Max_Edison Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 It's kinda pricey, but these guys get good reviews. Anyone have any experience with it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tech_noir Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 Probably he means that brand of self-study language courses. If so - I have several and they look really usefull, as I've browsed a hour or two. Sorely I gave to my sister english and german ones (as she is 12 and at that stage needs essential forein languases first, already has an acceptable russian), but didn't get any respond. I've tried a bit the first lessons of chinese (as it must be mine next lang. to learn) and I was good impressed of my own success (as languages had never been a strong side of mine and asian sound completely allien), but never got more time for gathering knowledge that is not urgent. I would recommend RS, but I never tested the gained knowledge in practice and don't know anybody who did. Of course nothing beats getting a girlfiend/boyfriend whose native language is what you'd like to learn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tilaceer Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 RS is RS Much better stuff available, and much cheaper. Its not even worth the 150thb at Pantip. All the hype about RS and once I tried it,I threw it away. If I had paid full price for that I would have been a tad upset. You are better off with Benjawan Poomsan Beckers courses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo Posted August 2, 2007 Report Share Posted August 2, 2007 Thai for Beginners by Benjawan Poomsan Becker is my pick of the Thai language courses (I tried almost all of them). The cd's are ok but I ended up mostly using the book. The writing lessons are not good enough to get you very far but good enough to learn the letters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeusbheld Posted August 2, 2007 Report Share Posted August 2, 2007 if i were going to actually get off my ass and learn something, i'd prefer the becker book/cd set. the cd is essential if you live overseas and don't happen to be surrounded by thai people. also, it's useful to hear correct pronounciation at least so you get the idea, before you take on the local bkk speech (which can be confusing coz it leaves sounds out sometimes). i've seen rosetta stone stuff at pantip; you can also subscribe to it online if you live overseas (much cheaper than paying full price unless you subscribe for a really long time). mind you i haven't bothered to learn any thai, but i'm amazing at buying equipment. zbh your personal shopper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortyg Posted August 2, 2007 Report Share Posted August 2, 2007 I haven't done any courses yet but have found this helpful to interpret a few bits and pieces on this site. http://www.thai2english.com/ not perfect but helpful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfg_johnny Posted August 2, 2007 Report Share Posted August 2, 2007 you will also need this if you are using Rosetta stone fron the thai iso file. http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3709059/Rosetta_Stone_installer_disk_version_2.0.8.1A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nihat_y Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 Hi, i have also searched about a good thai program. I can tell you Rosetta Stone is complately useless for larning thai. I found pimsleur for thai is very usefull. I started to lern with my mp3 player. Maybe you can find here some example lession with this query: http://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&hs=pnZ&q=pimsleur+thai+rapidshare.com&btnG=Search&aq=0&oq= Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funky_house Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 It's kinda pricey, but these guys get good reviews. Anyone have any experience with it? I read somewhere that the Thai Linguaphone course is much better than the RS one. Apparently the vocabulary is a lot more relevant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riga71 Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 Thai for Beginners by Benjawan Poomsan Becker is my pick of the Thai language courses (I tried almost all of them). The cd's are ok but I ended up mostly using the book. The writing lessons are not good enough to get you very far but good enough to learn the letters. I agree. Good book to get started. The tone rules explenation is way too confused, (you can find those rules explained on intenet site, where they are more clear and easy to learn) but the introduction to the writing system ain't that bad... I find RS course not that "user friendly" and anyway too much expencive. A nice series is the "Speak like a Thai" (always by Becker, 5 or 6 volumes until now) which are small books with a lot of spoken idiom, slang and expressions of daily use + Northern dialect expression and Isaan idioms... Interesting and unexpensive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alvish Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 Hi, i have also searched about a good thai program. I can tell you Rosetta Stone is complately useless for larning thai. I found pimsleur for thai is very usefull. I started to lern with my mp3 player. Maybe you can find here some example lession with this query: http://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&hs=pnZ&q=pimsleur+thai+rapidshare.com&btnG=Search&aq=0&oq= Same here I dled both