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[ThaiLanguageAcademy]

If you are looking for an awesome book to teach yourself how to speak Thai with perfect pronunciation, check out The Thai Handbook - A Comprehensive Guide to Thai Conversation and Grammar

The Thai Handbook is essentially a phrase- and grammar book combined that covers everything you need to know to speak Thai at an intermediate level.

What makes this book stand out from many other books is the systematic order in which the vocabulary is presented, using relevant examples of dialogue used in daily interaction with Thai speakers. Each lessons builds on top of the previous lessons in a manner that allows you to gradually expand conversation beyond the examples presented in the book.

Each lesson outlines the grammatical function of key vocabulary (WH-question words, interrogatives, particles, classifiers etc.) featured in the dialogues, and shows you how to apply it to build your own sentences. You don't need to know anything about grammar at all because the order that the examples of dialogue are presented in enables you to get a feel of the grammar intuitively. Complete the translation exercises at the end of each lesson and check your answers in the back of the book to test your ability to apply the grammar correctly.

The book contains vocabulary and phrases that cover the following topics:

- Introduction and presentation
- Family and relations
- Asking for directions
- Shopping at the market
- Days of the week, months of the year, telling date and year
- Time expressions
- Telling time
- Visiting
- Ordering food and dining out
- Getting around the country
- Thailand's geography

The introductory chapter describes the structure of the Thai language and has a thorough pronunciation guide to the consonants, vowels and tones, as well as exercises to practise pronunciation based on the phonetic script that is used to write the examples of vocabulary and dialogues featured in the book.

The audio files (available for download or embedded in the ebook) enable you to listen and practise the pronunciation of the vocabulary and phrases, and are part of the listening and pronunciation exercises to learn the pronunciation of the individual tones.

Studying, learning and memorising all the vocabulary, phrases and expressions presented using the more than 2.000 flashcards on your smartphone or tablet while on the move is easy. Moreover, having everything on your device is handy if you need to review a phrase before practising it. The flashcards have audio and are in both phonetics and Thai script as shown here:



Click the link below to preview the flashcards:

https://quizlet.com/104011920/the-thai-handbook-flashcards-lesson-1-11-vocabulary-flash-cards/

All of these features make The Thai Handbook a unique studying tool that will help you make rapid progress in conversational Thai. The book is a soft introduction to the Thai script and writing system, but the book's emphasis on pronunciation using phonetic script will prepare you well for learning how to read and write Thai.

Read reviews here:

http://thai-language-academy.net/thai-handbook-reviews/

Download Lesson 1 and the Table of Contents here:

http://thai-language-academy.net/the-thai-handbook/preview/

The book is available in print and an ebook edition for tablets/iPad. Both editions can be purchased online on the Thai Language Academy website and ships within Thailand and internationally.

The print edition is also available on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Thai-Handbook-Comprehensive-Conversation-Grammar/dp/8799605430/

If you are in Thailand, the book is available from DK Today Book Store (ร้านหนังสือดวงกมล สมัย) and Suriwong Book Center (สุริวงศ์บุ๊คเซนเตอร์) in Chiang Mai.

For more info about The Thai Handbook and Thai Language Academy, please visit:

http://www.thai-language-academy.net

Please feel more than free to ask relevant questions about the book in this thread or on the Thai Language Academy Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/thai.language.academy/

[ThaiLanguageAcademy]

Here's what one reader recently wrote about the book:

"This book is a great choice if you're looking to teach yourself to speak Thai quickly. Unlike Thai schools which will spend hours teaching letters and vocabulary that is not relevant for your everyday life, this can help you to have the right pronunciation faster through the use of phonetic script and the lessons really are based on what you'll need to communicate in common situations. I wish I'd had this when I first moved to Chiang Mai!"

Read the review on Facebook here:

https://www.facebook.com/thai.language.academy/posts/959855057468152

[ThaiLanguageAcademy]

Bernard Le Du, manager of computer magazines in France, and long-time learner of the Thai language, has recently reviewed The Thai Handbook. With Bernard's permission, I post the full review here:

"Review of The Thai Handbook, a new course for Thai language studies by beginners
(this is a review, as I did two weeks ago for the book "Learn read Thai in 10 Days» by Bingo Lingo, it is NOT an advertisement).
I was lucky enough this year. After winning the learning method of reading and writing Thai «Learn read Thai in 10 Days» by Bingo Lingo, I won «The Thai Handbook», a new course created by Christian Stampe Jensen, a Danish guy living for three years in Chiang May.

The book is an English translation, improved at the occasion, of a method he has already published in Denmark (one of the few courses available in Danish and Thai languages). Its is the second edition in Denmark, the first here.

