Thanks for the kudos on Stickman’s interview. Before I moved to Bangkok, I not only read his site, but printed off pages and pages to read in the hotel while waiting to find accommodation (I still have them somewhere in a thick envelope). For someone coming from nine years in a Muslim country sans alcohol, Stickman shared a different lifestyle. For sure. Not much shocks me (heel-kicking in California in my early twenties fixed that), but I do admit to a few ‘oh me oh my’s’ ;-)

It is though all about finding what works for you and to his credit, Stickman studied his brain off. Great interview w/ a infamous web personality ;)

Benjawan’s pronunciation CD is one of my favourites. And I believe that is is the only product that deals with Thai pronunciation. I too couldn’t read by transliteration. One, there were too many styles. Two, how I pronounced words didn’t seem the same each time. Frustrating.

I was poking around Stickman yesterday and landed on his photography section: Myanmar/Burma Orphans. It’s an extremely interesting read so please check it out if you have the time.

Martyn – Stickman’s advice on sitting in on a class had me wondering if I should try it. Eventually. I’m not a group person, but a semester with other Thai students wouldn’t kill me.

For flashcards, the best around can be downloaded and printed from Chris’ sliceofthai.com: Thai flashcards

If you are having a difficult time getting the Thai alphabet into your head, then consider using Damian’s 60 Min Thai Alphabet first.
.-= Catherine´s last blog ..Successful Thai Language Learners: Stickman =-.

My mind keeps changing with each interview on the best way to tackle Thai, I’m convinced after reading this that learning to read and write is the best way once again. Have you got a good link for downloading and printing some Thai alphabet flashcards because my efforts so far keep leading me nowhere on that score.

What I’ve been doing is listening to K. Benjawan’s pronunciation beginner CDs. I wanted to deal with this first because I really want to nail the pronunciations, i.e., tones of a bunch of words. Also I like the sound of the Thai language.

I can see, however, what Stickman means about learning to read the language because I found it frustrating reading the transliterations. Not that they’re “wrong” but not always right for me. I think transliterations are useful at the start to help you “see” the sounds of simple and compound vowels, for example. But I want to learn Thai properly and the only way I can see that happening is to read Thai. That’s my next phase.

Great interview, BTW. If you haven’t read any recent Stick, you’ll see a change, I think. He’s questioning everything he’s done and written before about BKK nightlife. If it challenges his readers about their activities, it’s a good and brave thing for an author of an extremely popular website.

And there was more than one, ‘oh my goodness gracious me!’ when scanning through the advice columns. Heh.

Stickman’s interview brings up good points about the different learning styles. Since the very beginning, I have been searching for an easy breakdown of how we learn. So his comments are a help (as well as a reminder).

Thanks for the heads up about Benjawan’s Volume 7. I’m especially looking forward to her advanced materials. As you know, there are not enough intermediate to advanced products available for learning Thai.

Good luck with your new Thai learning push! Mine is still going strong, and I continue to adjust as I go.