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I recently completed 30 hours of Thai language instruction with the Thai Language Hut.  It is truly amazing how much one can learn in 30 hours!  The Thai Language Hut is conveniently located in Phrom Phong, just one skytrain stop from Asok Station in Sukhumvit in Bangkok.

Thailand is one of my favorite places to visit, and after six trips there in the past five years, I decided I needed to learn more of the language than “hello” and “thank you.”  In the past, I have studied a bit of French, Italian, Bahasa Indonesia, Mandarin and Japanese, either in a classroom setting, on my own, or with a private tutor.  So I am familiar with various approaches to learning a new language.  My priority in learning Thai was to eventually gain the ability to converse with Thai people.

I contacted Mark, the owner of the school, about two weeks prior to my trip to Bangkok, and asked about a course of study that would allow me to do 2-3 hours of instruction each day.  The course was extremely affordable (30 hours of private instruction with a well-qualified teacher for about $10 US/hour).  The instruction was in a small classroom with air conditioning, blackboard, etc., and was entirely one-on-one, just the teacher and me.  The instruction was about half in English and half in Thai, but this was not daunting, because the experienced teacher I had (Kun Jang) was patient and good-humored, despite the limited talents of her student (me).  She gave me a lot of positive reinforcement and repetition, until she was comfortable that I was ready to move on to the next lesson. 

For example, one of our lessons dealt with numbers.  Kun Jang taught me the numbers from zero to ten, then the twenties through nineties, hundreds, thousands, and so forth.  After she would say the number in Thai, I was asked to repeat it.  As we concluded a subset of the group (e.g., 1 to 10), I was asked to count through the group.  Then Kun Jang tested my knowledge by writing a series of numbers and having me say them in Thai.  Next, she said a series of numbers in Thai, and asked me to write the number.  In this way, my teacher ensured that I had actually learned the numbers, kept me speaking Thai, and also trained my ear to listen to the nuances and tones used by Thai speakers.

By the end of each three-hour session, my head was swimming with new vocabulary and grammar, but I looked forward to the next session since our lessons were so enjoyable.  At the beginning of each day, we had a brief review of the previous day’s lessons.  We covered consonants and vowels, tones, pronouns, verbs, possessives, conjunctions, prepositions, classifiers, demonstratives, and other topics.  At the end of the 30 hours, I am truly amazed at the complexity of the sentences that I am able to formulate, and feel I have a very firm foundation for future learning.

If you are like me, and want to learn Thai language, I highly recommend the Thai Language Hut.  You can structure a brief course during a holiday in Bangkok, as I did, or a lengthier course of study.  Mark will work with you to design a course of study that fits your needs and the time that you have.  Learn Thai at the Thai Language Hut.  You will not regret it.

–Jim Benedetto
Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands