Thai language learning resources >>HERE<<

“When in Rome do as the Romans do” as the saying goes, and it is true, a great way to break the ice in any country is to make some conversation (no matter how small) in that persons native tongue. A simple “please”, “thank you” or “Good Morning” goes down well in any language, but if the person you are saying it to sees that you have made the effort to learn their language it can never do you any harm and in many cases can open doors for you by helping you establish a margin of trust with that person. It never hurts to be able to at least do the basics of something like counting in a language so that not only can you negotiate a better price for goods or service but you can avoid the common mistakes that many tourists make by trusting vendors wherever they go when very often they might find themselves short changed or charged the “tourist price”! If you speak some of the language the vendor will more often than not avoid this as the person that is buying is thought to be either local or is a frequent visitor to that country so will probably know the “real price” and the vendor particularly in Thailand will not want to “lose face”.

Business travellers that speak a reasonable portion of the language of the country that they are visiting will tell you that they enjoy many benefits and are generally more successful in their field. They are seen to be far more professional and therefore are more readily accepted by their foreign counterparts.

When first learning some Thai for my first trips to Thailand I had mixed success. I tried all the online free tools but found them quite limited as to what you got out of them. The most success I had was with Lingvosoft’s products. They have all sorts from dictionaries to text translating to talking dictionaries which help a lot if like me  you have a bit of trouble retaining new words and phrases.