Learning to speak Thai

I'm a beginner. Among other things, I'm an ESL instructor so that gives me some ready made language learning strategies. Online: "Learn Thai from a White Guy" gets you started. Basic literacy first and then some basic conversational stuff. The literacy part is important because it helps to improve your memory and gives you a solid foundation for further learning -- Also good for basic survival reading such as signs, etc.  I keep a notebook with basic survival phrases and social conventions. Getting some functional stuff down is good: giving and taking directions, ordering food, money matters, etc. I'm presently studying from a book called "Read Thai in Then Days" (Not) by a linguist and language school headmaster in BK named Arthit Juyaso aka Bingo Lingo -- Self Published, I think. I believe Thai is his first language. The 10 unit course takes a somewhat linguistic approach, though -- OK for me because I have knowledge in applied linguistics. It provides some very informative insights into how the language works. You can download accompanying audio files after purchase of the book. It really helps to have a Thai speaker listen to you as you begin to master the pronunciation. Thai is a tonal language - that's the tricky part - but with easy-to-grasp single syllable words. The grammatical structure / word order seems to be easy enough to get a handle on. That's all I know at this stage in my learning. I'm sure there are other good sources out there. . . . Looking forward to what others have to say on this topic. Good luck and enjoy.   dcb

Thanks David,
That's very helpful, I have looked at the learn Thai by a white guy.wasn't sure whether to join or not.

I learned Thai pre-internet with very few resources so I am not up on the latest gimmicks that are supposed to make learning a language easy.  I look at language acquisition as being very similar to learning a sport or musical instrument.  You study the basics and then it is all about practice and repetition.  If you want to get good at anything it take hours and hours of practice and repetition, not just reading “about” something.

Yes. "If you don't use it, you lose it." Also, the language you personally need the most will stick with you more than less meaningful this or that stuff. I guess that goes without saying . . . Did i just make an unintentional play on words?   dcb

PS:  All I know is, as an TESOL instructor, it is a much more difficult task to to teach somebody English if we don't have the written script as a foundation. Same same for learning Thai on the long run: Basic literacy is important. Pickling up the language on the go is also very valuable. Anyway, the four basic skills in any language are reading, writing, listening, speaking. All should be tended to.   dcb

I agree that learning the written script is important as a foundation but personally I have never needed or used writing in my forty plus years.  My reading is only okay.  I can deal with things like menus, signs, FaceBook or LINE when needed and fortunately my spoken Thai is good enough that I can dictate Thai into my iPhone when dealing with someone who doesn't read english at all.  As is usually the case, my listening skills are even better than my spoken Thai.

When I was learning Thai, I used a notebook or scrap of paper to write down words I heard often but couldn't quite get the full meaning of from context, so I could look them up or ask someone latter.  I seem to remember having a headache at the end of a long day surrounded by nothing but Thai.  In my opinion most people are just too lazy to learn a language.  They want to read “about” something but aren't willing to put in the time and effort to actually learn something and commit it to memory.