Progress

• ·Recognise all 9 mid-class consonants on sight and name their class without hesitating.
• ·Hear the difference between the five tones (perception only; production comes later).
• ·Read a simple mid-class syllable and predict its tone from the spelling.
• ·Greet, thank, apologise and order one thing, out loud, to a real Thai person.

1. d1Thai is an alphabet, not a picture language. First five mid-class letters, and the words you need this afternoon.120m
2. d2The other four mid-class letters, and who does what to whom: pronouns.120m
3. d3The five tones, by ear only. No production, no theory, just categories.120m
4. d4Live and dead syllables: the distinction the whole tone system rests on. Numbers 1 to 10.120m
5. d5Tone marks ไม้เอก and ไม้โท on mid-class letters. Water, rice, coffee.120m
6. d6Questions and negation: ไหม and ไม่. Reading your first real words.120m
7. d7Consolidation, then go outside and use it.120m

9 mid-class consonants cold, ~65 words in the SRS deck, one real transaction completed in Thai. You cannot read fluently yet. That is on schedule.

• ·Name every high-class consonant and its class on sight.
• ·Apply the high-class tone rules (no mark = rising, ไม้เอก = low, ไม้โท = falling) without counting on your fingers.
• ·Hear short vs long vowels above chance: the category neither French nor English gives you.
• ·Order a full meal, adjust it (no sugar, not spicy, takeaway) and ask for the bill.

1. d1The high class: ข ฉ ถ ผ ฝ ส ห, plus the rare ฐ ศ ษ. Food nouns.120m
2. d2High-class tone rules. Three rules, and they cover a third of the language.120m
3. d3Short vs long vowels. The hardest thing in this month, and it is not tone.120m
4. d4The aspirated low-class series พ ท ค: same sounds as ผ ถ ข, different class, different tones.120m
5. d5A full meal, start to finish: order, modify, pay.120m
6. d6Dead syllables and final consonants. Where you live and how you get there.120m
7. d7Consolidation, and a meal ordered entirely in Thai.120m

~145 words. Mid and high classes both automatic. You can read a short mid- or high-class word and predict its tone. Ordering food is no longer stressful.

• ·Know the class of any of the 44 consonants without hesitating.
• ·Derive the tone of any written syllable: all three classes, live and dead, with and without marks.
• ·Read ห-นำ and อ-นำ correctly (หมา, อยาก) instead of guessing.
• ·Ask a price, bargain, and give a taxi driver directions.

1. d1The low class: 24 letters, more than the other two put together.120m
2. d2Low-class tone rules with no tone mark. The one place vowel length changes the tone.120m
3. d3ห-นำ and อ-นำ: the silent letter that changes a word's class.120m
4. d4Tone marks on low-class letters. The table is now complete.120m
5. d5Money: prices, big numbers, and bargaining without being rude.120m
6. d6Transport and directions: getting yourself somewhere without pointing at a phone.120m
7. d7The tone-rule exam. Everything, mixed, timed.120m

~215 words. The tone system is closed: there is no rule left to learn, only speed to build. You can bargain at a market and direct a Grab driver.

• ·Read an unfamiliar Thai word aloud and be right about its tone most of the time.
• ·Handle clusters, false clusters, silent การันต์ and the awkward vowels (ำ ใ ไ ฤ).
• ·Read a street sign and a handwritten menu without a phone.
• ·Talk about your day, your family and what things look like, in the past and the future.

1. d1Consonant clusters, and the false clusters that are not what they look like.120m
2. d2Silent letters: การันต์, silent finals, and the syllables that are not there.120m
3. d3The awkward vowels: ◌ำ, ใ vs ไ, ฤ, and words that simply have to be memorised.120m
4. d4Reading in the wild: signs, menus, prices, shopfronts.120m
5. d5Time, days, and your own daily routine, narrated out loud.120m
6. d6Classifiers and colours: counting things the Thai way.120m
7. d7Month-one assessment. An honest look at where you actually are.120m

M1 reached: ~335 words, Thai script readable at slow speed, the tone rules understood conceptually and applied with roughly 80% accuracy on unfamiliar words, and simple everyday conversations (ordering, prices, directions, small talk) sustainable with a patient speaker.

