It got me up and out of the house – although there were a few bleary-eyed mornings to be sure!įor the student, any classroom experience is always going to be down to one thing – the teacher. This can be either a positive or negative depending on your disposition!įor me, it worked out well because I was craving the routine. The lessons took place in the school itself, meaning I had to travel to and from there every morning. It is also broadly similar to taking Thai lessons online with iTalki. The cost was THB 10,000 for 20 hours tuition (roughly 220 GBP, 290 USD), which averaged at THB 500/hr (11 GBP, 15 USD/hr).Ĭompared to taking private lessons in the UK (at a good school), this is extremely good value. To be totally honest, when I booked, I didn’t actually know if it was a group class or private lessons! It turned out to be one-to-one tutoring. I also heard that they were used by embassies for their language training, and that’s good enough for me. They were responsive and accommodating to what I wanted, which is always a good sign. I checked out the school and liked what I saw. In fact, it was a recommendation from Twitter I received after tweeting that I was going to Thailand. Many people asked me how I chose the school – Sumaa Langu age Institute. It felt the right balance between taking it seriously and not torpedoing my “leisure time” completely. I decided I wanted to study for two hours a day, in the morning. Maybe I was looking for an excuse if I didn’t get the results I wanted…Įither way, it’s what I did. Maybe I didn’t have the mental strength for the commitment at that point in time… Perhaps my eagerness to enrol in a school this time was a tacit admission that I wasn’t going to take Thai too seriously… (If you’ve ever been to Thailand, you’ll know why that is!) It would have been far too easy not to stick to the plan, and the chances of me sticking to a regime of study would not be good. There was another consideration… I didn’t trust myself to study solo in Thailand! □ However, I was up for trying something different, so I decided to do what most people would when learning a new language: I enrolled in a school, knowing I would have to submit to the study programme decided by a teacher. In fact, my whole website is devoted to that. So I thought I’d set an example for people in that position, and see what was possible.Īs a language learner, I’m used to studying independently. More importantly, many other people who struggle to find the time to learn a new language might find a two-week period realistic in order to travel and learn. I had always been curious just how much of a new language it was possible to learn in a short period. We discussed the plan in this video.Īlthough two weeks is a short time, it was the time I had available for travel. I had decided to travel to Bangkok and devote two weeks to learning Thai with my good friend Jan van der Aa. It’s a completely free resource simply click here to grab your copy. Learn these right at the beginning to get a huge head start speaking conversational Thai. 150+ Essential Beginner Thai Words & Phrases for Effective Conversations (PDF & MP3 audio). Hand-picked from all my lessons and conversations in Thailand!.I’ve also prepared an amazing PDF bonus to accompany this post: Recommended Resources, Teachers and Schools.6 Steps to Learn to Speak Thai as a Beginner.Do I Need to Learn to Read and Write in Thai?.How I Learnt Beginner’s Thai in 14 Days.Then, I’ll finish with my recommended action steps for those who want to learn to speak Thai, followed by some great resources. Next, I’ll answer common questions about learning Thai. I’ll start by describing in detail how I learnt Thai during my mission to Bangkok. If you want to skip ahead, just click the section that interests you. In this post, I’m going to take a step back and reveal everything I discovered about how to study Thai as a beginner, so you can benefit from my experiments and start your journey to learn Thai on the right foot. While in Thailand, I documented my progress and adventures in daily videos on my YouTube channel. In August 2016, I packed my suitcase and flew to Bangkok, with one mission: to (finally) learn to speak Thai. What’s not to love about Thailand? It’s a stunning country, with beautiful people, and world-class food.īut like most travellers to Thailand, I’d never even tried to learn to speak Thai… until now!
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