Rosetta Stone (Thai) and Pimsleur and by far preferred Pimsleur (or I at least used it twice as much..). Pimsleur did get a bit irrelevant to myself after a couple of chapters talking about "meeting parents" "how many children have you got" "marriage" etc... think it is aimed more at the Thai bride / hooker situation rather than the average joe... Think I will keep an eye out for "Benjawan Poomsan Becker" if I do go back to learning... the most I do now is the "Berlitz" language games you get on planes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harti Posted May 7, 2009 Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 Pimsleur is really good. but it doesnt teach you how to write... when you have a lil bit of knowledge already, Rosetta Stone can be very useful.. Learning vocabulary and how to write and speak words is very good with Rosetta as its easier to memorize with help of pictures.. the weakness of Rosetta Stone is that you sometimes would need the translation.. There is also a "Thai Visual Dictionary" which actually is designed for Thais who want to learn english.. but can also be used other way.. I bought it on the On Nut BTS station.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest FLGlenn Posted May 7, 2009 Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 It's all Greek to me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdtongchai Posted May 7, 2009 Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 The Rosetta Stone (Wideline available on the internet, i have 27 different languages) is now available in Version 3 in contradiction to version 2 this one seems much more up to date. They completely re-did all the photos and audio tracks so it looks much more modern. For the guys saying rosetta stone is useless i advise you to give it some more time. The native speakers in Rosetta Stone speak fast, but there are options to slow it down to just a quarter of the speed. That way you can hear really clear on how to articulate. If it's too much and you think you need the translation IT'S THERE! If you browse the CD you will find a document folder. In that document folder is a complete transcript of the lessons in thai, english, chinese, japanese, and several other languages. So if you print that out, you have a word by word translation of every thai lesson... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeusbheld Posted May 7, 2009 Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 Hi, i have also searched about a good thai program. I can tell you Rosetta Stone is complately useless for larning thai. I found pimsleur for thai is very usefull. I started to lern with my mp3 player. Maybe you can find here some example lession with this query: http://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&hs=pnZ&q=pimsleur+thai+rapidshare.com&btnG=Search&aq=0&oq= Same here I dled both Rosetta Stone (Thai) and Pimsleur and by far preferred Pimsleur (or I at least used it twice as much..). Pimsleur did get a bit irrelevant to myself after a couple of chapters talking about "meeting parents" "how many children have you got" "marriage" etc... think it is aimed more at the Thai bride / hooker situation rather than the average joe... Think I will keep an eye out for "Benjawan Poomsan Becker" if I do go back to learning... the most I do now is the "Berlitz" language games you get on planes. Pimsleur is not aimed at the Thai bride/hooker situation at all, but rather is based on a cookie-cutter template that teaches you stuff that is equally irrelevant anywhere. i've noodled around with the Chinese (mandarin not cantonese) japanese, french, portoguese, dutch and arabic, and they are structured basically the same (the Thai course is a 'short course,' but set up the same as other short courses). definitley doesn't help you much with writing either. in *any* language. it is worth remembering that Thai has a phonetic alphabet that, once learned, can help tremendously with pronounciation. that is the approach that Becker takes and i think it is *the* best material for learning Thai that i have seen (i've looked at a lot of materials before deciding i really dont' want to know what the drunk old fart on the train is saying). for the record i didn't noodle around with *any* of these pimsleur courses enough to really learn much, although i'd attribute that to my own laziness rather the courses, which are quite good overall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin_2 Posted May 7, 2009 Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 It's kinda pricey, but these guys get good reviews. Anyone have any experience with it? I got this as a gift, but didn't get into it only because of timing. It seemed alright, but it is really pricey. As others have said, get Benjawan's books. They are really good. Also check out faycyber's journals. