Thai language school

[Lightemup]

Ok, I would like to learn to speak Thai...

Anyone that can recommend a good teacher/class/school in Patong?

And how long time/hours does it take to be able to carry simple converstation ?

(Very individual, I know, but roughly)

[Dodger]

Patong Language School, situated on ratty road almost opposite sky inn, charge 300 bht per hour or I can give you my teachers number she charges 400bht per hour.

How long to learn, it really is how long is a piece of string, it really depends how much homework you are willing or able to do and it is hard what with patying all night and trying to force yourself into 2 to 8 hours study outside your lessons.

She could teach you basic sentances and a little of grammer and you could be speaking limited conversation within a few hours but to get anywhere near fluent, couple of years.

Think how much time you can give to it, one of her pupils learnt an entire book off by heart within a week, I took 8 weeks of 3 hours per week to just get to the end of the book, by which time I'd forgotton the beginning words.

This is a major problem, if you don't use the word fairly reguarly it is easy to forget it. I met a guy who had lived here 18 years, he spoke fluently, i asked how long did it take?. His reply was he didn't know, just one day he was chatting without thinking. But he also said, either leave it to just a few lessons on basics, so you can greet meet and order food and drinks, time to acheive probably a couple of weeks of lessons and reading. Or knuckle down, take thai book out with you everywhere and keep saying stuff from it all the time and then to get fluent probably 2 years.

I am learning to read and write at the moment, which is helping my pronounciation but now I've got to go back to speaking and learning more words phonetically, because I can read the word but do not know what it means.

Before you decide, I'll show you the books for the lessons she writes herself, see what you think. Worse bit is once you get by basic hello etc and move on a bit you get into grammer, connective particles, think they are called, little ba$tards, get me real mad.

You could just do it by taking your phrase book and trying to say the words as often as possible, only trouble then is pronounciation, if its not spot on they will not understand, dont guess like us. Also found you have to let them know you are going to speak thai badly for them to prepare to understand otherwise they just think you are talking in some other language!!

[Lightemup]

Ok, so its not this one then?

::: Patong Language School, Phuket, Thailand ::: leading language school teaching English, Thai, TEFL teacher training and more

Edited to add: Hey the link comes out and says patong language shool, but the url is phuket language school

Anyway, I was just browsing through that one, but thought Id ask if anyone had any personal recommendation instead..

Will talk with you about it in a couple of weeks or so, when I catch the bird out of here. Thanks.

[LivinLOS]

That is in the bit opposite Khun Woodys shop, next door to CAT office.. A buddy used to have a daily lesson with them, he isnt fluent but he is more than basic conversational.

When I first moved here I went and got thier workbook for about 200 baht and did the lessons with Wifey... It was actually a good leg up then, the basics, the kind of they go, he goes, she goes etc.. Of course you HAVE to have a Thai speaker to do the pronunciation with.

They run classrooms, small groups (2 - 5 or 6 I guess) and 1 on 1 at different fees.

I am with Dodge, in that I think if your here long term you have to get some basics, food orders, time, directions, where is, what is etc.. But I am ambivalent about the time investment required for fluency (and I would say a LOT more than 2 years for fluent unless fully immersed and speaking all day) I am never gonna go and live upcountry, my life and lifestyle doesnt need it, and I am unsure about my investment in Thailand as it stands. To spend hours of my life to learn a skill that is not essential now and maybe dont need in a few years at all is a tough call. Dodger is different, he has a new family, he is putting down roots. I am a gypsy kid whose moved around all my life, never lived any place longer than 5 years as an adult, and have itchy feet. Who knows where I am in 5 years time.

[ATMwalking]

Have to agree with you. The longer I'm living here, the less I really care about learning thai. I suppose it is because I see how little of a difference it makes. Or it could be that I know enough to figure out if someone understands what I'm trying to communicate. This is for living. If I were doing business it could be a different response. But now even living here seems less secure than a few years ago.

At the same time i'm getting more sh1t from thai friends for not speaking more. But to put the time and effort into it...just seems like there is so little return on investment. Although I dislike being illiterate in the country where I non-reside (visa joke).

I agree, to be really fluent you must leave the tourist places and go live in a village somewhere. You need total immersion. This is something I've never done. Gone somewhere and stayed for any amount of time where no one speaks English.

[LeoNY!]

This is a bit off topic - but its a generic question related to this somewhat: What do the girls (and thais in general) REALLY think of farangs speaking thai?

