#  >  > Living And Legal Affairs In Thailand >  >  > Learn Thai Language >  >  Workshop - Learn to Read Thai, the Rapid Way

## rapidll

Kickstart your journey in Thai with this remarkable Rapid Read Thai course. Using quirky, bizarre (and sometimes obscene) images and mnemonic stories, you will learn to recognize Thai words and pronounce them accurately with the correct tones.



*Workshop Dates and Locations 2011*

*October 10-14* *Chiang Mai* Mon-Fri 10am-3pm   *
 October 22-23* *Ko Samui* intensive weekend   *

 Oct 31-Nov 4* *Pattaya* Mon-Fri 8am-12    _- "wakeboarding week"
Stay in a resort, learn Thai in the morning, surf all afternoon!_ 
(please add 6,000 baht for cost of four nights' accommodation & wakeboarding)

*November 26-27* *Pattaya* intensive weekend 
*December 5-9* *Bangkok* Mon-Fri 10am-3pm     

*Price:* 14,000 baht for one person*
Discounts:* 15% off for two or more people; 11,000 baht for bone fide students
_Includes free access to the online Rapid Read Thai course, printed workbook and materials, meals and refreshments - and follow on 10-minute Thai readers sent daily by email.
_

Please follow the post in this forum (An intelligent way to learn Thai - the 'Rapid' way) 
or visit the website for more details about the workshops.

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## rapidll

Due to the mid-term holidays, the intensive Read Thai in a Weekend course will now be held on Sat-Sun, November 19-20 at the International School of Samui.

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## Mickmac

Quite possibly the dumbest thing I have seen since I first started to learn Thai language !

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## rapidll

Mick, it's really frustrating when people make ignorant comments like yours. You've obviously been in Thailand a while and probably speak a smattering of Thai in a mangled farang way - but you have also probably reached a limit to what you can learn; and only those who live and work with you can understand you (sort of).

That's the experience of many of the long-term residents who have attended my course. I've even had people who can already read and one or two Thai people attend my course; and they are impressed at how easily they can learn - and then apply their new-found literacy to understanding and speaking Thai clearly. They rapidly begin to acquire a *colloquial* knowledge of Thai through reading novels, studying songs and movies, or simply paying attention to signs, notices, menus, etc.

Here's what some people have said recently about my course: 



You've just missed my 5 half-day course in Chiang Mai (Feb 20-24). Everybody who is attending is enjoying themselves thoroughly.

There are two more courses planned so far, both in Bangkok. 
March 17-18 - intensive weekend course
April 9-13 - five half-day course, Mon-Fri, 10am-3pm.

Every year, we will also be running a residential 'activity' workshop at a wakeboarding resort in Rayong. The next one is January 13-18, 2013 (arrive Sun, start Mon-Fri, 10am-3pm).

If you are interested in attending any future courses, or would like a private in-house course for your company or organization then please contact me via the website Learn Thai Online.

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## Treetop

When is next one in Pattaya area and how much please?

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## toddaniels

While it is indeed an "innovative" way to remember how to pronounce the Thai characters and the tones associated with them, what it is NOT is "reading" Thai.



I don't know if being able to read would clean up a person's spoken Thai either.  Speaking and reading any language are horses of a different color entirely. One does not help the other all that much I've found. I could read and understand Thai books way before my spoken Thai was anything more than "2-word-tourist-thai" or "taxi-thai". To improve your speaking ability you need to speak as much as you can, no matter if you're vocab is limited, use it, get corrections from native speakers and keep at it.. 

  To read Thai with proficiency, as in with any degree of comprehension takes memorizing TONZ and TONZ of Thai words period. There's no short cut to that fact.  Sorry, don't shoot the messenger, it just is what it is. 

  No one reads the English word "dog" like "D-O-G"; instead a combination of letters (which are coincidentally called "words") are tied to a meaning in our heads, so that when we see a specific combination we know the meaning without actually spelling out the word.

  It's exactly the same in Thai. I don't care if you can replicate the sounds of what I call "the six cow words" เขา, เข่า, เข้า, ขาว, ข่าว, ข้าว exactly like a Thai; until you can look at those consonant, vowel, tone combinations and recognize that they are the words; he-she-mountain-animal horn, knee, enter, white, news and rice, you're NOT reading..

  Please note I am NOT downing the methodology of learning the consonants and how to pronounce Thai clearly, NOT in any way, shape or form. What I am saying is that by itself it ain't "really reading" Thai.  Until you have a sufficient recognized vocab (words you see and immediately know the meaning of) in Thai you don't have the slightest idea what you're saying. 

  To be completely honest, I think the methodology being taught by the creator of the program is actually even more convoluted than just learning the three consonant classes and associated tones which go with them like every Thai in this country learned how to do it.  Heck if 65+ million people here learned to read Thai that way and I taught myself to read that way too, just about anyone who's got half a clue can do it.

  It's not any particular method that stops people from learning, it's their motivation to really buckle down and apply themselves which often falls short of the mark. 

I do wish the inventor of this method good luck in what they're doing, face it nothing really new concerning learning Thai has come down the pike in a long time. It's good to see people doing this, trying new things, and as I said I wish them success with it.

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## rapidll

My next intensive six-day course is in Chiang Mai, February 3-8 (Monday to Saturday, 8am-5pm).

This is a very intensive get-it-done-and-out-of-the-way course, by the end of the week you will be able to read Thai and pronounce the words accurately with the correct tone.

You won't necessarily _understand_ what you are reading at this stage, but it's the most effective way to get you started on learning to speak and understand Thai.

It's not for everyone. Some people prefer the more "linguistic" and academically-correct way of studying a language. But for everyone else who is busy/lazy and who tends to procrastinate, it's the ideal kick-in-the-ass that gets you to the point where you can start to absorb Thai from your environment, independent of language classes and Romanized phonetic spellings of Thai words.

If you are intrigued then start by listening to 



and then try it out ourself by signing up for the free trial of the Rapid Read Thai self-study online course.

PS Todd, you're absolutely right in saying that "reading" Thai is just the beginning of a much longer process. But the "convoluted" approach is just scaffolding that dissolves after a few months. For people who tend to think visually or logically, it's the most effective way to get the entire system into your head without having to work through (unnecessarily complicated) tables of grammar and spelling rules and memorize them by rote. 

The Rapid Method is not for people who prefer to do things the normal, "standard" way, or who enjoy learning languages as an intellectual pursuit (and love to spend hours a day studying or reading dictionaries or memorizing word lists...)!

Once you've learnt to read, I recommend a series of follow-on conversational courses that teach speaking-through-reading. The Rapid Method is a minimalist less-is-more approach. There's no need to rush, and in fact, spending more than 15 minutes a day is counter-productive. The secret is to focus on colloquial texts and to master a small, essential body of material a little every day.

Most people who follow the Rapid Method can read and speak fairly fluently after three years (10-15 minutes per day self-study, plus two hours a week with a Thai tutor). Compare that with language classes: five hours a week, resulting in only a shaky grasp of Thai after 4-5 years of study.

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## NickA

> Most people who follow the Rapid Method can read and speak fairly fluently after three years (10-15 minutes per day self-study, plus two hours a week with a Thai tutor). Compare that with language classes: five hours a week, resulting in only a shaky grasp of Thai after 4-5 years of study.


that sounds ridiculous

you can teach yourself how to read thai in under a year using a few books costing no more than 1000 baht in total

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## NickA

get benjawan poomsan becker's thai for beginners, then thai for intermediate learners, plus a good thai-english dictionary

then start buying thai reading books, start with kids books, then move on to readers.... then adult books that you've read before....

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## rapidll

> that sounds ridiculous you can teach yourself how to read thai in under a year using a few books costing no more than 1000 baht in total


Yes, you can do it for free, or for very cheap:

Buy the dictionary Thai2English ($40) and use the "conventional" course included in the dictionary software (for Windows only). 

Another good approach is 

 that teach reading the conventional way.

You should also look at Jcademy. Stu Raj speaks over a dozen languages fluently, and he uses similar techniques to simplify and remember how to read and speak easily.

Sure, you can even work through the (rather dull but very correct) Becker series of books, which covers reading & writing, along with everything else you need (and don't need) to know. I found it quite arduous, as did many expats who been in Thailand for many years and still haven't got round to learning to read, let alone speaking much.

If you only care about doing it cheap and are happy to struggle through on your own then the above suggestions will be adequate for you. The other main advantage is that you can go to any Thai language school or tutor and they will be able to help you.

I usually advise my student *not* to read children's books (they are often irrelevant and tend to use a more flowery/literary language than you'd find in everyday speech); and the (free) Manee series of stories are dull as ditchwater. Translations of well-known/classical English books also isn't helpful because the language is quite literary also. That's why I adapted the _Everyday Thai for Beginners_ first-year university course for speaking, and a romance novel called _Sydney Remember_ for fluent speaking; followed by an interview-based business-oriented biography about "Top", the Baht Billionaire teenager who produces the fried seaweed snacks that you can find everywhere nowadays. (Watch the movie "Top Secret".)

The Rapid Method is designed to be an easy, logical, time-saving and relatively effortless approach for busy people who don't enjoy studying. You can work through the Rapid Read Thai course by yourself online (for much cheaper) or if you prefer the social environment and my guidance through the exercises - so that you get it all done, once and for all - then the workshop is for you.

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## NickA

just doesn't seem very rapid to me

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## Neverna

> Another good approach is 
> 
>  that teach reading the conventional way.


He needs to work on his tones! 

It's a good job he's only teaching reading and writing and not speaking or pronunciation. 

3/10        

Must try harder, Ruedi.

