Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #130076 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Audio CD

Customer Reviews

Excellent study aid to go from beginner to intermediate level
I have to say that this is the first and only book that I have been using to study Thai so far and I have been extremely pleased with my progress using it.
It has 14 chapters and although starting using relatively basic conversation structures gradually builds into more complex situations. It also gives you a good base of the Thai language so that you have the ability to ask Thai's the meaning of any words you do not understand etc. and also gives you the key components of most conversations ie: why? when? how? who? yes/no can I?, could you? etc.
I think the teaching of the Thai alphabet and reading of script is done in an excellent manner and I am now able to competently read Thai script passages relatively quickly. I would certainly recommend that anybody wanting to learn the language also learn to read and write because I have found that this has helped me greatly when trying to pronounce a word that I have not seen before correctly instead of relying on romanized translations which do vary considerably.
I have been to Thailand twice since I started using this book and as a previous reviewer said, Thais could clearly understand passages and situations I have learned in the book and this helped my confidence immeasurably.
I would highly recommend this to anybody looking to start learning Thai, I think it represents real value for money and I could not have been happier with what I have gained from it.

Not an easy language
I struggled to learn almost any Thai language prior to obtaining this book/CD set although I visit Thailand on business regularly and had other teaching aids, nothing seemed to "gel". The teach yourself book really starts the learner off at the most basic level and encourages simple dialogues from the word go. The phrasing is clear and is built up as you progress though the various chapters. New words, syntax and dialogues are reinforced with simple listen and repeat excercises and pronunciation guides in English. Reading and writing is also handled but can be ignored without hindering progress on the spoken word and really only starts to be necessary at a relatively advanced level. The most important aspect of this course for me is that Thais actually understood me when I used the language featured in this book within the situations illustrated which is great for your confidence. I would thoroughly recommend any serious student of the language to start with this course. I still use mine even though my competence in the langauge is now quite advanced. If you really want to learn Thai this course book would be cheap at twice the price.

This is the one to start with!!!
A great book to get you started in learning Thai. It is quite gentle in progressing the ideas that every serious learner needs to cope with and has a strong method of familiarity with Thai letters.
I agree with other reviews that the pronounciation of u in words like nung is quite confusing because to all intents and purposes it should be pronounced nang, but there is a lot of enthusiasm in this book.
Will really get you moving along!!