Website: Duke Language School
Address: 10/63, Trendy Building, 3rd floor Sukhumvit Soi 13, Wattana, Bangkok Thailand 10110
Email: [email protected]
Tel: Land: 02-168-7274 Mobile: 082-444-1595
Teaching Method: Union
Location
It’s an easy walk from either the Nana or Asok BTS station to the Trendy building on Soi 13. Take the escalators up to the third floor and you’re there!
Materials
The materials are possibly some of the best “Union type” I’ve seen in my years in this country. They are contemporary, current, and totally re-written! Gone are the endless pages of boring text (like most Union clone schools have). In their place are labeled pictures and nice diagrams.
Honestly, I can’t say enough about how fresh and meaningful the material is versus the old Union stuff.
The two co-founders of Duke Language School put a TON of time weeding out the useful teaching material from the dated stuff which was garbage.
They re-wrote what was left, organized it in a more logical way, and that included thinning out the artificial sounding constructs. The end result gives the lessons a good flow and real-life feel to them.
Many schools get duped by the printer to run WAY too many textbooks but Duke did a limited first run. The plan is to weed out any mistakes (it happens), get suggestions, and then make corrections and further tweak the system before the second run.
I’ve been to schools where, before they teach a single word, the teacher goes through the textbooks page by page to tell students about the mistakes. That won’t be the case at Duke Language School.
Teaching Method
It is definitely a Union based methodology as they teach speaking before they teach reading and writing Thai.
Now that’s not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination so don’t take it as a negative.
I’ve met some pretty talented foreign speakers of Thai who learned via karaoke and some still can’t tell a chicken กอ ไก่ from an owl ฮอ นกฮูก (the first and last letters of the Thai alphabet).
Of all the possibly hundreds of Thai students I’ve spoken to, the FIRST thing they want to learn is speaking and understanding Thai.
Then way down the list, and I mean WAY down the list, is learning to read and write. Personally, no matter how many people say, “being able to read Thai makes you speak better Thai”, I don’t buy it. Kids can’t read a character, yet they seem to be able to develop competent spoken language skills sans reading.
To me speaking and reading are horses of a different color. I doubt that many people if ANY think about how a word is spelled in Thai before they say it out loud. If they do, they must be some pretty slow clunky speakers of Thai. I mean it just doesn’t happen in the real world.
Now is reading Thai useful? Heck yeah it is! But is reading Thai necessary to learn to speak it? Nope, it is abso-tively posi-lutely NOT necessary to learn to read before you start to speak coherent Thai.
At Duke Language school students are first taught how their karaoke Thai system works, what the symbols mean, and sounds are made.
In looking at it, it’s almost 100% the same as Benjawan Becker’s phonemic transcription method, so transitioning from Duke’s textbooks to Benjawan’s is almost seamless.
This is a huge plus because I’ve been to some schools that have their own “proprietary school specific karaoke” which often bears little resemblance to anyone else’s method so you can’t easily switch between available materials (and we all do).
Face it, there’s no one who has more books in print about learning Thai than Benjawan does, so if a school uses her karaoke there is a plethora of other materials a student can use to supplement their learning.
Once the phonetic system at Duke Language School is learned the class starts on the basics with meeting greeting, names, questions, etc. They do the typical 50 minute classes with a 10-15 minute break in between.
Audio Visual
Duke is also one of the first schools I’ve been to that uses audio visual and big screens to teach Thai.
It’s incorporated into almost every level they teach. And they are constantly developing additional ways to use it in the school’s curriculum. I believe it will become the “gold standard” as far as teaching Thai to foreigners goes.
Students watch a short clip or a presentation, then talk about and discuss it. It’s a no-brainer in today’s tech-savvy world, especially with all of the resources available in internet-land.
You can also download your class audio files from their website.
Duke offers monthly field trips which students, no matter their level of Thai, can participate in.
To encourage the students to interact with each other and further their Thai ability, on the field trips they incorporate various activities. This also helps build friendship between students no matter what module or level they’re learning at school.
FWIW: these aren’t just those b/s trips to a Soi side street vendor, J/J Market or Pratunam, but decent day trips, which in talking to the students, seem to be well received and attended.
Teachers
Sitting in a trial class I was impressed that the teacher went out of her way to speak clearly.
She spoke slowly enough so students could comprehend and understand her, but not too slow to make it feel like she was “spoon feeding” the students.
Teachers at Duke Language School are competent in the teaching method, are engaging, and no matter how off-toned or poorly pronounced the students are, seriously try to get them to break out of their shell and speak. The teachers are sticklers on getting pronunciation, vowel length and intonation right.
But that’s a plus, seeing as it’s the key to being understood in Thai. Sitting outside talking with the front desk staff, I could hear the laughter and animated conversations going on in the rooms. Too many times sitting in class, it’s no fun learning Thai (or any language), but these teachers appear to go out of their way and make it fun. It can and does make learning a lot easier.
Books
Duke Language School’s use books that Bingo (Arthit Juyaso) poured his blood, sweat and tears into writing from scratch. Bingo is a co-founder of Duke Language School. He also wrote some great articles on learning Thai for us, including:
- A List of All Common Thai Pronouns and How to Use Them Like a Pro
- Thai Tense: The Most Common Time Markers in Thai
Duke Language School’s use books are, IMHO, the best, most comprehensive and information filled books on Thai conversation I’ve ever seen being taught in any school! They’re broken into three books (modules).