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## rapidll

[I can't update my OP, so I'm posting a new reply]

My next intensive* Rapid Read Thai Bootcamp* is *January 19-24* (Mon-Sat, 8am-5pm).



Please watch the video in the post above for feedback from actual participants of the course. It's even better if you sign up for the free trial course and learn to recognize hundreds of (admittedly, very simple) Thai words... in about two hours.

This very misunderstood course is based on the Rapid Method, which simplifies the concepts, eliminates anything that is unnecessary or duplicated, and uses bizarre stories and mnemonics to help you fix the ideas and facts in your head.

*Myth:* it's better to learn to speak first and not waste time on reading.

*Fact:* by reading Thai, you can absorb Thai and pick up vocabulary from your environment independent of textbooks, classes and phonetic transliteration schemes. The secret is to choose to read modern, *conversational* material not dry academic or literary texts.

*Myth:* one can learn to speak well enough with phonetics.

*Fact:* the phonetic schemes are inconsistent and mostly *wrong*: you will learn to speak badly and it'll be almost impossible to fix this in future.

*Myth:* it's easy just to learn the alphabet.

*Fact:* in any language, learning the alphabet doesn't mean you can read - even knowing the names of the letters is fairly useless (especially in English where A, C, G, H, etc. don't sound at all like their names!)

*Myth:* the conventional method is cheap, everyone knows the system and it's effective: you just have to put in the time and persevere.

*Fact:* although it's relatively easy to learn the "classes" of letters, the conventional method is unnecessarily convoluted. There is absolutely no correspondence between high class and high tones, or mid class and mid tones, or low class and low tones; there are no "initial" and "final" sounds in Thai; many letters look identical but are completely different so you will always read like a dyslexic and you probably won't bother to spend the extra time figuring out the tones; many letters and rules are duplicated, and several are either obsolete or entirely forgettable (which means more to learn).

Moreover: if you have more time than money then you can buy cheap books like _Beginner's Thai_ or watch youtube videos or attend inexpensive classes at AUA, say. Keep in mind that you will spend as much if not more on travel and coffees and meals over the many months and years of "cheap" study.

*Myth:* the Rapid Method isn't at all "rapid" and has a lot of extra baggage.

*Fact:* there aren't _quick_ ways to learn a language, you have to do the time. But most ways of learning require _huge_ mental effort and hundreds of hours of practice and memorization. In the Rapid Method, I also take into account the physical mechanics of speaking and help you develop strategies - that fit into your busy/lazy lifestyle - for developing a kind of "muscle memory" and gaining fluency through repeated listening of relevant, colloquial and entertaining stories and songs and movies.

We remember images and stories and associated facts far more readily than lists of unrelated facts.

It's true that you need to put a lot of effort into creating images and stories and mnemonics, but the effort pays off. It may take half an hour to think up scenarios for a dozen or so words, say; but it would take several hours spread over many days to remember the same words by rote. If you have a good mnemonic then you won't ever forget. Unrelated facts or rules get forgotten over time and need constant refreshing to keep them "live". And the only way to do this is to _study_ several hours a day.

Most of us aren't language enthusiasts whose bedtime reading includes dictionaries or phrase books. And most of us are lazy and don't enjoy studying and would much rather spend our leisure time reading a good novel (or even non-fiction works) or playing games or chatting with friends.

 ::chitown:: 

Try this Thai word as an example. Start by trying to memorize it by rote. And then see if you still remember it tomorrow. Then come back to this thread and see how I remember it (see the post below). It took me several minutes to think of a mnemonic, but I've never forgotten the word since then. I might not have got it 100% right at first, but after only a few repetitions, it's stuck perfectly.

In Thai, January is MOKARAAKOM.

For more details about the Rapid Method, to sign up for the free trial course, or to book please go to Learn Thai Online

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## rapidll

*After the expensive month of Christmas presents and New Year partying, all one can usually afford to eat in January is MACARONI.*

(The -com or -yon endings refer to whether the month as 31 or 30 days respectively, so it's not something one needs to put any effort into remembering.)

Okay, so this mnemonic is a bit imprecise I admit. But I chose this to illustrate a point: even a convoluted suggestion is usually enough to help you remember something... if it's bizarre enough!

See if you still remember this tomorrow and next week...

As I said, you might not get "mocaraa-com" precisely. It might have been better to try a mnemonic involving "mocha" (e.g. my New Year's Resolution is to reduce my caffeine intake by drinking mocha instead of coffee).

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## toddaniels

I don't mean to be a naysayer, because I feel ANY way you can learn this language is fine by me.. However some of those points are just plain wrong.

The first two mythz I'll address at the same time: 
*It's better to learn to speak first and not waste time on reading* AND *one can learn to speak well enough with phonetics*.

Of all the schools out there which hawk thai to foreigners, the most successful of them teach via the original Union School's methodology. (BTW: that's a school which is comin' up on it's 65 year anniversary). It was thought up to teach thai to foreign missionaries comin' here to convert the heathen buddhist thaiz to christianity. Over the years, their teachers have bailed out, opened their own schools (by copying the text books) and now there are more what I call "Union Clone Schools" out there teaching by that method than any other hands down. 

Their methodology (which has possibly cranked out THOUSANDS of competent thai speakers over the years) is; you attend 3 or 4 - sixty hour modules of ONLY conversational thai taught via karaoke. Some schools won't even let you enroll in a reading/writing thai class until you pass their conversational thai tests. I know a TON of foreigners who are super competent thai speakers yet can't tell a chicken (กอ-ไก่) from an owl (ฮอ-นกฮูก) - the first and last characters in the thai alphabet. Yet, without being able to read a single character in thai they are understood by thais and answered in kind when they interact with them

I personally use the word "karaoke" when talkin' about that methodology. It's the representation of thai sounds using the Latin or Roman alphabet (that's engrish BTW) and diacritics (symbols) to closely approximate a word as it's pronounced. 

The most famous of these is International Phonetic Alphabet which is used the world over so cunning linguistics and other smart people who can read IPA can pronounce ANY word in any language with a very high degree of accuracy. 

Now the most famous regarding thai (as in the one with the most stuff in print) hands down is Benjawan Poomsan Becker's Paiboon Plus version. Even Chula, Ramkhamhaeng, Chiang Mai U and other institutes of higher learning use karaoke to teach spoken thai to foreigners. It is sadly true that there is no "standard karaoke" in regards to thai, and there is quite a lot of difference in the various schools versions of it. Even with that being the case, the schools do a good job drilling the pronunciation into your headz. 

This Rapid Read Thai may indeed work, then again, so does Stu Jay Raj's "Jcademy", Brett Whiteside's "Learn Thai from a White Guy", Vincent's "High Speed Thai" and other methods too.

I firmly believe that as non-native adult learners of this language we're NEVER EVER gonna sound like a native born-bred-rice fed thai speaker. It just ain't gonna happen. We're ALWAYZ gonna sound like a foreigner speaking thai, especially to real thaiz.. I'm not sayin' we can't speak clear, concise, well enunciated thai I'm sayin' we're gonna sound exactly like what we are.. 

I already pointed out, being able to pronounce a word by looking at the thai script AIN'T reading, because to read you need to memorize hundreds and hundreds of thai words.. NOR will learning how to 'read' (pronounce) thai words by sight make you a better thai speaker. It would appear from research that reading and speaking are done by different parts of your brain entirely.  No one thinks of how a word is pronounced before they say it (even in your native language). Sheesh if someone tried to do that as a non-native adult speaker of thai, they'd be a goddamned slow speaker indeed!

I agree 100%; there is no quick, rapid, ultra fast, super speed or short cut to learning this language! Those terms are just catch phrases because human beans want short cuts to stuff.  However in the same breath, there are some methodologies which do work better than others. My advice, find one which works for you, and then you either put in the time using that methodology or you don't. 

It's more motivation than methodology.. 

You're either in for a penny, in for a pound OR you're goin' thru the motions pretending to learn thai, all the while parroting the same beat to death excuses; I'm old, I don't have a knack for languages, I can't hear the tones, My thai wife she speak engrish good, blah-blah-blah...

Now in reality, I don't know shit from Shinola about this Rapid Read Thai, other than what I've read about it. It could be the cat's meow, it could be a silk purse made out of a sow's ear, I dunno.. I think it's good the O/P mentioned there's a work shop comin' up, and that there's a way to see the methodology in action via videos..

Good Luck,

Tod Daniels <- NOT affiliated with ANY thai language school or program :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic): . He's just a dumb hillbilly from Ohio who can speak/understand, read/type thai... :rofl:

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## rapidll

> While it is indeed an "innovative" way to remember how to pronounce the Thai characters and the tones associated with them, what it is NOT is "reading" Thai. Speaking and reading any language are horses of a different color entirely. One does not help the other all that much I've found.


Tod made some very valid points, but I'm afraid he's in many ways wrong. He's a classic example of someone who's worked through the conventional process and attended hundreds of hours of classes at various language schools - after all, he has written many excellent reviews on the subject.

I'd like to address the more salient points:

*"Speaking and reading [in] any language ... does not help the other".* 

Yes, in general this is true. The reason is that most people read the wrong material when studying a new language. It's no good reading children's stories because 1) they are not necessarily easier to read than adult material and 2) they are usually not relevant to an adult language learner (being mostly about animals, monsters, magic or days in school). It's also no good reading famous literary works because the writing style is formal, flowery and literary - and usually totally useless for learning to speak the language. Reading translated works of stories you already know (such as those of Roald Dahl or Agatha Christie, the Harry Potter series, etc.) is just as useless because you're getting a translation - you won't be exposed to how native people _think_ in their own language and how they express culturally-specific ideas.

