Our brains are hard-wired for visual thinking and processing. The only reason why many people have difficulty thinking visually is because this skill has been "educated out" at school, where children are expected to sit still and listen to the teacher all day.

It only takes a single glance to "take in" and comprehend the graph. It's the same information in both cases.

Studies have shown that people (no matter how out of practice they are at visual thinking) can recognize thousands of images, but only around 30-40 words at a time. Especially if the pictures are in some way bizarre or shocking.

Think of all the people you have met in your life. You can probably remember most of their faces, but only a few of their names. Right?

Stories

The other thing that we are able to remember remarkably well is stories! Somehow, if we can turn a list of unrelated items into a story that links all the items together then it is easy to remember them.

The Read Thai in a Day e-course has been designed so that you "see" a picture when you look at the shape of a letter. The picture has all sorts of associations and connotations, which leads to a chain of facts bound together in a rich, visual story.

It's almost impossible to remember rules and unrelated facts without first organizing them into a coherent story. So instead of having meaningless letter "classes", Read Thai in a Day uses three genders: boy, girl and ladyboy. Each gender is associated with a personality, and you can then work out the tones and properties of each Thai word by thinking of the visual story that goes with each personality.

Once you have completed the course, you will have an entire movie in your head, complete with weird characters and bizarre storylines that are all connected to a larger "plot".

It only takes a few hours to understand (or "see") the story and then a little actual reading practice for it to be integrated into your subconscious mind. It's a bit like learning to drive: after a while, it all becomes as automatic as a muscle reflex.

Indeed, after a while, you won't remember how you remember. You'll just be able to read - as you do in English... without thinking about it.

Although it sounds incredible, you can learn to read Thai in 16 hours using the "Rapid Method". Most people take
5-6 months to learn the traditional way, and still struggle to read accurately.

The Rapid Method is based on quirky, bizarre and obscene pictures and stories. So you don't need to memorize anything. Taking what you already know naturally in English, we apply it to the Thai language. The so-called "rising tone" is exactly the same as asking a question in English: "Why?" We always use the "high tone" when we feel uncertain or skeptical: "Are you OK?" etc.

Thai doesn't make sense, but at least it is a consistent language (unlike English!) The "Rapid Method" simplifies the language to only what you need to know, so no learning the Thai alphabet, Ko Kai, Do Dek, etc. You will learn to "see" the shapes and "solve the puzzle" for each word. The "D" sound looks like an Indian fakir Doubled over himself, the "B" sound looks like a U as in "u-Boat". And each letter has a personlity based on it's "sex", which is either boy, girl or ladyboy!

Why is it so important to be able to read Thai?

Once you can read, everything begins to fall into place naturally. You start to absorb the Thai language from your surroundings, from the street signs and notices and menus - without any effort and without having to spend time studying.

It makes learning to speak and communicate in Thai so much easier too. You know how to say things right, so you begin to hear what people say more clearly. You can learn from Thai songs, stories and interesting self-help books or biographies (where the writing style is suprisingly colloquial). It's a lot more fun than sitting in a class learning grammar.

It is not at all important to learn to write Thai! Don't waste your time, don't attend "writing" classes. Use your computer to type instead. After all, Typing is Reading!

Becoming literate in Thai is the crucial first step for speaking Thai, and eventually becoming fluent... Don't learn the "phonetic" way, it's wrong and there's no standard and it's very difficult to unlearn. Knowing how to read means you also know how to pronounce the words accurately.

And being able to speak Thai opens up the world for you in Thailand. The girls (and guys) will flock to you in admiration. Many Thai people are shy, but they will be attracted to you if you can converse in Thai - even if they know some English, they prefer to be able to fall back on Thai, especially if they want to hang out with their friends as well.

It's also good for business, even if you are in an English environment. You will have a better idea of what your staff and colleagues are thinking and be able to get your ideas across more directly - and accurately - than if you rely on bilingual go-betweens. If you work in a school or environment where it's all Thai then you won't be so isolated and will start to make friends amongst your colleagues and their friends more readily than before.

And you'll be surprised at how much more cheaply you can live in Thailand, once you can communicate in Thai. You can rent an entire house for the same price as a small room in an 'expat' area. I won't tell you what I pay for my 6-room house in Bangkok, it's too embarrassing! You can swan around Bangkok on buses and vans (that get to where you want to go just as quickly as the taxis).

Intensive Weekend Workshops

If you're in Thailand and don't want to work through the self-study course on your own then come and learn to read quickly, in one go. And really start to enjoy and appreciate the "hidden" Thailand. Even if you are only here on a short stay, once you can read the signs and menus your travels outside the well-trodden tourist trails will become so much more meaningful. It makes living in Thailand great fun!

Next workshop

Where: Woraburi Resort, Phuket
When: Saturday + Sunday, June 5-6

Please visit the workshop page for more details.

Watch this video and learn the top 13 letters in ten minutes, the Rapid way.

How the Rapid Method works

The system is based on five years research in Accelerated Learning. Essentially, each letter is visually associated with its sound. The entire alphabet is thus permanently imprinted in your brain within a few hours.

We use a completely non-linguistic approach for learning the sounds and tones. Instead of complicated classes and tone levels, each letter has a gender - boy, girl or ladyboy. The tones can then be derived from the personality characteristics of each letter :)

This makes it so much easier to work out the tones. Basically boys and girls and the same, except when it comes to singing. Girls' emotions rise when they sing, but boys and ladyboys just feel bored (monotonous, flat tone).

Ladyboys, however, are complicated creatures: sickly, theatrical, exhibitionistic, clumsy and sexually depraved! So how they respond to the tone rules is very different.

The word above คาว is pronounced khaaw (or khaao). This is a singing word and, because ค is a bored ladyboy, the tone is flat and monotonous.

คาว means 'stench' or 'strong smell'.

The word for 'white' is spelled (and therefore pronounced) differently: ขาว.

ข is an old cackling lady. Her emotions rise when singing, so ขาว is pronounced khaaw? (a rising/questioning tone).

If the same word is spelled with the 'surfing' tone mark (it looks a bit like someone surfing down a wave) it is pronounced differently and has a different meaning. Boys and girls are quite sporty and can surf well, so they go down the wave (falling tone) with ease. (A ladyboy, however, can't surf at all and gets thrown up in the air by the wave.)

So ข้าว, which means 'rice', is pronounced khaaw!
(with a falling or emphatic tone because ข is female).

The e-course makes this clear and intuitive because of its humorous and visual approach.

This is the first step to learning Thai. It makes the world of difference learning vocabulary directly from the Thai text, rather than via a contrived and approximate (and often incorrect) transliteration. The trouble about learning Thai using phonetics is that you very quickly reach a ceiling and will find it very difficult to learn any more. Also you learn a kind of 'farang dialect' of Thai that becomes very difficult to unlearn.

An additional feature of the e-course is a visual story method for memorizing the 300-word Thai vocabulary. After working through the e-course, you will be able to take in so much more of your surroundings in Thailand. You will be able to read (and start to understand) Thai street signs and notices.

Try it for free by downloading the e-book. You will learn 25 of the most common letters in an hour.

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