ศาลาชุมนุม

[Mind]

People who learn generally want to express their inner thoughts to Thais(a bit like a forum )and need to know it all yesterday.

Yes, this will be the main problem. If you learn thai, you want to show it. On my vacation in november, i spoke as much as i could and i was proud of it. Noone believed me that it was my first time in LOS. Learning the language without showing it, will be very difficult for me too.
But i also made the experience that some of my phrases noone understood, although they feel right for me. I learned them wrong and i will need to work hard to fix them. This is the reason why i try to stop speaking.

That was the main problem with this method; it takes a long time, in the beginning and progress seems slow from their point of view and value for money - non existent.

I see the main problem, but i don't see that the value for the money is non existent. If it will enable me to speek fluently after 800 hours listening, it will be a bargain. Most learners never speak fuently and pay more money to try. Only the short-time value seems low. If you want to show others your progress after 30 hours, than this method gives you no value for your money, but if you want to understand thai and speak it fluently, it seems different. But this is theory for me in the moment. But i am willing to test it and write about it in this forum.

I hope you give it plenty of time, the video is great and the teachers seem lovely. Watching it I wanted to rush ahead and make comparisons with English but I am not a teacher so am sure that it is the right way if you have time.

If it worked out as planed, i will take 200 hours in the end of the year and the beginning of next year. In this time, i also want to buy some dvds for thai kids for learning at home. Winter 2013 i want to get another 200 hours and be ready to learn with watching tv. Winter 2014 i want to speak with correct tones. I think that investing two vacations for learning the language is not to long when it will enable you to leave the path that normal tourists go. I want to spend the next 20 winters in LOS and i think this will be an investment that will pay of. And the videos of the lessons are fun so i don't think that i will hate it to spend a lot of my next vacations in a classroom.

[daฟาน]

I went to AUA just once. I watched a bad role play by two lovely Thai teachers and decided I will never go there again. It might get more challenging with time and I do believe there will be people who can gain a lot out of the classes, but it's definitely not my piece of cake.

[Mind]

I went to AUA just once. I watched a bad role play by two lovely Thai teachers and decided I will never go there again.

Yeah, this is what you can see on the youtube videos from them. Specially the Lessons with the ghoststory where one teacher is possesed by a ghost and the other performs a exorcism. I think i can have fun watching them and learning thai by it.

It might get more challenging with time and I do believe there will be people who can gain a lot out of the classes, but it's definitely not my piece of cake.

What does you mean with "more challenging"? Was it to easy for you? The aua has every level every day they have open. So you can choose the classes that are good for your level. They have Level 1, Level 2, Level 3+4 and Level 5-10. Level 1 is easy and for beginners and with Level 5-10 is expert. One youtube the user aglworld posted a few lessons from every level. If i find the level5-10 lessons not challenging anymore, i am happy. Now i understand nearly nothing from Level 5-10.

[DanR]

If you feel that you make progress studying this way then that's fine but I'm not sure there's much evidence to support its efficacy. The idea that if you make speaking mistakes as a beginner, you're condemned to repeat those mistakes for ever is clearly not true; nearly all adult learners begin by speaking and nearly all of them stop making those mistakes. There's also a lot of evidence to suggest that adult learners learn in significantly different ways to children so drawing analogies from the latter to the former is of pretty limited use and I'd also be concerned that sitting and listening without the stress/excitement of speaking is just going to be really dull after a while.

[Mind]

If you feel that you make progress studying this way then that's fine but I'm not sure there's much evidence to support its efficacy.

I like the blog of dan that i postet earlier. Hi writes about his progress and it seems that it works. And what du you mean with efficancy? How much words you speak after a week, or how fluent you speak after 1000 hours? If your goal is to speak fuently, i can imagine that this way of studying is better then the normal used ways that so many people have problems with.

The idea that if you make speaking mistakes as a beginner, you're condemned to repeat those mistakes for ever is clearly not true; nearly all adult learners begin by speaking and nearly all of them stop making those mistakes.