It is, however, very effective to read material about everyday life that is written in a plain, colloquial and conversational style. Romance novels are usually best.

*"I could read and understand Thai books way before my spoken Thai was anything more than ... 'taxi-thai'".*

Tod obviously read the wrong books (with not so many words and sentence patterns that are used in everyday conversations); and he probably never practiced reading the texts out loud over and over again until he could say them quickly and clearly.

*"To improve your speaking ability you need to speak as much as you can., no matter if your vocab is limited, use it, get corrections from native speakers and keep at it.."* 

Yes, right in a way, but also wrong. How can you speak if you don't have enough of the stuff for making sentences? But as I said above it's important to have words and patterns used in everyday conversations, not "academic" schoolroom vocabulary.

In my research, I've discovered that we can't really _hear_ what people say if we don't already _know_ what they are saying. (WTF!?) Strange, but true. This means that getting corrections from native speakers just won't help because we can't hear how to correct our internal representation of the language.

*"To read Thai with proficiency, as in with any degree of comprehension takes memorizing TONZ and TONZ of Thai words period."*

Completely wrong. You need to know the _right_ words, and there aren't so many that you need to know. The romance novel _Sydney Remember_ that I've adapted for the fluency course consists of around 3,000 words - and only half of these are important for speaking in everyday situations like greetings and getting to know someone socially, getting around, buying stuff, ordering food, dealing with money or minor ailments at the doctors, etc. In a full-length novel such as _Sydney Remember_ only about half (of the 3,000 words) are used more than once or twice. So you could easily understand the entire novel with a vocabulary of only 1,500 words. However, the other hardly-used 1,500 words are very commonly used in conversation - so I've included them in the vocabulary list to memorize.

It doesn't take all that long to learn 1,500 (or 3,000) words - especially if you use mnemonics and spaced repetition. I've combined both approaches by designing electronic flashcards for use in the "Anki" system. Anki can be installed on any computer or device. You only need to spend about 5-10 minutes a day working through about 30 "Rapid/Anki" cards in order to acquire a vocabulary of 1,500 words in under 6 months. Even at this slow pace, you can learn enough words to be able to speak relatively fluently (with 3,000 words) within a year.

*"No one reads the English word 'dog' like 'D-O-G'"*

Right and wrong. When you come across a word that you aren't familiar with then you have to read it this way (try "confabulate" or "mimsy borogoves"), but as you build up your vocabulary and a sense of the meaning of a phrase then you tend to read the _shapes_ of words and anticipate many words without even bothering to read them. That's why it's so hard to proof-read text with typos: most of the time we don't see them.

NB. In the Rapid Read Thai course, I cover _everything_ you need to know to be able to sound out a word accurately and with the correct tone. No more. No less.

You can probably read "unjani", but you won't know that it means "How are you?" (in Zulu).

This means that you won't necessarily _understand_ what you are reading unless you can guess it from the context...



or already know the word.

I have a very nice (weird) story to help you remember all the various "cow" words in Thai; and once you've worked through the story a few times you will be able to read - and understand - the very many "cow" words when you come across them in Thai.



And, anyway, most of the time in Thai these words are seldom mentioned in isolation. You won't just get "white" ("cow"), it will be "color-white" ("see-cow"); and it won't just be "mountain" ("cow"), it will be "mass-mountain" ("poo-cow"); or the word for "rice" ("cow") is usually "eat-rice" ("gkin-cow") or "with-rice" ("gkub-cow"), etc.

*"... the methodology ... is actually even more convoluted than just learning the three consonant classes and associated tones which go with them like every Thai in this country learned how to do it.  Heck if 65+ million people here learned to read Thai that way and I taught myself to read that way too, just about anyone who's got half a clue can do it."*

True, in a way. Some people prefer to learn by focusing on nothing-but-the-facts. It takes a lot longer, but it also requires much less mental effort (other than countless hours of repetition). It's why most of us prefer to be salaried employees for a lower income than to be entrepreneurs or consultants or business owners. The Rapid  Method is not for you if you don't like to think much. The Rapid Method mostly appeals to artistic, creative people or those with an engineering or logical or inquisitive mind.

It's not true that Thai people learnt to read this way. Most Thais think that Thai is an atonal language! (You'll be surprised to learn that we use tones continuously in English, French, German, Spanish, etc.)

The Thais do, however, start to learn to read by learning the alphabet. It takes 3-year-olds about a year of reciting the alphabet repeatedly for 20 minutes every weekday morning! But after that they still can't read. It takes maybe another 4-5 years before they master the basics of reading, and many of them (especially if they don't complete high school) aren't really sure about reading the more complex words that are derived from Pali or Sanskrit. Words like: "theory" or "calendar" or "civilization". They might know words like "economics" and "agriculture" of course, but many Thais won't be able to read these words, despite ten years of schooling.

On the other hand, if you've worked through the Rapid Read Thai course (about 18 hours over a month working alone or intensively over six days if you attend the workshop), you will be able to read these words, but not understand them.  :rofl: 

But then, it only takes another month of working through the Anki flashcards, and you will.

*"It's not any particular method that stops people from learning, it's their motivation to really buckle down and apply themselves which often falls short of the mark."*

I beg to differ. Many people have tried to "buckle down and apply themselves", despite living in Thailand for many years - some with Thai children and therefore every motivation to learn to read and speak Thai. 

But the prevailing methods are so arduous and arbitrary that it just doesn't work for most (Western) people; and most of us eventually give up.

We are not like you, Tod. You love to learn Thai. It's kinda your full-time hobby (or at least you're not busy on a multitude of other projects). If you're a missionary and can dedicate a year or two of your life to learning Thai 6-8 hours a day, or if you're the kind of person who can devote 2 (or even 4)  hours a day to memorizing lists of words, working through text books or audio/video clips and attending hundreds of hours of language classes - then you'll become conversant in Thai eventually. 

But then even you learnt to read first before edging slowly into speaking to people!

The path you chose is a good path: if you have the time and determination then you'll get there in the end. You won't be able to read the Rapid way, however, because it's a completely opposite approach to the conventional ("missionary") way.

You may also be the kind of person who likes to read a lot and watch tons of movies and TV and listen to radio programs and podcasts - with a dictionary at hand to look up all the unfamiliar words.

The Rapid Method, on the other hand, is minimalistic. I believe it's more effective to _master_ a small body of essential works (a romance novel, a business biography, a movie about family life). It might take about the same time in calendar terms, but the amount of time-at-the-coalface actually spent studying is much, much less.

*"...nothing really new..."*

I've been very surprised that my approach to learning languages - or something similar - isn't already mainstream, despite decades of research into linguistics and language learning. Some aspects of it (like the use of mnemonics and learning high-frequency vocabulary and "comprehensive input") aren't new, but other aspects and the overall process is unique, specifically:

focusing on and mastering a minimalist body of essential material (not exposure to mountains of arbitrary material)disregarding the unnecessary (like writing and the alphabet and grammar and linguistic terminology, etc.)learning and understanding conversational sentence patterns not phrasesa tight integration between speaking and reading, viz. reading colloquial texts, out loud, distinctly and repeatedly until fluent (muscle training)then listening to your reading texts repeatedly until crystal clear (ear training)

In other fields - like dance or sports or music training - the "Rapid" techniques are commonplace, so why not in language?

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## Necron99

Why don't you just buy a fucking advert.......

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## rapidll

> Why don't you just buy a fucking advert.......


Yes, thank you for the suggestion. I'm doing that, but I can't cover my entire treatise (above) on a half-banner ad.

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## toddaniels

You do bring up some valid points and certainly have a high opinion of both yourself and your method to teach "reading" thai. 

Still, in all my travels around Bangkok, in all my conversations with possible hundreds and hundreds of thai students over the years, I've never met a single person who went thru your method! Not even one! Now, it could be the people who attend your workshops run in different circles than I do, but even a semi-intelligent person might ask, if this method was so great why aren't people comin' outta the woodwork beating the drum, singing its praises?

From what you wrote about me, you clearly have me confused with some other 'legend in his own mind' Tod Daniels. Contrary to your belief almost every bit of thai I have is self taught. 

True, I did go, talk to, sit a sample lesson (50 minutes) at the schools I reviewed. Observing a class is NOT the same as participating in one. Now in thinking back, during the last 5+ years I've only been in one 60 hour course at a school. That was a couple years ago. 

All the rest of the many hundreds of hours I've put into learning this language I've done on my own. The point I was trying to make was; Union Clone Schools have most successful methodology to teach thai to non-native adult speakers, period, end of story. There are just too many schools out there which teach via that format. It's a numbers game and those schools have been cranking out proficient speakers of thai, month after month, year after year, for eons! Now could the method be improved, yes certainly, and there are a few schools doing exactly that!

As far as the reason I learned to read before I could speak much thai; I got sick of every Tom, Dick & Somchai the thai correcting my errant pronunciation, even when they understood what I'd said to them! It drove me right up a frickin' wall.  That's when I went into an extended "silent period", focused on learning to read thai AND started listening to how thaiz said things to each other. 

Now on this I am tooting my own horn (which BTW; takes a flexible spine), I KILL at reading thai, especially anything I have even a remote interest in. 

Being a guy and liking gurlz, I buy the thai versions of; Penthouse, Playboy, Maxim, FHM, Rush, Mix, Zoo, etc. I also buy Science Illustrated, National Geographic and others. I read Pantip, DekD, Sanook, Lady Inter and other thai language only forums every day. I read what I call "trash teen romance novels" (raunchy love stories), I read books about thaiz learning engrish, magazines on technology. I read regulations about visas for foreigners in thai because that's the version they follow. 
Like I said, if I have even a remote interest in the subject, I read about it in thai. 

