What's the best school for learning Thai, in terms of the teachers ability, materials and price? Candidates please.

Nisa in Sathorn so far has been the best all round for me out of the five I've been too.

I certainly agree with Nisa. So much so that I will be going back there in late Feb when I return to Bangkok. Not only did I have good learning experiences a few years ago when they were in the YWCA building, I now live only a couple of blocks away from their school.

I also recommend Thong Lor Language School. Located on Sukhumvit, you can literally descend the skytrain stairs and step into the school. One of my teachers there had a couple of MA(s), one of them in language acquisition. All three of my teachers there were good, all adapted texts a bit to what I wanted to do, and all demanded homework.

Thong Lor pricing is the same as Nisa.

I'll have to have a look at that one. Somebody told me Baan Phasaa Thai was good but I've never been.

any websites for the thai language schools? i have been recomended Jentana? any good?

ummm ... well BEST is probably Chula... but DAYUM they are expensive and expect a MAJOR out of classroom commitment. 25 day class is 25k baht 10am-3pm with a one hour break for lunch.

I am rather fond of Unity Thai Language school at Asoke in the Times Square building. Morning or afternoon classes. 20 days 5k baht in the afternoon and 6k baht in the morning (morning classes are 1 hour longer.

Both have websites ...

For the Unity Language school is the cost of one month classes for a 30 day period or can you say do two weeks and take a week off and continue again for the remaniner?

Thanks,
Bob

I've never been to a scholl but I know many guys who have.
The best guys by far are those who studied at Unity or the older Union(sathorn). I know one guy who was speaking the same as me(which isn't great but good enough in most situations). he had studied for 3 months full-time, I had been learningkid of) for 10 years!

You can certainly take a week off then return for however many days are left in the 20-day session, but I wouldn't recommend it. You'll miss out alot in a week.

Used to have Unity's website address, but doesn't work anymore. Does anyone have one that works?

Used to leave class with the head buzzing practically every day from concentrating so hard. So much to learn in such a short period of time. Speaking is taught in two 20-day sessions. Same for reading and writing. If I had to do it over again, I'd try AAA. Speaking and reading/writing classes are each spread out over three 20-day sessions. There's more time for the stuff to sink in. Teaching material's same same - copy of Union.

Website for unity school:

http://www.utl-school.com/english/trainning.htm

I found Unity Ok for modules 1-3. Im modules 4-6 the time is almost entirely dedicated to reading and writing, whict the result of finishing the modules and being able to read and write well but still not being conversationally semi fluent.

Teachers are usually interested and motivated, but teaching materials and methods are really obsolete. Doubt they ever changed them since the fist missionary set a foot in Thailand!! In the end that is what made me not continue further than module 4. Teaching was too sketchy, so I found very difficult to revise and make the most out of it.

And yes, by the end of the fourth hour you are having thoughts of jumping out of the window to get out of there!!!

Bull

Thanks for the website, Bull. Don't know why but the link doesn't work. Maybe it's the Mozilla Firefox browser I'm using?

I only made it through Module 3. Didn't have time to take Module 4 nor was I motivated to. Don't know how on earth anyone just starting out learning to read and write is able to memorize all the consonants, vowels, and tones rules they bombard you with then read and write in a matter of days. Supposed that's why half my classmates were repeating the module. I hear repeating M4 is very common.

I agree that one will be fairly good at reading and writing after completing the six modules, but will not excel at conversing. Also agree that the teaching materials are old.

Being good at conversation takes a lot of time and practice, and is usually learned much better outside of the classroom. But reading and writing have to be hammered in, there are no simple shortcuts.

After having learned reading and writing to a good degree, you could hire a private tutor for conversation practice, after all that is a more enjoyable approach...

...I had excellent experience at Thai Language Achievement School in Silom.

...Attended 3 months in 2004.
Curriculum well-organized and easy to follow.
Teachers thoroughly prepared and instruction is clear.
Everything neat, clean, well-organized, but the chairs in classrooms are Thai-size = a bit small and low.
Other than that, I have only good things to say about this school.

...Schedule is intense: every morning, afternoon, or evening (your choice), five days a week, for a month.
They don't offer any more relaxed schedules than that, so if you just want a few hours a week, this is not the school.
Teachers are available for privates, but I never took privates.

...I repeated level 1 to review.
Turned out to be wise decision - made it much easier to progress to level 2.
Most other students went directly from level 1 into level 2 and they really floundered.
No discount for repeating a level, but I certainly would do that again, probably at every level, to learn thoroughly.

...Location: Bangkok Silom, midway between skytrain Sala Daeng and Bangkok Bank - opposite Patpong.
Also, close to subway Silom station.
Web site . . . http://www.tlaschool.com/index2.html
.

