Pimsleur Thai Conversational Course - Level 1 Lessons 1-16 CD: Learn to Speak and Understand Thai with Pimsleur Language Programs

If you plan on visiting Thailand this Pimsler course is highly recommended! My husband and I purchased this a few months prior to our departure and it was such a great investment. I couldn't imagine traveling there without knowing at least some Thai. The locals were so impressed that we could speak their language (even if it was hodge-podgey). Such a great feeling! It shows a great deal of respect taking the time to learn their language. Everyone in Thailand is so friendly and willing to help (as long as they can understand what you need). This course was very easy to work with. We listened to it every day on the way to and from work. And, the way the material is presented to learn is genius. (at least I thought so) Note: One thing that is not mentioned in this course is the word for bathroom - they use "toilet" :) So, if you are planning a trip to Thailand, do yourself a favor and learn some basic Thai - it will go a long way!

This is the first time I have used the Pimsleur method. When first starting out with it, I was intimidated by the speed, as several reviewers have commented negatively on. However, this is actually part of the method, which I found out when I looked up Pimsleur's method online. About the time I was able to put together some of the words in the phrase, the phrase would be repeated and I would be repeating along with the speaker. Then there is another gap to say the phrase again. When I understood the rhythm it started to make a lot of sense. It does work, for me at least, and though I had learned some Thai language in the past, the relentless repetition, especially of the numbers, has embedded them in my long term memory more effectively. I play these non-stop in the car and have made it through all 8 discs a few times. I just keep reviewing them, going back to disc 3 or so, and after a few months I know everything that is in all 8 discs. Some have complained that the man and the woman pronounce the words differently. Anyone who has learned a language via discs (or if really old like me, tapes, and I guess discs are also old school now), knows that once you land in that country whose language you have studied diligently from afar, all of that perfect language you learned does not help a whole lot when trying to understand what native speakers are saying. Even after 20 years of extensive travel in Mexico and possessing reasonable Spanish language skills, I still encounter people that I cannot understand very well. When I lamented this to my Mexico City friend Carlos, who is 65 and lived in el D.F. all his life, he said, "well, when you go to other parts of the US can you easily understand everyone? I can't understand some peoples' Spanish either". One needs to keep a realistic perspective. But I digress... I believe that Pimsleur has used different pronunciations (L vs R for example, and slight differences in cadence between the man and woman speakers) to give the student a bit of real life experience ahead of their visit to Thailand. When one is standing at the counter of a store in Thailand, they are not going to be criticizing the person behind the counter for not speaking like the man or woman on the Pimsleur CD. My only complaint, and others have mentioned this as well, is that the conversation is oriented very much toward informal meetings of business clients with a heavy bias towards eating and drinking out. I would have preferred more bias to general social interaction as part of the basic course. I also felt that the explanation of time was a bit strange, by not telling the listener right away that 7 is actually a different name than 1, along with several other numbers when explaining afternoon vs evening time. For those who did not study numbers elsewhere, there might be some confusion about what is going on there. They do remedy it later on, but I think it could have been handled a bit better, along with the general descriptions of the times of day. I went to a different resource for more clarity with time. Realistically, one cannot expect to use just one method if one is truly serious about learning a language. This is just one tool. I also have a stack of books to help me learn the written language, along with other essential words and phrases. To this end I searched online and purchased an absolutely amazing dictionary and phrasebook from Paiboon publishing for iPhone/iPad. I would consider this dictionary to be essential and a real bargain for $24.95. There are also many excellent tutorial videos on youtube, including one where they go out onto the street and talk to a tuk tuk driver, and then analyze what he was saying. It's great and Pimsleur basic Thai is not going to help much in understanding that guy. It demonstrates very well the difference between academic and real world language. One needs to immerse in every way possible before visiting the country, and then be prepared to be bewildered for a while after one gets there. For me that's part of what makes travel exciting, invigorating, and ultimately rewarding. I have only been to Thailand once, in 1987, which was my first international trip as a young lad, and I practiced extensively with cassette tapes in the car beforehand, along with a phrasebook using the phonetic pronunciations. When I got there I found that my work really helped. Though I could not read the language, Thai people could understand my very basic greetings. This is also where I learned that being polite goes a very long way, and since then I have always made a point of learning what is polite behavior in the countries I visit. Most basic would be to never walk into a place and just start speaking English, expecting someone to understand, which is something my countrypeople are rampantly guilty of. What I figured out right away on that trip is that when I bought something, I would count the money out loud. Since there was no conversation involved I could do that without getting confused. In small towns the young children that inevitably would crowd around the tall falang were always amazed to hear me speaking Thai, even though that was pretty much all the Thai I knew. The next time I will be going for an extended stay, and even with all my preparation (I will probably also buy the extended Pimsleur course), when I get there, I know I will still have lots of work to do.

