ศาลาชุมนุม

[Tomke__987]

What are your best self-study methods (quickest/best Thai talking/listening gains)?

Mine are:
1) Thai-language.com (Got me going, and still use the website daily)
2) Thai lakorn with English subs (My Thai skills got boosted by watching Thai lakorn)
3) Anki (Second major boost came form this piece of software: it hugely increased my vocabularly)


Hoping to give and get some more self-study ideas.

Not in my top 3, but still helpfull:
Grammar books,Watching English movies with Thai subs, Thai Podcasts

What is your self-study top 3?

[David and Bui]

Tomke,

How do you integrate learning from a live teacher with your self-study process?

[Tomke__987]

Interesting question:

I am on and off in Thailand.

At home (self-study) I focus on listening, grammar and reading (in that order).

In Thailand the focus is mainly on speaking. With my teacher I practice:
-Pronunciation, question-answer games, explaining a random picture, reading a small newspaper article out loud.

I try to correct the mistakes I make with my teacher. If it is a grammatical error, I usually need a grammar book to
fully comprehend the mistakes I make.

I don't actively learn how to write yet.

[David and Bui]

When you say that you have not learned to "write" yet, do you mean handwriting or typing? In other words, is typing Thai a more valuable skill than handwriting Thai?

[Tgeezer]

I read. I was reading the other day and enjoying it and reflected, why do I enjoy this stuff I should be learning something practical, here is what I was reading:
ภาษิต หมายถึงถ้อยคำหรือข้อความที่กล่าวสืบต่อกันมาช้านานแล้ว มีความหมายเป็นคติสอนใจข้อสังเกษ คือ ภาษิต "ต้องมีความหมายเป็นคติหรือเป็นคำสอน". The fact that I didn't change the words to English words is what fascinated me, I know what they all mean and the more I read the more I see what they say. Translation only causes arguments and also sets meanings which make the syntax impossible to reconcile.
I don't recommend this approach for the reasons specified, and because help is impossible to find; in the ten years I have been reading these same books, each time seeing more meaning, I could have assimilated much more.

[Pirin]

When I was 8 years old (because I could not speak Thai), I started reading lots of books I could borrow from the school library just to gain vocabulary in Thai.
I did that then so that I could understand what my teacher said to me and my friends in class. He taught us everything in Thai.

Because of doing that I did a good job on the exam (having been prepared by the Ministry of Education).

At that time, there was no dictionary, no television, or even electricity in the remote community where I lived. Nobody spoke Thai to me, except the teacher in class.

That same teacher also taught English to me when I was 11 years old. Then he could not communicate in English.

I'm more fluent in both Thai and English because, regularly, I read a lot in both languages.

[Tomke__987]

When you say that you have not learned to "write" yet, do you mean handwriting or typing? In other words, is typing Thai a more valuable skill than handwriting Thai?

"I don't actively learn how to write yet."

Some misunderstanding here, sorry I am not native English.
What I was trying to say is: I do not put energy/time in learning how to write Thai (either by hand or typing).
I can offcourse use a Thai keyboard, although very slow. Some words I can write, but that's just because I've seen the
word many times.

I have to choose wisely how to spend my time, and for now I think writing has the least practical use. In comparison to
speaking, listening and reading that is.



Tgeezer made an interesting remark as well:

I was reading the other day and enjoying it and reflected, why do I enjoy this stuff I should be learning something practical

I feel exactly the same sometimes. Yet to find the answer...
I do like to keep my mind busy, and being in Thailand it comes in handy. But if you think about the amount of time it consumes: madness