Thai for Beginners

Read to the end to find out how you can win Thai for beginners for your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch this week!

When I first started my Thai Language learning journey I did so with my trusty Thai/English/English/Thai dictionary from Benjawan Poomsan Becker and it served me well during my first 2 trips to Thailand but it was obvious by my third trip I needed a lot more help if I was going to actually speak the Thai language. It was then that I started looking into books that might teach me the basics of the Thai language.

One of the first books I found Happened to be written by Benjawan as well and it was aptly named, Thai for Beginners. The great part about the book for me was it came with tapes so I could follow along with the lessons and actually hear the correct pronunciations and playback sections I was having trouble with. Thai for beginners really pushed me in the right direction and I found I was gaining a much better understanding of the Thai language than I anticipated.

It’s been a few years since I first opened Thai for beginners but this is the one book for me that laid the foundation for learning Thai as I am sure it has done the same for many others. I really can’t say enough good things about this book or it’s author, Benjawan Poomsan Becker, the thought and time put into this book and others in the Paiboon Publishing stable of Thai Language products is clearly immense.

If Thai for Beginners wasn’t already good enough now Paiboon Publishing has released it as an iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch app that you can conveniently carry around with you anywhere you go. Having the Talking Thai/English-English/Thai Dictionary on my Ipod I can testify to just how well Paiboon Publishing has done transferring their library to the Apple apps and have no doubt the same care and consideration was taken moving Thai for Beginners to the app store as well.

Advantages of Thai for Beginners app

• Hearing the spoken Thai will help you increase the speed of learning the language that no book alone can do.
• Paiboon’s system of transliteration shows you how the Thai words are pronounced using English letters so you don’t have to be able to read the Thai script.
• Follows the same clear step-by-step instruction, which builds on what has previously been learned.
• Test your ability to hear and understand Thai with the built-in interactive exercises.
• This app allows you to learn Thai to a great degree before you exhaust its usefulness, since it even teaches how to read the Thai script. Money well spent.
• You’ll find many new opportunities to practice your Thai since your iPhone and iPod Touch will be with you all the time.

Key Features

• This app teaches you the language skills of speaking, listening and reading Thai.
• The lessons follow the format of the Thai for Beginners book, but a real Thai male and female voice speak the over 3,000 words and phrases, alternating between male and female pronunciations.
• Hear a phrase over and over until you can say it correctly. Just click on it.
• Provides examples of the five tones in Thai: low, falling, high, middle and rising tone.
• Test your ability to hear and understand Thai with the built-in interactive exercises. You can retake the exercises after studying and improve your score.
• An advanced level feature allows you to turn off the automatic spoken word so you can test your ability to read the Thai script.
• Contains many additional useful words and phrases not contained in the book.

Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? Well, it is and it’s definitely worth every penny of the $24.99 price. But what if you could get Thai for beginners for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch for free? Sounds even better now doesn’t it? Well, you can get Thai for beginners for free, because Thailand, Land of Smiles is giving away 5 copies of Thai for Beginners this week.

All you have to do is comment on this post and tell us what you’ve been doing to learn the Thai language, what tips you might have or what programs you have found useful…it’s as easy as that.

On Sunday July 10th I’ll gather all the comments ( yes, multiple comments all count ) and put them in a hat and have a beautiful assistant draw 5 winners names that will receive the Thai for Beginners iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch App absolutely FREE!