New Features in 2.0.Increase text size: small, medium, large.Autoplay an entire lesson of audio.Show or hide English text.Added English voice, which can be turned on or off Thai for Beginners app is ideal for beginning Thai students, or those who want to improve their basic Thai. Teaches speaking, listening and reading Thai with a native speaker and over 3,000 clearly recorded words and phrases. Follows the format of the best selling Thai for Beginners book, which introduces vocabulary, sentences and an in-depth study of a specific subject in each lesson. Provides examples of the five tones in Thai: low, falling, high, middle and rising tones.
Every item is presented in three ways: the Thai script, a transliteration and the definition in English. The transliteration system assists you with pronunciation while you are learning the Thai alphabet. Play each phrase over and over, or autoplay an entire lesson. Exercises: Test your knowledge with built-in exercises. Increase size of text: no more squinting or reading glasses required. For advanced study, turn off the English text to see only the Thai script.
English voice added, which can be turned on or off. Autoplay an entire lesson with English and Thai voice on. A great way for Thai speakers to practice their English pronunciation. After downloading it works without an Internet connection.
No data charges. Detailed HELP section within the app, and link to website support page with more explanations.
Learn Thai from Benjawan Becker and Paiboon Publishing, the leaders in Thai language materials. Okay, this is not a bad app but it does have one serious flaw: it's supposed to support the Thai for Beginners book from the same publisher.
It only has about half of what the book has and some of that is critical: tone sounds, the simple reading exercises, the ability to write. The reading exercises in the app drop you right in to sentence level reading well before the book even covers all the letters and vowels. This could be a much better and more useful app if it tracked the lessons in the book more closely. Okay, this is not a bad app but it does have one serious flaw: it's supposed to support the Thai for Beginners book from the same publisher. It only has about half of what the book has and some of that is critical: tone sounds, the simple reading exercises, the ability to write. The reading exercises in the app drop you right in to sentence level reading well before the book even covers all the letters and vowels.
This could be a much better and more useful app if it tracked the lessons in the book more closely. It doesn't teach you to read. Thai fonts are too small. The Reading Exercises are assuming that you already know to read Thai, while the application doesn’t actually teach you to read. It shows a summary of the Thai Writing System but it is just a plain exposition of the consonants and vowels, not a progressive learning system like the one at the book. The Thai letters are too small (specially for those who are learning how to recognize them).
Please, implement the option to resize the fonts, or at least the possibility to zoom in.
Learning the Thai language with Benjawan It is an undisputed fact that Benjawan Poomsan Becker of is the top producer of Thai language products. With that jewel in mind while I was working on the, I came up with a way to show just how proliferate she is. Not only would I list each of her language courses, but I would share the details of each product. Most important? The table of contents and vocabulary count. Vocabulary count is a popular way of keeping score.
I don’t do it, but many language learners do. And when I contacted Benjawan about the vocab count in some of her courses, she kindly obliged (thanks Benjawan!) Products from Paiboon Publishing Benjawan is constantly adding new products; below is what she has so far. And when her new products hit the market, I will edit them in too (foo foo to the ‘no editing of blog posts’ rule). Thai for Beginners Author: Benjawan Poomsan Becker Date: 1995 Pages: 262 Size:8-1/4 x 5-3/4 x 5/8″ Sound files: CD Vocabulary: 880 vocabulary words + sentences Dictionary: No Overview: Thai for Beginners teaches speaking, listening, reading and writing at the beginner level. Since her materials mostly receive rave reviews from users, please allow me to play the devil’s advocate (my critic will focus essentially on “Thai for intermediate learners” and “Thai for advanced readers” since I did not test or barely used her other products): 1 – I think that her book titles are clearly misleading: genuine advanced readers would probably be quite disappointed by “Thai for advanced readers” which is more intended to low-intermediate learners in my opinion (and the huge font used is an additional evidence of that). The same can be said about “Thai for intermediate learners”. A book which core content is to introduce “การ”, “ความ”, “น่า”, “ใจ” as well as personal pronouns is definitively intended for beginners.
2 – Exercises (Tests) in the different books are either uninspired (Thai for intermediate learners) or non-existent (Thai for advanced readers). 3 – I also found that her books lack of important grammar explanations (buying a good grammar book such as David Smyth “Thai, an essential grammar” is a must for those using Becker’s books). I agree with Catherine that a noticeable feature of her products is their affordable pricing. However, I believe most products still have a lot of room for improvement. A new edition of her 3 main books (published between 1995 and 2000 unless I am mistaken) including additional exercises (such as questions related to the the documents presented in the book to test learner’s comprehension, gap-fill exercises, etc.) and additional grammar explanations is long overdue in my opinion.
While I admit that her books are amongst the best currently available on the market, I believe it has more to do with poor competition on this niche market rather than with the quality of her products per se. Catherine looking at the big smile on Benjawan’s face in your header I think I might know the thinking behind it. ” I think I’m doing rather well in life.” That is one impressive list of books and I know from a little research I did, the network of books are spreading worldwide. I recently noticed that I appear to have lost my small Thai-English Dictionary, I’ve probably left it at the village house but if not then I’ll have to buy a new one and if I spot Benjamin’s 16,000+ vocabulary one I’ll grab it. That might get a couple more teeth showing in your next header photo of her.
What a beautiful smile. Hi Kat, Great post, the woman is an institution in Thai language terms. Funnily enough I recently bought the three way dictionary again after losing my original copy. It really is a gem which includes a section on reading and writing Thai (hugely helpful) as well as Romanicised phonetics for all words, and even a phonetic look up page. More expensive than other dictionaries (though a thoroughly affordable 500 THB) it has brought my reading and writing up to a new level so comes with a high recommendation from this customer. Will look certainly look at other books from Benjawan, thanks for the info.
Thanks very much Catherine for putting this extensive list together. I just ordered three books off your site!!! I’ve found Improving Your Thai Pronunciation very very helpful. Listen to it frequently since it’s on my iPhone.
There is one thing that does bother me and it’s the poor recording of the CDs. Later ones are better, but there’s one early CD set that has four or five speakers. Each person is mic’ed differently with one Thai man “in and out of the frame” so to speak. And Greg (or Craig) Becker rushing through script.
He’s better in a later CD, the Thai Phrases set. But yes, indispensable and probably the broadest choice of learning aids.-= SiamRick´s last blog.Canadian boys need to toughen up =. Apologies for being tardy. I’ve been running around Chantaburi, collecting rocks. Rem – Have you read the interview with Becker?
Thai For Beginners Pdf
Chubb secure 8000 installer manual vista-20p. She explains how she came up with each of the courses: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced. Martyn – Benjawan has a new dictionary out – the Three Way. It has now replaced her smaller dictionary as the one I use if I can’t find what I need online.
Hi Jon – Like you, I’ve found that dictionary very useful. Especially when taking a stab at muffed up transliteration. Rick – I believe the earlier ones are from back when they were recorded for cassette players. Benjawan has mentioned updating the materials but I know it’s a big job so will take time.-= Catherine´s last blog.Thai Language Thai Culture: Telephone Thai =. I love her stuff! I finished Beginner’s this year and then reread it.
Then whizzed through Intermediate. After rereading it I’ve started Advanced.
I didn’t like how learning the Thai script was taught. Explanations were good, but not how to actually pronounce the letters.
After learning the alphabet it all made sense. I loved Intermediate. Missing the quizzes in Advanced. I’ve used these books on my own to supplement going through the ULS modules.
I love how grammar is explained by Bejawan way better than ULS/UTL. A friend is a big fan of her style too. I’ve got at least 6 CDs of Benjawans and would love to have all of hers!