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Product Description
Product Description
Are you looking for a complete course in Thai which takes you effortlessly from beginner to confident speaker? Whether you are starting from scratch, or are just out of practice, Complete Thai will guarantee success!
Now fully updated to make your language learning experience fun and interactive. You can still rely on the benefits of a top language teacher and our years of teaching experience, but now with added learning features within the course and online.
The course is structured in thematic units and the emphasis is placed on communication, so that you effortlessly progress from introducing yourself and dealing with everyday situations, to using the phone and talking about work.
By the end of this course, you will be at Level B2 of the Common European Framework for Languages: Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party.
Learn effortlessly with a new easy-to-read page design and interactive features:
NOT GOT MUCH TIME?
One, five and ten-minute introductions to key principles to get you started.
AUTHOR INSIGHTS
Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience.
GRAMMAR TIPS
Easy-to-follow building blocks to give you a clear understanding.
USEFUL VOCABULARY
Easy to find and learn, to build a solid foundation for speaking.
DIALOGUES
Read and listen to everyday dialogues to help you speak and understand fast.
PRONUNCIATION
Don't sound like a tourist! Perfect your pronunciation before you go.
TEST YOURSELF
Tests in the book and online to keep track of your progress.
EXTEND YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Extra online articles at: www.teachyourself.com to give you a richer understanding of the culture and history of Thai.
TRY THIS
Innovative exercises illustrate what you've learnt and how to use it.
The course is available as a book (9781444101904), as a pack comprising the book and double CD (9781444101911) and as a double CD (9781444101928).
About the Author
David Smyth spent many years teaching at universities in Thailand before taking up his current post as Senior Lecturer in Thai at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
This course is very well written. The best thing about this course is that it contains the instructions and exercises on how to read and write Thai script from the earlier 'Linguaphone Thai' course, but this one is a fraction of the price.
After studying and completing the Thai script exercises for just a week, I find that I can pick out and understand a few words from sentences of written Thai. Many of the dialogues and lists of vocabulary in the other parts of the book are written in such a way that you can easily cover up the English transliteration, thus forcing you to practise reading the real Thai script.
It's best to buy the book together with the audio pack. I think the publisher needs to make this clearer because the title 'Complete Thai - everything you need to speak, read and write' is misleading when you're looking at just the book or just the audio. The audio pack is quite important for checking you are reading correctly, and the audio pack itself is not particularly useful without the book.
I highly recommend this course to beginners - Thai can seem challenging because of its unique alphabet and complex system of rules for determining tones. Because of this you might find it a bit slower to pick up than French or German, but learning and practising the reading & writing is enjoyable and I heartily recommend it to all those who relish a challenge.
After studying and completing the Thai script exercises for just a week, I find that I can pick out and understand a few words from sentences of written Thai. Many of the dialogues and lists of vocabulary in the other parts of the book are written in such a way that you can easily cover up the English transliteration, thus forcing you to practise reading the real Thai script.
It's best to buy the book together with the audio pack. I think the publisher needs to make this clearer because the title 'Complete Thai - everything you need to speak, read and write' is misleading when you're looking at just the book or just the audio. The audio pack is quite important for checking you are reading correctly, and the audio pack itself is not particularly useful without the book.
I highly recommend this course to beginners - Thai can seem challenging because of its unique alphabet and complex system of rules for determining tones. Because of this you might find it a bit slower to pick up than French or German, but learning and practising the reading & writing is enjoyable and I heartily recommend it to all those who relish a challenge.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
I'm off to Thailand for 6 weeks and wanted to be able to communicate a little bit with the locals, instead of the usual English attitude of "shout and they'll understand!"
this is a great book/CD in a logical progression; the great thing is that it also teaches you to read the script, which is essential if you're going to be able to make any progress without using the book. I feel much more confident now, and the speed at which you learn is great. The chapters are also in manageable chunks, so that you never feel too overwhelmed at once!
this is a great book/CD in a logical progression; the great thing is that it also teaches you to read the script, which is essential if you're going to be able to make any progress without using the book. I feel much more confident now, and the speed at which you learn is great. The chapters are also in manageable chunks, so that you never feel too overwhelmed at once!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a good course overall. The material is well presented, and progresses at a reasonable, though never overwhelming pace. Some of the initial topics may be a bit dry or phrasebook style (My name is x, I live at x, where do you work? etc) but it's genuinely useful stuff that Thai people do understand. And let's face it, it needs to be learnt!
The teaching of the Thai script is also very good. The author makes an excellent point that it is vital for any serious student of Thai that they grasp the script early on, since it massively helps pronunciation and reduces reliance on the many flawed Thai romanisation systems. In fact the way the book relatively quickly enables you to recognise and understand Thai writing is quite impressive. Obviously, reading at any decent pace takes a lot of time and practice beyond this particular course, but it very effectively puts the basic building blocks in place.
If I had one minor gripe it is with the CD, in that the publisher/author has fallen into the trap of providing full-speed conversations straight away. In fact the actors on the recordings speak far faster than any of my Thai friends! I appreciate that it is necessary at some point to hear Thai as it is spoken, but given that the pronunciation in Thai needs to be so precise when compared to English, some slowed down speech would have been very useful for the earlier sections. Perhaps for future issues the publisher should record the conversations at a slow pace first, and then at a natural pace? It seems such an obvious point to me but language courses almost always ignore this!
That said, it's the only fault with an otherwise very good course, and it's a minor hindrance rather than a big problem. I can thoroughly recommend this Book/Audio overall. Sawatdee krap!
The teaching of the Thai script is also very good. The author makes an excellent point that it is vital for any serious student of Thai that they grasp the script early on, since it massively helps pronunciation and reduces reliance on the many flawed Thai romanisation systems. In fact the way the book relatively quickly enables you to recognise and understand Thai writing is quite impressive. Obviously, reading at any decent pace takes a lot of time and practice beyond this particular course, but it very effectively puts the basic building blocks in place.
If I had one minor gripe it is with the CD, in that the publisher/author has fallen into the trap of providing full-speed conversations straight away. In fact the actors on the recordings speak far faster than any of my Thai friends! I appreciate that it is necessary at some point to hear Thai as it is spoken, but given that the pronunciation in Thai needs to be so precise when compared to English, some slowed down speech would have been very useful for the earlier sections. Perhaps for future issues the publisher should record the conversations at a slow pace first, and then at a natural pace? It seems such an obvious point to me but language courses almost always ignore this!
That said, it's the only fault with an otherwise very good course, and it's a minor hindrance rather than a big problem. I can thoroughly recommend this Book/Audio overall. Sawatdee krap!
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