Successful Thai Language Learner: Fabian Blandford

Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners…

Name: Fabian Blandford (Phra Piyadhammo)
Nationality: British/English
Age range: 60 next year
Sex: Male
Location: Wat SriBunRuang, Fang, Chiangmai
Profession: Theravada monk (Army retired)

What is your Thai level?

I would say Good to advanced. I do not consider myself fluent because I know my tones are not always correct and I have always tended to be a bit lax about them. I sometimes say to Thais “If after living here for nearly twenty years, I couldn’t speak Thai you would say I’m lazy wouldn’t you?” and usually they’d agree, I then say “Well, my Thai isn’t perfect, but I’m not lazy!”

Do you speak more street Thai, Issan Thai, or professional Thai?

Street Thai, but since I have spent nearly all the time in the north of Thailand I probably mix both Lanna Thai and Central Thai in my conversation.

What were your reasons for learning Thai? My very first visit to Thailand was in 1990 coming from Hong Kong where I was in my final posting in the Army after 25 years service. A friend there had just been to Korat where our soldiers, Gurkhas, had spent a month training with the Thai Army. He came back with tales and when I decided to visit he asked me to bring a gift to a lady friend he had met there. So I went to Korat after a couple of days in Bangkok and liked the place so ended up spending nine days there. Unlike Bangkok or Pattaya etc. very few people spoke any English so it was a struggle to communicate and I felt frustrated. I knew I would come again so went back to Hong Kong determined to start learning. I bought the Linguaphone course as soon as I could.

Do you live in Thailand? If so, when did you arrive?

After my first visit I managed another six trips in the last two years of my Army service since I got plenty of leave before retirement. Then I spent the next year back and forth a few times and came to stay in 1993. I spent the next five years in Chiangmai and then met my wife and moved to Fang, her home, before we married.

How long have you been a student of the Thai language?

Since the first visit in 1990.

Did you learn Thai right away, or was it a many-pronged approach?

I got the Linguaphone course when I went back to Hong Kong and started that.

Did you stick to a regular study schedule?

The course had forty lessons and I worked my way through them eventually, mixed up with a lot of real practice on my visits here. A fellow soldier also started to visit and he got the course too so we studied together and visited together sometimes. His friend, the original guy who told us about it, liked the night-life and used to visit the Go-Go bars in Wanchai where there were many Phillipinas and Thai girls. We met a few and practiced our Thai with them and one of them became my friend’s wife. The Phillipinas and Thais who worked as house-maids in Hong Kong used to meet up in Exchange Square every Sunday and shared food and stuff so we used to go and chat with them there when we couldn’t visit Thailand.

What Thai language learning methods did you try?

The Linguaphone course was the main one for me. When I moved to Chiangmai I took a course with the A.U.A. which used the same Mary Haas method as Linguaphone, but I had already covered most of the material and never took any more courses.

Did one method stand out over all others?

I still recommend the Linguaphone course now, and this was before the A.U.A. started their Natural Learning Method. Of course students now have so many alternatives, especially on the internet, but I haven’t really bothered to look at them.

How soon did you tackle reading and writing Thai?

The Linguaphone course had a small, but very good, guide to the Thai writing, which they recommended the student started upon after the first ten lessons. This enabled one to get used to the language structure and understand the tones etc. and it was good to get free of the transliteration system, which like all such are as much a hindrance as a help.

Did you find learning to read and write Thai difficult?

I wrote the odd letter to Thais before I retired, but honestly in the last fifteen years I have hardly written at all. I still find it slow to write anything in Thai on-line. Reading has been my main thing apart from daily conversation. I read a Dhamma book written by a Thai author which she had translated into English. Upon discovering that it was only a part of the story I bought the Thai version and started on that. It was difficult and I could only get about 50% but as time went on I became better and after several readings and then all the later volumes she also wrote I could understand more and more. She also wrote a column in the Thai bi-monthly magazine ‘Kulastri’ which I subscribed to for a couple of years. I have now started to try and translate her books into English but it is very slow and difficult. I believe it is more difficult than the original writing of them.

What was your first ‘ah hah!’ moment?

I remember the first couple of years when I was still only visiting Thailand and I used to buy cassette tapes of Thai pop music to listen to in my Walkman. I mused that it would be great if one day I was able to read the tiny lyrics they printed, and understand them. I suppose I have been able to for the past 15 years now. No big breakthrough, just a gradual improvement.

How do you learn languages?

Only Thai seems to come easily. I joke that perhaps I was Thai in a past life, so that is why I find the Thai easy, since perhaps I’m just remembering it, and why I feel so at home here with no desire to leave. I am now interested in learning Shan since there are many Shan communities here in my area, close to the Burma border. It is very similar to the Lanna Thai although the writing is closer to the Burmese. I never bothered to learn the Lanna script which few Thais know, but it looks similar to Lao to me.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Reading certainly is my strength, and conversation. Very useful now that I am a monk since all the chanting books are in Thai script, both the Pali and Thai translations, so I am able to learn from them, perhaps more difficult for Farang monks who cannot read Thai.

What is the biggest misconception for students learning Thai?

The writing looks difficult because of the lack of gaps between words and the fact there are 44 consonants and 33 vowels, but it isn’t beyond anyone. We must have confidence to get out and try our Thai even if it is only limited. The same applies to any second language really, break through that confidence wall and you’re off and running. We can do anything in life we want to, as long as we really want to and put in the effort.

Can you make your way around any other languages?

When in the army I spent seven years in Germany and got OK at conversation, but forgot all that whilst learning Thai. I haven’t been back to Germany since 1982. The French and Latin they stuffed into us at school I promptly forgot too. I always wanted to learn Japanese, and perhaps if my life had taken a different direction I might have been living in Japan and speaking Japanese with a Japanese wife and kids.

Were you learning another language at the same time as Thai?

I had no interest in learning Hong Kong Chinese because of its limited use, and also because of the way they looked upon Gweilo which compared like chalk and cheese with how the Thais were to Farang.

Are you a computer programmer, or do you have programming experience?

I dabbled with Basic programming on my first home computer, the Acorn BBC Micro, but not since.

Do you have a passion for music and or you play an instrument?

I have always loved music but never had the patience to learn an instrument. When I listened to Jethrow Tull I wanted to be able to play the flute, with Riverdance I wanted to play the Uellian pipes, with Supertramp the Sax etc.

What advice would you give to students of the Thai language?

I used to have a copy of the Mary Haas Thai/English students dictionary which was very good. I also had a large English/Thai dictionary at home too. The smaller pocket dictionaries didn’t really get much use.

I started early on to make my own personal dictionary. I got a strong hard-bound notebook and labeled the corners similar to A-Z using the Mary Haas transliteration system, so kai went under K and khai went after K under the kh tab. I filled in all the words from my Linguaphone course book, then started adding new words as I learned them. I also wrote in the Thai script and English meaning. I find it hard to remember a word, but writing it down helps a lot. I would keep the personal dictionary with me at all times. I would know that a certain word I had met before was in my Personal Dictionary and could find it far easier than going through thousands of words in a normal dictionary. I still have it, 20 years on, but only use it when writing, and haven’t really added to it for years now. Example pages are here: 1 – 2 – 3.

This last one is a table I made up from about six tables in the Thai script workbook from Linguaphone. I managed to simplify and combine them into one. M=medium; H=high; L=low; U=unpaired;D= dead; DL or DS = dead long or short.

regards,
Fabian Blandford (Phra Piyadhammo)