talking Thai
 

casual conversation and tourist vocabulary. going to Thailand Nov 29-Dec10 looking for someone who can give informal lesson/s? Berliz wants a grip! Can pay small fee and will buy lunch!

Or try:
http://www.learningthai.com/

Very good with audio

Having been in Thailand twice this year and as a matter of fact having returned this afternoon, I would suggest that you not attempt to learn Thai before you leave. Tourist services usually have basic English; it is a required subject in Thai schools but the quality of the teaching varies incredibly.

I now know perhaps 7 words in Thai after two trips totalling over 3 weeks and have yet to have a major problem with a combination of English, sign language and a smile.

Price negotiation is done with a calculator. Many taxi drivers speak and understand very basic English. Most transactions with foreigners is done in English independent of the foreigners first language.

Since Thai is a tonal language, it is difficult for a foreigner to catch the subtilties of the inflection even if one knows the right word. Get a good map, be observant and friendly and you should do fine.

This may or may not be what the original poster was looking for, but I have found Pimsleur cassette/CD language courses to be very helpful for this sort of thing.

I have the Thai course -- it's a short course with only ten 30-min. lessons (as opposed to thirty lessons for each course level in many other languages). Because of the small number of lessons, you can't get more than an extremely basic command of the language from it. (Well, of course, even with thirty, or sixty, or ninety lessons, you still will have only a basic command!)

I find the tones in the Thai language to be much more subtle, and therefore more difficult to reproduce correctly, than the tones in Mandarin Chinese.

I bought my course from amazon.com; eBay is another good source of (somewhat reasonably priced) Pimsleur language courses.


Kathy

Look up your local thai buddhist temple. Many major cities have one. Often times you can find language help.