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Home - How To Learn Thai |
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| Overview
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Below we have outlined a number of techniques that make learning a language
faster and easier.
These techniques make the whole language learning process more efficient and in
turn they also make learning a new language more enjoyable and probable. Below,
we explain what these techniques are and how to use them.
Whether you are thinking of learning Thai, are currently studying Thai or are
studying any other language, you will reap great benefits from reading this
section.
These techniques will show you how to learn what's important first, how to
never forget what you have learned and how to learn more in less time. Although
these claims may sound bold, you will see that these techniques are really
quite simple.
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| Learning the
right words
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You should always start learning the most commonly-used words first. This will
allow you to progress at an incredible speed. The amount of vocabulary used in
day to day conversation is relatively small. In the English language, having a
vocabulary of just 2000 words will allow you to understand around 90% of the
vocabulary used in conversation.
During the creation of HighSpeedThai, it has been our primary goal to make sure
that you learn the most important parts of the Thai language first.
We will help you to build a basic understanding of the Thai language in the
fastest time possible. We do this by focusing on the most common parts of the
language first. After all, what's the point in knowing the word ‘pencil’ when
you don't know the word ‘before’. You are 56 times more likely to come across
the word 'before' in conversation than the word 'pencil'. According to a
wordlist compiled from a one million word sample, 'pencil' is ranked the
6,317th most common word while 'before' is ranked the 111th most common word.
Here is how we have strategically compiled what you will be taught in the
HighSpeedThai system..
Lists of the Most Common Thai Words - There are a
number of lists of commonly used Thai words publicly available. The problem
with using these lists alone is that they have been compiled solely from
written sources. Written sources tend to use a lot of formal language which is
not very useful when you want to improve your conversational abilities. We have
converted the words in these lists to their informal counterparts and included
them in the vocabulary which is taught in our system.
The General Service List - The General Service List
is a list of high value commonly used English words. This list has been
compiled and extracted from a sample of more than five million words. The 2000
words that are included in this list are of critical importance to people who
are learning English. Although this list is designed for English speakers, it
is an extremely valuable tool for learning any language. The words included in
this list have been translated and incorporated in our vocabulary acquisition
lessons.
Various Other Word Frequency Lists - There are a number
of other lists that include commonly used language elements. We have hand
picked all of the important parts from these lists and included them in our
program.
Spoken grammar - Grammar is a boring word for most
people, including myself. Learning grammar doesn't have to be about learning
those boring terms that you probably didn’t like in school. Grammar is defined
as 'the study of the way the sentences of a language are constructed.' It goes
without saying that, in order to speak a language, you must have the ability to
form sentences. Sentences in the Thai language are often not structured in the
same way as sentences in the English language. For example, you may know the
words to say the following sentence in Thai, "He doesn't like any of the songs"
but if you structured this same sentence in Thai exactly as you would in
English, people would struggle to understand you. The actual way to say it in
Thai is 'He not like song any song'. We have extracted all of the common
grammar patterns that you can expect to hear in conversation from a large
variety of sources and have included them in our course. We teach these grammar
patterns in an extremely effective and unique way which we will explain in a
moment.
TV Shows and Movies - TV shows and movies are a good way
to gather a sample of real world language. They will expose you to real word
grammar, slang and expressions. Our program includes lots of useful language
that we have carefully picked and extracted from various Thai TV shows.
Advertising - We have broken down the language and
vocabulary commonly used in advertising and combined it into our course.
Signage - It goes without saying that being able to read
signs can be very useful. After you have completed our course, you will be able
to read most signs with ease.
Packaging - How many tablets should you take per day?
Being able to read packaging can be very useful. Our program includes the
common vocabulary that you are likely to find on packaging.
You will be amazed at just how quickly you will learn Thai with HighSpeedThai.
Teaching commonly used vocabulary and phrases will keep you interested in
learning the language This will allow you to quickly progress and, finally,
help you develop a broad understanding of the language in a short period of
time.
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| Learning
How to Read Thai |
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When people decide to learn Thai, they often make statements
like 'Learning how to read is not necessary,' 'Reading is too hard' and 'All I
want to do is speak Thai.' Well, I am going to reveal some important facts on
the matter. So read carefully.
Is it hard to read Thai? Well, it can be very hard or it can be quite easy. It
all comes down to the method that you use. Let's look at an example.
Each Thai letter has a name. This name consists of two words. The first word is
the sound that the letter makes with an 'or' sound appended onto the end of it.
The second word is an actual thing such as a snake, child or fish.
So, below we have the letter called 'Ngor Ngoo' which makes a sound like the
‘ng’ sound in the English word ‘swimming.’ Ngoo means snake.
