There are 6 structured levels to guide you to Thai fluency. Each level describes what you will feel, what you need to do, and what you are learning at that stage.
Level 1: 0 – 300 Words: Absolute Beginner – Hours of Input: 50
What you will feel
The sounds of the language sound weird to your ears. Even if you try to focus intensively on what native speakers are saying, the variety of sounds, different grammar structures and unintelligible words make it a frustrating experience. Don't worry, this is normal. At this point, many may think that learning Thai is impossible. I guarantee it is not. Almost every student has started with similar feelings and eventually succeeded. It is just a matter of allowing your brain to naturally absorb the language. ALG is all about automatic learning, so don't force yourself or become frustrated. If you don't give up and keep listening to my videos, you will slowly start recognizing different words and that will encourage you to keep going.
What you need to do
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Listening: The listening needs to be very comprehensible. The best materials are classes or videos where the teachers speak in the language, but make it easy to understand by using a lot of drawings, pictures, and gestures.
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Vocab flashcards: A very helpful tool at this stage is to constantly go over the vocabulary lists provided in the website. You can try listening to a video after a brief vocabulary review so the words slowly cement in your mind.
What you are learning
At this stage, you are learning the most basic words that act as the building blocks for future understanding. These include the simplest nouns, such as the numbers, family members and body parts; a few of the simplest action verbs: do, like, sleep, eat etc. and the most simple adjectives to define objects or people: happy, tall, cold, short. Mastering this vocabulary will allow you to communicate and understand the most basic "cave-man language", which is a massive first step. Congratulations!!!
Level 2: 300 – 700 Words: Beginner – Hours of Input: 100
What you will feel
You will be able to go to a restaurant or a small shop and ask for simple items in broken language, such as "Want this" or "Eat rice and pork". Great job!! You have overcome the most difficult stage, where speaking Thai seemed impossible. Native speakers will praise you and you will feel encouraged, however, you are aware there is still a lot of work to be done. You still won't be able to have casual conversations or understand much of what native Thais are saying. At best, you will be able to catch a few simple words and rely heavily on context and guessing. Again, this is normal, keep up your faith and good work. Within a few weeks or months, you should be able to go beyond this point.
What you need to do
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Listening: The listening still needs to be very comprehensible. You may have moved on from the most basic vocabulary, but at this stage, you must soak your brain in the language if you want to see further results. Again, this must be done in a gradual and automatic fashion by watching my Youtube videos at your current level.
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Vocab flashcards: You are still working on the foundations of Thai language, and therefore it is hard to learn new words just by guessing from the context. Thus, I strongly recommend you keep up your flashcard study before and after watching the videos to support your automatic language growth journey.
What you are learning
Still mostly nouns and verbs for concrete things, with basic adjectives to describe them. A good tip at this stage is to learn vocabulary by topic, and that's why my videos and flashcards are organized in such a way. Examples of useful topics are animals, the city, natural formations, occupations, furniture etc.
Level 3: 700 – 1500 Words: Advanced Beginner – Hours of Input: 150
What you will feel
You can now understand people if they speak slowly, clearly and stay within certain topics. You may even be able to start having your first flowing conversations!! Excellent!!!! This will be a big boost to your confidence and will help you overcome any feelings of discouragement you might have had before. Even though you have overcome the hardest stage in learning Thai, we still have a long way ahead. Most conversations will still remain unintelligible to you, and you still aren't completely used to the sounds of the language. You have a good intuition for basic grammar, like sentence order, but complex grammar structures are still a headache. Don't worry, you will get there soon. Keep up the good work!
What you need to do
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Listening: Now you can listen to videos or classes in which the teacher doesn't use as much visual input, and you may even be able to watch a few of my Intermediate level videos using subtitles. Still the focus must be on soaking your brain and absorbing as many hours of comprehensible input as possible, to slowly build up your understanding capacity and vocabulary.
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Vocab flashcards: You have moved beyond the basic foundations of Thai language, and you can now start understanding words from the context. Still, I strongly recommend to keep up your flashcard study before and after watching the videos to continue building up your vocabulary.
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1 on 1 classes: Congratulations, you have reached the level where you can have simple conversations with a native speaker!! You can now benefit from having 1 on 1 dialogues with our qualified ALG teachers. If you sometimes feel speaking in Thai is overwhelming, you can ask the teacher to engage in crosstalk for a more relaxed learning experience.
What you are learning
As you are starting to get used to what Thai sounds like and its phonetic structures, you start learning words faster, without needing to hear them so many times. You still are building your vocabulary bank with general nouns, verbs and adjectives, necessary for daily conversation. You start being able to use abstract terms, such as words that describe feelings or personality.
Level 4: 1,500 – 3000 Words: Intermediate – Hours of Input: 300
What you will feel
You're at the intermediate level! You can understand a patient native speaker. You still miss some words, but the speaker can explain their meaning to you without needing to translate. You can understand a variety of daily topics without gestures or visual support. The sounds of the language are becoming clearer now, and you are getting used to how the sounds are likely to be combined. That helps with remembering new words. Making friends in the language is now possible, but you need to find people who are quite patient, because not everybody will want to make that effort. Speaking in Thai also requires a lot of effort on your side, and you may find yourself tired after a long conversation. Tired, but satisfied! You would now be able to perfectly survive in Thailand and would likely impress most locals! You now have a very solid foundation which will allow you to continue learning in a much faster, effortless manner. Great job!!
