Women Learning Thai… and some men too ;-)

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Tip Number 1: Take your time, enjoy your studies… “Why does it have to be sooooooo hard?” “Why does it have to take sooooooo long?” Maybe we need a little attitude adjustment…? Maybe we need to listen more carefully…? Most of us do have nearly excellent hearing skills for normal conversational volume… BUT, most of [...]

Talking Thai on the telephone… It probably took me ten years before I could understand anything anyone said on the telephone here in Thailand. It’s not the language. My wife had the same problem in English when she got to America. It is just really hard dealing with a disembodied voice and not seeing the [...]

Learning the Thai language with Benjawan… It is an undisputed fact that Benjawan Poomsan Becker of Paiboon Publishing is the top producer of Thai language products. With that jewel in mind… while I was working on the Benjawan Poomsan Becker Interview, I came up with a way to show just how proliferate she is. Not [...]

A trusted native speaker is essential…. You may have noticed by now that learning Thai takes real effort and discipline. No two ways about it. Expect to put in long hours tweaking your pronunciation, expanding your vocabulary, solidifying your grasp on the grammar. One of the best — and most necessary — language resources you [...]

Tips and suggestions needed… Last week I received an email asking for help: Question: I’m currently an exchange student living in Thailand. I’ve had an issue where I can’t seem to learn any more Thai, and when I try my minds strays and I get tired very quickly. I was just wondering, do you have [...]

Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners… Name: Celia Chessin-Yudin Nationality: American Age range: 20-30 Sex: Female Location: Mahachai, Samut Sakhon, Thailand Profession: Working at an NGO What is your Thai level? I would say I am at an advanced Thai level. Though not fluent yet. Do you speak more street Thai, Issan Thai, or professional Thai? [...]

Ten steps to learning Thai… Note: This is dedicated to people like Catherine Wentworth who are working their patooties off trying to grasp this outlandishly difficult language. Good luck to you all. When I started learning Thai I was told that it was one of the hardest for an English speaker to learn. That was [...]

Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners… Name: Stickman Nationality: New Zealander Age range: 30-40 Sex: Male Location: Bangkok Profession: Teacher Website: StickmanBangkok.com What is your Thai level? I guess I would say I am Advanced. I don’t consider myself fluent because to me that means you can talk about absolutely anything in great detail with anyone. [...]

Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners… Name: Thomas Lamosse Nationality: American, Edina, Minnesota Age range: 30-40 Sex: Male Location: Bangkok, Chonburi, Edina Minnesota Profession: Teacher/PhD student-Phonology Website/blog: Talk-2-Me-Thai Book/course: Talk-2-me-Thai DVD phrasebook What is your Thai level? I will let you decide. I never boast about my language skills. Do you speak more street Thai, Issaan [...]

Overview of my 30 day Thai language trial… Well, that’s that. Finish. My 30 day Thai language trial is over. And I now have a new habit. Studying Thai. Daily. Yeah! But please note: I will no longer upload the Don’t Break the Chain graphics from my iPhone to WLT’s sidebar. (It was a tedious [...]

Talking about the weather… What better way to break the ice and start a conversation than to talk about the weather? I know it is a bit cliché-ish but, hey, it works. And in Thailand, the sentence, “The rainy season sure is late this year” is a much better conversation starter than “What’s your sign?” [...]

Week four of my 30 day Thai language trial… Here I am again. Reporting in. And just like last week, I’m here say that nothing has changed. I now have a new study habit. And the weird thing about it is this: it’s like I’ve had it forever. As before, I listened, read, and repeated [...]

Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners… Name: Vern Lovic Nationality: USA Age: 43 Sex: Male Location: Surat, Thailand Profession: Internet marketing, writing, web development Website/blog: Thailand eBooks ThaiPulse.com/blog JoysThaiFood.com AimforAwesome.com YouTube: thaipulsedotcom (160 Thailand videos) What is your Thai level? It ranges from comfortable to very uncomfortable. It’s all in how the conversation goes really. There [...]

Week three of my 30 day Thai language trial… I am settled into a study schedule, so that’s it. It took three weeks for me to gain a new language learning habit. Nothing odd happened this week so I won’t post the results. I basically listened, read, and then repeated the Thai conversations. There were [...]