Ok, that's fair enough. However, if I told you the names of all the 44
consonants, you wouldn’t have a chance of remembering them all.
Then how can it be so easy? Ok, let's use some imagination to aid our memory.
Let's add a snake tongue and an eye to our letter. Presto we have ourselves a
snake.
So now, whenever we see this letter, we will see a snake. This brings us to the
word for snake which is 'ngoo' which in turn brings us to the 'ng' sound that
this letter makes.
Here are two more letters.
 makes a J sound.
This is relatively easy to remember because it looks somewhat like an upside
down J if the inner circle is removed..
 makes a O sound like the O sound in the
word song but a little longer. This is easy to remember because O looks quite
similar to .
makes a NG sound like the “ng” sound
in “swimming.” This is our letter from above.
Ok. So let's put them all together.
makes a j sound, makes an o sound and
makes a ng sound. So give this a go. Try and read this word 
. It should sound like “jorng.” This word means “to book or reserve.” This is
only basic, but as you can see, learning to read Thai is not so difficult
providing that you use the correct techniques.
We break down learning the Thai alphabet into 15 easy-to-master lessons. Each
lesson will introduce you to a small number of new letters or rules. You will
then practice implementing what you have learned by reading with the help of
the software included in our program. All reading exercises are accompanied by
the voice of a native Thai speaker. This ensures that you develop good
pronunciation habits from the start.
There are a few reasons why you should learn to read Thai.
If you avoid learning the Thai alphabet you will have to rely on Thai words
that have been translated into English letters. There are a few fundamental
problems with representing Thai words with English characters.
1. Pronunciation - The Thai language has 32 vowels while the
English language has only five. The Thai language has both short and long
vowels. The character for the longer vowel often looks very similar to the
shorter vowel. One difference, however, is that it has a longer line or dash to
indicate that it is the longer vowel. For example, 
makes a short ‘ou’ and  makes a long
‘oouu’ sound. As you can see, the long vowel has an extended line.
Representing 32 different vowels in a language that only has 5 vowels is very
haphazard. I looked though some books on my shelf and in a couple of online
dictionaries and found that the word meaning 'country' was translated 7
different ways in 8 different sources. Here are all the different ways the word
'country' was translated: Bpra L thaeht F (L and F indicate the tone),
bprà-têt, bpra-tâyt, prates, prà-thêet, pra tayt and prathêht. Not being able
to read Thai will mean that it will be very hard for you to ever have a
concrete understanding of how a word is pronounced or spelt.
2. Tones - Learning to read Thai will make remembering the
tone of a word much easier. This is because the spelling of a word determines
the tone of that word. Translation systems sometimes use funny little arrows
and markers to indicate which tone a word should be pronounced with. Many
people have trouble remembering these markers as they are not present in their
own language. This means that they end up forgetting the tone of the word and
therefore have problems with pronunciation.
3. Dictionaries - Using a dictionary is an essential part of
learning any language. If you cannot read Thai, you are going to have some
serious troubles here. Most of the good paper-based dictionaries don't have
English translations. There are some electronic and paper-based dictionaries
that do contain translations, but these dictionaries can be a nightmare to use.
For example, if we wanted to look up the Thai word for 'country,' which word
would we search for (Bpra L thaeht F (L and F indicate the tone), bprà-têt,
bpra-tâyt, prates, prà-thêet, pra tayt or prathêht)? Looking up translated
words in dictionaries can be a very hit or miss affair. We would not recommend
this to anyone.
4. Reading - If you don't learn the Thai characters, you
cannot read Thai. 99% of Thai people cannot read or write transliterated words
accurately. This means that you won't be able to read Thai signs, books,
advertising, timetables, websites, emails and so on. Imagine living in your own
country but not being able to read! Your life would be hampered in many ways.
Apart from this, reading Thai is probably one of the best ways to improve your
pronunciation skills.
Here is what Glen from http://www.thai-language.com says. This is probably the
best online Thai to English dictionary.
"In general, transliteration is a haphazard practice which suffers from many
pitfalls:
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There is no prevalant or standard system of transliteration in Thai, and many
codified systems are inadequate
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Geographical names may have multiple different, widely-used transliterations.
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Thai is a tonal language, and there is no predefined way to represent the five
tones in Western alphabets
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There is no obvious way to represent the short versus long duration of Thai
vowel sounds using a Western alphabet
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Many of the sounds used in the Thai language cannot be represented with a
Western alphabet (or English regional phone set)
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Different people pronounce a given word spelled in a Western alphabet
differently. For example, American versus Australian versus British
pronunciation
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Every phrase book, dictionary, guide book, tutorial, or Western text uses a
different transliteration scheme"
Spending a small amount of time learning to read will yield great returns. You
will be able to remember the tones more easily, your pronunciation will be
better, you will be able to read any of the vast amounts of material written in
Thai and you will find it easier to pickup new words from others. Having the
ability to read Thai will make it easy for you to progress beyond the basics.