What you need to do
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Listening: Now you can listen to videos or classes in which the teacher doesn't use any visual input, and you may be able to watch all of my Intermediate level videos using subtitles. You can also try watching them without the subtitles to get the real feel of a normal conversation in Thai.
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Vocab flashcards: Even though you have now mastered the foundation of the language, it is still recommended to maintain flashcard study, especially regarding new topics or to review words that you might have forgotten. Learning new words through subject-specific lists is probably most useful at this stage.
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1 on 1 classes: Having laid your foundation, this is the time to really delve into conversation classes with a native teacher. Not only will you be reviewing past vocabulary and learning new words, but you will also be cementing them deeper in your mind as you use them in the dialogues. At times you may still feel overexerted by speaking in Thai, at which point you can ask our teachers to engage in crosstalk for a more relaxed learning experience.
What you are learning
Even though you have now mastered all the basic vocabulary, you may find yourself polishing everyday grammatical structures to become proficient in using them in conversation. Examples of this could be discourse markers such as "because of… therefore", "except for", "must be", "the more… the…", "regarding this… that" etc. Even if this stage seems a little bit less "automatic", you can ask our teachers to help you practice them during your 1 on 1 dialogues to learn how to use them more naturally.
Level 5: 2,500 – 4,000 Words: Advanced Intermediate – Hours of Input: 500
What you will feel
You can understand people well when they speak directly to you. They won't need to adapt their speech for you. Understanding a conversation between native speakers is still challenging. You'll almost understand TV programs in the language if you actively focus, but they are still hard enough to leave you frustrated or confused. You can easily converse about daily matters and even about more specialized topics if you have acquired that vocabulary and understand the context. Both Thais and other learners will be deeply impressed by your proficiency but you will still feel there's a bit more to learn and polish. You're almost there!!!
What you need to do
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Listening: Now you can easily watch all my videos up until the Advanced level, often without the need to use subtitles. It will feel easy and fun, almost effortless. You may choose to write down the words that you don't know to continue increasing your vocabulary.
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Vocab flashcards: At this stage, reviewing flashcards is not that important. You may only go over words that you easily forget, mispronounce or confuse with others. You may also choose to learn the vocabulary in the most advanced flashcard lists.
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1 on 1 classes: Now that conversation is almost effortless, you will enjoy and still benefit massively from 1 on 1 classes. As gestures and pictures are no longer needed, you can focus on tackling subjects or parts of the language you still don't feel proficient in. You may also focus on polishing pronunciation and more complex grammatical structures. Crosstalk may only be employed if you feel very tired or are unfamiliar with a certain topic.
What you are learning
You are starting to learn a few slang words, feel more comfortable in conversation and capable of going into much more specific subjects. When doing so, you can encounter new technical and abstract words such as consequence, literature, discover, debate, manage etc. At this level you'll mostly finish up the grammar and common transitional words. Still, it feels as if there is a bit of unknown territory and you are ready to conquer it!!
Level 6: 4000+ Words: Advanced – Hours of Input: 1000
What you will feel
This is where Thai really becomes fun and effortless!! In spite of that odd word that is not quite there when you need it, you can always manage to get your point across without difficulty, and by now you are already making complex longer phrases. Using humor in the language is much easier now. You can understand the news and TV shows about daily life quite well (80 to 90%). Shows about families, friends, etc. More complex films and series, which use technical or elaborate language will still be a challenge to follow. Still, for all intents and purposes, you are completely fluent and will feel like being a full-fledged member of Thai society. Hurray!!!
What you need to do
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Listening: You can try watching all my Advanced videos without any subtitles, hunting down for the few words or expressions you may not be familiar with. It's also a good idea to get a lot of input from Thai media, such as TV, podcasts, radio, movies, etc. Focus on the subjects from which you want to acquire technical vocabulary or are interested in.
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Vocab flashcards: At this stage you may barely need to use our flashcard lists. Only if there's a few stubborn words that you keep stumbling on, or want to review terms that you sometimes forget. You should otherwise choose to learn the vocabulary in the most advanced flashcard lists.
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1 on 1 classes: Now that conversation is completely effortless, you will enjoy and still benefit from 1 on 1 classes. Because you have gone beyond mastery of everyday words and expressions. You should aim to tackle the specific subjects and words you want to be proficient in but still aren't.
What you are learning
You will continue learning slang, and learning about the culture, and that will allow you to understand more and more cultural references. You can explore other regional dialects of the language, or vocabulary in other technical or professional fields that you may want to learn about. For example, financial or business terms if you intend to work for a Thai company or literary language if you are interested in Thai literature. You will still encounter new idioms and proverbs, but they will almost always be clear from the context. You will feel like a Thai, talk like a Thai, and even think like a Thai. Very few learners reach this level of proficiency and development. Congratulations!!!!