Thai Language School Review: Baan Aksorn Thai Language School…

School: Baan Aksorn
Telephone Number: 02-258-5617 or 02-662-3090
Mobile: 084-769-6449
Address: House #40 Sukhumvit Soi 33, Klongton Nua, Watana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand

Location: Baan Askorn has a PDF that shows exactly how to get to their school either by walking from Phrom Phong BTS or by driving. Meaning, I don’t need to give you directions!

Basic Info: I looked at this school a few years ago, but kinda forgot about it. Actually, when I toured the school the first time I was quite put off by the condescending attitude of a particular student. But, in retrospect, students shouldn’t come into play so an in-depth review was in order.

I have to say the overall ambiance of this school is the best of any I’ve been to. From the outside it’s the most un-school looking building I’ve ever seen. Baan Askorn is located in a 30 year old Thai house that has been totally redone as a functional Thai language school. The garden area is full of towering mature trees, with places to sit. It’s shady and certainly more than adequate for having a Thai lesson outdoors (weather permitting). Honestly, I wouldn’t mind just stopping by their garden to “hang out”. Inside the school is just as inviting. The downstairs is the reception area, with the classrooms are upstairs.

Materials: The first four books are pretty standard fare. And I don’t mean that with ANY negative connotation. It’s just that they’re close to the materials seen in the better private Thai Language schools around Bangkok (as far as basic intro Thai books go). These types of books are designed to get you speaking something that at least resembles Thai. The books also provides a student with a base line vocabulary with the means to concentrate on conversation, reading, writing or a combination.

Baan Askorn’s advanced reading and writing materials are not the same old beat to death stuff I’ve seen at other schools. The course books are contemporary, up to date, and interesting. Stories start out with just a few sentences and progressively get longer in content and harder in vocabulary. New vocabulary is introduced at the beginning. And to gauge a student’s comprehension, questions (both spoken and written) are asked afterward. Quite honestly, as far as advanced materials go, these were some of the most interesting books I’ve come across in any school I’ve toured.

Method: The initial methodology at Baan Askorn is similar to other schools. Their phonemic transcription uses a system pretty close to Benjawan Becker’s Paiboon Plus. The material is presented in Thai, karaoke and English. This is situational-based material, covering the basics: greeting, meeting, getting around, asking questions, etc. It’s presented in a straightforward manner. The more advanced classes have discussions about topics relevant to the material being covered. Their advanced classes discuss articles from Thai newspapers.

Teachers: The teacher I had was more than capable insofar as teaching a foreigner the Thai language. She obviously knew the materials. In fact, she was so adept at teaching she was even able to write both English AND Thai upside down and backwards (so it would read right side up for me) as we sat across the table from one another! (I give her kudos for that feat in and of itself). I tried it after I got home and it’s definitely a skill-set which takes practice to pull off proficiently.

I spoke to a student who who sat the Thai proficiency exam after attending Baan Aksorn. He said teachers in all levels were more than competent and able to explain the “whyz-in-Thai” versus “that’s just how it is in Thai”.

Classes: Baan Aksorn offers group classes but only for those at comparable levels of Thai. However, I definitely got the feeling that they really prefer to teach private 1-on-1 lessons. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I’ve sat group classes in many Thai language schools where the disparity of knowledge between students compels the teacher to teach either to the slowest student, holding back the faster ones, or to the fastest student, dragging the other ones along. As this can create bad feelings, some schools prefer to give private lessons.

ED Visa: Baan Aksorn offers education visas for students who enroll in a year long Thai program. It’s operated pretty much like all private Thai language schools registered with the Ministry of Education. Once students have paid their tuition, the school supplies support documentation for a Thai Embassy or Consulate (in a neighboring country), and secure a single entry 90 day ED visa. This is extended every 90 days at Thai Immigrations with additional documentation supplied by the school.

Bang-4-The-Baht: I rate this school quite high on the ‘bang-4-the-baht’ scale in terms of real value versus cost. They have some of the most contemporary and error free material I’ve seen. Their books are all written in-house, instead of being 5th generation copies of the oh-so dated Union Method material still in use by some Thai schools. They put a lot of time and effort into coming up with a solid curriculum of material for students to learn to speak, read and write Thai.

I’d recommend Baan Aksorn to anyone serious about undertaking Thai. You aren’t going to show up for the Ministry of Education’s stated minimum class time of 4 hours a week and suddenly start speaking Thai like a Thai. And you aren’t going to coast thru a class parroting material like a mynah bird (as is done in a school which shall remain nameless). This school will challenge you to learn Thai, but more than that, it will teach you the necessary skill-set to meet that challenge.