You will be able to use dictionaries and you will be considered literate.
Learning to read Thai should take you between 15 to 25 hours.
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| Mnemonics |
Mnemonics can help you remember a large amount of information in a short period
of time. Here is an example. The word for girlfriend is ‘fairn’ It sounds very
similar to the word ‘fan’ (the type that blows air) but a little more drawn
out. Now imagine this, you arrive home from a hard day of work, the evening is
hot and sticky but your girlfriend happily fans you off until you cool down.
Now, what is the word for girlfriend?
Mnemonics help you to remember those words that just don't seem to stick.
Mnemonics have some limitations. Not all words will have a matching sound in
English. Therefore, sometimes the amount of time needed to create a mnemonic
story is longer than the time needed to learn the word in the traditional way.
Mnemonics are best applied to the process of learning the Thai characters. They
will allow you to quickly and easily remember the letters. Please see the
examples in the section on reading Thai
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| Breaking apart words |
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Breaking words apart enables you to learn a number of words in almost the same
amount of time that it would take you to learn one word. It also makes
remembering a word much easier because you will understand its logical makeup.
Let's look at the Thai word ‘gankorrong’ which means ‘request.’ This word can
be broken down into three component words.
Gan is used to change a verb to a noun (changing 'to request' to 'a request,’
'to use' to 'usage,’ 'to study' to 'studies').
Kor is the verb used to request something. For example, 'Kor one glass of
water?' (I would like one glass of water).
Rong means to sing, to cry out, to scream or to exclaim.
So, just by learning the make-up of this word we have actually learned quite a
lot. We have learned the word ‘gan’ which is a very common component word that
changes a verb into a noun. For example, it changes 'to date' to 'a date' and
'to communicate' to 'communication.' We have also learned the word ‘kor’ which
we need to use when we want to request something. It is equivalent to 'I would
like' in English. The last thing we learned, is the word ‘rong’ which means to
sing, to scream, to cry out and to exclaim.
So, if we take another look at the word, it is really quite logical.
So if we take another look at the word, it is really quite logical.
Gan = Changes 'to request' into 'a request'
Kor = I would like
Rong = Out loud
So GanKorRong = A request.
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| Chunking |
Chunking is a very important strategy that allows us to hold a large amount of
information in our short-term memory. Our short-term memory can hold around
seven individual items. For example, remembering each individual number, 1, 6,
6, 7, 9, 2, 4, would fill your short-term memory. If we group these numbers up
into two items, 1667 and 924, they are much easier to remember. Additionally,
we would still have considerable space left over in our short-term memory.
So why is our short-term memory important anyway? If we are learning a
language, we are surely going to want to put new words into our long-term
memory, right?
Yes, but the entrance to our long-term memory is through our short-term memory.
So, we need to first cram as much as we can into our short-term memory as
efficiently as possible. Once we have the new words and phrases in our
short-term memory, they will leak through to our long-term memory if we keep
them there long enough.
Chunking allows us to jam pack our short-term memory with a large amount of
words and phrases. Instead of filling up your short-term memory with seven
individual words, our program will efficiently fill your short-term memory with
around 5 phrases consisting of 5 words each. That's a total of 25 words! We
then force these words into your long-term memory by making your brain process
and use the new words. Read more about this below under 'Using Words, Phrases
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| Spaced
Repetition Testing |
Ok, stop right now and spend 10 seconds trying to lodge the number 925 into
your memory. Are you done? Well, the number has entered into your short-term
memory and is slowly leaking into your long-term memory. However, if you stop
recalling or reviewing this number, it will slowly disappear from your
short-term memory and any imprint that it made on your long-term memory will be
erased.
Let’s say that in 10 minutes time, without any review, I asked you what the
number was. You would likely scratch your head and be unable to recall it.
So will this number have totally disappeared in 10 minutes time? No, the number
925 is still in your mind but it hasn't made a deep enough imprint on your
long-term memory for you to be able to recall it on the spot. So how do I
imprint this number firmly into my long-term memory so that I can recall it
easily?
The best technique to use is called spaced repetition testing. Let's apply this
to our number 925. You have already placed this number into your short-term
memory in an unstable manner. We need to do a bit of a 'work out' on it in
order to keep it there.