Now even though I can read, understand thai to a fairly high degree, my spoken thai didn't get that much clearer. I still speak thai with an Ohio hillbilly accent. That's mostly because I am, a hillbilly from Ohio. 

I will say you're passionate about your methodology, I admire that, even if as I said, I don't know shit from Shinola about the efficacy of your method. Testimonials don't cut it for me. Sheesh, every thai school that has a website has a place where students can beat the drum about the school. No one is gonna put up something where someone writes; "I paid for it, went and thought it sucked."

Just so you know, I'm not picking on you personally. I don't know you from Somchai the fruit seller; although I did see you at a thai school near Asok a long time ago..  

I am an equal opportunity denigrater/disparager. I criticize people without regard to race, creed or color.    

Good Luck man...

----------


## 9999

> Brett Whiteside's "Learn Thai from a White Guy"


Is this not Rapid?

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## rapidll

> Originally Posted by toddaniels
> 
> Brett Whiteside's "Learn Thai from a White Guy"
> 
> 
>  Is this not Rapid?


No, Brett Whiteside is a competitor who advertises aggressively and targets my members when he can. No doubt he would love to confuse you into thinking his method is the Rapid Method.

He follows a fairly similar approach to the Rapid Method (mnemonics, simplification, etc.) but he still teaches the "missionary" or "Union" method - which I believe is unnecessarily complicated and a little flawed.

Many of my students have already tried_ Learn Thai from a White Guy_, not to mention _HighSpeedThai_ and _Thai Podcast_ and various language schools. You can hear for yourself (see my youtube channel) about how the workshop participants made real progress for the first time, despite months or years of attempting to learn Thai by other means.

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## 9999

I bought Brett's online thing for $97 with the spaced repetition Anki system and all. He sounds just like yourself. Please elaborate on the flaws in LTFAWG that make it inferior to what you are (quite aggressively) trying to sell here?

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## rapidll

> I've never met a single person who went thru your method!
> 
> ... you clearly have me confused with some other Tod Daniels. I [am] self taught. 
> 
> Union Clone Schools have most successful methodology...
> 
> ...the reason I learned to read before I could speak... correcting my errant pronunciation 
> 
> I don't know ... about the efficacy of your method.


(Sigh...)

Tod, I'm afraid there's very little I can do or say if you are so blind yet sure of yourself. You obviously don't need my course and have no interest in it, yet you've written about it quite extensively in your various posts over the years.

You're at least pleasant and gentlemanly about it. On some websites, people have accused me of scamming or spamming or outright dishonesty. Yet not one of them bothered to watch the introductory video(s) on youtube or sign up for my free trial course (to learn the top 30 letters, and recognize hundreds of very simple Thai words, in about two hours).

Some of your comments need a reply because so many people think the same as you do out of a kind of studied ignorance. In fact, I nearly gave up developing my courses because I felt that hardly anyone had any interest in learning Thai at all. And then, out of the blue, hundreds of people bought my course and attended my workshop and all of them gushed with enthusiastic praise. I felt motivated to complete the series of conversational courses that follow on directly from the reading course.

I think what had happened is that they started out with the more traditional courses or language schools - perhaps because they were cheaper, or simply because they seemed to be tried-and-tested. Once they realized their mistake, after many months of wasted effort, they decided to try the Rapid Method. Ironically, some of the worst-run courses, with the most arcane material, are at the top universities.

I'm surprised that you haven't met anyone who has followed the Rapid Method, but as you say: different social circles. The students I've met or have corresponded with tend to be highly-motivated individuals, entrepreneurial, artistic or imaginative, open-minded - and usually leading successful and healthy lives. Very few "sexpats" have shown interest in my course, nor the crowd who spend their time at the bars cavorting with the girls there. Surprisingly, very few teachers (esp. ESL teachers) seem to be interested in my method either - with the exception of the head teacher at Samui International School and a group of teachers from KIS.

Many of my students have been living in Thailand for more than ten years and have a Thai wife or husband and Thai children. They feel embarrassed admitting to how long they've lived here and still not able to speak - let alone read - Thai.

Some can speak Thai fluently, but are illiterate, and they come to my workshop to fix that. They acquire literacy almost instantly because they can already understand what they are reading; but nearly all of them to a man (or woman) are shocked to discover how incorrectly they've been speaking all these years. 

So as you say, learning to read first is paramount. It won't make you speak like a native, but it's almost impossible to adjust and improve your pronunciation if you cannot read because all the correcting in the world by well-meaning Thais will fall on "deaf" ears.

The other group of "Rapid" students tend to be those who want to get the right foundation from the start. They've read about my course or about the importance of learning to read first or one of my other students has personally recommended the Rapid Method. They come to my workshop knowing absolutely nothing, but by the end of the week they can read Thai... in the same way as I can read Italian. I won't understand it, but I can read it - and I can even say it with an Italian accent (capish?)

It still takes another year, studying a few hours per week, to be able to hold a simple conversation - but their progress is astounding. With relatively little effort, they're speaking distinctly and confidently after about a year. I'm now working with my "advanced" students who want to gain fluency in Thai, which can be very effectively achieved by studying the romance novel _Sydney Remember_. I've produced an interactive audio-ebook with karaoke ear-training audio tracks and a set of over 2,000 Anki flashcards with sample sentences from the book for each word.

It transformed my ability to speak and understand Thai when I read the book and acquired the vocabulary. Except for the roughly three hours per week altogether that I spent on the book, I don't think I did any other kind of studying. And, unlike you, I'm very lazy when it comes to learning languages. I hate to study languages! I have a very busy life, playing music, playing sport, reading books and watching movies, building my house, and looking after my family and friends in general (not to mention actually researching and developing the Rapid courses).

So the Rapid Method works for people like me. The "Union" approach is completely useless for me. It's exactly how I tried (and failed) to learn German at school. 

I've learnt several other languages since then, and each time, I've tried to find a quick, easy _and lazy_ way to do it. I think I've succeeded with Thai.

I wouldn't use the word "successful" to describe the "Union" approach. I would say that it's "pervasive" and only those people who have persevered and sweated through the course materials (for perhaps a thousand or two thousand hours) have succeeded in being able to read and speak and understand Thai.

Moreover, I think the "Union" approach has been responsible for the relatively few people who have any inclination in learning Thai: it's just too hard! There are enough Thais who speak English, the menus are nearly always in English, and one can easily get by on "Taxi Thai".

For those people who would like to learn Thai but can't stomach the idea of actually _studying_ it - there's the Rapid Method.

 :bananaman:

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## toddaniels

Well, at least we're talkin' about learnin' thai and that appears to be the name of this particular sub-forum.. There are a couple points you are correct about.

Brett does aggressively advertise his course and sells it as a "rapid" one too.

I will agree that Union method works one way and one way only; if you're in 100% to learning this language. Otherwise goin' 3 hours a day, 5 days a week for 4 weeks will suck the will to live right out of your body. God forbid you miss a day, because you'll NEVER catch back up to the class.

Now I don't know about sweating thru a thousand hours, because the people that come out of most union clone schools 4 conversational modules (60X4=240hourz) can pretty much hold their own speaking very coherent thai without too much effort. Still what they haven't learned to do at that point is read a character of it.

I like that term "pervasive"! Is it okay if I use it? Even though they (Union Clone Schools) have a proven, albeit antiquated method; I was looking for a term which was slightly a put down in reference to it. Sort of like it might not be the best thing since sliced bread but it's out there in the most schools in one form or another. Pervasive fits the bill totally..

"Fluent" in thai means exactly what to you? Can a person fluent go into a court room and argue a case, can they go to the doctor and talk about an upcoming brain surgery? 

Fluent is a word that is beat to death in language circles. It is an imaginary bar of achievement in the minds of people who can't speak thai when they hear other people speak thai with thaiz just fine. 

Go for fluid, smooth, what ever adjective you wanna use, just don't say, "fluent", because I've never met an adult non-native learner of thai I thought was "fluent" or a "near native" speaker of thai. Most foreigners who can speak thai totally overestimate their ability at it. At least I always say my thai "ain't all that", so if it's better than that I mean that's a plus right? What are people gonna say, that I brag about NOT being good at thai? :Smile: 

Still good luck man, you have found a niche market, developed a product and are hawking it. Good on you. It's far better than being a "legend in my own mind" like I am, lol...

Take care, do good

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## rapidll

> I bought Brett's online thing for $97 with the spaced repetition Anki system and all. He sounds just like yourself. Please elaborate on the flaws in LTFAWG that make it inferior to what you are (quite aggressively) trying to sell here?


Let me start with the unimportant point you make about aggressive selling. Yes, I am trying to sell my course, I don't make a fortune out of it as I did in my previous job in consultancy; but it's how I and my family survive in Thailand. My marketing is somewhat low-key (many people, like all of Tod Daniel's friends for instance, have never even heard of my course). I think Brett does a very good job of aggressively marketing his product, however. He's also cleverly piggy-backed on the "Rapid" name to try to fool people.

Brett Whiteside's mnemonic system (Learn Thai From A White Guy)  is similar to mine, except that he teaches you the conventional Thai school way, using the Thai names for the alphabet letters and the Thai classification of consonants and tones. He has an online self-study course (which he calls an e-book) and he also gives one-on-one lessons via Skype. As a beginner, its usually better to learn with a native English speaker (preferably a native speaker of whatever your mother tongue is) because he will understand what the difficulties are and whats important to know.

Brett's course is arguably cheaper than mine, but in the long run it's about the same price because he charges about 3-4 times more than a Thai person would for hourly lessons. 