• ·Mark an event as completed, ongoing or upcoming without conjugating anything.
• ·Say when something happened using a time word rather than a verb form.
• ·Read the clock and the calendar out loud.
• ·Narrate your own day yesterday, to a real person, in order.

1. d1แล้ว: the completion marker, and why it is not a past tense.120m
2. d2กำลัง … อยู่, and the two halves you can drop.120m
3. d3จะ, and why Thai does not need a future tense either.120m
4. d4ยัง, ยังไม่, เพิ่ง: the edges of the system.120m
5. d5Clock time: โมง, ทุ่ม, ครึ่ง, and the six-block Thai day.120m
6. d6The calendar: days of the week, months, and the words that place a week.120m
7. d7Narrate yesterday and tomorrow, out loud, to someone.125m

The three aspect markers used without hesitation, time words fronted correctly, and a two-minute account of yesterday and tomorrow that a neighbour follows without repair.

• ·Chain two or three verbs with no conjunction and no infinitive.
• ·Use ไป and มา as direction markers, not just as verbs.
• ·Say you are going somewhere to do something, in one breath.
• ·Run an errand start to finish without switching to English.

1. d1Two verbs, no glue: ไปกิน, มาดู, ออกไปซื้อ.120m
2. d2ไป and มา as direction: deixis relative to the speaker, not the map.120m
3. d3เข้า ออก ขึ้น ลง, and the vehicles that take each one.120m
4. d4เอา and พา: taking a thing versus taking a person.120m
5. d5Errands: the post office, the bank, and the form you cannot read.120m
6. d6Your building: the landlord, the guard, and the thing that is broken.120m
7. d7Run one real errand entirely in Thai, then take the week apart.125m

Three-verb chains produced without assembling them, ไป and มา placed correctly relative to where you are standing, and one real errand completed in Thai from door to receipt.

• ·Name where it hurts and for how long.
• ·Buy something for a symptom without knowing the drug's name.
• ·Use the completive verbs (เสร็จ, จบ, หมด, ไหว, ทัน) that end an action.
• ·Say what you can and cannot do, with ได้ in both its jobs.

1. d1The body, head to foot.120m
2. d2ปวด, เจ็บ, เป็น, คัน: four ways to be unwell, and they are not interchangeable.120m
3. d3ได้ after the verb: able. ไม่ได้ before it: did not. The trap.120m
4. d4Resultatives: เสร็จ, จบ, หมด, ไหว, ทัน.120m
5. d5The pharmacy: symptom in, medicine out.120m
6. d6The clinic and the hospital: forms, queues, and the word for how you feel about it.120m
7. d7Describe a real symptom to a real pharmacist, then review the week.125m

A symptom described to a pharmacist and the right thing handed over, ได้ used correctly in both positions, and the resultative verbs produced rather than recognised.

• ·Ask permission four ways and know which one fits.
• ·Say something is required, forbidden, advisable or optional.
• ·Give an instruction to someone doing work for you.
• ·Complain about a result without causing anyone to lose face.

1. d1ได้ไหม, ขอ … หน่อย, ช่วย … หน่อย: three requests, three degrees.120m
2. d2ต้อง and ไม่ต้อง, and why ไม่ต้อง is not 'must not'.120m
3. d3ห้าม and อย่า: the signs you will read and the thing you will be told.120m
4. d4ควร and น่าจะ: advice that does not sound like an order.120m
5. d5The barber, the laundry, the tailor: giving instructions about your own body and things.120m
6. d6Motorbike repair, and the mechanic's counter-questions.120m
7. d7Get one service done to your specification, in Thai.125m

One service obtained to your own specification in Thai, the four request forms used in the right places, and a complaint made that changed the result without embarrassing anybody.

• ·Tell a three-part story in the right order, with connectors.
• ·Sustain a five-minute conversation with a patient speaker.
• ·Recognise the top ~800 frequency words in speech, not just on the page.
• ·Hear where your own tones drift on words you already know.

