Learning Thai

[sglad]

Oops, I fell asleep while writing this. Will continue tonight.

[destiny]

I would recommend to NOT take private classes, but start with group classes until you reach a certain level. This is less challenging and a LOT more fun as you can listen to and learn from others in your group and the pace is more relaxed.
After you mastered the beginner level, I would switch to private class and then - VERY IMPORTANT - include learning how to READ Thai. It is not as difficult as people think, but being able to READ, you will be surprised to realize that you have pronounced at least 50% of the words incorrectly. There are indeed many schools in BKK and to choose the most suitable for you depends on what learning type you are. I until today prefer it the old fashioned way, which means including grammar from the beginning (because I want to understand the pattern of a language), I have a knowledge of five languages besides my native tongue (which is not English) and mastered them all that way, Indonesian and Spanish I virtually learned all by myself (thank you, internet!) after an initial course of just 30 hrs.
If you tell me what sort of approach you prefer, I might be able to recommend some schools according to your needs. Better send me a PM as I am not a regular on this board (I had sent you a msg some time ago regarding another topic)

[lukylok]

After you mastered the beginner level, I would switch to private class and then - VERY IMPORTANT - include learning how to READ Thai. It is not as difficult as people think, but being able to READ, you will be surprised to realize that you have pronounced at least 50% of the words incorrectly.

I fully agree. It is near impossible to have the right pronounciation if you cannot read, and writing comes at the same time.
I tried as everyone to learn without writing but found myself blocked at a certain stage. And I had to review the way I pronounced a lot of words.

[Up2U]

A friend has the Thai-English dictionary for the smartphone and loves it.

http://www.paiboonpublishing.com/products.html