Customer Reviews

Thai for Intermediate Learners

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
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Just to make it real clear and easy for everyone trying to figure this out: Yes, you need to buy the tapes too. The typical way language courses are taught is with a) a book, AND b) tapes and/or instructor. There is no way anyone can learn Thai pronunciation from just reading a text, especially this one. That is the purpose of the tapes, which are a lot cheaper than hiring a live instructor to do the same thing. Amazon sells the book and the tapes separately but in this case they were not designed to be used that way.

That said, the Becker series (Thai for Beginners; Thai for Intermediate Learners; Thai for Advanced Readers) is the best I've seen for learning Thai, and I've prowled a lot of bookstores in and outside of Thailand over the past three years.

This book is designed to increase your vocabulary in Thai. It assumes you already know how to speak and read Thai. It has sections on Thai province names, holidays, street names in Bangkok, English words borrowed in Thai, Thai food, Thai nicknames and common first names, etc. To learn Thai it is best to have a person who speaks Thai help you. If that is not possible then you should order the tapes that are made for the book. This will increase the actual price of the book by about ( ). It would have been better if the book was sold with the tapes.

All three books in the series are excellent. They address the need for a systematic and thorough, yet informal and highly accessible, introduction to the Thai language for native speakers of English. One receives the impression that the author has taken great care to ensure her books provide the maximum possible benefit to assist students who wish to learn Thai.

The books teach both the spoken and written aspects of the language, unlike other textbooks which would leave the student effectively illiterate. Throughout the series, the author stresses the advantages of learning written Thai as opposed to relying upon a system of transliteration. In this, the second book in the series, it is finally possible to dispense with transliteration altogether and focus on Thai in Thai.

Since my wife is Thai, I had a ready source to assist me with pronunciation. Otherwise I would certainly have purchased the audio materials that correspond to the books, for it is impossible to learn Thai sounds simply by reading about their approximate descriptions from a book.

I've been studying Thai for a year and a half. I have used this book a lot. It moves on from the most basic phrases and basic vocabulary. It shows how to begin to construct basic Thai sentences, and how to use the most common Thai constructions. It is still very, very basic.

Unlike some other, overly simple books, this one is for people who are serious about learning Thai, and are willing to do some real memorizing, and to apply themselves. This book is not a quick-fix for people who want to learn Thai in 7 days.

Pluses of the book:
1. The focus of each lesson is extremely practical, aiming at teaching Thai as it is actually spoken.

2. Doing the exercises requires reading in Thai! (This is really essential. Spelling words out in our alphabet is helpful only for people who do not plan to study the language.)

3. Each chapter offers loads of normal, day-to-day vocabulary.

Drawback of the book:

1. The exercises are very few and incredibly brief. So although you are presented with good information, it doesn't offer much chance to practice using it.

I bought my copy with the tapes. But six months later I have gone through the book twice, and still have never listened to the tapes, so I can't comment on them.

I've tried many of the commonly available Thai courses, and Becker's series of three books is the best. This second book assumes that you've finally cracked the code and are now able to read basic Thai script. It's a very big step! Maybe it's a little too big. It certainly appears so at first. But persevere and I promise it can be done. There's nothing like a little pressure.
I've now started her third book (Thai For Advanced Learners), having battled through this second book for about a year. And this really is the key: you have to keep working at it everyday. Becker's books are designed for quite serious learning, and I find I need to go through the entire book, slowly, five or six times, over a period of several months before it really sinks in. The CDs are indespensable for pronunciation, tones and rhythm...and well worth the extra expense.
I'd like to respond to one common criticism of all Thai language books - the use of English transliteration (Thai to English script). The criticism of transliteration is justified, but there really is no alternative for the absolute beginner. Learning Thai speaking skills from scratch without any recourse at all to English script is simply too hard and will soon douse even the most ardent student's fire! But you do need to wean yourself off English transliteration as soon as possible if you are to have any hope of real progress.
This is where Becker is very good. Her transliteration method is the best that I've used, but she still encourages the reader to learn Thai script right from the start (and does the best job of it too).
But this second book assumes you've finally got over the trauma of it all and are well on your way to taking the next serious step up. The umbilical cord is finally cut loose, and you're left floundering a little with only your own prior learning of Thai script to rely on. Don't throw away the first book just yet! I was constantly referring back to the tones section in "Thai For Beginners". Gee, it's hard at first! But it's also absolutely necessary. I now profoundly understand why Becker insists on throwing us into the deep end. Persist!! Familiar patterns will soon start to emerge among all the meaningless spaghetti squiggles. Your brain will adjust. I had my "eureka!" moment somewhere around the third or fourth chapter.
So is the pain worth it? Put it this way, if you're still enthusiastic about learning Thai after the first four chapters of this book then you're obviously serious about it. Then yes, absolutely...Becker's book is the best. It will make or break you.