The longer that you keep the number in your short-term memory, the longer it
has to leak through to your long-term memory. So I would ask you to recall it
20 seconds after I first told it to you, 40 seconds later, 3 minutes later, 6
minutes later, 30 minutes later and so on. I would adjust these intervals
depending on how easily you were able to recall the number. This testing
process will keep the number firmly in your memory and won't give it a chance
to disappear. With each recall it will be etched deeper and deeper into your
long-term memory.
Spaced repetition testing is one important way that HighSpeedThai helps you to
increase your vocabulary efficiently and effectively. The software section of
our program will test you on phrases that you have learned according to how
well you remember them.
If you have trouble remembering a phrase, you will be tested on it until it is
deeply implanted into your long-term memory. Alternately, if you remember a
phrase easily, the software will move this phrase out of focus for a longer
period of time. This process allows you to efficiently review what you have
learned.
Most other methods rely on you manually sorting through what you have learned
and reviewing those things that you think you may have forgotten. Doing this is
slow, tedious and ineffective. Think about it. Just imagine that you have 1000
sentences printed out on a piece of paper. The only way that you can review
these phrases is to read or skim through the whole lot. You will end up
spending a large amount of time inefficiently reviewing those things which you
know well and shouldn't be reviewing. By the fifth time you read through this
list you are likely to become bored of reading the same sentences that you know
well over and over. It is likely that you will file this list away, never to be
seen again. Meanwhile, you are slowly forgetting more and more of what you have
learned. We feel that it is fruitless to spend time learning a word only to let
it slip from your mind due to ineffective review.
Don't ever waste time trying to learn from vocabulary lists or manual flash
cards. These methods are like trying to keep water in a bucket that has holes
in it. With our program, when you learn a word, that word will be deeply
implanted in your memory and will be ready for you to use when you need it the
most. Our system will make sure that when you learn something, you will never
forget it.
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| Using
Words, Phrases and Grammar |
In order to remember a new word, phrase or grammar pattern, it needs to be
reviewed periodically as stated above. The best way to review something is to
actually use it. Using it well will force your mind to process it on a deeper
level. Using a word in multiple different contexts will allow your brain to
develop a fuller understanding of the word.
Most of us find it much easier to remember things that have some kind of
logical meaning. In fact, when we try to learn something that is logical, we
don't have to put any emphasis on storing it in our memory. For example,
2 + 2 = 4
125 + 125 = ? (Of course 250)
You didn't remember this fact, but due to your understanding of basic math, you
were able to work it out. This same principle applies to learning a language.
Once you start learning and practicing a language, things just simply snap into
place.
HighSpeedThai encourages you to learn by usage. A grammar book may simply tell
you that you must place an adjective after a noun. Here is how we do it.
Rule One:
Adjectives (describing words, for example 'red') must be placed after nouns
(things, for example ‘a car’)
In English you say ‘red car', whereas in Thai you say ‘car red'.
You now understand how this rule works but in order to be able to apply this
rule without thinking during a conversation you will need to practice it.
First we would get you to form new sentences which use this rule. We
would ask you to form these sentences using words which you learned in previous
lessons. The audio section of our product will ask you the following questions.
You would be asked to answer aloud.
We ask: How do you say red car?
You answer in Thai.
We give you the correct answer. You take a mental note of any mistakes that you
made.
We ask: How do you say "that big red car".
You answer in Thai.
We give you the correct answer. You take a mental note of any mistakes that you
made.
We ask: How do you say "the small dog".
You answer in Thai
We give you the correct answer. You take a mental note of any mistakes that you
made.
This is a very simplistic example, but we want to demonstrate that as soon as
you are taught a new rule, it is very unlikely to sink in until you actually
use it. HighSpeedThai has been designed to make you actually use what you are
taught.
Has a foreign person ever asked you, 'Why do you say it like that?' and you
were unable to answer them but you just knew that it was the correct way? You
are unlikely to know all of the technical and grammatical reasons for why you
say something in a certain way in your own language but you are able to speak
it with perfect fluency. This is because you have learned your native language
by example. Our program teaches you using the same methodology. You may not
know all of the grammatical reasons for why you're saying something in a
certain way but you will know that you are saying it correctly.
HighSpeedThai won't bore you with tedious grammar rules. We will give you a
brief run down of why something is said in a certain way, we will explain it in
very simple terms and we will refrain from using any monotonous grammatical
terminology. We will try to explain as many of these rules as possible with
actual English examples. Then, most importantly, we will help you practice,
practice, practice until it becomes second nature to you.
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| Reading
Practice
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Reading is a very important aspect in learning any foreign language. If you
simply learn a word from a list, will you know?
- Who normally uses this word? A child or an adult?
- Where this word is positioned in a sentence?
- Each word has many synonyms. Is this the best synonym to be using?
- What context is the word used in?
- Is the word used formally or informally?
- Is the word normally used by female or male speakers?
Reading is a good way to improve comprehension and recollection. Reading
will help you to remember how a word is spelt. Reading allows you to develop a
deeper understanding of words that simply cannot be attained from a wordlist or
a dictionary.
Each lesson in the HighSpeedThai system has a multi-page reading exercise that
is accompanied by audio. This will:
- Help you to practice recalling words which you have recently learned and
therefore help to move them into your long-term memory.
- Help you to develop a deeper understanding of how and when to use a word by
presenting words in multiple contexts.
- Help you with comprehension. If you do not work on this, when you hear
someone speaking, you will be able to understand a lot of the words that they
are saying but you will not be able to understand the meaning.
- Help you improve your listening skills as each reading exercise is dictated
by a native Thai speaker.
- We encourage you to always read aloud and imitate the native speaker in the
audio as closely as you can. Doing this will help you dramatically improve you
pronunciation abilities. |
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| Learning
related words together |
It is a well known and proven fact that when you learn a group of words related
by subject, your memory will retain them with much greater efficiency. One
study showed a 20.4 percent improvement in short-term recollection using this
method. . This study had the following result:
'As can be seen, the results showed that the difference between the word
related group and word unrelated group was significant. Therefore, it seems
that the amount of information in short term memory was enhanced in the
word-related group because the words or phrases presented in the article are
around a certain category'
Our lessons have been built with this theory in mind. Every lesson is built
around a dialog that focuses on a specific theme. |
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| Learning
similar sounding words at different times |
If you have ever studied a foreign language, you will know that when you study
two similar sounding words with different meanings at the same time, you are
very likely to get confused about which one is which. It will take a long time
for you to associate the correct meaning with the right word. For example, if I
taught you the words enter (kao with a short vowel and falling tone), he (kao
with short vowel and a rising tone) and rice (kaaw with a long vowel and a
falling tone) it would be very hard for you to remember which one is which. You
would probably spend the next six months using each one on a trial and error
basis until someone understands you.
I remember that I had problems learning the words 'impressed' (bra-tup-jai) and
'surprised' (bra-laad-jai) due to their similarity. I spent more time on these
words than any other words that I can think of. This is simply because they
were introduced to me at the same time. If they were introduced to me at
different times, I would have never had this problem and would have mastered
the words in a fraction of the time. Our program separates similar sounding
words into separate lessons to ensure you learn efficiently. |
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| Tones |
Thai is a tonal language which means that the tone of a word determines its
meaning. For example, the word "mai" with a low tone means “new”, "mai" with a
high tone means “wood” and "mai" with a falling tone means “not or does not”.
At first, this can seem daunting. Often people will use the tones as an excuse
not to even attempt learning Thai. In reality the use of tones is not a big
problem provided you approach learning the tones in a well-structured manner.
Our system has been designed to make learning the five different tones an easy
and straightforward task. Developing the ability to hear the difference between
the tones is the first step. It is very important that this is done first.
Trying to pronounce the tones without being able to hear them would be like
having a color-blind person choose the color scheme for your house.
We will break down learning the tones into small steps that are easy to
accomplish. In the first exercises you will develop the ability to distinguish
between high tone words and low tone words. In this exercise our software
application will play a word aloud. You will then be asked to answer whether
the word was high in pitch or low in pitch. After you have listened to a sample
of these words, you will start hearing subtle differences between them. Before
long you will be able to quickly and easily determine whether the word was
pronounced with a low tone or a high tone.
This same process is repeated with rising and falling tone words; low and
mid-tone words; high, rising and falling tone words; and finally you will
practice listening to all the different tones mixed together. After you have
completed these exercises, you will be able to determine the tone for spoken
words quickly and easily. You will also have a good understanding of how each
tone sounds.
During the next stage, you will learn how to pronounce the tones. In this
section you are asked to listen to a short audio file in which you will hear a
word pronounced with two different tones multiple times. For example, one audio
file says maa (L) maa (M) maa (L) maa (M) maa(L) maa (M). 'L' means that the
tone is low and 'M' means that the tone is mid. After you have listened to this
audio file a number of times, you are instructed to record yourself reading the
same words. You are then asked to compare both audio files, adjust and then
re-record as needed. This method will allow you to actually hear where you are
going wrong. At first you may think that you pronounced the tones accurately,
only to find out when you listen to yourself that your tones are quite off. You
will be able to rapidly improve your pronunciation of the five tones using this
method.
