Learning Thai the way that gives you the ability to "Think in Thai"

Imagine that you have been learning Thai for some time and you want to tell your Thai friends about your new telephone. One of two things can happen:

You have the thought and then say, “Look, I have a new telephone”. Your friends are impressed and you continue to have a conversation about the telephone - where you bought it, how much it was etc.

You think about your new telephone and what it is called in your native language. Then you try to say it in Thai by translating each word of your native language to create a sentence in Thai. Your Thai friends will be impressed but the conversation will stop because it takes too long to wait for you to construct your sentences.

In example number one you went from having the thought to speaking Thai. In example number two you went from having the thought to thinking in your native language, to translating to Thai and to constructing the sentence by applying the grammar rules that you know.

Which example do you think is more fun and more rewarding?

When you learn Thai at Lanta International Language School we will help you to become the speaker in example number one.

To put it into pictures:

Learning Thai the traditional way

This picture shows the way you learn when you study from books or on traditional language courses. Before you can say anything in Thai your thought has to go via your native language. You then have to translate and rearrange the words according to Thai grammar rules. This process takes time and will make you slow.

This is how you will learn to connect words and grammar with their corresponding meaning when you study with us. Your thought goes directly from the object to Thai; your new language. It is fast and gives you the advantage of being able to “think in Thai”.

>> Read the next article about learning Thai; Unlimited Learning

________________________________________________________