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Speak Like a Thai, Vol. 1: Contemporary Thai Expressions
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About the Author
Benjawan Poomsan Becker was born in Bangkok and spent her childhood in Yasothon, a small province in Northeast Thailand. Her family is ethnic Laotian, so she grew up speaking both Thai and Lao. She graduated from Khon Kaen University in Thailand in 1990, with a B.A. in English. While obtaining her M.A. in Japan, she gained extensive experience teaching Thai to foreigners at the Japan Thailand Trade Association and the Berlitz Language School. In the United States, she taught Thai language at Stanford University, at several Thai temples, and in private classes. She operated a successful Thai and Lao translation business and is a registered Thai and Lao court interpreter in the state of California. She now resides in Berkeley, California where she continues to write and publish the leading learning books on the Thai and Lao languages.
04/06/2008
As a Thai language teacher, I would say that this book is a great supplementary material for serious Thai learners. I have about 15 books and dictionaries that I bought to teach the Thai language, but I ended up using Benjawan's books. The reason is that they are all easy and fun to use. It's not likely for a person to learn a language from just one book and be fluent. The Speak like a Thai series is an excellent idea for a more subtle way to express yourself in Thai. The phrases are useful because they are actually used by the Thai people. I especially like Volume 4 which explains how to use the word "heart" in Thai. I recommend this book to my friends and students.
03/08/2007
This is a great CD for those that can speak enough Thai to communicate, but don't want to sound like a guidebook anymore. You'll learn some of the unique idioms and phrases in Thai that you would otherwise only learn by conversation practice. I was worried before I bought it that they were going to just be quaint idioms, but most of the phrases are actually quite useful and used in everyday situations.
14/05/2007
I have studied Thai about 6 years and this book/CD combination is just what I've been waiting for since I want to speak Thai as naturally as possible.
I was particularly pleased to see that the phrases written in Thai script were included because I have yet to see a phonetic system that is 100 percent accurate for Thai. I'm sure the phonetics are helpful to some, but, reading the Thai is best!
The phrases are given first in English followed second longer, but, even as it is, the learner has time to try voicing the Thai phrase from memory before the Thai speaker starts. My compliments to the author and the speakers for making great efforts to make pronunciation accurate in regards to tone level and vowel duration. Excellent work!
I'm looking forward to seeing a work on Thailand's Isan dialect. I find it very discouraging to understand about 95 percent of what I hear on Thai TV and then stumble when I'm around groups from Isan.
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