You should not expect to be perfect with your tones when you start out. You
will find that your ability to pronounce the tones will improve by itself when
you are exposed to more spoken Thai. It is absolutely essential that you are
bombarded with spoken Thai when you are a beginner. This will ensure that you
develop good pronunciation habits from the start. This concept is an important
part of our program. Other systems may give you one or two audio CDs.
HighSpeedThai includes over 78 hours of audio which is the equivalent of 56
traditional audio CDs.
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| Carrying
a small notebook |
A simple notebook can be a powerful tool for learning languages. Here is how to
use it:
- Every time you're out and about and learn a new word, write the word in
English on the front of a page and the word in your target language on the back
of the page.
- When you are out and about, consciously think 'How would I say that in my
target language?' If you don't know how to say it in your target language,
write the English sentence down on the front of the page. Later, when you have
access to a dictionary, write the sentence down in your target language on the
back of the page. This method will help you compile lists of useful phrases and
words which you don't know. By doing this, you will then be able to quickly
fill up holes in your vocabulary.
- When you have built up a list of words in your notebook, take it out whenever
you have a spare moment, for example, if you are waiting in line. Look at the
words on the front side of the page and then try to recall the words in your
target language on the back of that page. |
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| Books on
learning Thai |
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I have used almost all of the popular textbooks in an attempt to master Thai.
Studying Thai with most of these books requires a huge amount of determination
and motivation. This is because most of these books have been put together in a
way which is not conducive to learning. Most books rely on rote learning lists,
conversations and phrases. This is ineffective and discourages learners.
Surprisingly very few books incorporate well known language acquisition
techniques that make learning fast, efficient and fun..
Some books will give a sample conversation and a list of words with
definitions. You are instructed to read the conversation and slowly piece
together the meaning by looking up each word one at a time. This will often be
followed by some basic exercises. The focus is never on using the words but on
rote learning a conversation.
Our system has been created in response to the lack of quality in many of the
materials designed to teach Thai. I have observed too many people attempting to
learn Thai but giving up due it being too hard. The language itself is not
causing these keen students to give up. The cause lies in the methods used to
teach these students..
Our system has been put together based on proven principles that make learning
quick and efficient. This is why we can guarantee you that:
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You will find that HighSpeedThai is more efficient and effective than other
methods of study, including classes and private lessons
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Your Thai ability will rapidly improve while using HighSpeedThai.
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When you have completed the HighSpeedThai program you will have a solid base in
the Thai language.
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You will be very happy with your purchase of HighSpeedThai.
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| Interactive
Software |
Rosetta Stone is a software program that aims to teach languages in the same
way that a child learns their first language. If you have never used it, here
is a brief run down on how it works. You are presented with four pictures and a
written sentence. A voice says the written sentence aloud. You then select the
picture that you think best represents the spoken voice. If you answer
incorrectly, you are asked to try again. Basically you learn by trial and
error.
I attempted this approach in an effort to master Thai. I commenced this program
with high hopes. Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed. Here is why:
None of the vocabulary or grammar patterns are explained in English. For
example, a voice will say 'sonut dua neung gumlung wing you.' You are then
presented with four pictures of various situations. You are asked to select the
picture that best represents the sentence.
The software expects you to work out the meaning of the phrase and how any
grammar is used by looking at the picture. This will likely leave you in a
confused state. You will be constantly reaching for your dictionary. Rosetta
Stone does not teach you how to read Thai. It is expected that can read prior
to commencing the program.
The biggest issue with this system is the lack of explanations in English.
Perhaps this is a cost saving attempt which lets the creators make one product
that suits everybody regardless of their native language. Rosetta Stone claims
to teach you in the same way that a child learns his first language. This
approach is not well suited to someone learning a second language. A second
language learner already has a deep understanding of how languages work.
Leveraging upon this knowledge makes learning a secondary language much easier.
The last point about Rosetta Stone is the choice of words that it teaches.
There are some words that are practical but a large amount of the vocabulary
that is taught is questionable. This includes words such as "marble" (the type
a child plays with) and "exterior wall." Rosetta Stone also teaches the formal
written versions of words which are rarely used in conversation.
Rosetta Stone seems to focus on teaching nouns. Nouns make up an important
portion of a conversation but they only make up a small part of what is needed
to converse in a language. I have spoken to a number of people who have used
this software. They have all had similar experiences to me. Rosetta Stone
retails for US$209.
The other software program that I purchased is called Visual Dictionary. If you
have spent time in any major mall in Thailand you would have probably seen it
or heard it on display. Basically the software has a large number of chapters
to teach a wide variety of vocabulary. A chapter is a screen with a whole lot
of cartoon drawings on it. You click on the drawing and it pronounces the
phrase in both Thai and English. There is a small section that allows you to
test yourself but I think that this is designed for Thai students learning
English. This software does have a wide variety of vocabulary but unfortunately
a lot of the words are formal and not useful in conversation.