After perusing Baan Aksorn’s material I realised that I was quite remiss in my earlier dismissal of this school. And if I was still looking to attend a Thai language school, I’d certainly put them very near the top of the list.

Hope you found this review of value. As always I rate schools on what I’ve found works for me. This may or may not work for you. I urge ANYONE contemplating enrolling in or attending a private Thai language school to check out as many as you can BEFORE you pay a single satang of your hard earned baht.

Good Luck.

Tod Daniels | toddaniels at gmail dot com
Reviewing Thai Language Schools in Bangkok
(BTW: Tod is NOT affiliated with any Thai language school)

A Guide to Thai Grammar Books…

Presented here are short introductions to Thai grammar books, both in the English language for foreign learners and Thai language books for Thai school and university students which are also useful for foreign learners with a good Thai reading ability. As these are reference books, not tutorials, they are not intended to be read from cover-to-cover, but instead used to support continued studies.

Each book overview here covers the general structure and content together with comments about any specific, notable features. However, no opinion or rating is given about their suitability for any particular learning approach which is, of course, very subjective to each learner.

The books listed here are not the only books available. I welcome comments and further suggestions on this topic which would assist us all with our continued studies.

English Language Grammar Books…

The in-print books listed here can usually be found at all large book shops in Thailand which stock foreign language books. Many online shops (both Thai and foreign) sell them too. Google Books has free previews of some and, where relevant, a link is provided.

The Fundamentals of the Thai Language (5th edition)
Author: Stuart Campbell and Chuan Shaweevongs
Format: out-of-print but available online (free)
Language: English with examples in Thai script and transliteration.
Website: Fundamentals of the Thai Language

While this is more of a language course than a grammar book, it does have a strong emphasis on basic grammar and outlines some key differences from English which is useful for beginners. Each topic is presented with basic vocabulary lists and example conversations. The first edition was printed in 1956 so some of the vocabulary is showing its age but the clear explanations and well structured content make this a useful book.

Thai: An Essential Grammar
Author: David Smyth
Formats: paperback, hardback, eBook (Kindle, PDF, ePub, Microsoft Reader)
ISBN: 978-0415226134 (paperback)
Language: English with examples in Thai script and transliteration.
Google Preview: Thai: Essential Grammar

Thai Reference Grammar: The Structure of Spoken Thai
Authors: James Higbie and Snea Thinsan
Format: paperback
ISBN: 978-9748304960
Language: English with examples in Thai script and transliteration.

These two books are perhaps the most commonly available grammar books for foreign learners. They’re good introductions to Thai grammar and language patterns and useful for beginners as well as advanced learners. Both are written for general learners and only use basic grammatical terminology (eg. nouns, verbs, conjunctions etc) and therefore are straight forward to read and very approachable.

Different styles of transliteration are used in each book. Smyth’s system is not too different from that developed by Mary Haas and is easy to learn for readers familiar with Haas’ works or the system used in the Thai for Beginners book. Higbie’s transliteration style is unique, using under- and over-scoring representing tones, but after the initial “what is that?” reaction, it’s quick to learn and intuitive.

Given the rising popularity of eBook readers and tablet computers, Smyth’s publisher (Routledge) deserves praise for making his work available in digital formats. However, the Kindle and ePub editions use miniature graphics files for the Thai text and some transliteration symbols so resizing the layout doesn’t work properly on all readers (the graphic files don’t resize along with the normal text). The PDF version does not have this problem. (I’ve not seen the Microsoft Reader version so can’t comment about it.)

Thai Reference Grammar
Author: Richard B. Noss
Formats: PDF (free online), paperback
ISBN: 978-1456503307 (paperback)
Language: English with transliteration (no Thai script)
Website: FSI: Thai Reference Grammar (PDF link near the end of the page)

Obviously written at a time when people didn’t worry about the health effects of smoking, this book introduces the topic of classifiers with a demonstration of how to buy cigarettes as “the yellow pack”, “those five packs”, “the big pack” etc. – not something found in modern books! Printed in 1964, this is an updated version of the author’s PhD dissertation so academic linguistic terminology is heavily used throughout eg. nouns are defined as “any substantive which occurs as the head of an endocentric expression”, but there are plenty of examples which help if the lingo is hard to understand. It’s perhaps unfortunate that only transliteration is used – no Thai script at all – but this is a book about spoken Thai.

One feature that stands out is the focus on stress, rhythm and intonation in spoken Thai and the transliteration (also based on Mary Haas’ system) includes symbols to represent these features. Other grammar books generally give less focus on this topic so its inclusion here is welcome.

The PDF version at the above website is free and is a scan of the original print edition. It’s mostly of good quality although there are a few faint or illegible words to be found. There are “new” editions of this book being sold online, but they seem to be identical to this PDF except for the front cover.