1. d1Connectors of sequence: ก่อน, แล้วก็, หลังจากนั้น, สุดท้าย.120m
2. d2ตอน and พอ … ก็: anchoring one event to another.120m
3. d3Retell someone else's story, not your own.120m
4. d4Month-two grammar review, mixed and timed.120m
5. d5Sentence-deck day: the mined cards take over from the vocab deck.120m
6. d6Reading speed check: an unfamiliar paragraph, aloud, timed.120m
7. d7Month-two assessment. Five minutes, unscripted, with a patient speaker.125m

M2 reached: ~800 words, the tense and aspect system automatic, serial verbs produced without thinking about them, and five minutes of unscripted conversation with a patient speaker.

• ·Compare two things out loud and say which one you prefer, and why.
• ·Use กว่า and ที่สุด without dragging English word order across with them.
• ·Say that two things are the same, nearly the same, or different.
• ·Choose between two options in a shop without pointing and hoping.

1. d1กว่า, and why nothing else in the sentence changes shape.120m
2. d2ที่สุด, and where the superlative sits in the noun phrase.120m
3. d3เหมือน, คล้าย, เท่ากัน, ต่างกัน: same, similar, equal, different.120m
4. d4ไม่ค่อย, ค่อนข้าง, เกินไป: degree without exaggeration.120m
5. d5Shopping by comparison: quality, size, price.120m
6. d6Preferences: ชอบ…มากกว่า, and declining without saying ไม่.120m
7. d7Compare, choose and say why, out loud, in a real shop.120m

Comparison runs without assembly: กว่า and ที่สุด attach to the adjective and nothing else in the sentence moves. Degree words (ค่อนข้าง, ไม่ค่อย, เกินไป) are still slower than the comparison itself, and ยิ่ง…ยิ่ง is recognition only.

• ·Say that you have done something, or have never done it.
• ·Ask about someone's experience without asking them for a date.
• ·Talk about places in Thailand and outside it in more than one sentence.
• ·Answer the follow-up you will always get: how was it?

1. d1เคย and ไม่เคย: the past with no date attached.120m
2. d2เคย…ไหม, and the echo answer that replaces yes.120m
3. d3ตั้งแต่ and มาแล้ว: duration that runs up to now.120m
4. d4Frequency: บ่อย, ประจำ, นานๆ ครั้ง.120m
5. d5Places: districts, provinces, and the landscape words you will actually hear.120m
6. d6How was it: reacting to what someone else has done.120m
7. d7Ask three people what they have never done.120m

เคย and ไม่เคย are automatic, and the echo answer has replaced the reflex to say yes. ตั้งแต่ and มาแล้ว still need a beat of thought, and place names beyond your own province are recognised more often than produced.

• ·Soften, insist, agree and hand back using particles alone.
• ·Hear the difference between a neutral Thai sentence and a curt one.
• ·Stop building French politeness out of syntax and use the Thai one.
• ·Say the same sentence four ways and know what each version does.

1. d1นะ: the particle that fixes most of your curtness.120m
2. d2สิ: encouragement and impatience in the same syllable.120m
3. d3เลย in its three unrelated jobs.120m
4. d4ล่ะ and the conversational handback.120m
5. d5จัง, มากๆ, สุดๆ: intensity without volume.120m
6. d6The same sentence, four particles, four outcomes.120m
7. d7A conversation graded on register, not on grammar.120m

นะ and ล่ะ are automatic and your sentences no longer land flat. สิ and จัง are produced only with people you know well, which is correct. เลย is understood in all three of its jobs but produced mostly in the ไม่ … เลย one.

• ·State an opinion with คิดว่า and hedge it so a disagreement survives.
• ·Report what somebody else said without quoting them word for word.
• ·Narrate the past and the future inside the same conversation.
• ·Sustain ten minutes with a patient speaker without switching to English.

1. d1ว่า, the complementiser that does everything.120m
2. d2คิดว่า and รู้สึกว่า, and hedging so a disagreement survives.120m
3. d3บอกว่า: reported speech with no tense shift.120m
4. d4Agreeing and disagreeing without a confrontation.120m
5. d5น่ากิน, น่าไป, น่าเบื่อ: the น่า pattern.120m
6. d6Month-three grammar review: comparatives, เคย, particles, ว่า.120m
7. d7Month-three assessment: ten minutes, unscripted, past and future in the same conversation.120m

M3 reached: ~1000 words, past and future narrated in the same conversation, opinions stated with a reason attached and hedged when they need to be, and ten minutes sustainable with a patient speaker. Native-speed group conversation is still out of reach.

