Easy Thai Easy Thai: An Introduction to the Thai Language an Introduction to the Thai Language

by Gordon H. Allison

Book Overview

Easy Thai is the perfect introduction to learning the spoken language of Thailand. This basic and simple approach uses lessons which incorporate review lists and exercises with answer keys. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804801592
• ISBN13: 9780804801591
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
• Length: 105 Pages
• Weight: 0.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.2" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

excellent for learning to read and write basic Thai

While this is not the best book to learn Thai communication from, it is excellent for learning how to read and write Thai script. You can finish this book in a month or so with daily practice, so in just one month you can learn to write and read basic Thai. Very (!) few books can claim to do that in any Asian language. The book covers the 44 consonants most commonly used, the 32 most important vowels, and the most important tone rules. Most beginner's books actually do not cover exactly all consonants and vowels used in Thai, because some of them are only used in 3-4 words or only occur in texts/situations that the beginner is highly unlikely to come across. So if you struggle with learning the script, this book is a very good supplement to your regular textbook studies. But for learning basic Thai communication, the books is a very bad choice as: the vocabulary is impractical, the grammar not well covered, and there are far too few excercises. So for learning to communiate in Thai: No For learning to read and write Thai: Yes

An astonishing achievement

First off, the title is a horror. One as a rule avoids language books with the word "Easy". Besides that, the title is seriously wrong. It only teaches one thing, the horrendous Thai alphabet. So the complaint that his sentences are unreal, which they are, is totally beside the point. There's not even "Hello" in here!! But what Allison does teach, he does better than anyone else. I have the Chiang Mai YMCA's book on reading Thai and Sriwalai Ponmanee's 'Writing and Reading Thai' also but I always refer back to Allison's book. But why after re-printing the book 20 years later does he stick with that dumb title?

Great Rapid Start! Not a substitute for disciplined study!

Just wanted to second the review of this book by Pat Hopper. I went through this book in a week or two and couldn't have gotten a better start to reading thai. The best thing about the book is that it starts with the Low Consonants, then the Middle, and then introduces the Common High Class Consonants concurrently with the concept of tone rules. This approach keeps the three classifications of consonants seperate in the students mind as opposed to the student that begins by learning the alphabet in dictionary order. That said, the book is very sketchy, should use the common "AH! AH EE! EE EU! EU" Thai vowel table, and a clear tone table as in David Smyth's "Teach Yourself Thai." For me this book was a great introduction, and now that I'm studying a more disciplined course (similar to one Thai children receive in 1st and 2nd grades) I'm learning at faster rate, and filling in the holes and ambiguity that Easy Thai left me with.

Time-tested, still in print...

Without a doubt, easy. One of those you can pick up for 5-10 minutes a day and always feel that you are getting somewhere with this difficult language. Thirty years after picking up this book in a military PX, I'm confident that I couldn't have gotten a better start. Some of the words you get are difficult for a beginner to work into a conversation and it will disappoint anyone who expects to understand casual conversation in Bangkok after finishing just this book, but you will have a serious start on a long journey. He gives you reading from the beginning. Get some tapes from another source or someone to pronounce the vowels for you and you are good to go.

Read Thai in 4 days

I learnt to write Thai sat on a beach in four days with this book. Of course it's not that simple after the for days I could not delineate words at all. I had to start reading a children's picture dictionary, then reading books for very young cheldren etc. To write Thai I had to buy children's letter writing books.But this book does a good job of giving you the basics. The vocab is wierd because to start with you only know a few Thai characters and so there are only a few words they can use.There are some mistakes in the execises and they have been left in in subsequent editions because the author is Thai. Do all the execises though - they work.It also ends too soon - just introduces the vowels and tones and then stops. It could have done with some more work on these areas.This book will teach you to read Thai.