Cracking Thai Fundamentals: A Thai Operating System for your Mind

I was extremely excited when I received this book and loved until around page 60. At which point, everything went to hell. If you didn't enroll in the online courses, there would be no way to complete the book. There are no videos or recordings with the book or online. The examples were too small to read with a magnifying glass. As suggested, I used a Thai friend to help but he couldn't read it either. Jay makes his book sound great. Don't believe him. I had considered taking the expensive $$$$$ online course but after reading the book I realized I would probably just get ripped off again.

This book is like a classroom lecture, which was refreshing. It's not like other Thai language books I've ordered; different, better in ways, but doesn't seem as well edited. This book feels like it could have been 50-100 pages shorter. That doesn't affect my 5-star rating. It's great for an Advanced Beginner (like myself) and I would consider it a good investment for almost any learner. $30 is a good price to get you some very valuable tips on learning Thai. It also got me to focus on learning Thai, which is worth a few dollars. I thought the organization was a little off, but, again, in the big scheme of things that means nothing. I'm not sure I would recommend this for someone with zero Thai knowledge; however, I would still say order the book and use with with another reference. The great thing about Stuart is he will get you to think linguistically, which was great. He can do things that my previous Thai teachers failed to grasp. Again, easily worth $30. For a backpacker, it's not the smallest book, and I might actually have to rip out about 50 pages when I travel instead of putting this book in my backpack. Nonetheless, it's so important to touch base on mouth position that anyone frustrated about speaking Thai needs to give this book a shot.

Very interesting book that have a different approach to understand the development and reason of the Thai ( and other Asian ) languages. I enjoy it though without the digital version you dont have the pronunciation so it might be better to get the digital copy, I wrote to the author a few days ago about it, asking if there's a way to find the audio files on line or to add the digital version for a discounted price so I may have an answer soon... This book will not teach you vocabulary so you need to learn from other sources along with it.

This book was fascinating. Granted, I didn't always follow all of the details on the history of how a sound morphs over time, but the whole mouth map was very eye opening. I've never paid so much attention to the movements of my lips, tongue and throat before. I will definitely be rereading many parts of this book. A great addition to my resources while trying to learn Thai.

This book is very technical and lots of information. Since i'm in love with the language, i found this book very useful. the examples are easy to understand plus i do know how to use the IPA. this is really helpful for me.

Excellent book but weighty! Author is a treasure of knowledge, overwhelming at times but appreciated nonetheless. Don't get this book if you are expecting another "learn in 10 minutes" kind of book. I think I will probably be studying this book for the rest of my life without fully grasping it all! Thai remains for me a marvelous yet mysterious language, which, in hindsight, is not all bad. The more I can speak, and read/write, Thai the more marvelous and mysterious it becomes!

Poorly edited information salad. A buffet of appetizers that doesn't offer much nutritional value. Whatever you see him rant on about on YouTube, in written format. Reluctant to recommend, or purchase his online course. Don't buy it thinking you'll improve your Thai in any significant way.

Great book! Well written, guy knows his stuff.

This book has some really useful insights into the Thai language and some good advice for learning and speaking Thai correctly. Especially helpfully is the thinking in meanings chapter and the section on the thai vowels however to get the most out of the book it is best accompanied with the online version.The reason for only giving four Stars is that the book is riddled with inconsistencies like missing exercises, typos and in at least one instance Contradictions, therefore the book is in desperate need of editing. Over all the content mostly out ways this.It has been 5 years since this book was released the author knows about the many errors it contains. I think it is about time it gets a new edition.I found what I thought to be a really accurate review of this book on goodreads.com which goes into a bit more detail and I found this really helpful to me because it confirmed what I was experiencing while studying this book.

Not a book that will help much in learning the language, it seems to be for learning about the language from a linguistic perspective. There may be some useful sections such as the part about thinking in meanings, I was expecting a section on grammar and was disappointed to find it lacked any information on the subject.The book itself is relatively well written, I can't really fault it but it's not very clear what the book includes before purchase. An expensive and lengthy book that did not help me much in my efforts to learn Thai.

Learning the Thai language is not a direct translation of English words to Thai words. Unlike many Thai books, this will help you with the nuances that can make Thai so difficult to learn to speak fluently. The "Floobenflahter" Analogy referred to in the book is a great example of this.Really useful to me as a type of resource I could not find elsewhere from someone who knows their stuff, so worth the price.

A really superb book. I've been trying to learn Thai with limited success for about 10 years and reading this book made a lot of things 'click' into place. The author clearly has a lot of enthusiasm for the Thai language and it does rub off and motivate you to learn.This is not a book to buy to learn Thai per se (as in to build Thai vocabulary - certainly not if you are just looking for a holiday phrasebook), but if you are serious about learning Thai, this is a must read, to give you the right foundation and approach.To get the most out of it, you probably need to also subscribe for the online course - but the book on its own is self-contained, so that is just an optional extra.

An excellent book. An English first language speaker who is starting out on Thai has a number of challenges to face. There are the old chestnuts about tones, orthography etc. But also there are the more complex issues like thinking about the real meanings of words and concepts. Stu takes all these back to basics and helps set the brain into Thai learning mode. Essential reading for those just about to start learning, but there is stuff in there for an upper intermediate learner as well. It is the book I wish I had read a few years ago. Tones are not now just sound patterns to imitate badly but by understanding why and how they are produced they become a natural byproduct of the throats movements. Great Book!