Once again, Benjawan Becker has written a great book on reading, writing, speaking and comprehending the Thai language. Lists of streets, provinces and names provide great references, and are taught in the context of conversations. Emphasis is placed on learning to give and take directions, hold conversations, and express impressions and emotions. Altogether a natural and beneficial follow up on her first book. Highly recommended for anyone serious about learning the mechanics of the Thai language.

After going through the first volume, Thai for Beginners, I had learned the alphabet and pronunciation and was now in need of more than just some stock phrases or simple sentences found in the first volume. Unfortunately, this book was to disappoint. There is plenty of new vocab and lots of example conversations (completely in Thai) for practice. There is also a very good discussion on the use of personal pronouns which I found very useful, as there are many depending on the age and relations of the speakers. The book as a whole though seems to be aimed at someone that will be vacationing in Thailand, and not someone really interested in mastering the language. The opening chapter of the books give a list of all 76 provinces in Thailand (Ok, that seems like it could be useful even if not in Thailand), the next chapter a list of hotels, street names, banks, ministries, parks, temples, and museums in Bangkok (What?). Like I said, if your going to visit, you might want something like this. But if you are interested in the Thai language and not place-names, you might find this space sorely mis-used in a slim 200+ page book. My main complaint is that there is a noticeable scarcity of grammatical constructs and rules for crafting anything but the simplest sentences. There is a smattering of grammar found in the middle of the book, but far too many pages are used listing things like: Common Thai Dishes, Common Thai Nicknames, Common Thai First Names, English names Transliterated Into Thai, Name of the Twelve Cyclical Years (Year of the Mouse, Ox, Tiger, etc), Public Holidays in Thailand. When learning Chinese, I purchased the books 'Basic Chinese: A Grammar and Workbook' and 'Intermediate Chinese: A Grammar and Workbook', both also slim volumes of around 200 pages each. These two books managed to cram in enough grammar to keep me busy for the last two years, while in comparison, after Thai for Intermediate Learners, I feel completely lost in constructing anything but the simplest sentences.

I first reviewed the beginner's book in this series, and by now I have worked my way through the second volume. Since the two books are extremely similar in format, just about everything I said in my previous review applies here: a casual learner who idly flips through the pages will not get very far; a serious language learner with well-developed language study skills will be able to make good use of it. As in the first volume, a lesson consists of vocabulary lists, sometimes a bit of grammar, and example sentences. The exercises are still worthless, but at least they and the example sentences are now written without Roman transliteration. I think the best way to approach a textbook like this is to plug the vocabulary lists into an SRS (spaced repetition software (flashcards)) and use the example sentences as reading practice. But for any really substantive and extensive intermediate-level reading and conversation practice, you'll have to look elsewhere. Given the scarcity of quality Thai materials, however, especially above the beginner level, 'Thai for Intermediate Learners' is a worthy resource. The audio might also be worth a look.

This book can help one build on what they learned in the Beginner series, or one can use this book and tape set, if they never studied under the first set to begin with. Tons of useful vocab, phrases, and contextual dialogues are in here. In real-life, you can use what you learn here, and the writing, reading, and listening sections will help a person adapt to the short and long vowels and tones quicker, it seems, than those who just work on the language on their own.

Finally Poomsan Becker and her use of the horrible International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is gone. This is a dreadful system that has caused so many Thai people troubles when trying to read and pronounce English words. It was not designed by native speakers of English and actually is confusing and difficult to adapt to.

This new book assumes you have learned everything from the basic level. It is a hard second step but it is a necessary step. All of the lessons are written in Thai. At the end of the book the English translation is provided. There is absolutely no Thai phonetic in this book. The vocabulary provided is good except at the end when they give transliteration for English names. They also give transliteration of English words where there is actually a Thai equivalent. Why would I want to now how a Thai person says the English word for Bank when there is a Thai word for that? To me that is just promoting laziness and avoiding Thai fluency.

Once again you will need to buy the tapes or CD's separately. You may not necessarily need them for this level but I did. If nothing else it is a way to reassure yourself that you are pronouncing things correctly.