Thai Reference Grammar A Reference Grammar of Thai
Authors: Shoichi Iwasaki and Preeya Ingkaphirom
Formats: paperback, hardback
ISBN: 978-0521108676 (paperback)
Language: English with examples in Thai script, transliteration and part-of-speech analysis.
Google Preview: A Reference Grammar of Thai

This book is also for a more academic audience. The terminology used is somewhat difficult at first if the reader is not familiar with technical linguistic terms (eg. chapter titles such as “Deontic Modal Auxiliaries”, “The Periphrastic Causative” etc), although each chapter has a short, less-technical introduction but not totally jargon free. Reading the chapter summaries first will give a clearer overview of the content and the terminology is arguably easier to understand than that used in Noss’ book.

The academic approach used to compile this book is clear from the conversational data: transcriptions of real conversations between teachers & parents, parents & children, business meetings etc. Even hesitations and repetition of words are transcribed, transliterated and analysed into parts of speech as spoken. Top marks for the analysis of real-life speech as this is something that’s not evident in the other books presented here.

The part-of-speech analysis is a feature not found in the other books in this article, although it’s common in many academic papers. For example:

นัดคงไม่มาแล้ว
nát khoŋ mây maa lɛ́ɛw
(name) may NEG come ASP
“Nat may not come any more.”

Lines 1, 2 and 4 are the Thai script, transliteration and translation respectively. Line 3 is the part-of-speech analysis showing how each word fits in the sentence: (name) denotes a persons name, NEG is a “negative marker” (“not”) and ASP is an “aspect auxiliary” (for time/tense).

However, there are a few mistakes: a few transliterations and translations are incomplete, and some incorrect spellings can be found too. But don’t let these minor negatives put you off though as this is otherwise a detailed, insightful (albeit expensive) book. The Smyth and Higbie books are great quick references for learning language structures but this one is more detailed and will often better answer the question “how does that word really work?”

Thai Language Grammar Books…

These grammar books are primarily for native Thai speakers so the focus is very different from those above. The foreign language books are about second language acquisition and understanding whereas books for native speakers explain the workings of the reader’s own native language which they already use fluently in daily life.

The first two books can be found in Thai university bookshops and larger general bookshops. The บรรทัดฐานภาษาไทย books are limited in availability and details are provided separately below.

หลักภาษาไทย [The Fundamentals of the Thai Language]
Author: กำชัย ทองหล่อ
Formats: paperback, hardback
ISBN: 978-9742466350
Language: Thai

Previews: Two chapters with partial translations can be found on the thai-language.com website:

Modifiers
Parts of Speech

This book is the standard reference book of the Thai language, first printed about 60 years ago. It’s a very detailed, academic tome (540 pages) covering the evolution of the Thai script, alphabet, tones, types of words, their use (including royal vocabulary or “ratchasap”), clauses, sentences, loan words (mainly Pali and Sanskrit with limited discussion of Khmer, Chinese and English), prose and poetry.

This book has no index but the table of contents is very detailed (spanning 11 pages) and lists all chapters, sections and subsections making it quick and easy to find the right page.

This reference manual is the definitive reference book for the Thai language.

ไวยากรณ์ไทย [Thai Grammar]
Author: นววรรณ พันธุเมธา
Formats: paperback, hardback
ISBN: 974-9993276
Language: Thai

This book covers all the essentials and isn’t overly technical. It’s less detailed than หลักภาษาไทยand perhaps easier to understand while being organised in a similar manner. It starts with chapters covering word types (verbs, nouns, conjunctions etc) and then phrase and sentence construction. The book only discusses the modern Thai language as used in normal daily life so there’s limited discussion of royal vocabulary, and nothing on the language history or traditional forms of verse that are covered in หลักภาษาไทย. Plenty of examples are given throughout and there are also exercises at the end of each chapter.

Unfortunately, finding information in this book can be slow as there’s no index and the table of contents is short (one page) which lists only the chapter titles, not subsections. Also, the page headers only contain the author’s name, book title and page numbers (no chapter or section titles) so the reader must scan the pages for section headings instead.

However, this book does have a logical organisation and its non-technical approach makes it useful as both a tutorial and reference guide.

บรรทัดฐานภาษาไทย เล่ม ๑-๖ [Standard Thai, Books 1-6]
Author: Thai Language Institute, Office of Academic and Educational Standards, Office of the Basic Education Commission, Ministry of Education
Format: paperback
Language: Thai

Availability generally limited to ศึกษาภัณฑ์พาณิชย์ (Suksapan Phaanit) shops.
Branch locations can be found at suksapan.or.th and an online ordering service is available.

