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Until recently, living in Thailand successfully meant that you had to learn to speak Thai. Today, provided you live in Bangkok or one of the main tourist destinations, learning to speak Thai is no longer a necessity. Having said that, Thais place great kudos on foreigners who take the time to learn their language, so if you do take the time to learn even the most rudimentary Thai, you could find this helps you enormously.

If you want to start to learn to speak Thai before you arrive in Thailand, then the series of learning Thai books by Benjawan Poomsan Becker (there are three - beginner, intermediate and advanced) are seen as the best.

If you feel that your endeavors to learn Thai would be more fruitful in a classroom environment, then the following are two of Thailand's more popular Thai language schools:

AUA, Hua Mark, Ramkahaeng Road - East Bangkok

Union Language School, Surawong Road - Central Business District, Bangkok

Added by Joe, 5/9/05 - I would also like to pass on to you that being able to speak and read Thai is very, very useful for comfortable living in Thailand. Learning Thai is a lot of work but it's well worth it!

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