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you guys should start a new thread this one is ummanagable. KKF earlier yous aid "talking to people on this message board makes mew ant to jump in front of a bus", well just seeing you stupid name, yes you know what stupid name i mean i mean "fish2plus" makes me want to vomit my huge brains out.
how is all of your thai coming along for residents, do you take classes in thailand? let's say someone was going to be there for amonth is it worth taking classes? i don't know many thai people outside of thailand, unlike other languages, spanish, chinese, russian, french, etc. also thai as far as i know doesn't have as many other applications, like liteature etc.
AUA does classes in Chiang Mai. I did not take them but heard that they were worthwhile. I did books + tapes before I moved there. It was helpful to a degree. The grammar in Thai is quite easy so you can learn quickly by memorizing a lot of vocabulary. But comprehension was a b*tch for me. It is hard for Western ears to pick up the subtleties of the tones. Once I lived there I found a tutor who came to my house weekly for lessons. Do make an effort and you will be rewarded. I knew people who lived there for years and I could speak way better than them. You will get a lot of smiles and respect from people for trying even if you are not perfect. And if you have any aspirations to socialize outside of the farang zones, you should learn it.
Learn stuff that has an application. I focused heavily on food. By the end I could read any menu, order anything I wanted how I wanted it. I could go to any town and know "that is a noodle stall, that is a rice shop, that place specializes in x." It was very rewarding.
I also had a Thai friend who spoke some English but he was pretty insistent that I spoke Thai with him. So I learned a lot of language surrounding making plans (time stuff, directions, etc). Combine this and the food stuff and i figured I could go anywhere and do anything and never feel lost if no one around me could speak English. But it is a another leap altogether to where you can speak abstractly about things. I never got there.
Just noticed you said only staying a month. In that case, just learn how to be polite and maybe how to ask for directions. I wouldn't bother with a class.
KJS