I usually tell people about his course (as well as Stu Raj's Jcademy) as an alternative to the Rapid Method because some people just want a cheaper course, while others would prefer not to stray too far from the conventional approach. 

Stu's course is phenomenal, by the way, because it's very thorough and "linguistic" in its approach; plus it incorporates mnemonics and focuses on meanings. If you can't already read then all the sounds are spelled out using the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). Stu's course isn't better or worse; it's different. And I recommend that you should subscribe to Jcademy anyway as a complement to any other course you buy.

Back to Brett. His simplification of the tone system is very good - reducing around 30 rules to about 15. The main difference with the Rapid way of figuring out tones is the starting point. I've analyzed the two simplifications: mine consists of slightly fewer rules - but either approach is equally valid. I've tested a number of different "tone process flows" from different starting points and pathways; and the one that I've settled on now seems to be the easiest to remember and the quickest to apply when reading text.

Some of Brett's mnemonics are also very good, as good as if not better than the ones I came up with. Mnemonics are very personal. I've tried to come up with universal ones, but they don't always work for everyone. Sometimes I change a mnemonic or encourage a student to devise a new one that works better for him or her. I've changed several mnemonics over the years when I noticed that they weren't so memorable. And I've made a few mnemonics for German and Russian speakers because the English ones are too, well, English.

I cover _all the letters you need to know_ in my course (pictures and mnemonics and a carefully selected list of practice words for every one). I ignore the obsolete ones and the duplicates. Brett doesn't bother with several of the obscure letters, other than just list them; and that's probably a valid approach... .

Brett's course kind of stops at this point; there's very little in the way of drills and exercises. You are then you are encouraged to sign up with him for Skype lessons and/or start reading texts and sort of figure things out as you go along.

The Rapid Method is, IMHO, more comprehensive and tightly integrated. I also cover the mechanics of speaking so that you get exactly the right pronunciation and develop a "muscle memory" so that you can speak clearly automatically. All the 600 words used in the reading exercises have been compiled into a set of Anki flash cards with audio and mnemonics, so that once you can read, you can immediately acquire a basic vocabulary.

Then the follow-on courses are designed to get you speaking and understanding Thai as quickly as possible. Although all the courses are designed for self-study, I strongly recommend working with a private Thai teacher, twice a week for an hour, so that she can check your pronunciation, explain nuances and the cultural references in everyday conversation, and help you with controlled conversation practice. 

And each of the conversational courses come with complementary decks of Anki flash cards, 1100 words for _Everyday Thai for Beginners_ and a little over 2000 for _Sydney Remember_ (for friends and lovers) and _Top Story_ (for business) respectively.

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## toddaniels

Okay, now a few fair years ago I saw "Everyday Thai for Beginners", I never bought it because of the title! 

Face it, at that time, I wasn't a beginner! Then one day I opened that book and WOW, it blew my face off. That's one killer book. Good structure, good method, good practice, albeit with NO karaoke, so if you can't read a lick of thai it's worthless.

A personal observation; there's NO need to whore your product (by that I mean; sell it cheap) for this niche learn thai market. IF it's a good quality product and IF in fact after people work thru it they benefit from it, it's worth what ever you wanna charge. 

That whole "my price is cheaper than your price" is a losing proposition outta the gate. You'll go broke, just like many of the thai language schools hawking ED visas have. tryin' to beat the competition's price.  

Man, I don't mean to argue with you, you know that. I learned thai "different" from everyone else.. It's just what I did.

Actually, I never ever got into reviewing thai language schools or writing about how I learned thai for money. I got into it because NO ONE out there was doing it.. I don't make diddly-squat off my reviews no matter how many students show up at a particular school saying they went their because they read my review! I wanted to know what was what in the market place that's it..

If you're ever in Bangkok, gimme a call, send me an email or whatever. I'd like to meet up, chat and see what you're really about with this concept. 

While I'm a nobody in the "teach thai to foreigner" marketplace, if you got something good, I don't have my head that far up my own ass to say your product is worth what ever price you put on it.

Again, good luck, happy new year, and take care

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## rapidll

> "Fluent" in thai means exactly what to you? Can a person fluent go into a court room and argue a case, can they go to the doctor and talk about an upcoming brain surgery?


No, I am very clear about what I mean by "fluency", which I usually define each time I mention it in articles or emails.

By "fluency", I mean being able to speak without having to think about it. It does not mean academic correctness and you will not necessarily do well in a language test, nor be able to converse in an academic, university setting. And certainly not argue a legal case or discuss brain surgery. (Heck, I couldn't do either of these things in English - so does that mean I'm not "fluent" in my native language!???)

I believe we need to develop fluency in specific areas, separately. In the Rapid Method, I've developed three fluency courses that I feel are relevant to expats: one for social interaction with friends and lovers (based on the romance novel _Sydney Remember_), another for business & general finance (_Top Story_) and the final for discussions about politics (การเมืองแบบหมาๆ). 

I suppose some people might also like to develop fluency in news and media, so that they can read Thai newspapers and listen to news on the TV and radio. This is mostly very formal Thai and the vocabulary is quite difficult (mostly from Pali). The good news is that there aren't many of these words and they are repeated over and over again in different variants of the same story (news doesn't change much). So, once you take the time to learn the 500-odd special words used in the media then you'll be "fluent" in being able to read and understand the news.

It's something I'll consider developing one day, but for now my focus is on *conversation between people*. In my research, I've noticed that you learn to speak much more quickly and efficiently if you read (and speak and memorize and listen to) colloquial or conversational texts.

And if you want to learn "medical" Thai then get sick and hang around hospitals (and maternity wards) for a month or so. It's yet another vocabulary set (also mostly from Pali): you don't pee (ฉี่), you urinate (ปัสสาวะ); the normal Thai/Sanskrit word for week (อาทิตย์) is replaced by the Sanskrit word for week (สัปดาห์), etc.

See if you can get your prosencephalon, along with your Wernicke and Broca regions, to process that!

In case you didn't know, Wernicke is in the posterior section of the superior temporal gyrus of the dominant hemisphere; and Broca is formed by the pars triangularis and the pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus.

Capish?

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## toddaniels

Now now Gary, there's no need to show your mental superiority by using big wordz. :Confused: 

I ain't in a "who can piss further match" with you.  :Smile: 

Sheesh, you're more full of yourself than I am full of myself, and FWIW, I hold myself in pretty high esteem!

Take deep breath and realize we are after all talkin' about thai; a "one trick pony" language spoken by less than a single percent of the world's inhabitants. BTW, a language none of us foreigners would have to learn if these people had even a rudimentary grasp of engrish.

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## 9999

You might have me sold here Rapid, what you say makes a lot of sense.

I bought Brett's thing clicking through from the TV forum. Did some research about the theory behind how he teaches and like it, so coughed up the $97. Unfortunately I didn't come across your site. Which beggars the question, why not market more aggressively? You'd probably make a nice bit of coin.

The reason I thought it was you is because Brett sent out an email about a seminar in Chiang Mai, then I saw this thread and your method seemed the same...

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## rapidll

> there's no need... to use big wordz.


I'm taking the piss, didn't you realize that?

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## david44

> Originally Posted by toddaniels
> 
> 
> there's no need... to use big wordz.
> 
> 
> I'm taking the piss, didn't you realize that?


Yes endless spam
Can I come to your seminars and advertise skin whitening 
When learning a foreign language,learning from a native is the sina qua non

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## 9999

This is not spam give the guy a break




> When learning a foreign language,learning from a native is the sina qua non


Not so sure about this. At least not according to our friends Brett and Rapid, who are both experts at language.

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## rapidll

> I bought Brett's thing clicking through from the TV forum


Never mind. Sign up for the free trial and try out the Rapid Method for yourself anyway. You'll still learn some useful ideas to supplement what you learnt with LTFWG. I cover the top 30 letters and some important nuances that aren't clear from his course.

If you subsequently decide to bite the bullet and buy the full course then I can explain to you how to easily "convert" from the conventional terminology to the Rapid Method.

For instance, _girls_ are *high* class creatures, _ladyboys_ are *low* class riff-raff, while _boys_ are lost farts somewhere in the *middle*.

You should also be aware that there are no "G" or "J" sounds in Thai. I use the analogy of an airplane taking off from a runway to explain how to produce the ก ต ป sounds. Start with making an "S" sound and then say "K" T" "P" respectively. The "S" is your runway for reaching take-off speed. Once you've developed a muscle memory for these sounds then you can gradually remove the "S" runway.

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## 9999

After going over your site Rapid, I notice you do the tones differently to Brett, I like the approach and how it relates to english, and losing the confusion between classes and tones, which did confuse the shit out of me on the few fleeting attempts at learning to read.

Haven't had time to get stuck into the course yet only bought it a few weeks ago.

I didn't really give a toss about how shitty my Thai was, still don't, but I want to understand more. My 3yo daughter speaks better Thai than me now, as well as two other dialects and english. If I dont do something about this, my children will be able to cuss at me and I won't understand  :Very Happy:  cant have that can we.

Also, I'm tired of needing to call in the Mrs to help do my bidding on man stuff like getting a new car stereo installed.

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## toddaniels

david44 



> When learning a foreign language,learning from a native is the sina qua non


BTW; white people spell it as "sine qua non"! If you're gonna use fancy-smancy words to impress us, at least spell 'em right.. :Smile: 

You most definitely DON'T need to learn the language from a native speaker. Very few thai nationals possess a sufficient command of engrish to explain questions most foreigners ask early on about the inz-n-outz in this language. Often times foreigners who are adept at thai can provide the reason why something is the way it is, compared to most thai teachers saying, "That's just how thai is, accept it." <- which is a lame knee-jerk thai answer usually provided because the thai doesn't know the answer themselves..

