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There is also a phonetic notation for pronunciation (similar to what's in a dictionary), which can serve as a memory jogger but is utterly useless without the tape because this is a tonal language. (Forget software, by the way). It's a trade-off.The booklet would fit in a letter envelope (sticks out of a shirt pocket) and I occasionally toted it along and pointed in it to communicate something important. (Meant to give it four stars but it won't let me change it now).It is not a way to learn Thai in isolation, but it's better than three other products I tried.
Pimsleur costs more but is worth it: Thai: Pimsleur Comprehensive, or the smaller version: Conversational Thai. 8-[) And *that* is how I learned Thai.Contrary to another (phony) review, there is no introduction to Thai writing here. (The best intro, by the way, is some of the very inexpensive drawing books that Thai pre-schoolers use to learn their alphabet. Those show you with arrows where to start and which way to draw. It's a way to memorize a few useful Thai sentences: two cassettes and a booklet. It's for you if you (1) *WANT* to learn (the biggie)., (2) have a Walkman with a review button, and (3) are willing to repeat aloud. Whatever you choose, you have some work to do. I would have spent another forty seconds of tape on a full, proper recitation ("gaw-ooey gaw-gai, kaw-khai nai-lao," etc)., but there are disadvantages to that as well: what I cited in parenthesis is just for the first two consonants, so it would be hard for a beginner to know which syllable is the letter itself among all the extra sounds in their dainty and not-so-little alphabet chant.
There are several series of similar consonants in a row: "ka, ka, ka, ka." --indistinguishable to a Western ear. *DO* TAKE THIS TO THAILAND with you. Hint: always make the loop first). Surprise. You can't buy the practice.With this well-priced product and some practice, one can get the pronunciation down well enough to be understood. If you think you're pronouncing something correctly but all you get is blank stares, go listen to it on the tape again.
One who could memorize and faithfully render all the phrases on these tapes without having been to Thailand would be a rare bird indeed, but most people will be able to get a few "faves" down pat. The sentences are printed in both English and Thai. There are both male and female Thai speakers, which matters grammatically.A small nit to pick: The abbreviated recitation of the Thai consonants is useless. This is not as good as Pimsleur, though. A phrase is recited once in English then twice in Thai, so it isn't strictly necessary to have the booklet on hand.
If you can, in fact, maintain interest while listening to these tapes repeatedly, then you'll do well with this set. However, the organization of information assumes that you can keep interest listening to a bunch of discrete phrases repeated one after the other with no conversations or anything remotely natural. If, on the other hand, you need something more dynamic, you might do well to look elsewhere. This set is a decent value. For your money, you get a fairly broad range of phrases and vocabulary.
I would recomend either the Teach Yourself or if you realy want to learn order Courage Softwares Thai interactive learning system. It is totally dialoge. But dont get me wrong if you just want learn Thai for a brief vacation this course is OK. This course is not thorough in the least. It gives no description of sentence structure.
Any suggestions of yours to me are welcome. This audio/book pack was good, except for the spoken part of the audio tape was very fast and sometimes difficult to understand, by the time I repeated the phrase-the speaker was on the next phrase to learn/repeat. I am still searching for a great thai/english teaching program.
And no compromises. Has it all -- Thai script and romanization - expansive practice in a concise format. This is the best reference for the beginner and intermediate thai language student. outstanding audio tape combined with superb paperback reference complete with the best concise introduction to Thia writing system, makes this a must resource for studying thai.
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