เล่ม ๑ ระบบเสียง อักษรไทย การอ่านคำและการเขียนสะกดคำ
Book 1 Phonology, Thai alphabet, Reading and Spelling Words

เล่ม ๒ คำ การสร้างคำและการยืมคำ
Book 2 Words, Word Construction and Loan Words

เล่ม ๓ ชนิดของคำ วลี ประโยคและสัมพันธสาร
Book 3 Types of Words, Clauses, Sentences and Discourse

เล่ม ๔ วัฒนธรรมการใช้ภาษาไทย
Book 4 Cultural use of the Thai Language

เล่ม ๕ กระบวนการคิดและการเขียนร้อยแก้ว
Book 5 The Art of Writing Prose

เล่ม ๖ ฉันทลักษณ์และขนบการเขียนร้อยกรอง
Book 6 Prosody and Patterns for Writing Verse

Notes:
1. Book 1 of the current print-run has sold out (as of November 2011)
2. Books 5 and 6 have not yet been published (as of November 2011)
3. This review is based on books 2, 3 and 4

These recent books, published in 2009 and 2010, present a modern approach to understanding Thai for “teachers of Thai, students at secondary school level or higher and anyone interested in the Thai language”. They are written by “contemporary academic researchers and experts in the Thai language” which is evident from the bibliographies referencing many modern academic papers (from both Thai and foreign universities). By using a modern, broad base of linguistic research, the authors have developed a series of books that explain the Thai language clearly and concisely.

The vocabulary in these books is relatively straightforward and good use is made of charts and tables where appropriate. Some technical terminology has come from English and translated into Thai (eg. “socio-cultural information” translated to “ข้อมูลด้านสังคมและวัฒนธรรม”) but the English terms/phrases are also given on first use, which is helpful for foreign readers.

Footnotes are used to highlight where deviations have been made from older books such as หลักภาษาไทย (above) and its predecessor, the almost century-old work of พระยาอุปกิตศิลปสาร (not included here because it’s out-of-print). Such deviations are primarily where different terminology is used eg. the new books use คำนามวิสามัญ (proper noun) instead of วิสามานยนาม as used in the older books.

The up-to-date nature of these texts can be clearly seen in the second book (Words, Word Construction and Loan Words). The loan words chapters in the older books focus on Pali, Sanskrit and Khmer with a little Chinese and English but these newer books have extensive chapters for Pali, Sanskrit, Khmer, Chinese, Java-Malaya, and English. Likewise, in book 4 (Cultural use of the Thai Language) there are chapters on regional dialects in Thailand and modern language use in business, advertising, media, legal, religion, ceremonies, and word play/humour too.

In summary, these are well-thought out, up-to-date books with clear explanations, ample examples and a broad scope. They are likely to satisfy the most inquisitive students of the Thai language.

The in-print books listed here can usually be found at all large book shops in Thailand which stock foreign language books. Many online shops (both Thai and foreign) sell them too. Google Books has free previews of some and, where relevant, a link is provided.

Mark Hollow

Thai Language School Review: Thai Language Station…

School: Thai Language Station (TLS) Bangkok
Telephone Number: 02-632-9440
Address: Thai Language Station, 62 Thaniya Building 11th floor, Silom Road, Bangrak, Bangkok Thailand 10500

How to get there on foot: BTS (Sky Train) Sala Daeng Station Gate No.1 or the MRT (Subway) Silom Station

Basic Info: Thai Language Station belongs to a chain of schools founded by a half Thai, half Japanese guy named Fuji. Fuji has 2 schools in Japan and 2 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Thai Language Station’s main location is in the Times Square Building, BUT, here’s the thing. At that site they don’t teach Thai to English speakers. They only teach Thai to Koreans, Japanese, and Chinese. In fact, they don’t even have English language Thai textbooks at Times Square, and not a piece of advertising inside their office is in English either. So, if you’re not one of the nationalities mentioned (Koreans, Japanese, and Chinese), don’t even bother going to the Times Square Building. Native (or second language) English speakers are taught at the Thaniya Building on Silom.

When I entered Thai Language Station in the Thaniya Building I thought I’d mistakenly walked into the Times Square building. That’s how close the schools are to being carbon copies! The only difference is at Thaniya, the signage is also in English.

Materials: Thai Language Station has 8 different levels of material. The first 4 levels start out like most other phonemic based transcription systems. You are introduced to the phonetics used to represent Thai sounds and corresponding Thai characters. Next up is conversation-based text such as: greetings, information gathering (name, age, etc).