9999 



> our friends Brett and Rapid, who are both experts at language.


Now I wouldn't go so far as to say either of those illustrious and entrepreneurial foreigners are "experts". 

They both seem to have come up with viable methods to teach thai to foreigners where the information "clicks" better with a foreign mindset. Both appear to possess the ability to speak/understand read/write thai just fine as well.  But again, dunno that that makez either of them experts in the field of teachin' thai to foreignerz..

Still, what ever method best works for you is the one you need to stick with. If the way either of them present the material makes sense for you, lets you wrap your head around it easier, good for you!

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## 9999

> They both seem to have come up with viable methods to teach thai to foreigners where the information "clicks" better with a foreign mindset. Both appear to possess the ability to speak/understand read/write thai just fine as well. But again, dunno that that makez either of them experts in the field of teachin' thai to foreignerz..


They both also have higher education in linguistics. They have developed systems that effectively teach foreigners to learn the language. How are they not experts?

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## Zooheekock

> you can teach yourself how to read thai in under a year using a few books costing no more than 1000 baht in total


You can teach yourself the alphabet in a fortnight with a minimum of work and without any difficulty whatsoever and learn the tone rules in another week. After that it's just practice. If people need someone to teach them this then I guess it's nice have someone around who is happy to take their money but it's extraordinarily easy to do it yourself.

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## Zooheekock

> They both also have higher education in linguistics.


Have they?

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## 9999

Pretty sure Brett does, and Rapid kind of implies he does. Do they not?

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## Zooheekock

Don't know about White Guy but my impression of Mr Rapid is that he doesn't have any formal training in linguistics - he does seem to be someone who has learnt Thai and has used that to think up something to sell. There's not necessarily anything wrong in that and I'm sure if you go to his meeting (packed as it will be with ultra-high achieving artists, logicians and entrepreneurs) or buy his book you would learn something. But then most methods work in the end. I'm a bit less sure whether it works any better than any other method; I suspect it's no better and no worse than anything else. The advantage it may have is that you commit money and a fixed block of time and that acts as a motivator to action rather better than do some free youtube videos, a couple of 50 baht children's books and your wife's stifled yawn as she corrects you yet again.

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## Jesus Jones

I like your method.  I learned Russian in a similar way.  I was able to read and write Russian but didn't always understand what I was reading.  Didn't take too long to figure out the pronunciation and spoken sentence structure thereafter.

I might be interested in this course as my Thai is terrible considering I have been here 10 years.  Willing to give anything a go.

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## Jesus Jones

> After going over your site Rapid, I notice you do the tones differently to Brett, I like the approach and how it relates to english, and losing the confusion between classes and tones, which did confuse the shit out of me on the few fleeting attempts at learning to read.
> 
> Haven't had time to get stuck into the course yet only bought it a few weeks ago.
> 
> I didn't really give a toss about how shitty my Thai was, still don't, but I want to understand more. My 3yo daughter speaks better Thai than me now, as well as two other dialects and english. If I dont do something about this, my children will be able to cuss at me and I won't understand  cant have that can we.
> 
> Also, I'm tired of needing to call in the Mrs to help do my bidding on man stuff like getting a new car stereo installed.



Same for me.  I get really frustrated waiting for my wife to make calls for me.   My 2yr old also speaks more Thai than me.  I feel really bad when I don't understand what she said.  She speaks English with me, but nevertheless.

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## Zooheekock

You've got 44 consonants, 32 vowels, 4 tone markers, 10 digits, a few punctuation marks and a few oddities (-รร-, ทร-, inherent vowels, etc.)  to learn. That comes to round about 100 facts, nearly all of the sort 'this sign represents this sound' (ท -> /tʰ/, ต -> /t/, etc.). If you reverse them all and consider all the sound-to-sign mappings separately, that's roughly equivalent to learning the flags of the world. That's a pretty boring way to spend your weekend but it's hardly a task of Herculean dimensions.

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## rapidll

Just in case it matters to anyone...
No, I do not have a degree in linguistics, nor have I studied linguistics extensively. 

The reason is that linguistics does not address the issue that is most relevant to me:
"What is the most effective way (for an adult) to learn another language?"

The other reason is that most research papers are so arcane and densely written that they're impossible to understand. There are a few exceptions (e.g. Stephen Krashen).

For those of you who'd like to learn Thai, be thankful that I did not study linguistics. The "linguistics" approach is how most languages are taught and it's unnecessarily complicated. I worked really hard to learn German at school and got nowhere (there were too many words, too many declination tables, too many irregular verbs, each with their own conjugation tables, etc.) But if you learn German using the Rapid Method, it's actually a very easy language.

In order to learn a language you need to do the following:

Train your mouth muscles to produce the sounds automatically (like a golf or tennis swing) - I call this Developing Muscle Memory. The way to do this, in a nutshell, is to take a word or phrase or sentence and practice saying it clearly in an exaggerated way over and over again until you can do so quickly _and accurately_. 
Learn to read so that you can absorb the language from your environment. 

This is a real challenge for languages like Chinese or Japanese. As an interim measure, you will need to learn the phonetic alphabet in parallel: pinyin (or preferably zhuyin) for Chinese, or hiragana & katakana for Japanese, because many readers for native speakers will provide these to help you decipher the more difficult or uncommon characters.

I considered learning the IPA in order to study Chinese, but I found that nearly all the learning material (and children's books) and even the way you create the characters on the keyboard is done in pinyin. Every Japanese who uses a computer or smartphone (i.e. everybody) types in "romanji", so you can probably get by for a long time without knowing how to read in Japan. Nevertheless, there is nothing more frustrating and demoralizing than to wander about a Chinese or Japanese town and have no clue what the street signs & notices mean, not to be able to understand a single menu and never be able to progress your language ability by dipping into a novel or magazine article.
Memorize the high-frequency words _used in conversation_. Focus on informal conversation in the beginning unless you are only going to spend your time with professionals in a polite business setting. You want to make friends and you want to talk to your friends. The politer, more formal ways of speaking can come later.

There have been several analyses of language usage which show some misleading statistics, such as the top 100 words are used 50% of the time. You should obviously learn these 100 words, but you will anyway without any special effort because they are so frequent. It won't help you understand anything, however.

The top 500 words make up 70% of language usage. Yes, you need to know these words. So your first step is to memorize them as quickly as possible.

However, 70% is not nearly enough. You need a minimum of around 1200 words  just to be able to get by in everyday interactions like ordering food, shopping, greeting people, traveling around, etc. 

It's still not enough to have a conversation with anyone. 1200 words is 80% and that means you can't understand every fifth word in a conversation and will struggle to express even the simplest ideas.

You need another 1200 words or so to be hold a rudimentary conversation, but preferably a good 3000 words altogether (95%) to be able to start expressing and understanding conversations about everyday matters.
Don't study phrases. Study sentence and phrase _patterns_. You don't need to understand the grammatical reasons behind the various patterns, but you do need to know what are the patterns to use for each situation or idea you'd like to express.

Once you've learnt and practiced all the relevant patterns, all you need to do is slot in the appropriate word(s).

There will obviously be quite a lot of patterns to learn. What I like so much about the _Everyday Thai for Beginners_ course is that Khun Wiworn has covered all the essential patterns, in a logical and fairly well-connected progression, that you need to know in order to get around in Thailand. There are a few hundred patterns to learn, so it won't take long. Better than trying to memorize a grammar book with perhaps over a thousand rules that are usually arranged by function linguistically rather than "what do I need to know and how do I express myself in this particular situation?".
It's important to select the _right words and material_ to study and memorize. As a beginner, you want to focus on words used in everyday _conversation_, not books - and especially not school material.

That's why, even though the Rapid Method focuses on reading, it's vitally important to read spoken material, not literary texts. Otherwise you'll be like my friend who could devour books by Voltaire and Hugo and Camus, but couldn't talk to a single French person other than the waiters in a restaurant.

I had a similar problem as a consultant. I conducted regular meetings in French with European politicians about strategy and policy and implementation issues, but I couldn't understand a word of what my French colleagues and friends were saying in the pub or at a party.
Therefore, you need to study vocabulary that is relevant to how you will communicate in the language. For most expats, this means a functional vocabulary for getting around and buying things, plus a vocabulary for conversing with friends and lovers. If you are working or in business then you need a different vocabulary; and obviously there will be some overlap. If you intend to read (or write) formal documents or literary texts then you will need a completely different vocabulary set.

Most people start by learning the vocabulary they need to communicate in class - which unfortunately isn't particularly useful out on the street or when talking to friends.

In general, the most effective way to learn a language is to break it up into "zones". Learn - and master - the language of each respective zone. Choose just the zones that are relevant to you and ignore the rest. Don't bother with writing, for instance. It's a special, more formalized version of the language.

For most people, the first zone to focus on is "getting about" (greeting people, asking for directions, thanking them, ordering food, buying things, etc.) 

Then you'll want a "social zone": to be able to make friends and will probably end up in a relationship with someone (or at least want to talk to people about their spouses/lovers/family/etc.). 

You might not care much about the "commercial" zone. There will be other zones that are relevant to you: "building & construction", "school and education", "news and media", "politics", "religion" and eventually "medical", "academic", "literary" and "science" zones, etc. Each of these zones have their own unique vocabulary set (with some overlap) and ways of expressing ideas. Even in one's own language, you need to learn the jargon if you want to talk about a particular topic. If I want my car fixed, not only should I know some of the terminology for things like spark plugs and carburetors, but also the idiomatic ways to describe problems ("the engine is not _running_ smoothly", "there's a _knocking_ sound", "the clutch _sticks_"...)

