2 classes : Thai for travelling and Thai for beginner. (I wonder what will be more popular) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duanja Posted May 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 To Niranahm....I shall be waiting to hear from you na ja... To Saladin....Yes, I don't see how my post is funny. To Kayle...I have to tell the maximum students that I would like to teach in each class...I think there will be less than 10. To...MikeAussieGuy, inamorato25, hyper223... Thank you so much for your long advices. It is very helpful. As I wrote in the paragraph above, I plan to teach both short course (for tourists) and long course (for serious person), and they need different methods. Thanks for advices about the book. Noted that the author, Benjawan, comes from Isaan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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