• ·Build a conditional with the ก็ that French makes you want to omit.
• ·Distinguish 'if' from 'when' where Thai uses the same word.
• ·Talk about a plan that depends on something else.
• ·Make, move and refuse an arrangement without saying no.

1. d1ถ้า, and the ก็ that has to be there.120m
2. d2เวลา and ตอนที่: 'when' as a habit against 'when' as a moment.120m
3. d3พอ … ก็: the second thing happens the moment the first does.120m
4. d4ก็ได้, ไม่ก็, หรือไม่ก็: offering an alternative.120m
5. d5Plans that depend on the weather, on money, or on someone else.120m
6. d6Refusing an arrangement without ever saying no.120m
7. d7Make one real plan in Thai, conditional on something real.120m

Conditional sentences produced live: ถ้า … ก็, เวลา, ตอนที่, พอ … ก็ and ก็ได้ available without planning. Arrangements made and declined in the Thai way. About 1090 words.

• ·Place a modal before the verb and get the certainty you meant.
• ·Guess out loud without committing to anything.
• ·Say you are not sure in a way that invites help.
• ·Understand a Thai answer that is deliberately non-committal.

1. d1คง and คงจะ: the guess you would put money on.120m
2. d2น่าจะ in its two senses.120m
3. d3อาจจะ, and why it is not ได้.120m
4. d4แน่ๆ, แน่นอน, ชัวร์: committing.120m
5. d5มั้ง, and the register it carries.120m
6. d6Reading a non-committal Thai answer correctly.120m
7. d7Guess about five things out loud, hedged correctly.120m

The pre-verbal modal slot used deliberately: คง, น่าจะ, อาจจะ, แน่ๆ and มั้ง each at the right strength and the right register. Polite non-answers read correctly. About 1170 words.

• ·Attach a clause to a noun with ที่ and keep the word order straight.
• ·Describe a person or a thing precisely enough to be found.
• ·Build a noun phrase four words long without losing the head noun.
• ·Understand ซึ่ง when you read it, without producing it.

1. d1ที่ as a relativiser, and the two other words spelled ที่.120m
2. d2คนที่, ของที่, ร้านที่: describing so someone can identify.120m
3. d3การ + verb: turning an action into a thing.120m
4. d4ความ + adjective: turning a quality into a thing.120m
5. d5Long noun phrases, read aloud without losing the head.120m
6. d6Written Thai: ซึ่ง, ผู้, กล่าวคือ, spotted rather than said.120m
7. d7Describe a lost object precisely enough for someone to find it.120m

Relative clauses and long noun phrases produced live, การ and ความ recognised on sight, written-register ที่ (ซึ่ง, ผู้) read without a dictionary. About 1250 words.

• ·Choose a pronoun by relationship and age, not by grammatical person.
• ·Shift register deliberately between an official, a neighbour and a friend.
• ·Recognise กู and มึง without ever using them.
• ·Get through an official counter without being handed an English form.

1. d1Age is grammar: พี่ and น้อง as pronouns.120m
2. d2ลุง, ป้า, น้า, หนู: family words aimed at strangers.120m
3. d3Formal register: the counter, the form, the officer.120m
4. d4Casual register, and what to recognise but never say.120m
5. d5Particle register: ครับผม, จ้ะ, ฮะ, ค่า.120m
6. d6Dropping the pronoun entirely: the native option.120m
7. d7One real interaction at an official counter.120m

Register handled as a claim about a relationship: kinship pronouns on strangers, formal register at a counter, casual register with friends, and the pronoun dropped when neither fits. About 1330 words.

• ·Talk about what you do and what it involves.
• ·Handle money beyond a market price: bills, transfers, deposits, refunds.
• ·Read a receipt, a bill and a simple contract line.
• ·Sustain fifteen minutes with a speaker who is not slowing down much.