The book, in a format less than A4 (19 x 27 cm), 240 pages, is link to an extensive audio archive (buyer has to download it from the author’s website after verification, there is no CD with the book) and there is also many packs of flashcards Quizlet (with embedded audio) for all the book.

The book is also in a form of an ebook (PDF), which has a undeniable advantage to encapsulate the audio right inside the text - which is very effective.

Let me say, if the book is aimed at beginners, it does not play on the «fun». It is more a structured course that one can receive in a formal school or an university. I’m OK with that. I do not learn better (and probably even worse) with books illustrated with drawings, comics, pictures or anecdotes (sometimes far distant from the first goal), that disturb my focus. I never experienced, for me, the effectiveness of strange graphic symbols or silly little stories which are, some people say, of a good help for memorizing vocabulary. But everyone finds «noon at his door» (as you say in French : « chacun voit midi à sa porte »).

Very important point: the course uses a transliteration system for the Thai language, inspired by the Mary Hass one, slightly revisited. There is no section in Thai script, neither even the slightest introduction to the alphabet and Thai script. I spoke about that with the author as I always stood up, on this page, for learning script at first. For me, it is not related in any way to the Thai language only, it is I think a basic requirement for any language, like Greek, Russian, Arabic, Farsi, Korean and so on… But I understand the position of the author – and he is not alone to think that way !

After a few minutes of diving in the book (and with the help of the introduction), the transliteration didn’t bother me too much.It is an easy one to «read» and quite precise (with tones detail). In addition, most of the thai words, which are from the basic vocabulary set, I knew them already by heart, and I can «visualize» them in Thai written automatically. Finally, audio helps a lot as it is clear. The recorded files of words, structures and dialogues are without any disturbing background noise.
The course is structured in 11 lessons, preceded by an interesting an quite lengthy introduction and followed by numerous appendices, the correction of the exercises, and a glossary of 600 to 800 words learnt along the course.

Each lesson consists of a vocabulary list, daily street Thai dialogues (short, but each lesson has more and more dialogues as you go through the book), «structural» explanations (as I don’t like to use the word «grammar») and it ends with exercises (but there could have more of them – I think that creating extensive exercices is the more complicated part for any language manual authors). Good point, there is a progression all over the book as there is, in dialogues and exercises, no new word that has not already been introduced either in the same lesson or in earlier ones.

For me who is more at intermediate level even if I don't really can speak the language, I found that the most interesting in the book, is the «structural» explanations.
Each «keyword» or «structure" (patterns), is clearly explained (in my opinion) without unnecessarily long development, but always with precision, and illustrated with examples (simple, but real sentences).

In the introduction, I liked the section on tones which explains something I had unconsciously understood for a long time, but no one was able to explain it to me clearly – even Thai teachers. It is that the tones do not exist as « musical notes ». The music notes are accurate and intangible frequencies; we know clearly distinguish a DO or LA, even if only one note is «sung». The tones, of course, involve different frequency levels, but they are mostly related to each other and relative to the speaker’s voice. It is often easy to confuse one syllable of a mid tone with a low tone, for example, but if many syllables are pronounced, the tones are immediately apparent «from each other», regardless the voice of the speaker, because your brain creates almost instantly the relation between the sounds it gets from the ears.
There is in this book many other things that I had not really understood until now (and I have a large « collection » of Thai language courses at home), which also sheds new light on some of my weaknesses.

I will suggest to the author, if possible, have the thai script on the flashcards. That could be a soft introduction to the thai script for learners that will take use to get the Thai script along the audio, all the time and for each word. Even if the book doesn’t give any explanation about the Thai alphabet and script, a frequent exposition with the flashcards could be efficient and helpful when the learners will want to learn reading and writing (and he will do for sure).
Not to make too stodgy post, I come to the conclusion.

I think The Thai Handbook is a good approach, despite the exclusive use of transliteration.

As everything is well ordered and built like in a « garden à la Française », it can serve as the basis for «solo» studies with audio and flashcards. Or as a basis for working with a « language helper» (to find by yourself in the neighborhood or on Internet). The Thai language teachers themselves have often their own method and materials (and most of the time, in my opinion, are over proud of that) and so it will be impossible to ask them to take another book in consideration – even if you pay for it. I’ve personally experienced that quite a few times, and it has always ended quite badly for me and the teachers.

I think I have no right here to directly link this post to the site of the course, but it is not difficult to find it by yourself, either looking Thai Handbook or Thai Language Academy. The book is also on sale in Chiang Mai, in large bookstores : Suriwongse and DK Bookstore."

Read the review and comments on the 'Farang Can Learn Thai' forum following this link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/farangl ... 625313807/

(note that a Facebook account and membership of the group is required to access).

The review has also been published on Bernard's own website:

http://bleducnx.tumblr.com/post/147536673696/review-of-the-thai-handbook