Learning Thai, Your Great Adventure (Quest: Quick, Easy, Simple Thai)

Im kind of disappointed especially for the price i paid. I have bought cheaper language books before and it worked well for me. Not that i hate it but it is a tad bit disappointing.

This is not a traditional textbook but rather provides additional depth and breadth that is missing from a standard introductory textbook like Thai for Beginners by Benjawan Poomsan Becker. The organization of the Thai alphabet is incredibly complex, so there's no way around that if you want to learn to read and write Thai as well as to speak and understand what people say to you. An additional layer of complexity comes from the fact that Thai children are taught the alphabet with the system described in this book (the first consonant sounds like "Gai" for chicken, the second letter sounds like "Kai" for egg, etc). Because foreigners don't already have the vocabulary you need to follow that system, then you have to add learning those reference words on top of everything else. But you shouldn't skip trying to learn the system of reference words for each consonant, because then you couldn't ask people how to spell things, Thais use those words to distinguish among the 6 letters that all sound like "k" or the 5 letters that sound like "d" etc. On top of an alphabet that includes 6 letters that all sound like K and many letters that have almost identical written forms but sound different, the system of reference words is disorienting to foreigners because some of them refer to objects that don't exist in the West (e.g., ceremonial headdress, etc) This book together with the Memory Aids to Your Great Adventure allow foreigners studying Thai to navigate all that complexity more quickly and confidently, but they aren't designed to be textbooks teaching "Hello, my name is.." kind of basics.

Verry god and covers the basi. Though 3 more volumes to go. Not 5 Stars cause reference to www.learnthaialphabet.com with pronaunsation is doomp.

When I was shopping for a Thai language instruction book, I was dissapointed by how few choices were available. This one seemed like my best bet, and without a lot of confidence, I went ahead and purchased.I'm so glad that I took the chance on this book - compared to most language instruction books I've owned, this book approaches the course material with a clear strategy and in an organized manner. The author obviously wrote the book with an eye not just to present the material, but to do so in a manner that actually made it easier to learn. There are several color-coded charts that help with learning the alphabet (which is tough) and many sections contain what I would describe as 'tools' to assist with learning.If you want a casual phrasebook, this is probably not the best choice. However, if you are actually looking to learn how to read, write and speak Thai at a more advanced level, this is a great place to start. I plan on buying the next books in the series.

Given the very high rating I bought this expecting a good experience. However I was very disappointed.The Thai writing system is presented as a series of facts, including all the consonants and vowels at once, with confusing / misleading pronunciation examples, and nothing to tie it together. Then you're thrown in at the deep end with a meaningless story that is supposed to review the consonants. But where is the vocabulary and grammar explanations to go with the story? There really isn't anything worth speaking of, apart from a limited dictionary as the index of the book. There are words introduced at the bottom of the pages, but they bear no relation to what you're reading. And to read anything you need to know all the consonants already.I'm baffled by the high ratings of other reviewers to be honest.

Good qulity

Learning Thai, Your Great Adventure by Russ Crowley & Duangta Wanthong MondiMost Westerners start off learning the English language by breaking down the ABC's. There are 5 vowels and sometimes a Y, but those technicalities are lost in translation as we get older since the transition towards speaking becomes more and reading less.So when I picked up this book by Russ and Duangta to see what the adventure inside was about, I was surprised to find that the Thai language is in fact a series of 44 consonants and 32 vowels! They don't have alphabets, that's the alphabet itself.From there I had to say goodbye to those Roman letters and look instead at the variances in tones from mid, low, high, falling and rising pitches. This consequently explains the Thai characters too.Greatly, Russ and Duangta were able to provide very good tips, hacks and even simple tricks to help me better understand how the Thai language works from this perspective. It's not an easy task and they were consistent with this theme throughout the book from speaking, reading and finally towards the writing.What really stood out for me as the most helpful section though were the stories of the 44 consonants. That's where you can see clearly how the language is rightfully used. So with their simple reading system to help you recognize Thai's characters, you can practice speaking correctly.Additionally, the authors themselves have a website building up further the concepts in the book. Duangta has posts with video lessons and Russ references other sources regularly to help you further improve your experience.For the beginner, this book is great. It will help you get started in the right direction with the Thai language. You're not going to be dumbfounded with a lot of technical jargon which was a selling point for me. Instead what you'll find is a general overview of the language of the Land of Smiles as the Thai people are known for.