Being selective in what you study is the secret to making good progress and learning efficiently.
Use mnemonics and spaced-repetition to memorize words and patterns and rules.

 This is vital. You need to "do the time" in order to be able to communicate. But it's no good just understanding the mechanics of how to put sentences together, _it all has to be internalized and immediately-accessible_ in your mind.

Memory is an essential aspect of language learning. If you don't address this issue then you are doomed to waste hours revisiting material unnecessarily.
After reading and speaking, there is listening. (As I already said, forget about writing. Writing is a special and very advanced skill, even in your own language, that you cannot begin to contemplate until you've read extensively over several years.)

This is hard. We don't actually _hear_ what people say unless we already _know_ what they are saying.

WTF!?

I'm still trying to understand the process, but so far it seems that we replay what we (think we) hear in our ears so that we can understand it in our heads.

But it happens so fast that you have to train your "ear" to be able to process the sounds instantly. There's no going back (except in a one-to-one conversation where you can ask the speaker to repeat him/herself).

The way to do this effectively is to read and master the text that you want to be able to understand aurally. And then listen to it over and over again, one sentence at a time, until you can hear - pick out and understand - each word clearly.

That's why I've created audio-ebooks for each of the "fluency" courses so that you can listen and read simultaneously using a remarkable app called _Listening Drill_.

I also recommend listening to original-language movies with subtitles on (in the same language, not in yours). This of course means being able to play the movie slowly enough so that you have time to read the subtitles! It's not easy - and I've devised a way to do this so that you can follow a movie at your own pace.

When you can _see_ what's being said then you can also _hear_ it!

In time, you will be able to hear similar patterns of speech without the support of the written text.

This is a crucial component of the Rapid Method. Many courses do include listening material, but not in the form of "ear training". In the Rapid Method, you are expected to listen to each sentence repeatedly before moving on to the next one... not just listen to as much generic material as possible in the hope that you will eventually become "attuned" to the general sounds of the language. I think Glossika tries to do this, but I didn't find it useful for me - perhaps because it was too unstructured with no integration with the text and no learning path. And although Glossika is available in a "spaced repetition" version (a bit like Pimsleur), it's poorly implemented. One needs to be able to control this process yourself.

I tried "massive listening" when I first came to Thailand. I watched a movie every day (with English subtitles) for a year. It was a spectacular failure: I learnt nothing. My mistake was to switch on the English subtitles. This meant that I tuned out the spoken dialog and just focused on the meaning. But even when I tried watching movies with no subtitles, I didn't hear - or understand, or learn - anything. In Stephen Krashen's research, he states that you need "comprehensible input" in order to make any progress in learning a language. I.e., you need to be able to understand what you are hearing, otherwise it is a total waste of time.

What I did find useful, however, was attending the AUA classes in Bangkok (AUA elsewhere in Thailand don't follow the same method for some reason). Two teachers will talk and mime and draw in front of the class and all you need to do is pay attention and listen. You'll get the gist of what they're saying.

The theory is that your mind will undergo mild stress and tension and will be forced to "stretch" into a state of understanding, exactly how children learn.

I don't think this is efficient. It's more efficient to choose a level where there is no tension, where you understand mostly everything comfortably, and then just sit back and enjoy the show!

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## Bettyboo

> No, I am not a linguist


Clearly not...




> The reason is that linguistics does not address the issue that is most relevant to me:
> "What is the most effective way (for an adult) to learn another language?"


Really? Silly statement. Maybe logical semantics doesn't, but numerous forms of Applied Linguistics address this very issue.




> For those of you who'd like to learn Thai, be thankful that I did not study linguistics. The "linguistics" approach is how most languages are taught and it's unnecessarily complicated.


Basically, you misunderstand and misrepresent the word/area of 'linguistics'. You are doing a form of linguistics because you are producing metalanguage and descriptions of language (i.e. peoples, cultures and their communication), aswellas using applied linguistic, however haphazardly devised, techniques and methods.

You take a more practical and contextualized socio-linguistic approach, which is good, but lacks an underlying fully thought through ideology. Nonetheless, I don't wish to be critical, I'm just pointing out that your entire approach and previous text is pseudo linguistic. For people to develop their language skills, practice, be supported, find something that works for them, is good, imho - if your courses help people to develop their Thai, for whatever reason, great.

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## toddaniels

> You've got 44 consonants, 32 vowels, 4 tone markers, 10 digits, a few punctuation marks and a few oddities (-รร-, ทร-, inherent vowels, etc.)  to learn. That comes to round about 100 facts, nearly all of the sort 'this sign represents this sound' (ท -> /tʰ/, ต -> /t/, etc.)


Partially true there "Zooheekock", you're just parroting what all the books about learning thai tell foreigners. 

What they don't tell us right out of the gate is while there are 44 consonants, two are obsolete and NEVER appear in writing (not even in the words associated with those consonants ฅอ-คน, ฃอ-ขวด), that leaves 42. 

Factor in that there are only 21 consonant sounds because of the b/s duplication thai has; 6-T's 5-K's, 4-S's, etc. Of course don't forget while there are just four tone marks (ไม้เอก-่, ไม้โท-้, ไม้ตรี-๊, ไม้จัตวา-๋) there are FIVE tone sounds!

Those few oddities (-รร-, ทร-, inherent vowels, etc.) you mention are enough to trip up most people learning to read thai.. Don't forget, double function consonants, where a consonant ends one syllable then is voice again as a stand alone consonant, consonant clusters both อักษรควบแท้ true clusters and อักษรควบไม่แท้ false clusters, silent ห (หอ นำ), the 9 ways a syllable or word can end in thai and other quirky stuff.

If as you say a person can learn that in a fortnight or over a weekend, I can't remember which one you said you could do in what time frame, that person is indeed a quick study. . .

At least rapidll manned up and said they have no degree in linguistics.. 

Even if they bloviate as much as I do with their oh-so long replies.. Just kidding..

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## rapidll

> Basically, you misunderstand and misrepresent the word/area of 'linguistics'.


OK, I admit, I do study "linguistics". Nevertheless, the courses that I've developed are almost completely "non-linguistic" (I'm using poetic license liberally when it comes to what is "linguistics"). If I discover or invent a method that works, it doesn't really matter why it works. That's something for later "linguistic" study...

It's a fascinating subject, but most studies in this field are as dry as dust. I've scoured the Applied Linguistic and Language Learning journals and there's actually very little in the way of an _integrated_ approach for learning a second language effectively. (The discussions about who is learning what are also quite arcane. My focus is on people who'd like to live in a country or visit it for long periods of time and converse with the locals.)

One of the main problems I've had is to access research papers. Most of the research has been done by people or institutions with public funding, yet the results of their work are usually buried in very expensive journals that the general public does not have access to. I've often had to write to the authors directly to get their papers.

Most of the studies I've come across seem to be on describing how we go about learning a second language - there doesn't seem to be any attempt to devise and test what is an effective way of doing so; and virtually no discussion about memory techniques and muscle & ear training. You have to go outside the field of linguistics (cognitive psychology, sports and music training respectively).

The problem with most of the research in Applied Linguistics that I've come across is that the paradigm is still concerned with linguistic terminology. Language learners are then expected to learn the terminology (perhaps indirectly) and think about the language they are learning in these terms (e.g. rising and falling of tones, "soft" and "hard" consonants, technical descriptions of vowels and their sounds, grammatical constructions and terminology, and so on). If you're not a linguist or language-enthusiast then these notions actually get in the way of learning a language. When foreigners try to produce a "rising tone" in Thai, for instance, it comes out sounding agonizingly forced (a bit like when Dory speaks "whale") and Thais can't really understand what you are saying.




I'm painting an overly-dismal picture perhaps. There are some remarkable researchers such as Stephen Krashen. His focus is on the theory of "second language acquisition", but not so much on the methodologies of teaching or learning a language. Other researchers and teachers have tried to address this by applying his theories in practice; but the focus still seems to be on "natural" ways that people (usually children) acquire a second language.

Some researchers have come up with what seems to be an effective way (for adults) to learn a second language, such as James Asher (with "Total Physical Response"), not to mention Marvin Brown with his "ALG" (Automatic Language Growth) method (as used by AUA for teaching Thai) and people like Paul Pimsleur (who implemented a "spaced-repetition" approach) and Michel Thomas (who used mnemonics quite extensively).

I've even scoured the polyglot forums and publications, but have been quite disappointed in finding that their approaches (some of which are very good!) tend to be that of spending many hours a day of intensive studying or practice of a lot of material. 

One polyglot I came across (can't remember the name) focuses almost exclusively on writing out text repeatedly - in longhand - as an effective way of learning a language. I don't find that so useful (it's too hard and time-consuming). I think that reading the same text repeatedly, however, is much more effective, coupled with saying it out loud (repeatedly) and listening to it (repeatedly)... and of course "doing your Anki" continuously, a little bit every day.

There's a lot out there, so no doubt I've missed some linguists and researchers and am probably duplicating work independently that's already been explored more rigorously than I have the time and resources for. So if you do study linguistics then I'll be grateful for any referrals to researchers who are doing the same as me.

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## rapidll

Back to the original point of this topic:

The next intensive 6-day 
Rapid Read Thai Bootcamp
April 18-23   (Mon-Sat, 8am-5pm) 

Location: Chiang Mai

Please click here to book and for full details about the workshop and the Rapid Method. 

Don't forget to watch the video interviews of previous participants.

Some people say that you can buy a child's school book and learn the alphabet over a few days. That's true. But reading (and pronouncing, and subsequently speaking) Thai involves a lot more than just knowing the alphabet. If it were that easy then all expats who've lived here for more than a year or so should be literate and fluent speakers, right?

