Pimsleur, 2006. MP3 128kbps, 04:43:51
Millions of people have used Pimsleur to gain real conversational skills in new languages quickly and easily, wherever and whenever - without textbooks, written exercises, or drills. The 10 lessons in the Basic Thai are the same as the first 10 lessons in the Pimsleur Comprehensive Thai Level
1. The 10 lessons in Basic Thai are also the first 10 lessons in the 16-lesson Conversational Thai edition. Pimsleur leaers progress from either the Basic or the Conversational to the Comprehensive Level 1, and not from Basic to Conversational edition.
I purchased Pimsleur's Basic Thai 3 weeks before traveling to Thailand for a vacation with my husband. I listened to each unit three times before continuing to the next unit: first a quick preview, then a slow careful study, stopping and starting the audio to make sure I knew each part, then finally a quick review.
After the first 2 units, I became frustrated with the lessons being catered toward an American male. Most lessons started with something like, "You are an American male, and you've just met a Thai woman." Well, I'm female, and because everything you say in Thai ends with something different depending on whether you're male or female, and often starts with a gender-dependent word as well, I was having to convert almost every sentence before repeating it. I do understand why they did this: Most American travelers to Thailand are male. So I stuck with it, and eventually I just got over it.
It was worth the effort. On our first day in Bangkok we got lost in an area where there weren't many English speakers; it was noisy, hot and hectic and we just wanted to get out of there. I approached a tuk tuk driver, and directed him, in Thai, to take us to our hotel, even getting him to stop to buy beer en route!
There were some silly things in the lessons, like leaing to say "I am not Thai." Well, duh! But overall it was very effective. The cd's not only taught us useful Thai words and phrases, but they gave us the foundation to put together sentences with new words we leaed while in Thailand.
We didn't meet any other Weste vacationers in Thailand who had bothered to lea Thai at all, and the Thai people were both surprised and pleased with our efforts. I'm very happy I purchased Pimsleur's Basic Thai, and I will buy their products in the future.
Millions of people have used Pimsleur to gain real conversational skills in new languages quickly and easily, wherever and whenever - without textbooks, written exercises, or drills. The 10 lessons in the Basic Thai are the same as the first 10 lessons in the Pimsleur Comprehensive Thai Level
1. The 10 lessons in Basic Thai are also the first 10 lessons in the 16-lesson Conversational Thai edition. Pimsleur leaers progress from either the Basic or the Conversational to the Comprehensive Level 1, and not from Basic to Conversational edition.
I purchased Pimsleur's Basic Thai 3 weeks before traveling to Thailand for a vacation with my husband. I listened to each unit three times before continuing to the next unit: first a quick preview, then a slow careful study, stopping and starting the audio to make sure I knew each part, then finally a quick review.
After the first 2 units, I became frustrated with the lessons being catered toward an American male. Most lessons started with something like, "You are an American male, and you've just met a Thai woman." Well, I'm female, and because everything you say in Thai ends with something different depending on whether you're male or female, and often starts with a gender-dependent word as well, I was having to convert almost every sentence before repeating it. I do understand why they did this: Most American travelers to Thailand are male. So I stuck with it, and eventually I just got over it.
It was worth the effort. On our first day in Bangkok we got lost in an area where there weren't many English speakers; it was noisy, hot and hectic and we just wanted to get out of there. I approached a tuk tuk driver, and directed him, in Thai, to take us to our hotel, even getting him to stop to buy beer en route!
There were some silly things in the lessons, like leaing to say "I am not Thai." Well, duh! But overall it was very effective. The cd's not only taught us useful Thai words and phrases, but they gave us the foundation to put together sentences with new words we leaed while in Thailand.
We didn't meet any other Weste vacationers in Thailand who had bothered to lea Thai at all, and the Thai people were both surprised and pleased with our efforts. I'm very happy I purchased Pimsleur's Basic Thai, and I will buy their products in the future.