Learn Thai – Rapid Method

So how much does it all cost to learn Thai with the Rapid Method?

The Rapid Method is a journey. Below are the costs for each stage of the journey.

Note. You get lifetime access to all the self-study course material, including tutor PDF files and the downloadable Anki flashcard files. Our approved tutors can guide you through the course material, check your pronunciation and practice conversation with you. You pay the tutor directly. Tutor fees are ฿500 / hour.

If you prefer to engage your own tutor than I can instruct her or him how to work through the material with you the “Rapid” way.

* ฿42,000 to attend the intensive six-day Rapid Read Thai bootcamp. Or you can attend the 15 half-day online workshop for only ฿15,000.

You can also start with the Rapid Read Thai self-study course (above) and then just pay the difference to attend the workshop at a later stage. The more you do by yourself in advance of the workshop, the more effective it will be anyway.

Here is the Rapid Method’s Road Map for learning Thai (along with prices):

1.       Watch the Foundation Videos on YouTube.

2.       Try before you buy. Log in or sign up for the (free) trial version of the Rapid Read Thai online course and work through the first few lessons. You’ll learn around 30 of the most common letters in a few hours, after which you can recognize and correctly pronounce (but not necessarily understand) hundreds of basic Thai words.

3.       Learn to Read Thai. Come back and buy the more Rapid Read Thai course (฿10,000). You can do it in a few days, but allow 1-2 months to complete this part of the process. Or if you can make it then attend one of the intensive one-week Rapid Read Thai bootcamps (฿42,000, includes self-study course material) or a 15 half-day online workshop (฿15,000 + ฿10,000 for Rapid Read Thai course material).

When you complete the course you will be able to read this!

You can extend the course by purchasing a collection of supplementary reading material consisting of menus, stories and popular (and often quite obscene) Thai songs. (This collection costs an extra ฿5,000.)

You might want to work through with the help of a Thai tutor so that you can understand the idiomatic expressions and cultural references – and to check your pronunciation as well! It’ll probably take around 30 hours to work through the material with a teacher, one story or song per week, say. (฿15,000 assuming ฿500/hour, paid directly to your tutor).

4.       Learn to Speak Thai through reading. Now that you can read, follow the Everyday Thai for Beginners conversational course (฿7,000). There’s no need to rush this: two one-hour sessions per week over seven months with a private Thai tutor, either face-to-face or online via Skype… (฿30,000 assuming 60 lessons at ฿500/hour, paid directly to your tutor).

5.       Become conversationally fluent. Then if you want to have deeper and more intimate conversations with your friends and (Thai) family then buy the “fluency” course, Sydney Remember (฿7,000). 

You might also want to study a side-splitting 3-hour stand-up show by Note Udom (฿7,000). His shows are not only wonderfully funny, he speaks in a clear, distinct manner. He jokes about everyday situations in relatively simple Thai with the kind of colloquial slang that you’ll hear routinely.

Allow about a year to complete either of these courses, studying two hours per week (฿50,000 assuming 100 lessons at ฿500/hour, paid directly to your tutor). 

6.       Learn Business & Commercial Thai. If you also want to be able to talk about business, marketing or commercial issues then get the advanced fluency business course, Top Story (฿7,000). Allow another year, studying the usual leisurely two hours per week, to complete this course (฿50,000 assuming 100 lessons at ฿500/hour, paid directly to your tutor).

7.       Advanced Thai. Finally, you might want to know what’s going on politically and economically in the country: study the News & Media course (฿7,000).

Although the words used in newspapers and on the TV and radio are very advanced, there aren’t that many of them and the concepts are always the same: about the government, the opposition, the protesters, murderers, thieves and terrorists, sports stars and TV personalities, floods, fires and the weather in general, etc. It’s a completely different language from colloquial speech, but very easy to become familiar with if you put your mind to it.

I’m developing an advanced course based on the book “Doggy-Style Politics” by Chuwit Kamolvisit (ชูวิทย์ กมลวิศิษฎ์), a maverick ex-gangster turned politician in Thailand (฿50,000 assuming 100 lessons at ฿500/hour, paid directly to your tutor).