Workshop - Learn to Read Thai, the Rapid Way
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.
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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
or visit the website for more details about the workshops.
Samui course postponed to Nov 19-20
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.
Try it first before spitting...
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: Read Thai workshop participants - YouTube
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.
Read+Speak Thai Bootcamp (Chiang Mai Feb 3-8)
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 what the workshop participants said after they had completed the course
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.
New intensive Learn to Read Thai six-day workshop in Chiang Mai 2015
[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).
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2015/01/113.jpg
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
Learn Thai from a White Guy is not Rapid!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
9999
Quote:
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.
Learn Thai from a White Guy vs. Rapid
Quote:
Originally Posted by
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?
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.