If you would like to learn the Thai language, there are classes available at Wat Chetawanวัดเชตวัน in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. The temple is located in Jalan Gasing. Beginners class will start on the first week of March 2012 and continue till end of the year.
For class in 2012, the schedule is as follows:
Thai for beginners- for those who have no foundation in Thai language.
Taught by local teacher would begin on 4 March 2012 (first Sunday of March) at 1.30pm. Class would continune on every subsequent Sundays at 1.30pm. Venue is at the monks dining area- located further down from the office (you can inquire with the Wat Chetawan office, which is opened on Sundays). In this class, you would be taught on how to write the Thai alphabets and basic grammatical rules.
Thai for intermediate- this is for intermediate learners- those who can speak and write in Thai. Usually participants would have attended the beginners class prior to this.
Intermediate class schedule:
Saturday, 4 February 2012 at 1.30pm taught by a Thai teacher, and Sunday, 5 February 2012 taught by Thai nun. This would also be the same for subsequent weeks.
Additional information:
1. No profit and it is a charitable class
2. Taught by local qualified teacher for beginners, Thai monk and Thai teacher for intermediate
3. RM30 per month- it is per month and even if participants attend all the 3 classes, the amount is still only RM30. Collection of funds goes to printing of training materials and occasional donation support to the temple (since we are using the temple’s facilities to conduct the class).
My personal experience
I agree with some non Thai native speakers who mentioned that the most effective way to learn the Thai language is by being able to read their writing and develop one’s own convention to spell out the words. This is because, in Thai language, there are various tone marks and rules- and if one is unable to read, one can only speak based on what one hear- often, one’s hearing may not be accurate and causes the tone to be off….which can totally give a different meaning.
Therefore, if you are serious about learning the Thai language, my advise is to invest some time to learn up the alphabets, tone marks, tone rules and you would be able to speak accurately.
Another thing is if you rely on learning Thai by referring to the romanized phrase books, you may end up being much more confused than ever. This is because a number of Thai words just cannot be romanized due to the complexity of the prounciation. Even when we learn the tone rules, we need to develop our own convention in pronouncing the words. Therefore, if you learn from various books, different authors may use a different set of convention and spelling. For example, chicken is called “kai” in Thai but some books romanized as “gai” as well. If you can read know how to pronounce ไก่ because you have learned the Thai vocab and the tone marks, you would be able to pronounce it correctly yourself.
I strongly recommend the Thai language class taught in Wat Chetawan- for the past year, I’ve had the privilege and good fortune of attending the beginner’s class taught by Mr Peter, a retired schoolteacher. And I must say the dedication and passion to teach are evident. Learning beginners from a teacher who is also a Malaysian is easier because he understands the limitation and constraints of Malaysians who wishes to learn the Thai language. He is able to teach in a way that makes it easy for Malaysians to pick up the language. Each class he would introduce slowly and systematically the grammar rules or the alphabets.
Teachers like Peter is hard to find nowadays- and what’s even more great is that Peter does not even take a cent from any of the proceeds- as the regular RM30 paid is meant for materials and also sometimes the class fund is used to donate to the Thai flood last year, for kathina, for Wesak. Today, even if you are willing to pay you also cannot get a teacher that is so dedicated to teach.
Before that, I tried to learn on my own but lack of like minded company as well as difficulty in comprehending the language resulted in not much improvement. When learning under Mr Peter, because he does give us a little homework to do and because every week we do attend the class, it gave me the discipline to really pick up and do my homework. Initially I was a slow learner (I always am when initially learning up a language). But within 3 months of the class, when I visited Thailand, I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to read the Thai texts, even though slowly from my favourite Thai books. This had motivated me to continue learning the language through focusing on texts that I enjoy reading.
After learning the alphabets, the grammar rules, you can then attend the intermediate class where you would be taught on more vocabulary. Because the teachers would read from the Thai words, if you cannot read the basic words, it may be a little difficult. But once you can read, learning the vocabulary becomes a breeze.
