Teachers or classes on speaking Thai in Pattaya?

[Leadbelly 0]

Last trip I paid 200 baht per hour for several hourly lessons in Thai. The lessons were given by a nice, middle-aged Thai lady and it was money well spent. However, her English was a bit limited  so I was wondering if any of you know of a good teacher who is fluent (or almost fluent) in English as well.

 

Or possibly a class with a low student-to-teacher ratio that you have gone to that had good instruction. Also if the classes teach how to read Thai, that would be fine too. I've heard that's an important skill to have to really learn the language well. Will be in Pattaya for about 6 weeks over Nov.-Dec. There were a couple of ads placed in a Pattaya newspaper offering tutoring in Thai that I didn't call...do any of you know about these from first-hand experience? They both stated they had years of teaching experience, were college graduates, etc.  

 

The lady  who taught me last time I just stumbled upon...it was a matter of me noticing a sign in the window of a travel agent which said they also offered instruction in Thai. Thanks in advance for any information you share.

 

P.S.- have managed to pick up some Thai from the ladies, but was looking for a more structured, formal setting (and a place where I could "recharge" the old batteries...)

[Dilbert 0]

Hi !!

 

I have heared good things about a school called Pattaya School of Lanuage and Computers.  You can buy a number of lessons with only you and a teacher.  You can reach them on this email : kmt@ptty.loxinfo.co.th

[Leadbelly 0]

Dilbert, thanks a lot for the tip. I'll contact them for more info.

[Leadbelly 0]

Dilbert- Since you were the one who supplied me with the email of the Thai language school, I thought you would be interested in their email they sent when I sent them one asking about their school. Here's their response:

 

 

     Dear Mr. --------

   Many thanks for your above email, and we have pleasure in forwarding

  you our general school info relating to learning Thai;-

 

 Our school which is licensed by the Ministry of Education is located on

 Pattaya Central road, also known as Pattaya Klang road, and we are

 situated approx. 250 metres down the road from Foodland and on the

 same side. next door but one to Discount computer Outlet.( D C O.)

 The school is open from 0900 to 1900 hours Monday to Friday, and from 0900

 to 1700 hours on a Saturday, all our rooms are air conditioned, and we try

 to give all students the time of day, and the days of the week they wish to

 learn, but of course it has to fit in with the teachers and room existing schedules.

 Most people wish to learn on a one to one basis with their teacher, and the

 cost is B.5000.00 per  twenty hours. Discounts are given for long term students.

 We think most people require 60 hours to get a resonable proficient level for

 conversation, reading and writing, but of course it depends on ones own in take,

 we could charge like other schools do for 60 hours up front, but we charge in

 increments of 20 hours, believing satisfied customers will sign on for further

 hours, whilst giving people who find the going to hard the chance to drop

 without wasting their money.

 We do have larger classes, but they are harder to arrange, because as

 mentioned before most people want to learn on a"one to one" basis, and its

 hard to place people of different levels in the same class.

 We trust the above gives you the info you require, but if you have any

 further  questions or queries, please dont hesitate to call us, email:- as above,

 Fax & phone:-  66 38 360 175, or phone:- 66 38 421819. Mobile 01 8630415

                                       Yours sincerely,

                                         (it was from their "Managing Director")

 

It works out to 250 baht an hour, a little more than the 200 baht I was paying, but think I'll check them out for 20 hours worth. I'll let you know how it goes, and thanks again Dilbert.

[marley 0]

Leadbelly,Very interesting topic and I hope you relay your experiences to us all here as and when you can. Their letter is good,so maybe the teachers are not bad.                                                                                                               Marley.

[Leadbelly 0]

marley- I'll post what happens regarding learning Thai to the board, but it will be in late Dec. or early Jan., since I don't get back until Christmas. Will be having too much fun for the message boards when there.

[Leadbelly 0]

marley-  said I'd get back with you on the Thai class, and am back now. Unfortunately, as with some plans I make, did not follow through on the classes. I did buy "Thai for Beginners" (1 book and 3 tapes) and "Thai for Intermediate Learners" (1 book and 2 tapes) by Benjawan Poomsan Becker. I'd read somewhere they are good...haven't begun them yet. Found them at a good  bookstore on Soi Post Office, I think it was...one of those sois in there. It's about mid-way down the soi on the left hand side if you go from Second Road and are heading towards Beach Road. Beginners was 549 baht, Intermediate was 649 baht. Also a good Thai-English, English-Thai dictionary (with transliterations for non-Thai speakers) by the same author. It's small but about an inch thick. The dictionary also has the Thai writing system included (425 baht).

[T-Rex 0]

Lead,

I also just bought the same book and tapes from the internet.  I would like a bit of a followup on how it goes if it is not too much to ask.

[ghost 4]

I'm also attempting to learn the thai language.

I posted this website above but thought I would add it here.

http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Thai/spokenthai/Default.htm

[RayW 1]

Many thanks for sharing that url Ghost, really useful I will play with that when I have time, maybe it will give me a bit of a start before I arrive in LOS.