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeusbheld Posted May 7, 2009 Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 Hi, i have also searched about a good thai program. I can tell you Rosetta Stone is complately useless for larning thai. I found pimsleur for thai is very usefull. I started to lern with my mp3 player. Maybe you can find here some example lession with this query: http://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&hs=pnZ&q=pimsleur+thai+rapidshare.com&btnG=Search&aq=0&oq= Same here I dled both Rosetta Stone (Thai) and Pimsleur and by far preferred Pimsleur (or I at least used it twice as much..). Pimsleur did get a bit irrelevant to myself after a couple of chapters talking about "meeting parents" "how many children have you got" "marriage" etc... think it is aimed more at the Thai bride / hooker situation rather than the average joe... Think I will keep an eye out for "Benjawan Poomsan Becker" if I do go back to learning... the most I do now is the "Berlitz" language games you get on planes. Pimsleur is not aimed at the Thai bride/hooker situation at all, but rather is based on a cookie-cutter template that teaches you stuff that is equally irrelevant anywhere. i've noodled around with the Chinese (mandarin not cantonese) japanese, french, portoguese, dutch and arabic, and they are structured basically the same (the Thai course is a 'short course,' but set up the same as other short courses). definitley doesn't help you much with writing either. in *any* language. it is worth remembering that Thai has a phonetic alphabet that, once learned, can help tremendously with pronounciation. that is the approach that Becker takes and i think it is *the* best material for learning Thai that i have seen (i've looked at a lot of materials before deciding i really dont' want to know what the drunk old fart on the train is saying). for the record i didn't noodle around with *any* of these pimsleur courses enough to really learn much, although i'd attribute that to my own laziness rather the courses, which are quite good overall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeusbheld Posted May 7, 2009 Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 It's kinda pricey, but these guys get good reviews. Anyone have any experience with it? I got this as a gift, but didn't get into it only because of timing. It seemed alright, but it is really pricey. As others have said, get Benjawan's books. They are really good. Also check out faycyber's journals. Good luck! rosetta stone is a lot like pimsleur in that it is cookie-cutter regardless of what language your'e learning. it's not specfically geared toward Thai but adapted to their template. this can be good though if you plan to learn five or six languages in a row, otherwise, whether you plan to actually learn thai or just make a halfassed effort and forget about it like i did, Becker's the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melted012345 Posted May 7, 2009 Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 Thai for Rosetta Stone Version 3 is not available to my knowledge at pirate bay. But Mandarin and Japanese are. Try those! Much more people speak Japanese and Chinese than Thai and Chinese and Japanese men and women are smarter and prettier/more handsome anyway! :twisted: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crustyjuggler Posted May 7, 2009 Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 There's not much better than the Becker books if you want a taste of reading and writing as well. Pimsleur makes for good background noise in the gym. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stramash Posted May 7, 2009 Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 so, most seem to be leaning towards the Becker line? both ZBH and Si seem to give these good reviews as I have been looking at different courses. Good for almost beginners?? :? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin_2 Posted May 7, 2009 Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 so, most seem to be leaning towards the Becker line? both ZBH and Si seem to give these good reviews as I have been looking at different courses. Good for almost beginners?? :? They are really good for beginner, almost beginners, and everything above that! She made a beginner, intermediate, and advanced book. They are the best out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crustyjuggler Posted May 7, 2009 Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 so, most seem to be leaning towards the Becker line? both ZBH and Si seem to give these good reviews as I have been looking at different courses. Good for almost beginners?? :? The Becker method is long and thorough regarding tones and pronunciation which the other methods tend to breeze over a little too quickly.. However, a ***** seems to be the most popular method Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stramash Posted May 7, 2009 Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 so, most seem to be leaning towards the Becker line? both ZBH and Si seem to give these good reviews as I have been looking at different courses. Good for almost beginners?? :? The Becker method is long and thorough regarding tones and pronunciation which the other methods tend to breeze over a little too quickly.. However, a ***** seems to be the most popular method can you recommend one? :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stramash Posted May 7, 2009 Report Share Posted May 7, 2009 so, most seem to be leaning towards the Becker line? both ZBH and Si seem to give these good reviews as I have been looking at different courses. Good for almost beginners?? :? They are really good for beginner, almost beginners, and everything above that! She made a beginner, intermediate, and advanced book. They are the best out there. cool - just found the Becker complete audio course cd, the Becker beginners book and the Becker Thai-English dictionary on amazon for a total of GBP20!! Surely cheaper than one of Si's whores!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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