I'm enjoying my class at Pro Language immensely. Sometimes I wish I'd learn faster than I do, but that's not due to any fault of my teacher...I just get slack sometimes and my head hurts.
If you're wondering what my course entails, here's some of the technical info.
Course hours: Total 180, 2 x 3 hours per week.
Course books: 3 in total and we are nearing completion of the second book. All are written in English, English transliteration and most key words/phrases, in Thai also. (Note in the examples below I have not necessarily used the same transliteration system, as in my learning materials).
Progressively throughout the books there are:
Grammatical notes e.g. Pattern: Subject + Verb + (Object) + thîi nǎy, plus explanations and examples of use.
Conversation dialogues (simple) e.g.
Whose book is this?
nîi nǎngsʉ̌ʉ khɔ̌ɔng khray khráp
นี่หนังสือของใครครับ
That is my book. (splitting hairs? that should read "This is my book")
nîi nǎngsʉ̌ʉ khɔ̌ɔng dìchán khâ
นี่หนังสือของดิฉันค่ะ
Whose car is that?
nân rót khɔ̌ɔng khray khráp
นั่นรถของใครครับ
That is John's car.
nân rót khɔ̌ɔng khun Jɔɔn khâ
นั่นรถของคุณจอห์นค่ะ
...and vocabulary lists to support the exercises. Exercises vary from asking/answering questions, creating questions/answers, translating English to Thai, filling in the blanks, creating dialogues and now, (extremely) short stories.
We mainly utilise the books provided, supplemented by worksheets and the occasional 'snap' type card games, which can be quite competitive and fun.
Book one - Thai Conversation 1, is just that. It covers self introduction, basic informative questions/answers, general chit chat like: Where do you live? What food do you like? Where do you go to school?
Question words and how to use/answer them: no? yes? can you? where? who? whom? what? why? when? etc.
Subjects: Me, you, places, people, objects, restaurant/food, professions, hobbies, telling time, days/weeks/months (and tenses) some classifiers, clothing, polite requests (chûay, chə̌ən and khɔ̌ɔ) etc.
There are sections in the back of the book to be used in conjunction with tape recordings, but thus far, we have not used them.
Book 2 - Thai Conversation 2
How to use: already, already or not? finished? ever...? to know, (that/this) will do, more/again, with/not with, want, have, together, each other, please wait a moment, some (บ้าง), better than, best, more requests (bɔ̀ɔk/khɔ̌ɔ/yàak + hây) etc.
Subjects: Family, street directions (quite in-depth), restaurant/food/cooking (more detailed than book 1), telephone conversations etc.
Book 3 - I haven't sighted it yet, but believe it revises and builds on Book 1 and 2.
The above is just a brief outline of what I've been up to. At times our course books are, as mentioned before, a bit 'confused' according to our khruu. And, sometimes I do find slight errors on my own, usually in the transliteration...not even going to start!
Because I'm still trying to teach myself how to read/write, and because I'm not sure of how to grammatically construct some of the larger sentences I want to say, I often ask the teacher to check a couple of my (out of school) questions/examples at the end of class...she's always happy to assist! Other than learning the language, we frequently discuss various aspects of Thai life and concepts, which can be a nice diversion from the grindstone.
My biggest frustration would be that I can't take Khruu K home with me and pick her brains at my convenience.
Generally I'm pretty content with my progress, especially after I've studied and don't have a case of the guilts.
Of course, I'm not just relying on my classes to learn Thai. Stray and I both share what we know (including mispronunciations and misconceptions) and I study subjects of interest (to me) in my own time...I've also started (again) to watch Thai TV channels. My version of an Automatic Language Growth approach. Even if it's just so I can say "ooh! ooh! I know that word", every minute or so ;)
Cheers!
สเมป
See what else we're up to at Cooee!
If you're wondering what my course entails, here's some of the technical info.
Course hours: Total 180, 2 x 3 hours per week.
Course books: 3 in total and we are nearing completion of the second book. All are written in English, English transliteration and most key words/phrases, in Thai also. (Note in the examples below I have not necessarily used the same transliteration system, as in my learning materials).
Progressively throughout the books there are:
Grammatical notes e.g. Pattern: Subject + Verb + (Object) + thîi nǎy, plus explanations and examples of use.
Conversation dialogues (simple) e.g.
Whose book is this?
nîi nǎngsʉ̌ʉ khɔ̌ɔng khray khráp
นี่หนังสือของใครครับ
That is my book. (splitting hairs? that should read "This is my book")
nîi nǎngsʉ̌ʉ khɔ̌ɔng dìchán khâ
นี่หนังสือของดิฉันค่ะ
Whose car is that?
nân rót khɔ̌ɔng khray khráp
นั่นรถของใครครับ
That is John's car.
nân rót khɔ̌ɔng khun Jɔɔn khâ
นั่นรถของคุณจอห์นค่ะ
...and vocabulary lists to support the exercises. Exercises vary from asking/answering questions, creating questions/answers, translating English to Thai, filling in the blanks, creating dialogues and now, (extremely) short stories.
We mainly utilise the books provided, supplemented by worksheets and the occasional 'snap' type card games, which can be quite competitive and fun.
Book one - Thai Conversation 1, is just that. It covers self introduction, basic informative questions/answers, general chit chat like: Where do you live? What food do you like? Where do you go to school?
Question words and how to use/answer them: no? yes? can you? where? who? whom? what? why? when? etc.
Subjects: Me, you, places, people, objects, restaurant/food, professions, hobbies, telling time, days/weeks/months (and tenses) some classifiers, clothing, polite requests (chûay, chə̌ən and khɔ̌ɔ) etc.
There are sections in the back of the book to be used in conjunction with tape recordings, but thus far, we have not used them.
Book 2 - Thai Conversation 2
How to use: already, already or not? finished? ever...? to know, (that/this) will do, more/again, with/not with, want, have, together, each other, please wait a moment, some (บ้าง), better than, best, more requests (bɔ̀ɔk/khɔ̌ɔ/yàak + hây) etc.
Subjects: Family, street directions (quite in-depth), restaurant/food/cooking (more detailed than book 1), telephone conversations etc.
Book 3 - I haven't sighted it yet, but believe it revises and builds on Book 1 and 2.
The above is just a brief outline of what I've been up to. At times our course books are, as mentioned before, a bit 'confused' according to our khruu. And, sometimes I do find slight errors on my own, usually in the transliteration...not even going to start!
Because I'm still trying to teach myself how to read/write, and because I'm not sure of how to grammatically construct some of the larger sentences I want to say, I often ask the teacher to check a couple of my (out of school) questions/examples at the end of class...she's always happy to assist! Other than learning the language, we frequently discuss various aspects of Thai life and concepts, which can be a nice diversion from the grindstone.
My biggest frustration would be that I can't take Khruu K home with me and pick her brains at my convenience.
Generally I'm pretty content with my progress, especially after I've studied and don't have a case of the guilts.
Of course, I'm not just relying on my classes to learn Thai. Stray and I both share what we know (including mispronunciations and misconceptions) and I study subjects of interest (to me) in my own time...I've also started (again) to watch Thai TV channels. My version of an Automatic Language Growth approach. Even if it's just so I can say "ooh! ooh! I know that word", every minute or so ;)
Cheers!
สเมป
See what else we're up to at Cooee!
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