ศาลาชุมนุม

[Naga]

I'm a number of years into studying Thai, mostly by myself, but finally bit the bullet and decided to start Thai lessons at the YMCA in Chiang Mai starting with Level one. I'm now at level Three.

Right now I probably have a vocabulary of about 1000 words, I can read many of those word in Thai, I can write a majority of them, and if given the transliteration I can write the word in Thai with about 90% accuracy: But!!! My listening skills suck air. I can't understand what speakers are saying, well, unless I have the written Thai in front of me (not transliteration - I hate them).

So here's my dilemma. I'm way ahead of my class in speaking, reading written Thai (everyone else is on transliterations), and written Thai (I translate the transliteration in the book to Thai so I can understand and pronounce the words correctly. But I can barely understand what anyone is saying in class, especially the instructor once she starts talking fast. (I can empathize: I taught English for 3 years and during the first year my students were always saying I should slow my English speech down -- now I understand completely!

Money is an issue for me, so private lesson are out. But I'm hoping someone could possibly point me to online resources that specially help empathize understanding spoken Thai: Listen skills. I'm back to Benawan Poonsan Becker books and attempting to review the CDs on both Beginning and Intermediate Thai. But I'm looking for other resources for 'listening' comprehension from beginning to intermediate level spoken Thai. It is a problem for me. Not insurmountable, but one that I need to really start working on. I've got a month break from school that I'm going to dedicate to listening skills.

Any suggestions, resources and learning techniques, would be welcome and appreciated.

Thanks!

[tod-daniels]

The school AUA (http://auathai.com/) has a thai program called ALG (Automatic Language Growth)..

They run classes which you listen and watch the thai teacher talk about a topic, using mime, props, etc.

It's cheap as chips to buy blocks of hours..

IF you possess a baseline thai vocab you will certainly benefit from sitting some hours at their school.. It will totally help your thai comprehension.

Here's a review I wrote about them a few years ago;
http://womenlearnthai.com/index.php/tha ... e-program/

[Pirin]

.....

[David and Bui]

Some great stories are recorded at http://thairecordings.com/#recordings .

And we have some of these stories translated sentence by sentence at "Reading Exercises" with permission.

See, for example,

http://www.thai-language.com/id/590396
http://www.thai-language.com/id/590419
http://www.thai-language.com/id/590398
http://www.thai-language.com/id/590413
http://www.thai-language.com/id/590415
http://www.thai-language.com/id/590394
http://www.thai-language.com/id/590417

Click on the speaker at the top of each page to hear the readings.

[Naga]

Thanks for the suggestion. I started that class back in 2007 a week after arriving in Bangkok. After about 30 hours I bagged it. I was bored senseless. It probably works for some people, younger individuals and intuitive learners, but I'm analytical to a fault, and learning written Thai appealed to me. However, I do agree with you. Knowing what I know now, I'd probably benefit from that class in spades now. But, another issue, it's only offered at AUA BKK. Too bad I'm not in BKK. Chiang Mai has a different program. But thanks for offering the info!

The school AUA (http://auathai.com/) has a thai program called ALG (Automatic Language Growth)..

They run classes which you listen and watch the thai teacher talk about a topic, using mime, props, etc.

It's cheap as chips to buy blocks of hours..

IF you possess a baseline thai vocab you will certainly benefit from sitting some hours at their school.. It will totally help your thai comprehension.

Here's a review I wrote about them a few years ago;
http://womenlearnthai.com/index.php/tha ... e-program/

[tod-daniels]

Yeah, I usually tell brand spankin' new learners of thai to give the Bangkok AUA school a pass until they have a working vocabulary in thai.

Once you have that baseline in thai though that's when that ALG teaching methodology really starts to pay off.

AUA does have a LOT of videos of their different levels on You Tube here, https://www.youtube.com/user/algworld

About the only suggestion I can offer out is find something you're interested in to use as a learning resource. Nothing can suck the will to live out of you faster than listening to stuff you have no interest in.

Listening to Aesop's Fables, "a day in the life of Somchai the rice farmer", "buddhism in thailand" or "holidays in thailand" make me lose the will to live. If you're interested in the topic it makes learning that much easier..

Good Luck. . .

[Toffeeman]

No one has mentioned the best way to improve your speaking and comprehension skills. That is interaction with Thais. You live in Thailand. I would suggest you find a group or club or some way of having regular contact with Thais who don't speak English. For me it was having Thai friends that accelerated my speaking and comprehension skills.

[baker]

Some great stories are recorded at http://thairecordings.com/#recordings .

Those stories are way too advanced for someone with a vocabulary of 1000, or even 3000. You end up just not understanding anything and getting frustrated. I suffer from the same problem as the OP. There's a load of beginner level listening material and a load of 'authentic' native material suitable for advanced learners, but very little in between. There are some overpriced commercial podcast sites but very little free material.