Best resource for learning basic Thai

[simplelife 57]

Hi, I don't know any Thai at all and this concerns me for my upcoming apartment search (especially since I'm looking for a lower end rental). Can anyone suggest a good place to learn basic conversational Thai so I can speak to apartment managers about prices, terms, etc?

[js007 795]

Hi, I don't know any Thai at all and this concerns me for my upcoming apartment search (especially since I'm looking for a lower end rental). Can anyone suggest a good place to learn basic conversational Thai so I can speak to apartment managers about prices, terms, etc?

 

For the price of a couple of drinks, Thai bar girls can teach you some of the basics. Or, hire one for the day to help you negotiate. They're experts at that.

[jacko 8,822]

Got a smart-phone?

[plahgat 523]

Hi, I don't know any Thai at all and this concerns me for my upcoming apartment search (especially since I'm looking for a lower end rental). Can anyone suggest a good place to learn basic conversational Thai so I can speak to apartment managers about prices, terms, etc?

http://www.lyndonhill.com/FunThai/CONTENTS.html

[cbrib 354]

Try learningthai.com. There is also thai-language.com. Learn Thai Podcast and High Speed Thai are also very good programs. If you are already here a simple phrase book will probably be enough.

[rb 20]

"learning" thai and "speaking" thai are 2 very different animals!! To learn the words and then to be able to speak the words with the correct sounds (fluctuation) are skills not used so much in the english language. As said, much easier to find a thai speaker if that is what u need. wouldn't worry to much though most rental places have english speakers.

chers

rb

[LBJ 533]

"learning" thai and "speaking" thai are 2 very different animals!! To learn the words and then to be able to speak the words with the correct sounds (fluctuation) are skills not used so much in the english language. As said, much easier to find a thai speaker if that is what u need. wouldn't worry to much though most rental places have english speakers.

chers

rb

 

Wow, you actually made sense for once! Did you start drinking again?

[rb 20]

Wow, you actually made sense for once! Did you start drinking again?

no, I still dehydrated although they have "uped" my opiates !

LOL

rb

[ttk 236]

I have an app on my iPhone "talking thai" but that is very basic and slow. I really doubt that you, or actually anyone, could pick up enough to be able to converse with "apartment managers about prices, terms, etc?". Thai is nothing like English. Tone means something and you could think you are asking the manager about the electric bill and really be asking if the room has cockroaches.

 

MM has a great story he told here. It had to do with asking about a Garmin GPS but really asking for Pussy cream.

 

 

http://www.pattayatalk.com/forums/topic/41164-what-is-the-funniest-thing-youve-said-to-a-thai-girl/?hl=garmin&do=findComment&comment=626830

"The perils of shopping in a non-English speaking shop.

I was shopping up in Sri Racha for a Garmin GPS unit. I meant to ask her in Thai if they had GPS units brand name "Garmin", but instead I asked her if they had any GPS medicine for pussy made by Garmin.

Conversation went like this:
Me: Mee GPS yaa hee Garmin mai
She : AGHAST

What I meant to say was:
Me: Mee GPS yee haaw Garmin mai
She: Mai mee, ka"

Edited March 24, 2014 by ttk

[streeteats 30]

I've had fairly good luck with the Pimsluer series. You can download the lessons to your ipad, phone, ect and use it on the go. ebay is one place you can fine it. They also have their own site. I got the beginning lessons from my library for free, Rosetta Stone also seems popular though I only had first hand experience with the former.

[teelack 9,645]

I also got Pimsleur for free from the public library but for me I find it difficult to work on my own with Thai. I sometime think back to the comments I heard about learning golf on your own. When you do take lessons it takes ages to unlearn the poor habits that you did learn.

 

I think that learning from a Thai may be the only way to go if you are really serious. There are Thai communities all over the world now and I would think that tracking these down to find out if they have a language class might be the first step.