Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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68 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A excellent book for any one serious about learning Thai, 23 April 2001
By A Customer
Having tried many different textbooks this one has it all. It is perfect for those serious about learning the language, and gives a full understanding into the beautiful Thai language including the mysterious alphabet. Unlike other textbooks it assumes the reader knows nothing and by focusing on the four basic language skills, reading, writing, speaking and listening (with cassette support) one can progress quickly. Learning from these first principles has the advantage of moving the reader away from the shortcomings and inconsistency that a transliteration system gives as soon as possible. The clear presentation, to the point lessons, and self-testing aids make learning varied. The layout is easy to navigate and well structured, your Thai friends will easily be able to help you. The author, coming from a wealth of interpreting experience does not make the mistake of trying to teach too much, but gives the reader all they need to be understood. She uses modern concise language, and takes account of colloquial pronunciation. This readers copy, somewhat dog eared now after being taken up and down Thailand has certainly greatly helped one person to gain an understand of Thai people and the fascinating culture.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
rewarding but requires hard work, 20 Feb 2009
If you are looking for a casual introduction to Thai, this is not it.
If you want something to build a foundation on for further learning, this book is a good option. If you get bored easily don't get this package!
This book is different than Teach Yourself Thai and Colloquial Thai, which tend to focus on words most suited for travel and business.
The Paiboon book builds up a broader vocabulary than the other two books and deals more with everyday words, it also gives the most thorough coverage of the script.
But, I need to mention that both TY and Colloquial are much easier to work with than this book.
What makes this book more demanding is that the learner has to memorize more in order to progress to the next chapter, and it takes longer to learn the script from this book.
On a "fun"-level, both TY and Colloquial are much more fun to work with...probably because they are easier.
Also, this Thai For Beginners book has little cultural information in it, not to the same extent as Teach Yourself Thai and Colloquial.
If you like to learn about the culture as well, TY Thai is much better.
However, if you plan to continue learning Thai with more advanced studies, this Paiboon book & CD is probably a better choice than the above two.
Mainly because the other two books in the Paiboon series: Thai for Intermediate Learners and Thai for Advanced Readers, build nicely on eachother, so you get a smooth progression.
Brief description of chapter lay-out:
i) each chapter starts with a list of 20-30 words to memorize, followed by grammar notes and dialogue texts
ii) after these are various excercises such as translation and word comprehension...not many excercises though, significantly fewer than both TY and Colloquial
iii) the chapter ends with a section on the written system, and excercises in writing and reading the script - this is where this book packs a punch, it's coverage is very thorough and detailed
To be honest I found that Teach Yourself Thai had a better graded introduction of the written system than Paiboon, although not as thorough.
Learning the script from Beginner's will require more intensive studying and demand more time, but it is more "complete" than in TY.
I have three minor complaints about Thai for Beginners:
1. the grammar is only covered as notes to the dialogue texts
2. there are not enough exercises on speaking Thai
3. the book's treatment of how to tell the time in Thai is very confusing - I had to refer to Thai: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) to get a proper coverage of it
[Side-note: telling the time in Thai is very tricky business, be forewarned]
Despite it's problems I still rate this book very highly because it:
a) met my conditional goal of learning the basics
b) gave me a broad vocabulary
c) gave me very thorough understanding of the script
d) it gave me a smooth progression to the other more advanced Paiboon books on Thai
My review is very mixed as this book is neither fantastic nor bad, some things it does very well other things not so well.
Whether you should get this package or not really depends on you - what type of learner you are, how you like to learn.
If you don't mind "grind-work", i.e. spending alot of time memorizing words from lists and learning the details of the script, then this is a good book to use for you.
If you get bored easily then Teach Yourself is much better.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Briolliant book .... The Best on the market , 23 April 2008
I have read a variety of books on the Thai language in my year in Thailand and this is the only book I've been able to make a real improvement in my Thai with.
In my ex pat community EVERYONE agreed that this is the best book to learn from. Oh and one tip for your studies, learn to read Thai Script it will accelerate your learning and help in real world situations.
I hope you have as much fun with Thai and Thailand as I did. Good Luck!!
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