This software is basically a dictionary with pictures, sounds and phrases. This
software is not designed in a manner that will help you learn. |
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| Audio
Programs |
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There are a few different types of audio programs available. Here is a breakdown
of the two major types.
Repeat after me programs
These programs say a list of words or phrases aloud and ask you to repeat them.
These programs are ineffective and tedious.
Structured Programs
The audio component of our programs is classified as structured. This means
that it has been put together in a progressive way integrating proven teaching
methodologies which allow you to learn in an efficient manner. Audio is an
important part of our program but the software and written materials are
equally as important in helping you learn the Thai language quickly.
There are a few problems with audio-only programs.
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Audio-only programs are slow at introducing new words.
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Audio-only programs get complicated when trying to introduce intermediate to
advanced grammar. It is often much easier to explain complex grammar rules in
writing. This is why all classrooms around the world are fitted with
whiteboards, blackboards or projectors.
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You must learn everything at the rate that the teacher is teaching or you will
end up lost and confused.
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You will not be taught how to read or write the language.
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The program cannot adapt to your individual needs. The software included in our
program, however, adjusts its behavior according to your abilities.
Pimsluer
Pimsluer is an audio-only program that teaches you around 300 words. The
average 3 year old has a vocabulary of around 900 words so don't expect to
start conversing after you have listened to Pimsleur. Pimsleur only teaches you
speaking. You will not be taught how to read or write. The Pimsleur Thai
program retails for US$274.
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| Private
Lessons |
We feel that learning vocabulary is a systematic process that is most
efficiently done by yourself, providing the right tools and methods are used.
When you use our system, you will be quite amazed at just how quickly you can
increase your vocabulary size. Chunking words will allow you to insert large
amounts of new words into your short-term memory in a small period of time.
After you have chunked these words into your short-term memory, our reading
exercises will start bonding this new vocabulary to your long-term memory. You
will then be asked to form new sentences using the new vocabulary that you have
learned. By this stage, the new vocabulary should be fairly deeply ingrained
into your long-term memory. To ensure that you never forget a word that you
have learned you will be periodically tested with the spaced repetition
software included in our program. We guarantee that our program will teach you
vocabulary more effectively than a private teacher.
Private lessons are useful for people who have built up a basic vocabulary
(1500 - 5000 words) and want to practice conversing with the vocabulary that
they have already acquired. |
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| Classes |
There are a few things that you should consider before enrolling in a class.
Here's a story. I signed up to study Thai in one of the biggest and most famous
universities in Thailand. I had great expectations about the course. I thought
that I would come out of it being able to converse with strangers or Thai
friends. I paid a couple of hundred dollars for the course, which was 40 hours
long and fairly enjoyable. However, I came out of it with a vocabulary of
around 200 words. The course was good for learning a few basic phrases like,
'Where is the toilet?,’ 'I will go to the restaurant' and 'I have a
motorcycle,' but if a Thai person spoke to me I would be utterly lost. 200
words is a start but, realistically, you need a much bigger vocabulary before
you can have basic conversations.
What was the problem with the course? Progress was slow and a large number of
the words it did cover were not high value words. For example, the course spent
a lot of time on rarely used words such as ‘spy,’ ‘pilot,’ ‘merchant’ and
‘soldier.’
Still determined, I signed up to learn Thai in another famous institution that
has branches all over Thailand. This company offered a much longer course. The
total program consisted of nine 30-hour courses. That's a total of 270 hours.
There were a couple of issues with this course, the first was that the Thai
alphabet was not used at all and, again, the important words used to put basic
sentences together were nowhere to be seen in the first half of the program.
Instead, we spent a huge amount of time learning words that were of very little
value such as ‘piano,’ ‘chess,’ ‘guitar,’ ‘florist,’ etc. On average, we
learned about 10 words in a two hour period. Spending the same amount of time
with our program will allow you to learn 30 – 40 words.
Another thing to be careful of are classes and products that claim to teach you
in the same way that a child learns his first language. There is a lot of
research out there on this topic. The research concludes that the methods
required to efficiently learn your secondary language are fundamentally
different from the methods a child uses to learn his first language. As a child
you have a parent or caretaker around you all day spoon feeding you the
language, you are unlikely to have this luxury as a secondary language learner.
You already possess an understanding of the concepts of one language, using
this allows you to gain an understanding of your secondary language quickly and
efficiently.
