Customer Reviews

Thai

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This set of language tapes is a good introduction to Thai. For those familiar with Pimsleur-method tapes, the format and execution are identical to lessons from other languages. I have previously used the German I set with some success, and I am pleased with the Pimsleur Thai. The method of teaching and learning is very effective, given in approximately 30-minute lessons. You begin learning simple phrases, repeating after the speakers, and answering questions. This is much better than some tapes I have tried to use, which begin with (impossible-to-learn) recitations of the Thai alphabet and such. Using the Pimsleur, you gradually develop a conversational ability. My only complaint regarding the product is that it is too short, and a complete Thai I course (30 lessons) is not available. The Compact edition is too short to develop any more than a very basic level of conversational ability. On a positive note, my wife is Thai and she reports that the accents are good (native Thai speakers). That is the second best thing about Pimsleur Audio tapes (for any language) - you develop great pronunciation by repeating after native speakers. The best thing about the tapes is that the format is conducive to learning the language well.

I join the chorus of reviewers who recommend this course, but lament its brevity. Indeed, it's remarkable that Pimsleur hasn't seen fit to offer at least a sequel to its introductory Thai course, given the importance of the language. Next to Chinese and Japanese, Thai is probably the most important of the Southeast Asian languages. The language is well represented by native speakers in just about every major city in the U.S. I live in Las Vegas, and we already have a Thai community of over 10,000.

As for the course itself: many people are coming to understand that one doesn't start to learn a foreign language by opening a book and reading grammar, or even learning an alphabet. But, unless you learn how to make the noises that a native speaker makes, and make them the way the native speaker makes them, you simply won't be understood. This is an absolute truth in language learning. And I know no better way to learn how to do this than by taking a Pimsleur course. When I was in Thailand, I met a lot of students at Chiangmai University who were studying English (most of them do). Chiangmai University has an outstanding English department, chock full of native speakers of English, and offering courses from basic composition to Shakespeare. Most Thais know more about English grammar than most native speakers of English will ever know. But, they couldn't SPEAK English. And those who did, with few exceptions, spoke it badly. Why? Because they weren't being taught how to LISTEN, and REPEAT. So again: listen and imitate what you hear, like a parrot. That's all. Once you've starting sounding like a Thai, you can move on. In the case of Thai, moving-on means acquiring the book (and CDs or tapes), "Thai for Beginners," by Bejawan Poomsan Becker. In fact, I would recommend staying with Becker's courses. But, I repeat, do Pimsleur first.

What this course does, it does well. There are minor errors, however. At times the English-speaking moderator tells you that a tone is high when he should tell you it's rising. Thai is a mono-syllabic language, and every syllable has its own tone and length. And you've got to get both right. (For a native speaker of English, the length of the vowel is probably the greatest stumbling block, even if one gets the tone right.) So, in the case of Thai, the wrong tone is not a small matter. But again, if you just try to imitate the Thai speakers, this shouldn't be a major problem. And when you get to Becker's course, things will be clarified. Becker offers an analysis of the tone rules of Thai which is unmatched in any other Thai course I know of. In fact, that's arguably the greatest strength of her course.

Again, an excellent introduction to Thai. Perhaps one of these days Pimsleur will get the message and produce a sequel.

At long last they have decided to offer Pimsleur Thai in a comprehensive course. Having learned German solely through Pimsleur programs I can attest to how firm a foundation these programs can give.

You do not need to study boring books or listen to vocabulary tapes over and over with no real results. Instead you listen for 30 minutes a day and simply repeat what the speakers are saying. The Pimsleur method uses anticipated recall which allows you to converse without fully having to think or remember what you are trying to say. You simply speak naturally.

I can think of no better course for anyone to start their study of Thai than with this one. You hear native speakers using a very clear central dialect. They repeat words and pronunciations often without making it too overly boring.

You will feel comfortable practicing the language as you progress. After the full 30 lessons are finished you will have a very strong base in Thai. It will allow you to speak to others without feeling too intimidated. Thai is a tough language to learn. If you want to do it right give yourself one of the best language tools available, Pimsleur.

I have found Thai to be an extraordinarily difficult language to learn and have tried quite a few of the beginning courses. This one was the first to actually give me a working knowledge of the language on an elementary level. It has proved useful as a stepping stone to other courses which had various drawbacks for the beginner but are more comprehensible with this as a backdrop. I agree with the oft repeated criticism that this course isn't long enough, but it is so much better than anything else out there for what it does offer that I would recommend starting with nothing else.

My significant other is from Thailand, and over the course of some shopping excursions into Thai CD/Movie/Book stores I picked up a cheap (~$20) two-CD Thai language introductory course. Over the next few months I tried to press it into the service of educating me and the sum total of what I got out of it, aside from a smattering of arbitrarily-presented and disconnected nouns, was "Where is the beer," "Where is the toilet," and "I love you." Three cheers for The Three Most Important Phrases In Any Language, but it quickly became evident that a better course was going to be needed if I wanted any kind of usable facility with the language.