Any recommendations for somewhere in pattaya? I have all the time in the world and want to get into the language but I am under no illusion and know it will be a nightmare!

[snip]Unneccessary. You can do better than that. /Meadish[/snip]

There's a woman in Soi VC that is excellent ... will try and get her info for you.

RE: Pattaya

I agree with "Somebody." I have attended Baan Phasaa Thai and I consider the school "strong"

I wasn't so impressed with Baan Phasaa Thai but maybe it was my teacher. I think they covered a lot of material but didn't really make me work at it. Also spoke English to me too much.

I have had 1:1 at Berlitz for about 7 months and like that. So far all conversation, no reading & writing. I'd say the teacher speaks Thai to me 99% of the time. She just forces me to talk, talk and talk in Thai adding words and grammar as we go along. I consider myself a slow learner for languages but do get a few complements on my Thai, including accent, and I'll have to give all that credit to my teacher and the Berlitz method. Downside: expensive. (they have a web site)

Do think I need to bear down on the reading & writing and now sure how I will approach that. I another 1:1 teacher my company provides and she introduces some (forget the name of that school as she comes to me). Some of the software is good from drilling on some of this.

I thought about a private tutor for just conversation. Ended up searching on the Thailovelinks web site and have made some friends that like to speak Thai with me. The best seem to be 20’s college educated so they have the book English fresh in their minds but haven’t had work experience in an multi-national or situation where they are confident English speakers. I’ve found a few who are fairly natural teachers – know when to correct and when to just let me rattle on, have an ear to understand, etc. That has been a win-win for both of us. We have some fun, go do things, have simple conversations, I of course pick up the tab but it’s cheaper than a teacher most times while being fun and natural. My experience is that if someone has strong English skills the conversation just ends up in English too much and likewise if they don’ speak any English it’s hard for them to coach me.

Good luck,

Thanks Idinasia

Here's another thread discussing Thai learning in Bangkok.

any good school for one on one classes around the soi lang suan area.

Thought I'd let you all benefit from my personal experience.....

I've attended 2 schools in the past 3 years, now going to Piammitr Language School, located only a few minutes walk from Asok, accessibile from both the sky train and subway. They follow the same instruction methods and curriculum used at Unity and Union. They also offer 1:1 courses, but I have never asked the prices, contact them yourself. I passed the Pratom 6 (Grade 6) government test after completing only 8 months of study, extremely satisfied with my results and progress.

Piammitr Language School

Three current advantages of this school to their competitors are:
1 - The price is cheaper - currently 5000 Baht for a 60 hour course
2 - Smaller class sizes
3 - They also offer classes in the evenings

Pesonally, I find the time I spent learning the reading and writing of the Thai language invaluable. There is no substitute for learning the written form of the language, as it enables you to determine how a word should be pronounced. Highly recommended. The teaching methods used in these courses only require an investment of 120 hours to learn to read and write. Not a bad investment in time if you really want to learn the language. There is also no substitute for practice, a Thai friend, or social occasions to use the language will help alot.

Happy Studies

This post has been edited by expat_4_life: 2006-09-22 20:26:55

Sounds like a good school!

<The price is the same as Unity in the afternoons ... for the same # of hours--- and for 2 advanced sessions I was one of 3 students in the classes ... almost too small for me as I like time to think in Thai>

This post has been edited by jdinasia: 2006-09-22 20:14:24

[quote name='jdinasia' date='2006-09-22 20:13:23' post='908406']
[/quote]

Sounds like a good school!

<The price is the same as Unity in the afternoons ... for the same # of hours--- and for 2 advanced sessions I was one of 3 students in the classes ... almost too small for me as I like time to think in Thai>
[/quote]


JD
If you check, Unity has now raised their prices, 7000 in the morning (80 Hours - 4 hour sessions) and 6000 in the afternoons (60 Hours - 3 Hour sessions). Personally when I attended Unity in the past I thought the 4 hours was too long.

Piammitr has 3 hour sessions only and is currently cheaper.

I only did the afternoon classes at Unity .... am unaware of price increases.

To the extent that I am off topic I apologize. For me, school commitments were not flexible enough. So I ordered and used the tapes from Audioforum (just do a Google search). The tapes (12 tapes in the basic course) and the written manual (with a professional quality phonetic system) were put together by the U.S. Foreign Service Institute, and are excellent. In addition to these you do need a Thai speaker, about once a week, to correct your pronunciation and clear up your misunderstandings. I found it easy to find someone who was able to meet me at my apartment.

The approach in the Audioforum is really good. There are repetition drills, response drills, substitution drills, etc. If you give it a good effort (say, a good hour per day, but two 30 minutes sessions are better) you should be able to master each lesson (20 lessons in the basic course) in about a week.