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

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.

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.

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.

Good qulity

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.

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.

Learning Thai, Your Great Adventure by Russ Crowley and Duangta Wanthong MondiIf you want a complete how to guide on Thai then this is the only book you will ever need. I also could use in my library of references as it talks about the beginning of Thai to the End in an easy to understand format. It guides you through learning the letters of the alphabet, to reading, speaking and understanding Thai for the beginner, like me!In today's business world and if you travel Thai is something you might want to pick up as a second or third language. At first Thai is difficult, but after awhile it all seems to fall into place with a little practice. I love to hear sounds and learn on video, and the authors are adding more to their website, so with that said, this really is a complete manual on Thai.The ways the tones are explained might at first seem so confusing, but the same tones are used in English! Did you know that there are also 44 consonants, 6 make the 't' sound, 5 the 'k' sound. Not to mention some letters that can be used in several different ways, depending on the context. So with that said, this is such a wonderful book to learn from.If you want a quick reference guide, this is all you need to read. It shows the steps on the sounds, shapes and pronunciation until you understand it completely. I have to say that I was overwhelmed at the amount of information this book provided. I think that any person who wants to learn Thai will learn it with this book.© 2012 Jackie Paulson

This book and others by Russ Crowley are a MUST BUY if you want to learn to read and speak Thai.Russ and his partner Duangta have developed a brilliant method for learning the Thai alphabet, and include pronunciation help, and are present online for assistance, and are THE MOST HELPFUL people you could imagine. Supportive, friendly, encouraging. I have exchanged emails with Russ a few times, and he has included me in the list of people who get access to his material first (sometimes even trials for free). The support is just excellent, superb, I can not find sufficient superlatives for Russ Crowley and Duangta's books and online support.And for the method itself too is brilliant, especially if you are visual like me. Makes sense of all those Thai alphabet characters that look so similar at first sight!!

I found the book to throw too much information at you and provides no exercises for you to learn or digest the information. To be honest it made learning Thai frustrating and more difficult than it should be. I bought the book based on the other reviews but found it to be the opposite of what they wrote. And if you look at their review history they give a lot of reviews all 5 stars reviews and a lot of them are cut and paste. Make your own mind up on that.

It's a good start to get acquainted with the Thai language. I love the book. I think it's missing a little depth in grammar, verbs and word order to be able to build sentences more accurately. But the idea, the concept of the book is innovative and enlightening. Thank you.