Journey 1: Survival “Practical Thai for everyday life”
The essential tools you need to survive in this country and go about your business independently. This coursebook covers the following topics:
- Understanding the sound system and the numbers of the Thai language.
- Introducing yourself, greeting and saying goodbye.
- Getting a taxi and giving simple directions.
- Buying street food.
- Asking for directions inside a building.
- Using public transportation and talking about locations.
- Ordering food and solving difficult situations at a restaurant.
- Buying clothes and describing colours, shapes and sizes.
- Telling time and making appointments.
- Getting a haircut and expressing degrees.
- Buying things and using services at convenience stores.
- Buying medicines and describing symptoms.
- Solving communication breakdowns.
- Talking about personal life.
- Starting and holding a casual chit-chat in Thai.
Total number of unique words: 764
Core vocabulary (essential words): 584
As you can see these first 15 lessons teach you the survival Thai you’ll need. It provides a great foundation vocabulary which you will build on in the subsequent modules. In many ways learning a language is like building a house. IF you don’t start with a good foundation your house will be rickety and unstable. It’s the same with learning Thai, a good solid foundation is needed to build on.
Journey 2: Conversational “The basics of communicative Thai”
Develop your understanding of the Thai language and learn to say exactly what you want to say. This coursebook covers the following topics:
- Expressing frequency, quantity, and number-related concepts.
- Describing things using adjectives and expressing degrees.
- Expressing similarities, differences, and comparing things.
- Understanding the concept of Thai time expression.
- Talking about people’s appearance and personality.
- Describing directions of movements and changes of things.
- Expressing perceptions, emotions, and feelings.
- Talking about your skills and abilities, and the limit of them.
- Giving instruction, expressing order or events, and describing purpose of things.
- Making requests and commands.
- Offering suggestions and expressing opinions.
- Describing actions and consequences, causes and effects.
- Making guesses and talking about probability.
- Expressing likes and dislikes.
- Talking about future plans, expectations and hopes.
Total number of unique words: 602
Core vocabulary (essential words): 497
This book is where you take the survival Thai from the previous module and start the building process from basic to more advanced structure. You learn to construct more complex sentences as well as how to sound more like a Thai when you say things. This last point is critical when trying to get Thais to understand you. The more you can say things which Thais are used to hearing, the better their comprehension of what you’re saying is.
Journey 3: Fluency “Real Thai in cultural context”
Learn about different aspects of Thai culture to help you speak Thai in a natural way with confidence. This coursebook covers the following topics:
- Extended family and kinship terms.
- Social status and its impact on Thai pronouns.
- Understanding “face” and “greeng jai”.
- Regions of Thailand and Thai dialects.
- Thai food and table etiquette.
- Buddhism in Thailand.
- Ghosts, spirits, and superstitions.
- Thai ceremonies and rituals.
- Thai festivals and national holidays.
- Thai entertainment, arts, and pop culture.
- Formal Thai in formal situations.
- Understanding “sabaai-sabaai” attitude.
- Thai slangs, idioms, and proverbs.
- Thai pride, and an introduction to Thai history.
- Cross-cultural topics and discussions.
Total number of unique words: 607
Core vocabulary (essential words): 402
Duke Language School: Journey 1-3
The books are character and situation driven, which is a trend we’re starting to see by more and more thai language schools. What sets this material apart from the rest is the supplemental material which is interspersed within each lesson. They touch on everything from culture, fun facts and interesting tidbits of how the language goes together. In all the years I’ve been touring Thai language schools, this is some of the best material I’ve ever seen.
It also seems that they’re not resting on their laurels with just these books and have plans for more – Explore 2, 3, and Discover. Explore 3 in particular, is all about learning Thai through media, e.g. Facebook, blogs, ads, emails, letters, articles, songs, video clips, movies, etc. It’s contemporary and shows how Thai is used in a multi-media context today. As far as I know, no other Thai language school has such a course. Explore 3 will be the link that connects the Journey series (speaking) with Explore (reading & writing) before moving on to Discover (the advanced levels).
Classes
They run four weeks of group classes or terms that are available in the morning, afternoon or evening. They also offer private lessons too.
ED Visa
DLS is approved by the Ministry of Education to offer ED visa assistance and support for both their six month and their yearlong Thai courses.
Should I Study at Duke Language School?
If, as a student of the Thai language, you want to do intensive courses in Thai (versus milking the current education system by learning Thai four hours a week just to get a visa to stay here) this school is at the top of the pile!
Hands down I’d recommend Duke Language School over ANY other school out there that I’ve been to so far.
No other schools can compete with Duke in terms of quality material, qualified teachers, and an overall good atmosphere to learn the Thai language. They have some of the most competitive pricing for group lessons. Make sure to check their website for promotions, etc.
After going to so many schools, saying the same old B/S spiel, “Hi, I just moved here to Thailand. I love the country, the people and the culture so much that I want to learn Thai“, I’ve become a pretty darned jaded foreigner as far as how Thai is taught. It takes a lot for a school to wow me nowadays, but I can honestly say, with no reservations at Duke Language School I was indeed wowed!
I hope you guys found this review of interest. As I said in the beginning, after a long break I’m a little rusty writing Thai language school reviews. If you’re wanting to learn Thai you should definitely put Duke on your list of schools to scope out. Be sure to sit a trial lesson while you are there.
Good luck, and as always I’m not affiliated with ANY Thai language school, I just want you guys to know what’s out there in the learn Thai marketplace.
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