Comments on: Review: Thai Language Schools in Bangkok

By: rem

rem — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:39:12 +0000

Tod – A worthy effort. I just have a few comments :
1. While I agree that TONS of people have studied at Unity (I studied there myself for a while), it is far from being one of the oldest school. I am quite sure it was created in the 2000′s. The school uses the Union method. As for the oldest Thai language school, I don’t know for sure, but I believe it should be one of these 3 : Union language school, Nisa Thai language school or AUA
2. While i don’t challenge the fairness of your review, it seems rather difficult to evaluate a language school based on perusing their materials for a few minutes and attending 1 or even a few free lessons. Another approach (time allowing and i guess you must have spent a lot of time already) could be to prepare a questionnaire (which would include evaluation of materials, teachers, usefulness of the course, learning atmosphere, etc.)and submit it to current students of the schools.

In any case, thanks for sharing the information.

By: BKK News Feed Archive Q1/10/I

BKK News Feed Archive Q1/10/I — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:29:35 +0000

[...] Act Liberalization to Be Considered BANGKOK POST – Authorities Brace for Anti-Govt Rallies WOMEN LEARN THAI – Review: Thai Language Schools in Bangkok (nice one Cat!) THE NATION – The Man Who Stared @ Goats: Why Thais Just Don’t Get Abhisit SEA GLOBE [...]

By: Hugh Leong

Hugh Leong — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 09:56:25 +0000

Tod, great resource material. Being the former AUA director for Chiang Mai, but now having no connection with them except using their library, I want to point out that the Thai teaching method used in Chiang Mai is quite different from the one used in Bangkok. I knew the late Marvin Brown, the person who helped to develop their present program. He was also the person who developed AUA’s older audio lingual method which had lots and lots of repetition; almost the exact opposite of today’s method. He dissociated himself from that method in favor of the present one. I told him that I disagreed with this new approach and thought that he had it pretty right on to begin with, although it might prove just the right thing for some people.

The AUA Chiang Mai program might or might not be good for you, but it is worth checking out. Here is a short writeup I found about AUA Chiang Mai’s program:

The AUA Thai program is one of the oldest in Chiang Mai with both group and individual classes taught by teachers who have a lot of experience and are very dedicated to teaching Thai. Class size averages 8 students so there is plenty of Teacher to Student and Student to Student interaction. The school is set in a nice compound conveniently located in the heart of Chiang Mai. There’s a wonderful library with lots of resources for learning Thai language and culture. Materials are out-dated but the teachers don’t always follow the book. Instead they have developed lessons which attempt to get the students to understand and use tones correctly in grammatical patterns and short conversations. Besides speaking there are writing courses as well. Great value for money.

By: Catherine Wentworth

Catherine Wentworth — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:00:43 +0000

Talen – I started looking for a Thai language school / method to suit me last year, so reading Tod’s research was a help. I read that about immigration checking too. And I’ll bet they will be looking closely at some of the schools known as ‘visa mills’… ;-)

Ben – Thanks! Tod went through a lot of trouble to try out all of these schools. After the week is out, this post will be added to my ‘Top posts’ in the sidebar (so you will be able to find it easily).

Jon – Tod’s research was compiled over several years so I am not sure if putting the exact prices over that period of time would apply. But I might be interested in calling each one to compare prices… we’ll see…

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 07:52:57 +0000

This is interesting but would love to see some actual prices rather than just *cheap* and *expensive*.
Jon hopes you will read…Thailand’s First Twitter Wedding

By: Ben Shingleton

Ben Shingleton — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:38:03 +0000

Wow. What great research, very handy to know this list is on your site for reference… Many thanks!