The conversations are very straightforward, although there is NO corresponding Thai in the book to start exposing you to the Thai writing system. You’ll only see phonetics and English (and their phonetic system is more than a little squirrelly). In fact, it’s downright confusing! If I hadn’t known the Thai vocabulary beforehand their system would have been totally impossible to understand without taking the time to learn it first. As it worked out, I ended up asking the teacher to write the sentences in Thai script.

However, due to a massive re-write, their quirky phonetic system is about to change. I was informed that it’s going to include Thai script and incorporate a universally understood phonetic system (Benjawan Becker’s Paiboon Plus, to be exact).

Method: The method is conversation based. After the first book of basic Thai it progresses into longer, more difficult, yet still high frequency conversations which are useful in day-to-day Thai living.

The first 2 books on reading and writing have karaoke Thai, real Thai, and English. Once you get thru 4 levels of conversation you’re then exposed to writing and reading Thai. The last 2 books are ONLY in Thai and English.

Aside from the squirrelly phonemic transcription (karaoke Thai) the methodology is pretty good. It has a lot of high value, high usage phrases, sentence constructs, etc.

Out of class homework is assigned for people learning to write Thai. The final 2 books are in a short story format with questions. The materials have been upgraded to a more “current events” based reading class. The teacher takes articles out of the newspaper, magazines, etc., or the students bring an article of interest.

One other thing you don’t see all that often is that Thai Language Station WILL sell their text books to any Tom, Dick and Somchai who walks thru the door. This is total departure from other schools where you hafta enroll before you can purchase the books, and even then you can only buy the books for the level you’re attending.

Then again, with the quirky phonetics and no written Thai in the first 4 levels, unless you know which characters make up which corresponding Thai sounds, the books are of little value as self study material.

Teachers: I spoke to several teachers and they seemed more than qualified to teach Thai to foreigners. They also have an entire contingent of teachers who ONLY teach to a specific demographic (Chinese, Koreans, Japanese) and don’t teach ANY of the English speaking classes. Sadly, the teacher who taught the class I sat had to go to a private lesson right after so I couldn’t talk to her. Fortunately a Thai teacher of mine from 3 years ago teaches at Thai Language Station part time so I called her to get the low-down on the qualifications and quality of the teachers. She said ALL the teachers who teach Thai to native English speakers are required to pass an “in house” test, so yes, they are indeed qualified to teach.

Classes: At Thai Language Station classes run for 45 intense minutes of learning Thai. The books are not taught in a format which repeats endlessly (like some un-named schools) where you can just jump in when ever you enroll. No matter the level, the entire class starts on page 1 of what ever book you’re learning. Given that fact, you might need to wait until a sufficient number of students enroll in a particular level before a class will start.

From what I’ve heard the classes at Thai Language Station are well attended, and some have as many as 10-15 students. This can be a double-edged sword. Big classes can get side-tracked quite easily as new learners of the language question the minutia of Thai. The class I sat only had 5 students so moved along quite well.

There is a HIGH emphasis on getting both the tones and vowel length correct and the teachers hammer students to get it right (even if she makes him say it 15 times). While this may seem frustrating to early learners of the Thai language, in reality it is a blessing as those 2 things are the most problematic areas for foreign speakers of Thai.

ED Visa: Thai Language Station offers the cheapest price I’ve EVER encountered for the yearly ED visa. They have the most lessons for students who sign up for a year (a mind-wobbling 210 lessons!) They offer a 6 month visa program (105 lessons) if students don’t want a full year. And if you don’t need an ED visa, the price for group lessons drops to the lowest price I’ve ever seen offered in Bangkok (60 lessons at just 75 baht a lesson)!

Interestingly enough, Thai Language Station has an innovative “intern program”. This is where someone works at the Thai Language Station office, answering correspondence, speaking to people interested in studying Thai, and various other office tasks. In return the school provides an ED visa, extensions of stay free, and the freedom to study Thai when ever.

I spoke to a Chinese girl who’d just graduated Uni and was enrolled in the program. Now, to my foreign ears, it sure sounded like she spoke Thai pretty darned close to a Thai national already.

Bang-4-The-Baht: I give Thai Language Station a very high “bang-4-the-baht”, based on their methodology, the teachers, and their incredibly low price point. I wouldn’t deduct ANY points for anything but their quirky phonetic system. As I mentioned earlier, that is changing with the new material (supposed to be rolled out sometime after the New Year).

Hope this helps,
Tod Daniels | toddaniels at gmail dot com | Reviewing Thai Language Schools in Bangkok
Your man on the ground, in the trenches, errr, I mean, in classrooms at Thai language schools in Bangkok.

NOTE: Tod is NOT affiliated with any Thai language school.