I sprung for the Pimsleur Thai comprehensive course - somewhere around $170 from one of Amazon's affiliate sellers (above) - and was instantly and intensely relieved at the logical soundness of its presentation. The people who created this course are not people interested in throwing together a hash of arbitrary words and phrases, they are people who *know how to teach* - something of a lost art these days.

After my experience with that horrid first course - and memories of the Spanish and German classes I had in high school, which is to say: hazy - I had started looking specifically for *method* in language teaching as a necessity. A well-thought-out language course ought to match as closely as possible the epistemology we use intuitively when we're learning our native language at ages 0-6.

The language student should be expending his entire mental effort in learning the building blocks of language - nouns, verbs, objects, adjectives and adverbs - while concurrently learning the rudiments of sentence structure and syntax. He should not have to waste an instant struggling against the course itself - in the best-case a language course should be utterly transparent to the user. On that score the Pimsleur Thai course is nothing short of flawless. Learning a new language inescapably requires effort and dedication, but with Pimsleur's course none of that effort is expended in wrestling with shoddy teaching methodology. You *will* see results from this course, and there is an intense sense of both accomplishment and wonder in every new level of understanding you will gain.

The level of complexity advances at a consistent pace; the repetition of new terms and the period of time alotted for providing responses are perfectly designed; variations on phrases and sentences are logically and thoroughly presented. This course's strength is that it is laid out in such a way as to cultivate and reinforce the student's ability to *understand* the language, rather than merely catalog an extensive collection of canned phrases by rote memorization. You will learn basic grammar without a whole lot of head-scratching and learn to alter and apply it to varying situations. That learning, in turn, is reinforced by carefully-placed repetitions of previously-learned material, overlapped seamlessly into subsequent lessons and expanded upon.

The only downside to this course - which, being that I'm only a third of the way through it I can only infer from the comments of others - is that there are as yet no followup, advanced courses. Hopefully Pimsleur will step up to the plate on that in the near future, but I'm thinking that the diligent student will be able to take the rudiments he learns here and gain an advanced, working ability at Thai with some supplementary vocabulary and grammar from books and other courses, and of course with discussion groups and direct immersion in Thai communities, either here or abroad.

I'm amazed at how easily and rapidly I've progressed after my frustration with a lesser course. Presumably Pimsleur's other language courses are this good? 'Can't wait to find out. Based on my own experience I think Pimsleur should get an award for this course. Bravo!

I've used the Pimsleur courses with great success in a variety of different languages. I'm a fan of the method - no rewind; proper pronuciation; yada yada - rules in the car. But the Thai course is 1) far too short and 2) why no CD option. It seems that the publishers are short sighted by not improving the Pimsleur product and marketing it more aggresively. This product is great for a quick knowledge of some basic Thai, a difficult tonal language. Perfect for vacation speak. But if you want to learn the language this offering is too light. No excuse for the lack of CDs.

This is a great way to begin learning Thai -- to acquire the essential foundation people need in learning a foreign language. The only complaint I have is that -- once you start seriously looking into the Pimsleur method -- you discover that the complete foundation includes Level I, Level II, and Level III. Each level has thirty 30-minute lessons. And there is no indication of when Level II and Level III are coming.

On the other hand, there is some indication about when the opposite course (English for Thai Speakers) is coming: December 2009.

But this "complaint" only amounts to saying: I want more! This is very useful stuff!

----- Review edited ------

I have read a couple of reviews which say that the Pimsleur method is "Listen and Repeat," which is almost completely false. Granted, when introducing entirely new words, you will be told to listen and repeat. But 99% of the time, you are required to LISTEN AND TRANSLATE.

That is to say, the CD will prompt you:

CD: Now, do you remember how to say "Tomorrow is Monday" in Thai?

And you are expected to say "Prung nii wan jan."

As for "just listening," that is absolutely forbidden by the instructions that come with these courses. The instructions basically say "If you are just going to listen, forget it." You have to translate and SPEAK. OUT LOUD. ALL THE TIME.

Ready? Set. GO! :-)

"My name is Nit"
---phom chuu nit khrap
"I am from Chiang Rai"
---phom maa jaak chiang rai khrap.

The sentences with "---" are what you must SAY, OUT LOUD, ALL THE TIME.

So Pimsleur is most certainly not just listening, and it is also not "listen and repeat." It's constant "LISTEN & TRANSLATE" right now!

