Customer Reviews

Instant Thai: How to express 1,000 different ideas with just 100 key words and phrases! (Instant Phrasebook Series)

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

 

 

Handy little supplement book! We all know that it's easier to remember vocabulary when learned in context. This book takes some of the more widely used conversational words and enables the learner to see them in the context of a variety of sentences. This greatly enhances the learning potential.

While this book is useful, keep in mind that it is only a supplement for learning and you will still need a Thai-English dictionary and other Thai learning materials. However, this is a valuable addition to my Thai language library.

Instant Thai is less of a phrasebook than a small instruction manual for learning 100 words and putting them together to make coherent sentences. I love learning a country's language prior to traveling there. Phrasebooks are good for memorizing but not good for understanding. This book gives you both. I found the pronounciation guide helpful, but would recommend some sort of listening guide if you intend to pronounce the Thai language correctly. Overall, this book was extremely helpful in communicating with the Thai people and allowed me to ask questions not covered by any simple phrasebook, e.g. for a request from my wife 'Your make-up is excellent. What is it?'

In conjunction with the Pimsleur Thai course I bought here, this is a great reminder and prompter when you get stuck on a word. Smart and simple. And worth every baht.

I am learning Thai and have been buying books over the Internet . This little book is actually pretty useful. I have bought other book/CDs and they are useless. This one for the price is worth it. But I recommend on line language traing with a live teacher. I used Thai language hut school and have been very successful in learning to speak Thai. So these books are nice tools but you really need to sign up with a school ( on line) if you are serious. Even for a tourist they have short online lessons. So I give this book thumbs up.

I picked this little book up before heading back to LOS and found it to be quite helpful. Easy to read and navigate through sections...laid out well and had pretty much the most pertinent things I needed to know in it.

After about 10 minutes with the book, I now speak fluent Thai...just kidding, but on a serious note...I was able to look at the Thai that I did know and find it and see how well I could read it phonetically to make it make sense. Anyone can read out of a book and sound like a bonafide idiot, but this book dumbs the translation down to the most helpful lowest level so you can actually sound legit'ish.

Convenient size as well...let's be honest here, nobody wants to walk around with an encyclopedia sized book...and they wouldn't...however this book is easy enough to cram into a cargo short pocket. If you're at a restaurant, head off to the bathroom, pull it out and memorize something real quick....come back out to the table and say something in Thai...you'll look and feel witty (maybe).

Anyways, it's a great price and well worth it in value. I highly recommend it.

It's not a Thai course but it is a way to immerse yourself in the language immediately and even get understood a bit if you are in Thailand. Pronounciation guide is excellent but, as another reviewer mentioned, you need to hear a native speaker say the words to even have a chance to pronounce them correctly. Still, patient Thais will probably understand you and be happy that you are trying. Once you get a little confidence in the language then a regular course like the FSI one will be that much easier.

Whenever I travel, I like to learn the key sentences and phrases of the region's language in order to get by. I purchased this book with that intent. Sadly, I learned nothing from this book! It is, by far, the worst book anyone has ever devised to teach a language. I wanted to learn how to say "Thank you." One would think that it should be a common phrase. Well good luck finding it in here! They don't have it. A book that doesn't contain a simple phrase like "Thank you" is clearly defective. Yet it will contain useless phrases that the traveler never needs. If you want to learn Thai, learn from some other source.