ศาลาชุมนุม

[Donald G. Beter]

I have recently met a Thai woman (40 y.o.) who is fresh from Thailand and doesn't know much English (maybe a thirty word vocabulary). Well, she needs to learn English here in the States. I am attempting to learn a little conversational Thai as I have to meet her a little (come her way) to communicate. It is difficult and frustrating but over time, as with anything, the barriers will start to fall.

What I would like to know is what you would recommend for teaching her English? What is the best way that you know and do you have any good references or techniques to help? I live in Jacksonville, FL. and there aren't many Thais here. There are probably English as a second language courses around. I do need to check into that but I do need alternatives to those, too.

Also, do you have any recommendations for me to help her and with learning some Thai.

She's such a sweet woman. I see good things when the communication barrier is broken.

Any help you can give me to help her and me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Donald G. Beter, II

[Bryan.the.Scorpio]

Hi Beter,

Tutoring a 40-year-old Thai learner communicative English could be a tremendous task for both the tutor and the student, for it calls for mutual patience and dedication. It also depends on how much and how effectively the student can learn and how much and how proficiently the teacher can teach. I knew that so well because back in 1997 I used to teach a class of Thai fitness instructors, who are all good friends of mine and are of various ages (21-45) and with different backgrounds in English, a 2-month-long intensive English course.

What did I do? I tried to sit in their minds; think their thoughts; and ask myself the possible questions they might have in mind. That was a Thai-teaching-Thais sort of situation, though. I knew at which points in the English language my students were weak. I knew how to use Thai to explain confusing English concepts to make them understand. Practically, successful English lessons need to be conducted in an all-English environment. We couldn't keep speaking English all the times then. Yet, in your case, you need to constantly communicate with her in English (I guess you don't have any problem with that, eh? ), except when she doesn't really understand and you know how to expllain that in Thai. I am afraid your situation will be a bit confusing, because as you are trying to teach her English, she, to a certain level, will needs to teach Thai to you as well. So your and her brains might be a little muddled in the beginning.

Also, practice makes perfect. You might want to give her a lot of quizzes, drills and exercises on what she has learned. Make her go over it repetitively. Try to relate what you have taught and what she has learned to real life situations. For example: when you teach her about the pronunciations of words ending with CH, the morning after when you both are in the kitchen, you get some cheese from the fridge, show it to her, pronounce once to refresh her memory, and then have her repeat after you. Or ask her to pronounce the word "beach" when you are headed for the beach.

One thing that proves very effective for taking up English is to let her turn on the caption/subtitle when watching American TV programs or movies for a while. After a few months when you believe her ears have adjusted to the American accent, turn it off or force her not to turn it on. I know many Thais living here (probably for more than 20 years) who still can't live without the TV captioning. You might look like a bad guy, but, hey, someone has to do it to make her English better.

If I were you, the first thing I would do was to start building a strong foundation first, then I would move onto constructing some other complicated . Take it as building a house.

All through my two decades+ of serious Thai & English learning, I have always trusted and preferred these two authors of two excellent reference books:

1) Aajarn Sumraan Kum-ying, C.P.E. (อาจารย์สำราญ คำยิ่ง, C.P.E.) who wrote Advanced English Grammar for High Learners. His book covers everything one needs to know about the English language. It was written in Thai & English alternatively. Highly recommended!

2) Aajarn Gumchai Thonglor who wrote Lukk Paasaa Thai (อาจารย์กำชัย ทองหล่อ -- หลักภาษาไทย) which I think is the best reference book on Thai grammar in Thailand. This one was written all in Thai. (Duh!)

Introducing to her the basics of the English language first. For example:

• How many English alphabets and vowels are there? How to properly pronounce each and every one of them? The very ones you should pay special attention to are: J, L, R, S, W, X, Z; the fricative TH, V, H; and the SH, CH sounds. Thais do have problems with these pronunciations.
• Basic daily used sentences -- greeting, thanking, apologizing, asking directions, etc.

Then, based on A. Sumraan's book, teach her these advanced elements as the time permits:

• Part of Speech
• Basic Sentence Components
• Verb Types -- Transitive, Intransitive
• Objects
• Agreement of Subjects and Verbs
• Nouns and Numbers of Noun
• Articles (such devil elements in English!!!)
• Pronouns
• Verbs
• Adverbs
• Adjectives and Where to Place Them (Adj. then N, not N then Adj. like in the Thai language)
• Prepositions & Idioms
• Conjunctions
• Question Words
• Tenses --the very thing that the Thai langauge lacks and does confuse most Thai learners of the English language
• Active and Passive Voice
• Direct and Indirect Speech
• Non-Finite Verbs
• If-Sentence and Subjunctive
• Irregular Verbs
• Sequence of Tense
• Sentences, Clauses and Phrases
• Relative Clauses
• Question Tags
• Word Buildinig
• The Use of Confused Words
• Compound Words
• Interjection
• Combination of Sentences
• The Use of Genitive (Apostrophe s and of)
• Numbers and How to Read Them
• Pronunciation

In the meantime, during the first phase of her linguistic adjustment and learning, she might probably be communicating with you using what they call "Thai English" (or what I call "Thaiglish"). You might find this site http://www.into-asia.com/thai_language/thaienglish.php to be of some use. When you feel that she has got the basic grasp of the English language and grammar, proceed with adding more complicated ingredients like meaning and usage. No matter what you teach her, say, Noun, keep in mind the following three questions:
1) What is a noun? (Definition or meaning)
2) How many types of noun are there? (Categorization) and
3) What can those nouns do? (Functions)

For your Thai learning:
1) Just bookmark and visit our Thai-Language.com frequently
2) Buy A. Gumchai's book and
3) Same rules above apply to your Thai learning. Start from the basics. When your basics are strong enough, you will be confident with the advanced elements.

¤ ¤ ¤ Good luck - โชคดีครับ ¤ ¤ ¤

[Bryan.the.Scorpio]

See also what Google has: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=teaching+english+to+thais

[delawang]

Two more things: First, it is hard to teach a friend or significant other a language. It really interferes with the relationship. If you are going to do it, limit the teaching to when you are in "classroom" mode, then turn it off and go back to being a friend the rest of the time.

Next, here is the formula for teaching conversational language to beginners:

Teacher-teacher/teacher-student/ student-teacher/student-student

I'll explain that in a minute. You use the formula on very simple dialogs like this:

(A) Hi! What's your name?

(B) My name's Larry

(A) Where are you from, Larry?

(B) I'm from Alabama

(A) Do you like it here?

(B) Yeah, but sometimes I get homesick. I miss my parents and my little sister.

(A) How old is your sister?

Unfortunately, you have to write down the conversation. Just keep it simple and not much longer 5 lines. Start off by reading the whole thing as if you were having a conversation with yourself. Make sure to say the words the way Americans actually say them, for example we don't say "this is a car", we say "this is uh car." Have the conversation with yourself first; that's the "teacher-teacher" part. Next, you take the (A) role and she takes the (B) role. That's "teacher-student." Do that a few times, then change. She takes the (A) role and you become (B). Finally, she does the whole thing. If there are more students than one, have them practice with eachother.

I said "unfortunately" with regard to writing because our written language is quite different from our spoken one. Here in America, she has to learn the spoken language first. Hard to do when you use writing, but there is no other way. Try to avoid looking at the paper as much as possible. Don't emphasize reading; emphasize speaking.

Also. practice is better than correction. Your friend will butcher the English language the same way I did (and probably still do) with Thai. Do not correct her, just keep practicing. She will get better from more practice, and if you correct too much she will stop practicing or practice less. Correction is for advanced learners.

Best luck on your new career

del