[Leadbelly 0]

T-Rex, I'm only half-way through book one and the tape that goes wth it. I've found it to be worthwhile so far, but am having trouble putting the time into it that's needed. After work each day I basically get lazy. Hope it's going well with you....chok dee.

[ghost 4]

I have the first book also.  I think it is good if you want to read AND WRITE thai.  I seem to have a lot of difficulty recognizing all the different thai characters.  Thankfully all the beer bar and gogo signs are in english.  :)  Oh...I've made mp3 files of the tapes if anybody is interested in them I could put them on the web somewhere for a few days.

[T-Rex 0]

My set just arrived and I can already tell it will be rough going.  I have been trying to get the sounds by reading the book and listening to the tape.  I will post an update in about a week to let you know how well it goes for my part.  Thanx for the reply Lead.  thanx for the url Ghost

[RayW 1]

Ghost, yes I also have the Thai for Beginners book which I brought at the Bookazine store in Pattaya RG Centre.  I did not get the tapes with it simply because I do not a a tape player except in my car and I dont use that either.  Everything these days is on CD so pity they didn't do a CD version as I would have brought that for sure.

 

So yes please would love the .mp3 file of the tape(s), very very much appreciate that if you could, and I will buy you a beer whenever we meet in Pattaya as I hope we indeed will  :)

[ghost 4]

I have enough requests that I am planning to post the four mp3 files online.  They are each around 25MB.  Anybody know of any file storage locations that can handle this large of a file?

[RayW 1]

Ghost

 

Why not make them available from your own PC by using Kazaa.com and let us know the file names so we can locate them, oh and let us know when you are online to DL them, assuming you have broadband that is.  Thanks a lot for making them available matey

[ghost 4]

Thanks Ray!!  Now why didn't I think of that.  ???

My user name on Kazaa is larry_loves_laughing@kazaa

I leave the computer on pretty much 24/7.

The four files are:

• ThaiLangTape1SideA.mp3   28,218 KB
  
• ThaiLangTape1SideB.mp3   27,992 KB
  
• ThaiLangTape2SideA.mp3   27,268 KB
  
• ThaiLangTape2SideB.mp3   27,294 KB
  

If you do not have it... you can download kazaalite from here:  http://www.kazaalite.nl

Good Luck  

[RayW 1]

Great, I will try and download them today.  If I succeed I will send you a message on Kazaa which I think I can do, never tried it though.  Mnay thanks mate once again.

[RayW 1]

Ghost, no joy so far I have made several searches since my last post here but nothing found  ???  Either I am too early and you havent yet had time to set it up or there is a problem  

[ghost 4]

Hmm.. Must be a problem.  The files are on Kazaa and my machine has been on for the last 3 or 4 days.  There must be some kind of problem with the file detection on Kazaa....  I'll have to figure out another way to make them available.

[ryu9090 1]

It took a helluva lot of time to download it from WINMX, but I got a hold of a COMPLETE VERSION OF PIMSLEURS THAI LESSONS VOLUME 1 -  10 (mp3 format).  It's actually pretty good.  Let me know if a couple of you guys are interested in a copy.  I'd more than happy to  mail it to you (I will pay for the mailing charges).  The only catch is, after receiving it from me, you will have to burn a copy for someone else who is interested and pass it on.  Fair enough huh?

 

Aloha,

 

Ryu

[triplegee 0]

great suggestion Ryu - I am prepared to do same with a CD i have called Talk-Now (learn Thai) - I can burn it and forward on. I would appreciate a copy of your Pimsleur stuff - I hear it is pretty good...

 

Now... how are we going to manage these logistics??  ??? I have something I am prepared to pass on and you have something I want!! I will PM you with my address details - Bangkok FYI - let me know if you would like a copy of what I have - same goes to anyone else that is interested...

 

Ghost - I have been looking at Kazaa for your files as well to no avail... thanks for trying tho!!

 

Cheers guys,

G³

[ghost 4]

Hi all-

I put the thai tape files on an ftp server:

 

ftp 209.204.141.88

username:  flb  password:  tha1tap3

 

Look in the downloads directory.

 

I'm also interested in any other thai language materials.  I can host them on the ftp site if there

is enough interest.      

[ryu9090 1]

TripleG,

 

Thanks for the offer.  I sent a reply to your PM with my address.  I will be sending a copy to you within a day or two.  

 

Ghost - I will be sure to check out your FTP site...  Thanks!

 

Aloha,

 

Ryu

[RayW 1]

Ghost, just tried that ftp address using the flb username and both tha1tap3 and also thaitap3 passwords but all to no avail, unless I am doing something wrong as I have rarely used my Smartftp software.  

 

Any chance of burning them onto a CD-R and I will give you my address via PM's  I will of course buy you a drink for your efforts when we meet in Pattaya one day.