Book excerpt: Learn the basics of Thai quickly and easily! Easy Thai is exciting and helpful for beginning Thai Language students and anyone who needs a functional day-to-day grasp of colloquial Thai. An excellent resource to learn Thai, its twelve chapters cover practical and useful conversation topics such as introductions, telling the time, directions, ordering food and shopping. Each chapter opens with a dialogue that introduces the new language in context and contains: Vocabulary lists Grammar notes Sentence patterns Exercises Notes on culture and etiquette. All dialogues, vocabulary lists, and sentence patterns are rendered in Thai script, romanized Thai, and English. In the comprehensive, concise introduction to Easy Thai, you will understand how to pronounce, read and write the Thai language. A bilingual dictionary at the end of the book gives translations for approximately 1,000 common words in both Thai and English. Downloadable audio provides sample conversations by native Thai speakers, helping you to practice authentic pronunciation. Easy Thai contains everything you as a beginning language learner need to know about the basics of Thai, making you a more effective communicator from the very first lesson without having to resort to long, dull, expensive courses of study!