I get the impression that maybe they're a bit more wary of you if you can speak a bit - and on the whole it DOESN'T impress them - and in fact, more to the contrary. I remember a conversation with a TG from kangaroo bar last year and she basically said it can be intriguing if a farang can understand thai (ie. when the girls speak it, but he doesn't actually let on that he understands) than when he speaks himself. But seriously, how many farangs can understand thais speaking at full speed to each other?

But on the other hand - when your just having daily conversation with thais in general I think most find it really fascinating that you care to learn their language in a finer detail, and of course its always rather humorous for them to hear farangs speaking if nothing else. I think most farangs who are seriously interested in leaning thai - learn because THEY want to (ie. its fascinating and interesting to learn a foreign language, and especially one as challenging as thai) and not because they are looking to come off "cool" to a bar girl because they know how to say a few crass sentences.
Any thoughts?

[LivinLOS]

Theres all sides..

I know that some Thais in the night scene dont want a farang speaking thai.. Anyone that says otherwise is IMO either blind or in the rose specs stage.. That said why dont they want you to speak thai, so they can decieve you in some way !! well if thats the case then great som nom na and its better to speak Thai..

Genuine people will be happy you can.. and some are really impressed with even rudimentary thai.. I was at the car wash the other day, the normal good english speaker was gone and as I wanted something complex and not a car wash they were avoiding me due to the Thai shyness about lack of english or face loss with failing to speak english..

This old boy, who looked a bit shy of the full shilling to be honest, came over in his wellies, stuck his hand out instead of wai'ing, and peered up at me deadpan (he must have been 4ft sommit).. He then starts in Thai, where you come from, you live here, how long you live here, you like it here, what your name, etc 20 questions.. Now normally this level of conversation is above my skill but I happened to catch all of them, first time.. He took care to speak slowly and I managed to blurt back mostly correct responses to his questions.. Well you would have thought I was his long lost son, jesus was he made up.. He then took it upon himself to find who could answer my questions about window filming, lead my by the hand (holding it in fact.. What is it with Thai guys and hand holding ??) and in general treat me like the no 1 best customer who had walked in all week. It was one of those happy experiences that make thailand charming that happens every once in a while, and it was all because of some (bad bad I know) language.

[Dodger]

My spoken Thai is really bad and I'm relearning and talking much more now to try and improve it, but as lil said above, its weird sometimes you listen to Thais chatting away and seem to understand every word, or indeed enough words to understand the conversation. Another time its just a blur, even short sentances.

I was sitting in car yesterday while Gee was getting some chicken and triesd reading the big sign next to the chicken place, I concentrated on the thai letters and finally worked out the words as 'Patong Village Suite' and then noticed that just below the thai and in twice as big letters was the exact thing in English, oh well at least I worked it out okay!!

[barfly]

Originally Posted by Dodger

My spoken Thai is really bad and I'm relearning and talking much more now to try and improve it, but as lil said above, its weird sometimes you listen to Thais chatting away and seem to understand every word, or indeed enough words to understand the conversation. Another time its just a blur, even short sentances.

I think that is the same even among British people with dialects/accents. I've certainly been talking normally to a friend and a third party(also English) has said that he didn't understand a word that we said to each other!
What I find interesting is that I could be that "third party" not knowing the people who were speaking and as soon as you catch 1 word and cotton on to "oh, that's Scottish-or whatever-" then you can understand what they are saying.

[LeoNY!]

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

Theres all sides..

I know that some Thais in the night scene dont want a farang speaking thai.. Anyone that says otherwise is IMO either blind or in the rose specs stage.. That said why dont they want you to speak thai, so they can decieve you in some way !! well if thats the case then great som nom na and its better to speak Thai..

Genuine people will be happy you can.. and some are really impressed with even rudimentary thai.. I was at the car wash the other day, the normal good english speaker was gone and as I wanted something complex and not a car wash they were avoiding me due to the Thai shyness about lack of english or face loss with failing to speak english..

This old boy, who looked a bit shy of the full shilling to be honest, came over in his wellies, stuck his hand out instead of wai'ing, and peered up at me deadpan (he must have been 4ft sommit).. He then starts in Thai, where you come from, you live here, how long you live here, you like it here, what your name, etc 20 questions.. Now normally this level of conversation is above my skill but I happened to catch all of them, first time.. He took care to speak slowly and I managed to blurt back mostly correct responses to his questions.. Well you would have thought I was his long lost son, jesus was he made up.. He then took it upon himself to find who could answer my questions about window filming, lead my by the hand (holding it in fact.. What is it with Thai guys and hand holding ??) and in general treat me like the no 1 best customer who had walked in all week. It was one of those happy experiences that make thailand charming that happens every once in a while, and it was all because of some (bad bad I know) language.

