If you are new here in Thailand and started to get interested in learning Thai, you might have wondered whether you should go to a Thai language school or take an online course at home.
Many of my digital nomad friends who want to learn Thai and get an education visa to stay in Thailand, are going to a Thai school because they have time to attend a 3-hour lesson every morning.
What about people who work on a regular schedule? What should they do?
They can still hire a teacher or attend a class after work.
But won’t they be tired after 8 hours of work?
Well, some of them ended up canceling the classes because of their tight working schedule and no motivation after the long-hour work.
But no worries!
There are a couple of online courses to help you learn Thai at your own pace. This Ultimate Guide to Online Thai Course will explain how this flexible method can help you learn Thai in a flexible way.
Overview
Why learn Thai online?
There are many reasons why learning Thai online can be a very good option for you.
- First, it’s flexible. No need to put so much pressure on yourself when enrolled and paid a big amount for a Thai course. You can just learn Thai at any time from everywhere around the world.
- Secondly, it’s much cheaper. Online courses have various prices from 3,000-15,000 baht for lifetime access. Besides, some online schools offer an online course with a monthly subscription with a smaller price where you can cancel anytime.
Learn Thai from a White Guy: Pricing plans with a list of materials
- Thirdly, online courses can be really innovative. As learning with video lessons or podcasts is known as “a passive way of learning”, many online schools develop various materials for students to work with and they are quite fun!
BananaThai: Learning materials from Intensive Thai Course
Does it really work?
Let’s talk about the truth.
It works really well, but it doesn’t work for everyone.
I often follow up with my online students who enrolled in my Intensive Thai Course and Lazy Farang Program (both of them are online courses). I asked them how the course is going, some of them completed the course and enjoyed it so much that they left a positive review on my page.
See more reviews at BananaThai Facebook Fan page
At the same time, there are quite a number of students who have not finished the course even though they told me they have enjoyed it.
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Who is it suitable for?
Anyone who has a bit of spare time and motivation to learn can take an online course to improve their Thai.
In addition, online courses benefit more for those who have an irregular schedule, live abroad or hate going to school.
For example
How an online course suits these people:
- John can learn online when traveling on a plane or when he has days off.
- Charlotte can take online lessons on the weekend even though she lives in another part of the world.
- Sophie can watch a 15 min video lesson after her school and practice with her classmates.
- Michael can take an online lesson every evening with his coffee before his night shift starts.
Who should not then?
However, an online course is not suitable for everyone. Because it takes discipline to finish the course on your own, anyone who is not a self-learner, lacks big motivation or has the procrastinating habit, might not manage to keep learning (i.e. no one kicking their asses to learn or practice)
Available online Thai courses
Even though there are many Thai schools and freelance teachers available for Thai lessons, these online school below are quite popular for online contents and self-paced courses.
Thaipod101.com
Honestly, Thaipod101 is one of the biggest sources to learn Thai as it provides more than 1,000 video lessons, a big list of vocabulary with Thai scripts and audios, various contents about Thai language and culture, etc. To access the mega contents, you have to subscribe to either monthly or annual subscription. Click here to visit the Thaipod101 website.
BananaThai
Well, it’s actually my online school. I aim to provide an innovative way to learn Thai online with an enjoyable experience, practical content, and a variety of learning tools. Currently, there are 2 online courses available.
- Intensive Thai Course is an ultimate online course to help beginner and intermediate learners master speaking Thai fluently within 45 lessons with a great foundation of sentence construction. Various tools such as videos, Thai audio, quizzes and flashcards are available as well.
- Lazy Farang is a mini-course to learn 100 practical Thai phrases within 28 days. It is designed for those who have less time and less effort. The goal is to create a habit of a daily 5-min learning session.
Learn Thai from a White Guy
Brett (aka white guy) is one of the most famous Thai teachers who teach reading and writing based in Chiang Mai. He provides an online course ‘Read Thai in 2 Weeks’ to master reading Thai within 2 weeks, especially with brilliant techniques to make remembering Thai consonants and vowels such an easy thing. If you’re looking to learn how to read and write Thai from a white guy, check out his website here.
Summary
An online course is such a powerful tool to help people learn Thai in a flexible way as it allows you to learn at any time everywhere. It can be innovative, engaging and fun when using different tools. However one needs to do researches and look at whether which teacher and which method one prefers before taking a course.
If you ask whether online course really works, the answer is YES! it has worked for many learners, on the other hand, it doesn’t work for everyone. Only those who aim to complete the course with discipline will succeed and enjoy learning Thai on their own.
