Tuttle Publishing needs no introduction if you’re interested in most Asian languages. They produce works in almost every well-known Asian language as well as content such as martial arts, history, art, etc. Stuart Robson and Prateep Changchit’s Instant Thai occupies a niche most language books don’t. It’s a phrasebook based on you acquiring some actual linguistic knowledge of Thai.
You aren’t getting a traditional phrasebook or a textbook; you’re getting something that will let you actually learn enough Thai to get by. You aren’t going to learn to read from this work, but you aren’t just blindly memorizing phrases either. I wish something like this had existed (or that I knew about it) when I learned Mandarin or any of the other languages I’ve dabbled in.
This is either a good jump for someone trying to make textbook learning better, or a good way to learn enough to actually speak. If you aren’t interested in languages at all and just want to get by, this book isn’t going to be a good fit for you. If you like languages even a little, this book will give you a lot of communication with little commitment. I would suggest it to anyone serious about learning Thai. Let’s go over how the layout, what it does well, where it lacks, and more about the series to see if it’s a good fit for you.
Layout
The entire series is laid out a as a list of 100 key words or phrases which produce over 1,000 different communicative ideas. This works out to a vocabulary word, a saying or phrase, or a grammar particle being introduced. Each section has a mix of more developed examples, grammar notes, and cultural notes.
This book is laid out with an introduction, a pronunciation guide, then 10 units of 10 sections of keywords each (this is a bit different for the parts of the series I looked at), and appendices and a English-Thai dictionary at the end. There also some manga style comics with dialogues interspersing certain sections. The layout is straightforward enough, but the magic is in the actual material itself.
Each section has a general topic, ranging from greetings (getting to know you), asking questions, etc. The topics gradually get more complex and go through a similar differentiation as a standard phrasebook or vocabulary book. Each topic has 10 subtopics which are made up of a word, a phrase, or a grammatical function. These are laid out in a way which benefit both casual and academic learners.
You get a lot of examples of something in action focusing on a practical and applicable subset. It’s not exhaustive, but it doesn’t have to be. You also get a mix of pieces which enable you to build a dialogue, or apply real examples using a term. Each section and subsection is relatively self-contained, but you want to keep note of certain sections before proceeding. These aren’t marked, but if you have spent some time learning Thai elsewhere, they should pop out.
Where It Excels
If you’ve put a little effort into learning Thai already, or you add in another travel course this system will take you far. This isn’t a phrasebook to thumb through while someone is talking, it’s a system to learn to express yourself with as little wasted effort as possible. That being said, it expects you to use context, a phrasebook (or similar), or actual formal learning to round off the edges. You’re not going to be fluent from this book, but you are going to be able to communicate your needs.
This course dispenses with more formalized expectations that you want to keep going when you’re done without giving up all structure. You get enough to go far, but you still need to work at it. This book has reinforced things which took me months to really encounter by delivering them in a different form. If you’re learning the Thai writing system with this (maybe you should), you’ll go even further.
Each unit is more self-contained and digestable at the expense of long-term systematic learning. This tends to be weak on its own, but I like to use many different resources when learning a language. This helps provide an way to distill elements of vocabulary, grammar, usage, and culture at the expense of putting everything together. Get the glue elsewhere and you’re going to save time and efficiency.
If you plan to travel or are learning Thai more formally at the earlier levels, this book will be a huge boon. This book will help you as long as you want to do more than just scrape by. The pronunciation system it uses is close enough to any other romanization scheme too.
Weaknesses
You’re not learning to read or write from this book. There are a few areas where the tones don’t match up (at least one typo, a few might be casual, spoken preference) and a couple minor typos. The content is good, but it inhabits a niche because of the unique mix of strengths and weaknesses it gets from its mixed approach. You need at least a little preliminary learning to make it really work without a lot of patience.
Most Thai books use some romanization scheme, but there really isn’t a standard. You get what you get when you buy a book on Thai. This book is as good as any in that regard, but it doesn’t deal with the writing system at all which means you’re at the mercy of romanization. There are a few spots where this can bite you due to missing diacritics for tones and the occasional typo. Previously learning the writing system and using a small Thai dictionary helped me square it away.
This book doesn’t occupy the niche for phrasebooks or formal Thai language materials. You get something which uses a more phrasebook approach for an academic system, or a formalized system for a phrasebook of content. Some things aren’t included due to the brevity. Each lesson is self-contained, but you want some background to go with them. Any decent Thai course would go great with this.
The Series and Publisher
This is my first foray into the series, but I have noticed a different focus for different books from browsing. The Instant Chinese entry has a bit of a different order, but the general quality looks similar from the quick sample I went over. It also felt a bit more like a plainer phrasebook.
I noticed similar with some of the other language entries, but I’m not really qualified enough in the other languages to give a good review. Instant Vietnamese has audio content to go with the book while the others don’t (as of late 2020). I hope they continue to develop the series similarly as it shows a lot of promise.
This is admittedly my first time looking this deep into the publisher. Tuttle’s story is a long one and started in the Occupation and Reconstruction of Japan. I knew they had been a publisher for a while, but never learned how they got started. This probably isn’t a factor in whether you purchase the book or not, but might be an interesting piece of trivia at least.
Using This Book to Learn
If you’re working to learn Thai seriously, this book is a great tool. I wouldn’t use it as my first or only resource, but it definitely fleshes out any textbook course as long as you get at least a few chapters in. The book cuts out a lot of the pronunciation and basic grammar expecting you to get them elsewhere first. This probably won’t matter if you’re just traveling, but if you’re serious about learning Thai, you want to shore these up first.
If you’re already learning to read and write Thai, this book is near flawless. I would just recommend a dictionary, like Tuttle’s own Mini Thai Dictionary to correct some of the romanization issues. I didn’t find any issues which would hinder communication, but I’m a bit of a perfectionist nonetheless.
This book seems indispensable if you’re serious about learning Thai. You get a way to quickly harness useful vocabulary outside of formal lessons, but without it just being a phrasebook. You get a context and a usage which gives life to the language you’re learning. There’s also a mix of raw vocabulary using a word and that vocabulary in action.
The other books in the series feel a bit more like phrasebooks, but this book isn’t afraid to occupy a niche few books do. The cultural notes add depth, and the grammar sections explain things plainly and directly. If you’re buying into learning the language more than a tourist, this book is for you. If you’re learning Thai formally, this book will help you. Get this book if you’re interested in learning Thai for more than just bare minimum communication.
Get it here.