No prob. I am the unusual one who actually tries to learn the language before I arrive.

Bill

Thanks for the note. Sorry I misunderstood you. Thought you were here. You’d be amazed at how many guys come here, get wrapped up in “other things,” and never seem to get around to learning the language. Can they survive, sure. However, if you want to do some serious business here it’s best to know the language.

Take care and good luck.

R/
Al

I wouldn’t be opposed to that but I don’t currently live in Thailand so that makes it a little difficult. Maybe when/if I move there I would go that route.

Billy

Have you ever thought about learning basic Thai (pronunciation, conversation, introduction to the alphabet, etc) from a native English speaker? If you’re familiar with the methods the Thais use to learn English, they usually start their students with a local Thai speaker and transition to the native English speaker once their proficiency increases. AUA, who has a decent Eng program does just that, along with most learning centers and schools here.

Reason I bring this up is for a while now I have debated teaching Thai on the side to other westerners or Farangs here in Bangkok (I do have a day job, I own a consulting company in BKK). I think starting with a native English speaker like myself then transitioning on to a native Thai speaker later on might just work.

From my own experience, when I was learning Thai (I studied for one year, 6 hours a day in the US), it was a constant battle to get the meaning across to our Thai instructors when we had “quasi-technical” questions about the language. With a native English speaker those issues should be very minimal.

If you’re interested in talking about this let me know via this blog. I’ll check it periodically to see if you reply. I can send you my credentials later.

Al