From my experience, the most of them never reaches the fluently of the natives. And in tonal languages, this is much more a problem, than in other languages. And i don't say that it is impossible to work out mistakes you learned your brain, but that this will be really hard in many cases. If you learn something wrong, it will take much more energie to learn it right than learn it right in the first place. If you are not able to hear the tones and learn many words with wrong tones, it can easy be that waiting till you are used to hear the tones before you speak, can be much more effective.

There's also a lot of evidence to suggest that adult learners learn in significantly different ways to children

And there is also a lot of evidence to suggest that adult learners really sucks in language acquisition compared to children. Mayby the ways adults used to learn, hinder them to learn it as good as a child.

so drawing analogies from the latter to the former is of pretty limited use and I'd also be concerned that sitting and listening without the stress/excitement of speaking is just going to be really dull after a while.

I think that spaced repetition learning of vocabular is much more dull than watching two people interact and trying to understand them.

[Toffeeman]

This seems a very strange thread to me. The OP states he is now learning Thai through at a school which uses a specific method and basically invites other members to knock his method giving him ample opportunity to defend the idea and give maximum advertising to this method and school. Like David in an earlier post, I smell a fish. If it is all genuine. Good for you. Hope it works.

[Mind]

This seems a very strange thread to me. The OP states he is now learning Thai through at a school which uses a specific method and basically invites other members to knock his method giving him ample opportunity to defend the idea and give maximum advertising to this method and school.

You missread something. I don't learn thai through this school. I started to learn thai and just stumblet over the school and the method they use. For me, it sounds logic and i think that this can be a way to get a better pronounciation that the most get with normal methods. And in the moment, i plan my next vacation to visit the school to test if they are right.

Like David in an earlier post, I smell a fish.

The moderators can sure see that i have an ip from a german adsl connection. Maybe a moderator can confirm this.

If it is all genuine. Good for you. Hope it works.

I hope this too.

Greatings,

[daฟาน]

there are fish in germany too
(yeah yeah... german ip confirmed)

Wir sind immer froh über verschiedene Gedanken zu diversen Methoden hier im Forum. Und wenn es für dich sehr gut funktioniert, dann freut uns das ebenfalls.

Dass es jedoch ein bisschen nach Werbung riecht, wird dir selber klar sein. Wobei das nicht hießt, dass es tatsächlich Werbung ist (was auch der Grund ist, warum es hier keine Einschränkungen von irgendwelchen Moderatoren gab).

[Pirin]

ต่อไปนี้ แค่คุณ Mind อ้าปาก เราก็เห็นลิ้นไก่แล้วค่ะ

[Mind]

Wir sind immer froh über verschiedene Gedanken zu diversen Methoden hier im Forum. Und wenn es für dich sehr gut funktioniert, dann freut uns das ebenfalls.

Keine Ahnung ob das für mich funktioniert, doch für mich hört es sich logisch an und ich werde es probieren. Hätte aber nicht gedacht das die Stimmung gegen diese Methode so feindlich ist.

Dass es jedoch ein bisschen nach Werbung riecht, wird dir selber klar sein. Wobei das nicht hießt, dass es tatsächlich Werbung ist (was auch der Grund ist, warum es hier keine Einschränkungen von irgendwelchen Moderatoren gab).

Aber wie hätte ich das anders schreiben sollen? Scheinbar wird diese Methode in Thai nur dort unterrichtet und die Videos von denen geben einen guten Einblick wie das abzulaufen hat. Und ich dachte das Werbung von Schulen/Lehrern in diesen Forum auch erlaubt ist. Jedenfalls posten in anderen Sektionen doch diverse Lehrer(Schulen?) ihre Dienstleistung. Wenn ich Werbung machen wollte, hätte ich das also da gepostet. Mir ging es jedoch darum mal anzuschneiden, ob das eine Methode ist mit der man lernt die Töne besser zu treffen und ob da jemand Erfahrung drin hat. Du hast ja gesagt, dass du schon mal dort warst aber es für dich nicht fordernd genug war. Hast du dich in eine Klasse gesetzt die nicht deinem Verständnislevel entspricht? Kannst du da was zu sagen?
Aber wir gehen wohl besser wieder zurück ins englische.

Danke dir,
Mind