Rating: 
Summary: Quick and effective
Review: I had this book before my first travel to thailand. It was very useful to understand the grammar and gain a bit of vocabulary before the travel. Thai people didn't believe I had just studied 1 month prior my trip :) Buy the tapes as well, they are neccesary.
Rating: 
Summary: The best Thai language book out there
Review: I have tried several Thai language books and found this one to be the best. This book focuses on real Thai, not just touristy fluff like all the other books. If you are really serious about learning Thai, this book is a must have.Best of all, I have been able to continue my study of Thai with Ms. Becker's other books. Each book builds upon the last and also has an accompanying tape set (sold seperately). I have studied many languages and found that learning Thai or any other language will not come easy. You have to practice constantly. A little "in-country" practice helps a lot too. However, you also need a good companion book that can effectively guide your study. This is that book. Hope this helps anyone who may be considering this purchase.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Course in addition to other training
Review: I recommend this book and tape set as an excellent accompanyment to classroom training or tutorials with actual Thai teachers. If you are serious about learning Thai it is highly recommended to learn the script and get away from the romanisation of the writing as soon as you can, because otherwise your progress will be impaired from not being able to read signs, papers etc. The script is not terribly difficult to grasp but you may need help from a teacher. This book and tape set gives you a great start to the learning process in listening, reading and speaking. Note that you must buy the tapes and book items separately. I have used the tapes whilst driving to work and they have been a great help in the later classes, especially for pronunciation and vocab.
Rating:
Summary: Thai For Beginners
Review: I thing that this book is a good choice to buy, because it teaches you how to pronounce, and say the words correctly. It is also a great price compared to some of the other online bookstores.
Rating:
Summary: A good book indeed
Review: I'm studying this book now. This book and the tape set are valuable tools for anyone trying to learn Thai. The book is well organized, and the tapes teach you the tonal pronounciation. I don't believe anyone can learn Thai by reading any book as the tonal nature of the language requires you to listen to the spoken words. Happy learning and happy trvaling to the Land of Smiles.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not complete.
Review: If you are a farang who is trying to learn Thai, I salute you! The 5 tones, 44 consenants and 30 or so vowel sounds in Thai make it an incredibly hard langauge to learn. I believe that this book is a good starting point, but it won't take you very far. The major problem with teaching Thai to non-native speakers is the alphabet. Thai simply has sounds that don't exist in western languages. Although I like this book very much, it tends to focus on learning the phonetic english equivalents first, rather than learning the Thai alphabet. The great thing about Thai is that it is phonetic. Once you know the alphabet, you can sound out words. So, this book is a good place to start, but you will definetely need other materials to help you.
Rating: 
Summary: Thai for Beginners
Review: If you are English speaking and want to learn Thai, this set of tapes seems to be more thorough than others available. However, you can not use the set of tapes without the book. There are some words and phrases that have the English meaning but much of it is in the Thai language without any translations into English. The instructions say to listen to a conversation between two Thai people, and you have no idea of what they are talking about. You are refered to the page number and section number in the paper book. Therefore, you can not use it without the book. It should not be sold by itself at all. I am ordering the book and assume the English meaning for these conversations are in the paper bound book. At that point, it should be an excellent course.
Rating:
Summary: The best series of books for learning Thai
Review: If you are looking for a book to study Thai then you cannot go far wrong with this book. It has several advantages over competitiors. First, it is part of a series so that you can take your Thai to a higher level by using the same teacher. Also, the author has released a popular dictionary which uses the same transliteration system as this book. It has everything you could want. It needs to be made clear that you need to buy BOTH the book and tape as they are sold separately. It might not be obvious to everyone. A friend of mine made a mistake on this. Anyway, the audio CD version has just been released and it is 100 times easier to use. A good book has just been made better.
Rating:
Summary: You can do it ?
Review: It is very tough for an english speaker to learn thai. The tapes are perfect but the book is not. They have things like backwards e and some other things that are not in the english language.I have passed the test in lesson 1, so there is hope for me yet !You really are going to have to go to thailand or get yelled at by a thai woman for 13 years as I have...
Rating:
Summary: Thai for Beginners
Review: My husband and I tried several Thai language courses, but found each one of them lacking in the "flow" of learning. This course offers instruction in speaking, grammar, and writing. Each lesson gives you the right amount of information to keep you challenged, but not overwhelmed. The word choices in the vocabulary and sentence exercises allow you to quickly expand your speaking ability. -- It is evident that the writer has extensive experience in teaching Thai to foreigners. -- For true beginners to Thai, the accompanying tapes are also useful. These can be ordered using the form in the back of the book.
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