1. d1Work: jobs, tasks, colleagues, hours.120m
2. d2ค่า- compounds: every recurring cost you pay.120m
3. d3Bills, transfers, deposits, refunds.120m
4. d4Reading a receipt and a contract line aloud.120m
5. d5Month-four grammar, mixed and timed.120m
6. d6Speed listening: one clip at native speed, three passes.125m
7. d7M4 assessment: fifteen minutes, unscripted, register switched.125m

M4 reached: about 1400 words, conditionals and hedging produced without planning them, register switched deliberately, and fifteen minutes sustained with a speaker making only small concessions. Group conversation at full speed still loses you.

• ·Stack particles in the right order and know why the order is fixed.
• ·Correct a wrong assumption with หรอก without contradicting flatly.
• ·Sound like someone who lives here rather than someone who studied here.
• ·Hear a three-particle stack in fast speech and parse it as one chunk.

1. d1Why particles stack, and the fixed order they stack in.120m
2. d2หรอก: correcting someone gently.120m
3. d3เถอะ and ซะ: pushing someone gently and pushing them harder.120m
4. d4ด้วย: 'too', 'as well', and 'please also'.120m
5. d5Three particles at once, in fast speech, parsed.120m
6. d6Ten sentences that differ only in their ending.120m
7. d7A conversation graded on the particles alone.125m

Two- and three-particle endings produced in the right order and heard in running speech, หรอก used for correction, เถอะ and ด้วย used without translating first, and a twelve-minute unscripted conversation in which most turns end the way a Thai turn ends.

• ·Use โดน and ถูก where Thai actually uses them, and not where it does not.
• ·Say that someone made you or let you do something, with ให้.
• ·Report a problem, a loss or an accident to someone official.
• ·Understand a complaint aimed at you, at news pace.

1. d1โดน, and why it carries a grudge.120m
2. d2ถูก: the same passive in a suit and tie.120m
3. d3The passive you should not use: topic first, verb active.120m
4. d4ให้ as a causative: make, let, have someone do it.120m
5. d5ทำให้: cause and effect in one word.120m
6. d6Reporting a loss, a theft or an accident.120m
7. d7Report one real problem to someone in authority.125m

The adversative passive produced correctly and the French passive suppressed, ให้ and ทำให้ used apart, a loss or an accident reported to someone in authority in Thai only, and incident reports followed at news pace.

• ·Chain cause to effect across two or three clauses without the thread breaking.
• ·Concede a point and still make yours, with both halves marked.
• ·Explain and excuse without sounding defensive.
• ·Follow a Thai explanation that puts the reason before the conclusion.

1. d1เพราะ and เพราะว่า: the reason, stated plainly.120m
2. d2เลย as 'so': the third job of a word you already know.120m
3. d3จึง and ดังนั้น: the register you will read, not speak.120m
4. d4ถึงแม้ … แต่, and the แต่ that French makes you drop.120m
5. d5Reason first, conclusion last.120m
6. d6A decision explained in three linked clauses.120m
7. d7Explain one real decision to a real person.125m

Causal and concessive chains produced across three clauses, เลย used as the spoken 'so' and จึง and ดังนั้น recognised in writing, reason-first word order used more often than not, and a real decision explained to a real person who asked a follow-up.

• ·Use fifteen ใจ compounds correctly and stop parsing them into parts.
• ·Recognise common idioms instead of translating them word by word.
• ·Describe an emotional state in Thai categories rather than French ones.
• ·Sustain twenty minutes with a speaker at nearly full speed.

1. d1ใจ as the seat of everything: the first ten compounds.120m
2. d2The second ten, including the ones that are not about emotion.120m
3. d3Idioms, taken whole and not decoded.120m
4. d4Emotions in Thai categories, not French ones.120m
5. d5Month five, mixed: particles, the passive, and the chains.120m
6. d6Speed listening at native pace, no concessions.120m
7. d7M5 assessment: twenty minutes, near full speed.125m

M5: about 1700 words, the passive and causal chains produced correctly, particles stacked naturally, ใจ compounds and common idioms used whole, and twenty minutes of conversation sustained at nearly full speed.