Learning Languages: The art and science of remembering everything…

My ability to remember names (people or places) is weak. Unless it’s for a short-term project like a script, my memory just doesn’t go there. So I skip over names whether in books or when meeting new people.

Carrying on a conversation without remembering names is doable. It has a potential for being embarrassing but profuse apologies will fix most snafus. Besides, a bad memory for names is not rare. A good one is.

But a lack of memory of this sort also makes learning a language like Thai a challenge. Seems that every new Thai word is exactly like a name. Can you explain the reasoning behind that to me? Because I’d like to know.

Like most (I’m sure) reading this post, over the years I’ve made attempts at improving my memory. Books were acquired but many were turfed out during moves. Still around (for no memorable reason) are: It’s All In Your Head (remarkable facts about the human brain), Dental Floss For The Mind (a complete program for boosting your brain power), and The Mind Map Book by Tony & Barry Buzan.

Last year (or was it the year before last) I purchased both the French and Italian Language Revolution Complete Beginners sets (yet another Buzan creation). Think mind mapping, but for languages. And after a quick skim, these too were put aside (for now).

This past Sunday I read Study Hack: Improve Focus by Tweaking your Senses, written by Zane at (Life by Experimentation).

Right away I can say that I definitely have noticed that I am paying more attention to my studies. It is not a small difference, either. I walk away from each study session, now, feeling as though I truly learned something. Of course, in my next experiment (to learn French) I’ll be publishing more quantifiable data about just how much I was able to learn in how much time, and how much these techniques helped.

The above quote plus Zane’s mention of using sleep masks, headphones, and earplugs to study a language were quirky enough for me to download the book in question: Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, by Joshua Foer.

The book is so good that I bored the man of the house with it on Sunday, finishing it first thing Monday morning (today). And now here we are. A review. Sort of.

After an intro Josh takes readers through the Loci Method, an age-old method of memorising lists of things (not numbers). Within minutes I’d memorised Josh’s disjointed list. And except for the name of the actor, I can still remember the list this morning. So obviously, following his exact instructions is something I need to work on. And I will.

As mentioned, I’ve read several known books on the subject of improving memory, yet only Josh’s winding explanations convinced me to actually try out the memory suggestions. His marvelous research (I’m a sucker for detail and his book is saturated) plus his wonderful writing kept me reading until the end. Just saying.

There are several ways to get a copy of his book (legally). As I’m way out here in the boonies of Thailand I went with a Kindle download to read on my iPad. But if you want a real book, and are closer to either amazon.com or amazon.co.uk, a hardcopy (an enviable choice) might be the better option.

amazon.com: Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
amazon.co.uk: Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Kindle (co.uk): Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

PS: No, there is not an affiliate code on those amazon links. The links are included in this post because I really really really want you to read his book. It’s that good. Even Amazon thinks so as it’s listed in Amazon’s Best Books of the Month for March 2011.

Joshua Foer: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything…

Amazon has a video where Josh explains how it all came about. With no way to share it here, I checked YouTube to find more than expected. My connection is sucky (I’m downloading heaps) so I’ve yet to get through them all. But as soon as this post goes live, and my downloads are finished, I aim to.

Memory resources…

If you have no intentions of getting Josh’s book (or want more convincing) then perhaps follow the instructions for Loci here:

How to Improve your Memory with the Method of Loci.

And here’s even more of what you’ll find in the book:

wikipedia: Method of loci
wikipedia: Mnemonic major system
wikipedia: Art of memory
wikipedia: Mind map

I’ve only just read Josh’s book, The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, but I guarantee that this post won’t be the last on the subject. Because for learning a language such as Thai, discussing tricks to access more memory is just too important to miss.

Thai Language School Review: Sumaa Language & Culture Institute…

School: Sumaa Language & Culture Institute
Telephone Number: Tel. 02-286-0129
Address: Sumaa Language & Culture Institute, 36 Sathorn Soi 1 South Sathorn road, Tungmahamek, Sathorn, Bangkok 10120

Location: Sumaa Language & Culture Institute states that they’re conveniently located not far from the Lumpini MRT Station. But if you are walking with a cane it’s a LONG slog down to their school, just opposite the Goethe Center on Sathorn Soi 1 Yake 2. Next time I’ll take a taxi from the MRT.

Basic Info: Sumaa Language & Culture Institute is on the second floor of a house. The first floor has a clothing shop; you enter the second floor from the outside stairs. It’s a nicely set up school, with friendly outgoing English speaking staff. The staff’s demeanor really put me at ease. During our initial conversation they asked what my goals were in learning Thai, what level of Thai I thought I was at, etc. Of any school I’ve been to they did the best job of pre-qualifying me as to my specific learning Thai needs. Then again, because this school doesn’t do ED visas, they have an entirely different clientele than schools which cater more towards that demographic of Thai language student.

