Studying Thai With Skill Building

By Shiori Iwagaki

I took a Thai language lesson at a school in Bangkok. The method they used was totally different from the way AJ recommends. It irritated me so much and I became depressed within a week after I started.

They use textbooks and drills. There are many teachers who speak English also. Teachers are strict with students about memorizing words (they are very loose about time).

From the students point of view, advantages are below;
1) I can ask teachers whatever I want to know about Thai words.
2) Since they use textbooks, I can expand my vocabulary.
3) I can confirm my pronunciation by asking to teachers.

Regarding those advantages, Im staying Thailand now and I have Thai friends. I can ask them. And also there are a lot of bookstores in which i can buy some books.
Therefore, there are no advantages to emphasize about this school that cannot be had by self study and less formal methods.

Disadvantages are below;
1) When I make a mistake, they scold me.
2) I cant proceed or skip any page before I memorize the previous pages.
3) Teachers English is not good enough. Sometimes they dont understand what I mean when I speak English to them.

Regardng those disadvantages;
1) Im not so smart that I cant memorize a lot of words at once. I dont want to be scolded. I found that the best way to avoid making mistakes was not speaking or using Thai. I began to hesitate to speak. [very high anxiety -AJ]
2) What I want to know are practical words. But I cant say to a taxi driver "turn left" because first they make me memorize words like "the Ministry of Education".
3) I dont care about the fact there are a lot of unknown words lacking explanations. But because I cant memorize those words (or pretend to understood them) I can't proceed to the next page.

Therefore, I was so depressed. I dont want to study the Thai language for a while.

My conclusion is; I cant aquire Thai language with this school. I should quit right away!