• ·Hold your turn while you think, in Thai, without switching to English.
• ·Change the subject, come back to a point, and close a topic.
• ·Interrupt and be interrupted without losing the thread.
• ·Signal that you have understood before the speaker finishes.

1. d1คือ, and buying yourself two seconds.120m
2. d2แบบว่า, อ่ะ, เอ่อ: hesitation that sounds native rather than lost.120m
3. d3จริงๆ แล้ว and the correction of your own point.120m
4. d4Changing the subject, and coming back to one.120m
5. d5Back-channelling: what to say while the other person talks.120m
6. d6Interrupting and being interrupted.120m
7. d7Twenty minutes in Thai with no English, and an honest count of the switches.120m

~1780 words. Turn-holding, topic management and back-channelling are running on fixed phrases rather than on improvisation, which is what makes them reliable. Twenty minutes of one-to-one conversation with no English switch. Group conversation at full speed is still ahead of you.

• ·Recognise the reduced forms of words you know cold in their full form.
• ·Cope with a Northeastern or Southern accent for the length of a transaction.
• ·Hear a sentence at full speed and repeat it before you have parsed it.
• ·Stop needing the speaker to slow down.

1. d1Reduction: the twenty words that shrink most.120m
2. d2Dropped syllables and swallowed finals.120m
3. d3Isaan features you will meet daily.120m
4. d4Southern features, and the ones that change the tone.120m
5. d5Slang and youth register: recognise, do not use.120m
6. d6Full-speed shadowing with no slow-down.120m
7. d7Two full-speed conversations back to back, with no slow-down asked for.120m

~1855 words. The reduced forms of the highest-frequency words are heard as words rather than as noise, regional accents survive a transaction, and you ask for repetition in Thai rather than switching languages. Full-speed conversation between other people is still not comprehensible, and this week did not fix that.

• ·Find your own systematic errors from recordings rather than from a list.
• ·Fix the tone drift on the words you use most, which is where it hides.
• ·Kill the French phrase-final stress reflex for good.
• ·Get one native speaker to correct you honestly and act on it.

1. d1Record twenty minutes of yourself and listen to all of it.120m
2. d2Tone drift audit: your fifty most-used words, checked against the engine.120m
3. d3Vowel length audit: the pairs you still collapse.120m
4. d4Final consonants: release, and where it is still happening.120m
5. d5Phrase-final stress: the French reflex, hunted in the pitch traces.120m
6. d6Grammar errors you have been making since month two.120m
7. d7One native speaker, one honest correction session, acted on.120m

~1930 words, and for the first time an error list that came from your own speech. Tone drift audited against the engine, vowel length and finals repaired under blocked practice, and three long-standing errors actually fixed. The phrase-final French reflex is quieter, not gone.

• ·Sustain a thirty-minute unscripted conversation.
• ·Read a menu, a sign and a short article aloud without help.
• ·Name precisely what you can and cannot do in Thai.
• ·Have a maintenance plan that survives the end of the course.

1. d1Full grammar review: months 1 and 2.120m
2. d2Full grammar review: months 3 and 4.120m
3. d3Full grammar review: months 5 and 6.120m
4. d4Reading: a menu, a sign and a short article, aloud and timed.120m
5. d5Listening: three native clips, no subtitles, no replays.120m
6. d6The maintenance plan: what the deck looks like from month seven.120m
7. d7Final assessment: thirty minutes, unscripted, honestly scored.120m

M6 REACHED, and this is the last day of the course. ~2000 words, ILR roughly 1+. Concretely: you order food, take taxis, shop in markets, describe your day, give a simple opinion and defend it a little, read signs and menus, and hold thirty minutes of one-to-one conversation with someone willing to talk to you. Your tones are correct on vocabulary you have practised. That is what 360 hours buys, and it is what the plan said it would buy. What it does not buy, and never claimed to: following two Thais talking to each other at full speed, the news, or an abstract discussion. Those need another 700 hours or so, and pretending otherwise today would make the last six months dishonest. The next step is not another course. It is talking to real people, every day, with the maintenance deck running in the background. Everything from here is hours, not curriculum.