Note: I’m NOT saying schools which offer ED visas aren’t quality schools. I’m only pointing out that this school doesn’t do it. How you stay in Thailand is your deal, not the school’s.

Materials: Their materials are available both in phonetic Thai with English, and Thai script. That’s a plus for me unless I can see the English translation and guess the words by context, I can barely read phonetics. The phonetic system they use is a little squirrelly but not so bad that it’s unreadable. The text books start out like most do: greetings, what’s your name, questions about where you’re from, what your occupation is, etc. They progress to more complex conversations as the books advance. Reading and writing Thai script is on offer as well.

Method: The methodology is phonetic based. It concentrates on getting you to speak in Thai as quickly as possible. The consonant sounds, vowel sound and length, as well as the toning are all covered in a matter-of-fact straightforward method (the toning was explained so well that I almost understood it).

Sumaa Language’s intermediate and advanced reading/writing Thai books start out with a short paragraph and then progress to longer and longer stories. New vocabulary is introduced before the story is read. The students read the story to themselves first, and then they read it aloud. The teacher corrects any errant pronunciation. After the story is finished there is a conversational portion with questions where the story is discussed to gauge comprehension. There are also a written questions where answers in Thai are required. This is assigned as homework.

After seeing so many advanced reading writing classes at the various schools, I’ve become somewhat jaded because the material is usually the same-old-song-&-dance stuff that’s been beaten to death: Thai culture, the history of Thailand according to the Thais, holidays in Thailand, the weather, blah-blah-blah. Surprisingly, this school didn’t have those stories. While the first story covered wasn’t exactly edge of your seat reading by any means, it did expose me to different structure and new vocab I didn’t have. It was interesting enough to catch my attention, and easy enough for me to comprehend.

The second story we did was much longer. I believe the teacher realized that despite my assertions that I didn’t know much Thai, during the discussion about the short paragraph which comprised the first story she decided to raise the proverbial bar a notch or three, lol. Still, I got thru it, although the portion where I read the sentences aloud made the teacher cover the grin on her face with her hand (like Thais do when they don’t want to guffaw out loud at someone’s fox-paws). Even so, she patiently went through the story sentence by sentence. First she read it aloud, and then I read it back using the intonation she’d used. Sometimes we had to go a couple words at a time for me to get the tones correct, but she was patient with my mangled pronunciation to the n-th degree. The conversational portions went better and I was able to answer most of the questions with complete Thai structured sentences. If I couldn’t understand something she’d explain it in Thai first, and if I still was blanking out, she’d graciously switch to English so I could catch on.

Teachers: I spoke to three teachers and the owner of the Sumaa Language & Culture Institute. They all seemed to want foreigners to learn the Thai language; it shows in their materials and their dedication in class. The teacher in the intermediate reading / writing class was excellent. I couldn’t find a single downside to her ability, methodology, or the materials used (and believe me I tried). Any shortcomings were due to my inability to understand, replicate the proper tones, etc., rather than from the schools side of things.

Classes: The sample class I sat was originally supposed to have three students but alas (or to my benefit) the other two were no-shows and I had a private lesson for two hours. They do offer group classes IF they have people at the exact same level. They also offer discounts if you and a friend join together. However, the Sumaa Language & Culture Institute is more along the lines of schools like Jentana & Associates in that they really cater more towards private 1 on 1 lessons. This can be quite good for study as you can go as fast or as slow as you want and there’s no pressure on dragging a group of students through a particular lesson in a given time frame.

During the class I sat the teacher ran it to the minute. This obviously wasn’t the first time she’d taught that material. She wrote on the white board in Thai, and if I couldn’t get the toning she’d write the karaoke Thai so I could see the tone mark. As I’d mentioned, their toning chart was so easy to read (even for me) and the teacher was gracious enough to give me a copy. She also explained how to use it quickly to discern tones of unfamiliar Thai words.

ED Visa: The Sumaa Language & Culture Institute doesn’t play the ED-visa game, so the caliber of students is completely different (I’ll state one more time for the record, I’m NOT downing schools who offer ED visas to students, only saying this school isn’t in that group). While I was taking my sample class several businessmen in suits showed up for their Thai lessons. When I queried my teacher she said their companies pay for them to attend school to learn Thai. I’d imagine even in a small group class the demographic of students would be quite different from private schools which cater more towards the ED-visa crowd.

