In order to be good at speaking Thai you must first have the drive to succeed – a motivating factor that gives you the confidence that nothing will stop you. Once you have “the drive” then comes the work. The following are tips for anyone truly serious about being able to speak and understand Thai language. When you incorporate them into your life, you’ll surprise yourself (and others) at the pace you’ll display improvement in your ability.
Read. There are a couple of books I’ve recommended in your study files and if you’ve acquired them, read them and use them as references. These will give you familiarity with a wide variety of vocabulary and help to expand the foundation you get from the course.
Effort. You’re going to have to go out of your way to learn. No matter who you learn from, your success depends on you and the effort you put into recalling and using what you learn outside of the time spent with your teacher.
Basics. Stick to the basics by learning and recalling what words mean and how expressions are built. Avoid making comparisons to English and trying to learn phrases by rote. We give you example sentences to practice grammar and pronunciation but often challenge you to make variations based on the knowledge you’ve acquired.
Focus. Learn how to speak then how to read and write (if reading and writing is important to you). The real goal is to be able to effectively communicate with other people in Thai and you don’t need to be able to read to do that. Focus on one challenge and once you’ve accomplished this, add reading as the next challenge – just as we’ve all done as children with our own native language. To be honest, writing is almost completely unnecessary with today’s technology so that alone is a subjective goal. There are plenty of people who can read and write Thai who are terrible at speaking it.
Listen. The most important part of speaking Thai fluently is listening. Mimic the pronunciation you hear no matter how weird it sounds. Don’t be in a rush to speak. After you’ve learned lots of vocabulary, grammar and colloquial sentence structure, listening will ensure you know how and give you the confidence to speak.
Use. With language, anything you don’t use, you’ll lose. When you learn vocabulary, go out of your way to put yourself in situations where you have to use it. Challenge yourself by attempting to say something in Thai during live sessions and in real life. If you don’t have anyone to talk to, talk to yourself with recordings and use the technology you have in the palm of your hands.
Feedback. Deliberately attempt to start conversations with any native speaker who might be willing to chat with you. Taxi drivers, street vendors, anyone. Ask for feedback when you’ve tried to say something that gets an unexpected reaction. Don’t monopolize others’ time but if the situation lends itself to asking for help, don’t be shy.
Media. As mentioned, there’s a device in the palm of your hands that gives access to an endless amount of Thai language content at no charge. Initially, you won’t understand everything you hear but every opportunity you give your ears and brain to be exposed to Thai will help you adapt.
Study files. The purpose of the study file is to give you key vocabulary under the topic and an idea of how to pronounce it. Each word is provided in Thai so if you’re really diligent, you can take that and get the exact pronunciation using an app of your choice. The foundation of your ability to speak Thai depends on your effort to learn and recall these words so that you can use them to communicate naturally.
Live sessions. The purpose of the live session is to give you an opportunity to practice and get feedback for what you’ve studied on your own. You can use the recordings to review and reinforce proper pronunciation. We also practice use of words so you’ll recognize them when you hear them in context but the focus is always on establishing a sound foundation in pronuncation of critical basic vocabulary.
Your progress and ultimate success is determined by the effort you put in to actually use what you’ve learned outside our sessions. If it’s truly important for you to learn to speak Thai and speak it well, then take action and make the sacrifice necessary to make that happen. This is a very personal goal and I’m confident you can achieve it with a good ear, determination and commitment.
Last but not least, try not to get frustrated and if you do, get over it as quickly as possible. Learning to speak and understand Thai language is the biggest step to becoming an integral part of the community in Thailand. Your efforts will be rewarded ten-fold but the only way you’ll be able to experience this for yourself is to accomplish the goal. I’ve established a community to ensure you have consistent, compassionate, empathetic support on your journey. Don’t worry about how long it takes, just keep going.
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