---- Review edited -----

So, what do I do when I have finished this 30-lesson Level I Thai course? Well, get the Linguaphone Thai Course and begin finishing the job! :-)

----- update 1/26/2011 ---------

I recently revisited this course, and once again saw the main thing I dislike about it. I can't really call it a complaint, because it arises from the nature of the Thai language: men and women speak it differently. The differences are small, but they are real: a man says "phom saap khrap" and a woman says "dichan saap kha."

This course "handles" the problem by having all the dialogues between a man and a woman. The result is a grand waste of time for either sex: they will wind up spending half of their time practicing a version of Thai which they will never, ever speak (leaving future drag queens and toms out of it for the moment. :-) )

But how could this problem be fixed? Obviously, with two different courses: Thai for Male Speakers, and Thai for Female Speakers. This would double the production costs of the course, and might even bring wrathful lawsuits from grievance-seeking feminists.

So I don't see a clear way out of this problem. Just be aware of it when you buy the course.

First, there are some people confused who are writing reviews. This is NOT the short course. It is the longer one.

This method of learning is so fantastic. I have all the lessons on my iPod. I learn as I drive to work. I practice in the gym on the treadmill. The method is based on listen and repeat - no books, flash cards, etc. I am so impressed with how much I have learned. I blow everyone away at any Thai restaurant. They are so excited that "the white guy" speaks Thai!!!

I cannot wait to go back to Thailand and use all I have learned.

Don't waste another minute......buy it...and get started.

This was a great introduction to the Thai language. Pimsleur is the best if you hate sitting at a desk to learn a new language. There is no text involved. You simply listen and repeat what you hear. It is perfect if you, like me, have a long comute in your car every day. Pop in a tape, and get educated in a period that you would usually be wasting. The only problem is that there are only the first few lessons here. Pimsleur definitely needs to make this one of their comprehensive courses where you get at least 40 lessons. You're not going to be able to say much with the limited amount of material here. Even so, Pimsleur is still the master at teaching languages.

Kiss the ground you walk on you found your way to Pimsleur Thai Level 1. Because, with it, you are about to acquire every-little thing you need to begin learning this most interesting South East Asian tonal language. Believe it, all things Thai (for the American Idiot) begin here.

I've been to Thailand twice. The first time I couldn't speak a damn word, and relied on conversing in English. This, if you are not aware, is the equivalent of speaking with 3-year-old children day-in and day-out. Not to bash the Good folks of Thailand too much -- because they are some of the finest folk you will ever meet -- but for the few that speak English -- it mostly su-cks. And it becomes insanely frustrating, and somewhat insulting, to hear your beloved English language butchered that way, and for yourself to have to deliberately miss-pronounce words and rearrange grammar to be understood.

The second time I visited Thailand, I tried things a little different. I spent a few dollars here and there and got some books and CDs; I was able to say a few things, but it was hard. And I wasn't able really to understand anything that was said back to me in Thai. The thing to know about Thai people is they love to gossip a whole lot. And when you are around them, especially if they know you, Thai people will most likely be speaking openly to each other in Thai about YOU. It is beyond the scope of this review to explain why this really isn't a bad thing in Thailand, and why most everyone engages in the joyful art of gossip. But, damn, if I could only understand what they were saying!

Solution -- A.K.A. Pimsleur,
Yea - yea, you'll have to work hard at this; you know, listen to each lesson 4 or 5 time till it sticks. And if you got a head like concrete like I do, after you finish the set, for good measure you'll want to go back to lesson 1 and review the whole series over again. It takes some work, but so what? You will learn the language!

I'll say that again, YOU WILL LEARN THE LANGUAGE.

I've already tried this out on my new Thai friend (hot chick from dance class). She was amazed at the perfect Thai that flowed effortlessly from my mouth (!)

I've spent about $700 USD on all sorts of Thai language books and CDs, and I am happy with every purchase I've made. (I think I own them all). They all have a place in the learning curve for me. But Pimsleur is clearly the first step; Pimsleur gets the ball rolling in a way you would just be dead in the water without. Once you get these 30 lessons under your belt, you can start to mix and match other vocabulary you pick up on other CDs, and the hordes of those irritating phrase books on the market. You will also have enough Thai to start to learn more by questioning Thai people without saying a single word in English, "How do you say this? How do you say that? What's this called? What's that called? Bla, bla, bla..."

"Honey, why is that man with the IPOD staring off into space -- making strange-foreign sounds? It's nothing dear: he's probably just using Dr. Pimsleur's method to acquire the skills to converse with 50 million people of Thailand."

I plan to spend the next few years visiting Thailand at least once per year. A usual stay for me is 4-5 weeks in length. When in Bangkok, I study Thai at a local university. I plan to master the Thai language both verbally and in writing. Thank you Dr. Pimsleur (and Simon & Schuster) for laying down the foundation for this to occur.

Needless to say, if a Pimsleur Thai Level 2 & 3 were to evolve, I'd be first on line to buy it.

--Sawadee krup