September 22 2003

Teach yourself Thai: A complete course for beginners

Many low-cost books claim to offer a complete Thai language course for beginners but, in my view, this is the only one that does the job properly.

The author, David Smyth, is one of the world's top Thai language experts. He teaches at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and is also the co-author of the excellent Linguaphone Thai Course (See Learn Thai & woo Thai girls). His approach is well thought out and accurate. Most other courses look amateurish in comparison.

The book is suitable for both beginners and intermediate learners. It has 15 graded units of dialogues, culture notes, grammar and exercises plus a Thai-English vocabulary, a pronunciation guide and lessons on how to read and write in Thai too. It covers about 30% of the same ground as the Linguaphone Thai Course and is much cheaper. If you don't want to splash out for the best, this is a reasonable alternative.

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A useful companion tape cassette helps you to get the pronunciation right and tune your ear into spoken Thai. The book and the tape can be purchased together or separately.

Smyth promises that by the end of the course you'll be able to cope with a whole range of situations and participate fully and confidently in everyday life in Thailand. It certainly helped me.

Details

Teach yourself Thai: A complete course for beginners
Author: David Smyth
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Price: UK £9.99
ISBN: 0-340-59041-6

Teach yourself Thai cassette
Author: David Smyth
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Price: UK £9.99 (inc. VAT)
ISBN: 0-304-59043-2

[Posted to Learn Thai by David]

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Readers' comments

MR X says:

Im also a fan of this book - its great for beginers even if the topics might seem a bit of a mixed bag. The things you learn in the book are the things you need when you arrive in Thailand. Also, the book is very clear and concise, and offers a good learning program.

The best thing about the book is that is it very well written and easy to understand, so if you are a beginer, look no further.

MR X

April 28, 2004 2:01 PM

Raz says:

Great book. Have checked loads of materials before and after i learnt to read and write and this still stands up as the best intorduction to Thai language for me. The pacing and structure of the lessons are ace ... very beginner though ... you'll need to move on after but all about understanding how to read and write and this does it ... following this i recommend 'Thai reader' and a damn good dictionary and then take it from there

August 8, 2004 3:16 PM

Peter says:

I am working through this now and think it is excellent. I think a good follow-on option is the Rosetta Stone Thai course. This is a relatively painless way of expanding your vocabulary once you know the basics.

August 10, 2004 7:11 AM

Seamus says:

I second that emotion. I've studied the course and can poot pahsah tai quite well, kop koon mahk krup! A friend's Thai wife bought him the book and companion CDs, not tapes anymore.

They use different talent on the CDs and it's strange to hear my old friends Khun Peter, Khun Malee, Vendor, Taxi, Tuk-tuk, Waitress, etc. with different voices.

Still trying to memorize the Thai alphabet, though. I think I've come up with a novel technique, I just need to apply it. With 42 letters to memorize and 7 days in the week, I figure I can remember 6 letters a day.

So, on day 1, I'm thinking "chicken", "egg", "buffalo", "bell", "snake", "plate". Not too hard to remember. That's "gor gai", "kor kai", "kor kwai", "kor ra-kang", "ngor ngoo", "jor jahn".

And so on. I still haven't started on day 2. Maybe tomorrow or proong nee.

August 10, 2004 7:55 AM

Mother Terrisa says:

Teach yourself Thai using David Smyth? You must be fucking mental.
I tried that book and didn’t understand a fucking word. I ended up wondering if Thai was written left to right!
It’s a shame dear Mr Smyth didn’t study English as one of his language and whoever edited the fucking thing must have just learnt to walk upright.
My English may not be perfect but I have a good excuse being African.
Ps
Thanks for stealing My Mr T expression for your K. Taksin piece - Dam fool!

April 9, 2007 10:00 AM

Prufrock says:

David Smyth has the whole thing covered.
His approach is "Well here's how the Thais do the present perfect (for example) or the possessive (for example)
This is the perfect entry level reference for people who have been through the phrase books and who have a grasp of the language.
This is the book to use WITH Inlingua's course as well. A grasp of English and grammar So as a reference work for those of us who want to get out of the vernacular just a little bit. Smyth is perfect.
You can build substitution models with his examples and you can reference ANYTHING you hear.
This is one of the best books I've ever used to learn Thai (one of the world's MOST difficult languages).
Eastern Vedic languages are extremely region-specific and far less tolerant of linguistic interference via accent and grammar from the learner's native language.

April 9, 2007 12:07 PM