Review of My Learning Thai Resources

Week 21 of My Six Month Attempt to Learn Thai

My schedule for learning Thai went off the rails during the last 10 days. Last week, my niece come to stay with us, then I picked up a bad cold that put me out of action for 72 hours, and I also started a new job. To be honest, it was actually nice to take a break from studying, and it has put me in a better frame of mind for the last few weeks of this challenge.

I am now down to just two Thai learning activities. I’m using the Glossika with my exercise regime, and I’m preparing for my video. I’ve also cut the time I spend learning Thai down each day to just three hours (it was over five hours for most of the challenge) – I need to make this reduction because of my new work commitments. At the end of the challenge, I intend to continue with one hour of Thai per day.

Seeing as there isn’t much to report back on my recent studies, I thought this would be a good time to talk about the resources I have been using. I’ve spent a fortune on Thai books and courses over the years, but here are the ones that I’ve been using during the last few months.

Pimsleur Thai

I first played around with Pimsleur Thai about six years ago, and I used it during the first week of this challenge just to practice my pronunciation. I do think it is a good course for beginners, but it’s a pity it doesn’t go much beyond the lower intermediate level. It uses an audio spaced-repetition system, and this is the approach I prefer, but I have found Glossika Thai (see below) to be far superior – although it probably isn’t a good option for complete beginners.

Cracking Thai Fundamentals

I would not have made as much progress during the early part of this challenge if it hadn’t been for the help of Stuart Jay Raj – they guy is a phenomenal teacher. I wish that I’d had access to his Cracking Thai Fundamentals course when I first started learning Thai because it would have made things so much easier for me. His course provides instruction on how to reproduce Thai sounds like a native speaker, and his instructions are easy to understand and easy to follow.

Benjawan Poomsan Becker Thai Learning Series

The Benjawan Poomsan Becker books were the first resource I used when I began learning Thai, and I still use them today. I found Thai for Advanced Readers to be perfect for practicing reading out loud, and I listen to the Speak Like a Thai in the car.

Learn Thai Podcast

The Learn Thai Podcast is another resource that I’ve been using for years, and it is most comprehensive course I’ve found – there is something for all levels of language learning. I love the video format and the fact that the material can also be downloaded as audio podcasts for when I’m on the go.

Glossika Thai

I feel so lucky that Glossika Thai became available right at the start of this challenge. It is the resource I’ve used most over the last few months. There are 3,000 audio sentences in this course, and I find the spaced-repetition approach to be the most effective for me. I’ve been creating my own audio sentences tracks, so I can continue with this approach even after I reach the end of the Glossika course (I’d like to have 10,000 sentences eventually).

Websites

I’ve also got a lot of help and encouragement from websites and social media groups including:



Farang Can Learn Thai Facebook Group

A Woman Learning Thai … and some men too

Thai Recordings

Pantip

Glossika Facebook Discussion Group

Other posts in this series on learning Thai

Week 0- My Quest to Speak Fluent Thai in Six Months

Week 1 -Creating the Right Mental Conditions for Learning Thai

Week 2- Maybe Just Getting Out There and Speaking Thai is Not Enough

Week 3 – 5 Improvements in My Approach to Learning Thai

Week 4 – Generating Enough Passion to Learn Thai

Week 5 – Undoing the Damage from Speaking Thai Badly for Thirteen Years

Week 6 – Early Impressions of Glossika Thai Fluency Course

Week 7 – Introverts Can Learn Thai Too

Week 8 – Winning Strategy for Achieving Fluency in Thai

Week 9 – Thai Fluency in 10,000 Sentences

Week 10 – Problems with Staying Focused Prevent Me from Learning Thai

Week 11 – Importance of Cracking Thai Fundamentals

Week 12 – Painful Lessons while Ordering Pizza in Thai

Week 13- If I Can Become Fluent in Thai, So Can Anyone

Week 14 – How I Make Time to Study Thai

Week 15 – Redefining Fluency After Losing My Way While Learning Thai

Week 16 – My Learn Thai Fitness Challenge

Week 17 – Talking about Myself in Thai

Week 18 – No Need to Force Myself to Speak Thai

Week 19 – 5 Factors that Improve My Ability to Learn Thai