This introduction provides a very sound introduction to a complex tonal language. The key with Thai, at least in the initial phases of language study, is to avoid getting bogged down to heavily in the writing. This was my first experience with Pimsleur and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. It was far more interactive and far less tedious than I had imagined. The natural disadvantage is that it covers less ground than for example Poomsman Becker's Thai for Beginners (also highly recommended, incidentally). But it compensates for its lack of breadth for its fine depth. A user of this product does not skim over material but masters the basics of Thai pronunciation so that he/she can move on to more advanced study.

IT WAS A LITTLE CONFUSING BECAUSE THE MAN AND THE WOMAN PRONOUNCED THE SAME WORD DIFFERENTLY. BUT, I LEARNED QUITE A FEW PHRASES.

I am very satisfied with this product - I am using it in the car when driving and like the way the lessons are structured - the pace is steady and with constant repeats - I can see that my pronunciation is getting better - it is good to do it for a short time or a longer time - the voices are clear and the spaces for repeating well organized - basically I highly recommend this program and will try the Spanish version next.

Since the course is all audio,nothing written at all. This suits people with mainly audio memories,not people like me with a much better visual memory, i.e. I need to see a word or name written,in order to remember it well. I should also mention that the Thai speaking lady is better suited for an onstrtuction course for beginners, since her diction is clearer and she also speaks at a more reasonable tempo than her male counterpart.

IF you take your time and use them daily its great. But you do not need to be sleep or tired. Good CDs to learn a new language...enough to get you by at least.

I have used other programs such as Rosetta Stone for other languages, and although it is a good program as well, I found that in learning a language that I know nothing about; Pimsleur's Thai Conversational was much easier to understand and helped set a foundation to better understand. Phrases are given to you, and then they broken down by the words, and after a few lessons, you start to get a good grasp of the flow of sentence structure, and find yourself taking words that you've learned and you can reform them to create your own phrases that you may want to say. Throughout the lessons, each new lesson touches on phrases in past lessons, so as to help keep the overall course fresh in your head. It is only 16 lessons at a half an hour each, which the course instructs you to learn one a day. Although it is not a full course, it gives quite a bit of the language to get you started, and for the price, it is more than worth it.

great

The speed is far far far too fast. At least for me. The idea is that you say things in Thai, in a gap before the CD gives you the correct version. I am ALWAYS interrupted by the male voice, and usually by the female voice, unless the answer is two words or fewer. Of course this means I don't hear either the correct version or my voice, but both together, out of sync. Not helpful. I have attempted lesson 1 nine times now, and there are answers than the man says so fast I still cannot work out the words spoken. New learners clearly cannot speak Thai anywhere near that quickly, and to expect them to is counter productive. I want the speech to be MUCH slower in the early lessons, and it would also help if the tones were exaggerated a bit. My Thai wife tells me that will come however. As usual Amazon described the product accurately, and dispatched promptly, and sorted the refund from the import duties quickly. The delivery company in Portugal did their best effort to date - they delivered a day late and I had to walk 2km to meet their van man (in 35 degree heat). Best effort yet GLS! In summary - It is so fast right from the beginning, that I shall have to find another way into the language. I cannot comment on anything except lesson 1, having not been able to complete even this. Later edit - I have found out why the speed is a problem. You need TIME with what you wish to remember in your short term memory, before it will trickle into your long term memory. Time to turn it over, to consider how it is, how to say it, etc. At the CD speed, the details you are speaking get evicted by the CD's answer before any processing, and then that is evicted by the next question! Result is that nothing gets into long term memory and therefore one can recall - well nothing! Ripping to Windows media player and then playing at "slow" speed helps somewhat.