Customer Reviews

Improving Your Thai Pronunciation (Book & CD)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was delighted when I first bought this book and CD in Thailand. It is not just for beginners but for us old timers too! It is a handy reference tool to all those difficult to pronounce vowels and tones. The tongue twisters are a bonus. The chapters include:

Guide to Pronunciation
The Five Tones, The Vowels, The Consonants
Clusters, Confusing Words, Poly-Syllabic Words
Thai Intonation
Tongue Twisters
Thaiglish

The series of books written by Benjawan are well worth the investment.

First here is what you get:

One CD and one small booklet.
the course covers:

1. Guide to pronunciation
2. The 5 tones, the vowels, and the consonants
3. Clusters, confusing words, poly-syllabic words
4. Thai intonation
5. Tongue twisters
6. Thaiglish

This is a mixture of new material and material available in other programs by Poomsan Becker. It was a great idea and a very tough task to go after. It falls short of my expectations. First the material seems a little skimpy and at times goes too fast. There could have been more exercises. Also sometimes it is hard to follow along with the reading material. You have the English, the Thai phonetic and then the written Thai. It is very easy to lose your place and then the audio beats you to the punch.

I have mixed feelings about recommending this product or telling people to stay away. It may help but it is no miracle worker by far.

It offers just that which the Poonsawan-Becker courses, like all other Thai courses, omit; attention to tone and pronounciation, and only that.

Apart from the question: shouldn't it be in 'Thai for Beginners' one other remark: much more space is available on any cd to add more practicing material.

Resuming: Although unique and necessary in it's approach, it lacks in variety and number of exercises.
Nevertheless, my advise to anyone interested in learning to understand Thais speaking and understanding Thai language in general: Buy and use it. Even Bangkok languageschools never focus so much and so efficienly on this.

Michael