Also be cautious of courses that have been put together solely by Thai native
speakers. It is very hard for Thai people to see the language from the same
viewpoint as you. They will have trouble understanding how an English speaking
person should approach learning the Thai language. Our course has been put
together by both native English speakers and native Thai speakers.
We are extremely confident that you will enjoy and most importantly learn Thai
with our program. This is why we are happy to offer a money back guarantee,
something that we have never seen offered at any language school.
HighSpeedThai will let you study at your own pace. You won't be locked into any
timetables. You can study from the comfort of your own home. When you are in
the mood to study, it will be there. You won't have to wait for class to start. |
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| Learning from
Movies, Songs, Children's books, TV, and Newspapers. |
Exposure to movies can help you improve your proficiency in a language
providing that the new language that the movie contains is presented to you in
a controlled manner. The last section of our program exposes you to a Thai
movie. In this section you will build your vocabulary by 200 words. We have
broken down the movie sentence by sentence. The new vocabulary and grammar
patterns are explained to you in English. We then ask you to complete reading
and speaking exercises which give you an opportunity to make use of the new
language that you have learned. The spaced repetition software will ensure that
you retain what you have learned in your long-term memory.
Children's books can be a fun way to enforce what you have already learned and
learn a few new words here and there, but expect to be exposed to words that
are not useful for day to day conversation. Don't forget that there will be no
English explanations of vocabulary or grammar. This means that you will need to
have a fairly good understanding of the language to benefit from studying in
this way.
We do not recommend attempting to learn Thai from music unless you are
fairly proficient in the language. Songs often use quite formal language and
the language in music is quite different to the language used in day to day
conversations. We prefer that learners make use of methods that are more
focused on conversational language.
Learning from input which has not been translated or explained in your native
language requires that you have a fairly high level of proficiency in your
target language. You should not attempt to learn from materials that do not
contain translations or explanations unless you are familiar with at least 95%
of the vocabulary it uses. |
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| Dictionaries |
Using a dictionary is an essential part of learning any language but there is
more to selecting and using a dictionary than you may think.
Efficient use of a dictionary requires the ability to read Thai.
Remembering the Thai alphabetical order is quite difficult which in turn makes
looking up Thai words in a paper-based dictionary slow and complicated.
You will be able to avoid rote learning the alphabetical order by using an
electronic dictionary. An electronic dictionary will allow you to look up words
in seconds. They are also very small, much smaller than traditional
dictionaries, which makes carrying them with you easier.
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| Practicing
with Girlfriends and Natives Speakers |
Practicing with others is a good tool to reinforce words and grammar rules that
you have previously learned, but learning new words from conversation can be
quite slow. While practicing with a native speaker, a new word may come up in
the conversation once. You may repeat the word in context once after that. It
is very unlikely that your brain is going to retain this word by hearing it and
using it once. One solution to this is to always take a small notepad with you.
When a new word comes up, note it down and review it later. If your vocabulary
is very limited, this will be awkward as you will be stopping the conversation
every few seconds. Your mind will be overwhelmed with new words and you will
end up not learning much at all. Before you can get a lot of benefit from
practicing in a real life conversational situation, you should have a fairly
good understanding of the language. We are not saying that you should
completely avoid speaking Thai when you are a beginner but we are saying don't
expect to go out and have in-depth conversations until you have a fairly good
understanding of the language.
Every lesson of HighSpeedThai has a large practice section. You will be asked
to form new sentences on the fly from words that you have recently learned.
This section allows you to practice speaking in a controlled environment.
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| Flash Cards |
A flash card is a piece of paper with a word or phrase on one side in your
target language and its translation on the other side. You first familiarize
yourself with both sides of the card. You then test yourself by looking at the
English side and trying to recall the Thai side and vice versa.
Flash cards were a very important tool for learning languages. That is until
the software we use in HighSpeedThai became available.
The software included with our program basically manages everything for you.
There is no need to make thousands of clumsy cardboard cards. The software will
keep track of which cards you are weak at and will drill you on them until they
are firmly implanted into your memory. If you are familiar with a card, you
won't need to waste valuable time reviewing it. Each card includes a recording
of a native Thai speaker which will allow you to build your vocabulary while
improving your listening and pronunciation skills.
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| Exposure to
real spoken Thai |
| The material in the last section of our product has been extracted from a Thai
movie. Using a movie as the source of this section ensures that you are exposed
to real spoken Thai at its native speed. Here you will learn common Thai slang
while improving your listening skills. Listening skills are a very important
aspect of learning any language, having to always say 'Excuse me' or 'Pardon
me' makes having a real conversation impractical. |
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| What would you like to do
now? |
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