That's a beautiful story, great stuff. The fact that he just ranted off in Thai from the start in just assuming that you could understand is something I've never heard of, but all the better that you could talk back - and certainly make his day at the same time.
I think you're probably right though with regards to those in the bar scene who are opposed to it. It could be the deception factor that if your Thai is good enough to fully understand what they're saying.. well they won't think about pulling the wool over your eyes. On the whole - we know most dont think like that but there will always be a few.

[ATMwalking]

Originally Posted by barfly

I think that is the same even among British people with dialects/accents. I've certainly been talking normally to a friend and a third party(also English) has said that he didn't understand a word that we said to each other!
What I find interesting is that I could be that "third party" not knowing the people who were speaking and as soon as you catch 1 word and cotton on to "oh, that's Scottish-or whatever-" then you can understand what they are saying.

That's funny. Often my ear has trouble tuning into some English accents in a noisy place. especially when alcohol is involved. Glad to know it's not be but also real English people as well.

You are right. Context is key. I find it extremely hard to follow a thai conversation if I start listening in the middle. But if I know the subject I can usually follow along enough to get basics. Seems thais drop nouns a lot so it is hard to figure what is being discussed.

[nacha]

Originally Posted by Dodger

I am learning to read and write at the moment, which is helping my pronounciation but now I've got to go back to speaking and learning more words phonetically, because I can read the word but do not know what it means.

same same here...
but maybe i`ll take some lessons (ether in school or by private teacher) when i`m coming back to Paton (i hope it will be in December!)

[marc26]

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

I know that some Thais in the night scene dont want a farang speaking thai.. Anyone that says otherwise is IMO either blind or in the rose specs stage.. That said why dont they want you to speak thai, so they can decieve you in some way !! well if thats the case then great som nom na and its better to speak Thai..

.

that is one reason why they dont like a farang to speak thai

another reason i have been told is if a farang can speak thai, they are weary of him, thinking that he must have a thai wife ro LT girlfriend

[LeoNY!]

Yeah, that sounds about right. Either way it says that you know more about the country/culture than the typical farang - and hence they are more wary. Although that can work in your favour, as they'll be less inclined to try any stupid shit around you.

[Dodger]

Nope they are not bright enough to figure that out! they still try the same scams and then look amazed that you have seen it all before.

[lunglek]

If I´m down visiting phuket solo (gf stays at home in korat) I tend to forget myself and always speak Thai, usually get complimented on how good my Thai is even though I say that I only know nid noi.

[Heywood]

Think about it, if a farang speaks thai he or she is the exception and there is something more to this type of farang, its a matter of sizing you up.

Clearly this is looked at differently depending on where you are, up country its not going to be thought of as the same as say in phuket. I certainly don't think its a big deal to most bg's...its all about the color of money anyway.

I personally think any thai who does not like a farang speaking thai is someone I wouldn't be inclined to put trust in, I think its still in your best interest to know as much as you can, knowlege isn't a bad thing.

Its interesting to hear everyone's way of looking at it, for me I just try and listen and add words to my vocabulary, which isn't much even after all this time...too much english being spoken for me to tune my ears. I do have a friend who's a fluent farang, his advice was you don't want to know what's being said most of the time anyway His wife aparantly likes to ***** in thai and speak english when everythings good.

[barfly]

Originally Posted by Heywood

I personally think any thai who does not like a farang speaking thai is someone I wouldn't be inclined to put trust in,

I think that's a good point

[fun2have]

the amount of swear words spoken amongst the lower strata of thai society is amazing.

the trying to understand part way through a thai conversation is almost impossible to me, but as was said before if in at the start i can comprehend some conversations quite well and others not a clue.

up country surrounded by non english speakers, my "ear" improved rapidly once i dumped the unessential words from their speech.
but alas 4 months away and now i have difficulty understanding what the wife is saying to family on the phone.

so its back to the begining when i am next in thailand, thai language is diminishing in importance to me, its issan from now on.
so all the greetings etc from the in-laws, shop keepers, passing rice farmers etc, and no doubt they will expect me to understand the same i did last time i was there, but i know its back to the basics.

[fun2have]

the brother in law, from sakhon nakon can speak "phu thai" and he and his father take great delight in confusing me with that.
first time i heard i complained to the wife i did not understand a word of their issan, she said she only understood about 30%, and then she explained it was another dialect/language.

[edje123]

Originally Posted by fun2have

the amount of swear words spoken amongst the lower strata of thai society is amazing.

went on an elephant trek, later that day my gf told me that the guy who was mending the elephant was using almost only swear words to guide the animal