Learn to Speak Thai – Thai Language Courses

In addition to our mainstream internships, Thailand Gap Internships operates a language school on Koh Tao.

Have taught Thai to ‘farangs’ (westerners) for over 10 years, the teachers at the language school deliver fun, interactive Thai language classes each evening.

Through practical teaching methods, knowledge of sentence structure and vocabulary we’ll have you confidently speaking Thai in no time. This gives you a massive advantage when dealing with Thai people, and will enrich your experience of Koh Tao and Thailand.

We have several options depending on how long you’re spending on the island, ranging from an introductory 5 hour course, through to our 30 hour comprehensive courses.  As always you’ll be sure to get a great deal on the Thai language classes when combining with our mainstream internships – for full details drop us an email.

Here’s an outline of our most popular courses:

5 hour introductory course:

• Introduction to the Thai Language

• Greetings and introducing yourself

• Basic Sentence Structure

• Useful phrases

• Asking and answering questions

Full Courses [30 hours each]:

Thai Language Course 1: ‘Discover Thai’

• Greetings & Saying Farewell

• Introducing Yourself and Others

• Pronouns & Words Used to Address People

• Basic Sentence Structure

• Asking & Answering Questions

• General Useful Phrases

• Asking & Answering Questions About Work

• Phrases for Learning More Thai

• Ordering Food & Drinks

• Numbers 1

• Prepositions (in, on, at, etc.)

• Asking About the Location of People, Landmarks and Items

• Using Verbs and Past & Future Tenses (e.g. Where are you eating? / Where did you go to eat? / Where are you going to eat?)

• Question Terms (What? / Which? / Where? / Would you like …? / How many …? / Can you …? / May I please …? / … isn't it?)

• Common Expressions 1

• Classifiers 1

Thai Language Course 2: Foundation Course

• Bargaining

• Taking taxis & buses

• Days, dates & times

• Prepositions (in front of, past, opposite, behind, beside. etc)

• Numbers 2

• Thai currency

• Asking & answering questions about directions

• Using negative questions (very common in Thai)

• Asking for permission or items

• Using Present, Simple & Future Continuous Tenses

• Question terms: (Which? When? How long? What time?)

• Driving Instructions

• Common Expressions 2

• Classifiers 2

• Thai proverbs

Thai Language Course 3: Explorer Course

• Using "but & also"

• Family & ages

• Using the verb "to be" with "still, not yet, ever & never"

• Ordinal numbers (as first child, second child, etc)

• Using Adverbs (again, another time)

• Using "Could you please …?"

• Using "for, to, this, that & have to (must)"

• Using "waa" in Thai - As I said that, she thinks that, I told … that, etc.

• Using "How many + classifiers & many + classifiers" which is very common in Thai.

• Using "Every & Each & Some" - every house, some houses, etc

• Using "If, then, same as, because, should & together"

• Using "Gaw" - It is a linking word that gives a hypothetical, indirect & understated meaning to a sentence.

• Medical Problems

• Thai idioms & Phrases 1

• Question terms

• (Have you …? /Have you ever …? / How is …? / What is it like? Who? Why? / Why don't you? / Which?)