Thai for Advanced Readers [Paperback]

Benjawan Poomsan Becker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 10, 2000

This for Advanced Readers... - introduces you to various writing styles. - offers a bridge to advanced reading and writing of the Thai language. - challenges students to read Thai. - is compact and informative. - helps students expand their Thai vocabulary in a systematic way. - can be for self-study and classroom use. Students need to be able to read basic Thai in order to get the most out of this book.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Benjawan Poomsan Becker was born in Bangkok and spent her childhood in Yasothon, a small province in Northeast Thailand. Her family is ethnic Laotian, so she grew up speaking both Thai and Lao. She graduated from Khon Kaen University in Thailand in 1990, with a B.A. in English. Benjawan gained extensive experience teaching Thai to foreigners while studying for her M.A. in Japan with the Japan-Thailand Trade Association and Berlitz Language School, and in the US with Thai temples, Stanford University and private students. She now resides in Berkeley, California where she continues to write and publish books on the Thai and Lao languages. She also has a translation and interpretation business. Her books include "Thai for Beginners", "Thai for Intermediate Learners", "Thai for Advanced Readers", "Thai-English/English-Thai Dictionary for Non-Thai Speakers", "Improving Your Thai Pronunciation", "Practical Thai Conversation DVD Series", the popular "Speak Like a Thai Series" and many other titles on the Thai language.

Product Details

• Paperback: 210 pages
• Publisher: Paiboon Publishing; Bilingual edition (May 10, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887521038
• ISBN-13: 978-1887521031
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #684,520 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Thai

More About the Author

Benjawan Poomsan Becker was born in Bangkok and spent her childhood in Yasothon, a small province in Northeast Thailand. Her family is ethnic Laotian, so she grew up speaking both Thai and Lao. She recevied a B.A. in English with first class honor from Khon Kaen University, Thailand. While obtaining her M.A. in Japan, she gained extensive experience teaching Thai to foreigners at the Japan Thailand Trade Association and the Berlitz Language School. In the United States, she taught Thai language at Stanford University, at several Thai temples, and in private classes. She operated a successful Thai and Lao translation business and is a registered Thai and Lao court interpreter in the state of California. She now resides in Berkeley, California where she continues to write and publish the leading learning books on the Thai and Lao languages. Her latest book, "The Interpreter's Journal" is the recipient of the 2011 Asian Book Publishing Award for Best Book / Best Writer on Asian Socio-Economic or Media scene.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Difficult, March 22, 2006

By 

Jesus C. Ubinas (CHERRY POINT, NC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thai for Advanced Readers (Audio CD)

This is a very tough course. I finished "Thai For Beginners" and "Thai For Intermediate Learners" and I still had trouble with this course.
The book has vocabulary and stories / essays which uses the vocabulary. The Cd's, though, only have the stories / essays on them. That makes it difficult to insure you are pronouncing the words correctly. If you make it to this book, you should know how to read Thai. That will help you with decipher what tone the vocabulary should be and how to sound out the words. But, being a non-native speaker, I'm sure I'm still not saying the words like a native Thai speaker would.
This book makes a large jump from "Thai for Intermediate Learners." I think Mrs. Benjawan Poomsan Becker should write another book to bridge the gap.
This is a good course for anyone who wants to learn more about Thailand, Thai people and their customs... And for those who would like to improve their Thai reading skills.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A decent early reader, but not advanced, July 10, 2008

By 

Pathawi "Pathawi Phuttan" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thai for Advanced Readers (Paperback)

*Thai for Advanced Readers* is a fairly good reader for lower-level intermediate students. It's got to be kept in mind that, for less frequently studied languages, "advanced" is used to describe non-native speakers whose abilities would still be considered fairly primitive in the major Western languages. This book could be a good stepping stone, but to what? There's still a vast amount of knowledge necessary before a person who had worked thru Becker's books could read a newspaper or short stories, but there don't seem to be any real materials for instruction in those skills. I don't know of any book, yet, that merits this volume's title.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book will blow your mind, May 4, 2009

By 

Jason E. Pease (Watertown, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thai for Advanced Readers (Paperback)

Thai for Advanced Readers is a huge jump in difficulty from the Intermediate book in this series. This book consists of several one to three page passages in Thai, followed by vocabulary relevant to the passage, and finally the translation in English.

This book offers a lot to learn to anyone willing to put in the time. Personally speaking, about halfway through this book I noticed a jump in my reading speed and in my ability to "sight-read" words that I had never seen before.

The book has a few drawbacks however. First, as I mentioned before, there is a huge jump in difficulty. If you read the beginner and intermediate books and are expecting the next step in the progression, forget it. This book should probably fall in a series of books oriented towards reading skills.

The second issue I have with this book is overall effectiveness of it as a study resource. As much as I enjoyed the challenge of this book, I can't say the vocabulary stuck with me at all, nor did it do anything to improve my day to day Thai skills. Perhaps this is more fault of the student than the book but I thought it was fair to share my experience.