Bang-4-The-Baht: The Sumaa Language & Culture Institute rates quite high as far as my perceived bang-4-the-baht. I tried to find fault with their methodology, their materials, and their teachers, but came up empty on all counts. If a student wants high quality private Thai lessons with good materials, good teachers, and a flexible schedule be it a crash two week course where you go every day for several hours a day, or a more relaxed schedule where you attend only a couple hours a week, this school can meet your needs. Price-wise they’re right in line with other schools offering similar courses, and far below almost all the private lesson prices offered in schools which cater more towards those group lesson discount rates.

Hope you found this of marginal value. Personally, to get my pronunciation of spoken Thai up to speed, this would certainly be on my list of schools I’d consider attending.

I do want to apologize to the readers or my reviews if I repeat things. After so many schools I’m finding it difficult to remain objective and think I’m more than slightly jaded in my objectivity. Plus, now that my Thai language acquisition has progressed to the level I’m at, it’s getting harder to go into these schools as a newbie-Thai-learner. After they interview me, it becomes readily apparent that I’m a little more advanced than someone fresh off the boat, who’s just washed up on these shores and wants to learn Thai.

Tod Daniels | toddaniels at gmail dot com
Reviewing Thai Language Schools in Bangkok
(BTW: Tod is NOT affiliated with any Thai language school)

Thai reading project: learn Thai with SpeedUpTV + AUA Thai…

I’ve got some exciting news. I love the AUA Thai language videos. They are great fun as well as packed with Thai vocabulary and phrases to learn. And here’s the exciting news. Awhile back I got a wild hair about reading along with the AUA Thai language video so I asked a Thai typist to transcribe Level 1.

The first part of the typist’s transcript looked pretty good. Then shortly after the transcripts arrived I was contacted by Peter Song, a SpeedUpTV rep. What fabulous timing!

SpeedUpTV is an iPhone app that slows down videos like AUA Thai. Excellent. This means that Thai readers won’t freak out. THEY will be in control of the speed of the conversation. Readers can go back, loop, whatever they need.

So I had the Thai videos. I had the transcripts in the works. And I even had SpeedUpTV. Now all I needed was permission from AUA to set a Thai reading project in motion.

David Long (head of AUA) is nice guy. So nice, he even thought a reading series using AUA’s Thai language videos was a great idea too! Fabulous. Permission granted.

It’s going to take a bit to get sorted so in the meantime, here’s the SpeedUpTV iPhone app review from Peter Song.

Peter Song: SpeedUpTV iPhone app review…

SpeedUpTV for iOS is a file viewer application focusing mainly on video and image files. SpeedUpTV is not just a glorified video viewer as it allows the user to have greater control over their videos including storage and playback as well as other features most other players for the iOS platform lack.

Some of the main features of SpeedUpTV include the ability to playback videos at variable speeds, 0.5X – 2.0X. This can be an invaluable feature for those students who are trying to improve their proficiency in second or third language. This can be useful for foreign language students because they can slow down the speech of the dialogue in their favorite dramas or movies to understand more clearly what is being said. In addition, SpeedUpTV preserves the audio pitch while slowing down or speeding up the video playback speed. Users can use the standard pinch-to-zoom gesture to browse scenes and by swiping, users can skip and jump between scenes. Other playback features include scrubbing for more precise time control. There is also support for A-B repeat. Support for SMI subtitles is also supported.

With SpeedUpTV, learning a foreign language is much easier as video files can not only be watched at their normal rate, but they can be slowed down without distorting the voice of the speaker which is imperative for proper pronunciation. Transferring files to the app is simple and can be done via a USB cable. Novelty features such as remote controls and the pausing of video playback when headphones are unplugged add to the appeal of SpeedUpTV as well.

For iPhone and iPad users, this app will help them in many different ways, and it is a must for students trying to learn foreign new languages. It’s moderately priced, making it a great choice for students (and everyone else), and it’s a fantastic way to make learning fun and efficient.

Price: US$$2.99 | £1.99
Seller: Chun-Koo Park
Date: Updated 15 June 2011
Version: 1.6.3
Internet connection required: No
iVersions: iPhone, iPad, iPod

More on AUA and the SpeedUpTV iPhone app…

Here are a few more SpeedUpTV reviews from around the Internet:

hangukdrama.com: SpeedUpTV for learning Korean
missiontolearn.com: Learning Apps – SpeedUpTV

And here are previous posts featuring AUA’s wonderful videos:

AUA Thai Videos on YouTube
HandBreak Thai Language Videos for the iPhone
AUA’s ALG Thai YouTube Videos at AUAthai.com

I’m going to end with a HUGE thank you to David Long from AUA. What a great gift to the Thai language learning community! And a sweet thanks also goes to Peter Song from SpeedUpTV. Without SpeedUpTV’s ability to control videos, I’d have to look for an alternative. Thanks you two!