You can learn by yourself by following the same material online if you prefer. But this workshop is for people who are busy or lazy or just don't like studying alone. It's designed to get it all done and dusted in one go. 

The course is quite mentally demanding, which is why we work through the material in a very relaxed, informal manner (and eat good food and drink a lot of coffee or tea). Its a whole-brain experience, with a lot of details and nuances being processed subliminally. In fact, its a bit like learning to drive a very complicated car  there are physical actions (fine motor skills) to master and mental mazes to traverse over and over again until you know your way around blindfold. You will need a lot of dream time to process and organize the information, so its best to be physically relaxed, have a good time (without getting shit-faced) and have no other distractions. That's why Chiang Mai is the ideal place for an intensive workshop of this kind. It's like going to a retreat.

 ::chitown:: 

Here are some of the songs that we will be studying (reading) together towards the end of the week:


 (reggae song, a Thai tongue-twister)


 (itchy ear, sexy version) - this song is not about an "itchy ear"!


 (have you seen my bear?) - this song is obscene and has nothing to do with a bear (_don't_ ask a Thai friend to explain)!

 :sexy:

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## Neverna

> Here are some of the songs that we will be studying (reading) together towards the end of the week:
> 
> 
>  (reggae song, a Thai tongue-twister)
> 
> 
>  (itchy ear, sexy version) - this song is not about an "itchy ear"!
> 
> 
>  (do you see the bear?) - this song is obscene and has nothing to do with a bear (_don't_ ask a Thai friend to explain)!


The second one - it's about an itchy 'pussy'
The last one = Does my cnut smell?

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## Bogon

The first one - very popular around 8(ish) years back. It was titled "work to do" or something like that in English.

Unfortunately, it has sod all to do with vaginas.

If I took this course, I could probably give you the exact translation, but I'm not, so I won't.

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## rapidll

Dates for the upcoming workshops:

February 20-25 (Mon-Sat, 8am-5pm) in Bangkok - cost ฿42,000
March 20-25 (Mon-Sat, 8am-5pm) in Chiang Mai - cost ฿36,000

Event Details Here

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## rapidll

The next intensive 6-day 

Rapid Read Thai Bootcamp

February 20-25 (Mon-Sat, 8am-5pm) 

Location: Bangkok

Please click here to book and for full details about the workshop and the Rapid Method.

_JUST GET IT DONE_

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## rapidll

Learn to Read Thai in just six days. 

Rapid Read Thai Bootcamp

August 21-26 (Mon-Sat, 8am-5pm) 

Location: Chiang Mai
Cost: ฿42,000

Connie Mudore has been in Thailand for five years and attended at least ten courses without success. Then she came to the Rapid Read Thai bootcamp.

Watch what she says about the course on youtube:




"I tried 10-12 courses, but they were all way too much, not properly paced... I forgot everything except for some basic vocabulary... I did see the Rapid course five years ago, it seemed interesting but it was too expensive (but I've spent far more trying to learn Thai than if I had just started with the Rapid Method)... After six days, I can now read Thai and I know that I can learn Thai... I was even able to have a simple conversation with an Uber driver (understanding 50%)... The catchy Thai songs are funny, sexual and a wonderful insight into Thai culture, I think I can now participate in the conversations and understand the jokes... For the first time, after my many attempts, I feel that I'm not a traveler in the Thai language, not just a tourist... I recommend this course. Just do it. Stop wasting your time with other approaches that aren't as much fun and, frankly. don't work."

Please click here to book and for full details about the workshop and the Rapid Method.

JUST GET IT DONE

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## rapidll

ทราย "sigh..." (said in a boring tone) is "sand"

Rapid Read Thai Bootcamp

November 20-25 (Mon-Sat, 8am-5pm) 

Location: Chiang Mai
Cost: ฿42,000

The minimalist, drip-feed approach to learning Thai for busy/lazy people who aren't any good at languages.

The Rapid Method is for you if you've tried and failed to learn Thai by studying the conventional way. Or if you're busy and don't have the time or inclination to spend arduous hours studying in a classroom.

Speaking Thai is about developing a muscle skill, it's not a 'linguistic' endeavor. Learning vocabulary is quick 'n easy if you use mnemonics and stories and mental images. And the best way to understand what people are saying is to listen to conversational texts read out loud repeatedly, slowly and clearly.

But the first step is to learn to read Thai so that 1) you know exactly how to pronounce the words correctly and 2) you can continuously pick up Thai effortlessly from your environment.

Then it's just a matter of "little-but-often", 10-15 minutes each day - a few minutes each day on your smartphone looking at electronic 'spaced-repetition' flashcards with mnemonics and a little time spent practicing reading songs or stories out loud.

That's all there is to it.

It's like growing a vine... it happens gradually, imperceptibly, but within a year or so, you're speaking and understanding Thai... actually, better and more quickly than by attending hundreds of hours of conventional classes!

Sign up for the free trial to learn to recognize and sound out hundreds of simple Thai words within a few hours. If it works for you then buy the self-study online course (฿14,000), or kick-start the process by joining me at the next intensive six-day bootcamp.

If you start with the self-study course and then decide to come to a workshop later then it's just the difference to pay.

Learn more or book here

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## hick

> 


Is that a farang and a pre-breast ladyboy, or...?

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## rapidll

haha, no it's definitely one of us, complete with man-boobs and a gut. It's hard to say whether the girl is a ladyboy or a genuine woman... but you'll find out when you see all the other sighs in the sequence (there are at least 7 sighs you need to know in Thai)  :Surprised:

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## david44

How did you  PROVE THERE Were no  Thais capable of doing what you are doing to get a work permit though?

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## rapidll

You are so funny! One doesn't need to prove competence to run your own company. However, I did try several times to partner with a Thai language school by training some of their bilingual Thai teachers to present my course. They sort of got the general idea in principle but they all floundered at the high level of fluency & detail in English and Western language, culture & humor involved. They politely declined.

So what I do now is to kickstart the process by running a six-day bootcamp myself (for those who are too busy/lazy to work through the course by themselves online) and then hand over to a suitable Thai tutor who will follow the conversation-through-reading programs. I don't take any fee or commissions from the tutors; and I provide the relevant instructions on the strategy to follow for free. 
 :bananaman:

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## cyrille

> They sort of got the general idea in principle but they all floundered at the high level of fluency & detail in English and Western language, culture & humor involved. They politely declined.


I seem to remember one of the aide-memoire you use has a cartoon of a Thai character pissing against a wall and going 'aah'!

Thais take the Thai script kind of seriously (royal connections and all that), so this doesn't surprise me.

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## rapidll

LEARN TO READ THAI IN SIX DAYS - Rapid Method
September 24-29 in Chiang Mai

By the end of the week you will be able to read Thai - albeit slowly and with little understanding - by sounding out the words accurately and with the correct tone.

The Rapid Method is a minimalist, drip-feed approach to learning Thai. It's designed for very busy (or lazy) people who have no time or inclination to study or aren't particularly interested or talented in learning languages.

Start by learning to read so that you can gradually but continuously pick up vocabulary from your surroundings.

http://j3.learnthaionline.com/index.php/workshops

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## Klondyke

I have started many times and always gave up after few days. The disturbing thing is the illogicality and why not to separate the words? Even with a very good dictionary (e.g. by Paiboon Publishing) you are lost, where the 2nd, 3rd, etc word starts. 

Then take the no longer used letters e.g. at K (5 letters). The kids learn Kho Khon, but the Khon is written by another K than they learned. Isn't it stupid?  For some of the letters you will find (in the dictionary) just 3 - 5 words, never used in a normal life of 70 M people. 

And when you come to vowels, you get crazy.

It's not unthankful to the language that it will be getting modernized. 

Some 15 letters could be immediately abandoned. I have already wrote to PM, waiting on his reply (obviously he has another problems... :Smile:  )

In my idea, the learning of reading/writing is more easy (and possible) for those who already know the language (e.g. the kids) - unlike at other languages learned together by speaking/reading/writing. 

However, even the kids need so many years to manage the reading/writing, not much learning time left for other knowledge...

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## rapidll

> I have started many times and always gave up after few days. The disturbing thing is the illogicality and why not to separate the words? Even with a very good dictionary (e.g. by Paiboon Publishing) you are lost, where the 2nd, 3rd, etc word starts.  Then take the no longer used letters e.g. at K (5 letters). The kids learn Kho Khon In my idea, the learning of reading/writing is more easy (and possible) for those who already know the language (e.g. the kids) - unlike at other languages learned together by speaking/reading/writing.  However, even the kids need so many years to manage the reading/writing, not much learning time left for other knowledge...


You've identified the underlying problem of learning Thai - it's unnecessarily complicated, illogical, often incorrect and takes so long to make any progress.

Which is why I devised the Rapid Method after about 10 years of trial and error. I throw away anything that's obsolete (I don't even mention the "kho khon"). I don't bother with the alphabetical order, or with writing. And we learn how to read progressively, starting with the most common letters and then gradually incorporate the more obscure letters as and when they are needed (on a need-to-know basis).

As for the lack of spaces between words, you really don't need them. We cover this in the workshop. One of the main reasons is that certain vowel letters act as natural demarcators - e.g. all the "left-hand" vowels (ไ ใ โ เ แ) tell you that "this is the start of a word". They kind of act like left parentheses. Other letters act like right parentheses (e.g. ะ). Once you learn this then you can separate out 80% of the words immediately. The remaining 20% can usually be easily guessed at or becomes easier when you have a bit of vocabulary and recognize "sight" words.


 after she started again and again and gave up... before finally biting the bullet and coming to the workshop.

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