Who’s talking about learning Thai…
Welcome to the third edition in this series, where I share bloggers, twitter peeps, and podcasters all talking about the Thai language. The previous two posts can be found here: Archive for Talking About Learning Thai.
Apologies…yeah… again… this post should have gone around the first of the month but when I found myself sleepless in Seattle, I cratered. I’m now in Bangkok, but on Seattle time. Shrug. Same same. No different. Better luck next time? Heh.
WLT’s generous contributors…
November was a fabulous month for guest authors. First up was Nils Bastedo with How to Gain Insight into the Thai Language from How Thais Learn English. As you might have noticed, Thais speaking English will sometimes add a Thai twist to our language. In his post, Nils explains how to use this knowledge to help with Thai pronunciation.
There are a growing number of Thais learning Thai. Lani Cox (our first author in the series), grew up with pretty close to nadda Thai so has taken on the challenge. While Kaewmala, fluent in Thai, decided to learn the intriguing details of her native language. In her two posts, Thais Learning Thai: Kaewmala from Thai Talk: Part 1 and Part 2, we are impressed yet again by Kaewmala’s curiosity about the Thai language and culture.
When Lani sent in her Part 2 of A Thai Learning Thai, I was struck by the very useful advice: “I try to learn words that I don’t think I’ll ever use because this time around I know that just because I won’t ever use that word doesn’t mean someone else won’t.” Many times I skip over vocabulary out of disinterest, but Lani is so very right.
WLT’s prolific author, Hugh Leong, contributed the excellent post Is That a กัน Gan in Your Pocket?. Posts such as these increase our Thai vocabulary threefold. Thank you Hugh!
How Do YOU Say Worchestershire? isn’t exactly a guest post, but there were guest appearances from: Khun Gung, Khun Phairoh, Khun Narisa, Alex Szecsenyi, Amy Praphantanathorn, Christopher, Claudio Sennhauser, David Airey, Jill Schulman, Paul Garrigan, and Tom Stephan. Thanks all, I couldn’t have done it without your contributions.
Note: If you would like to contribute posts and/or if you have a talent for Thai, please contact me.
November: Who’s talking about learning Thai…
Andrej: Bakunin Learns Thai
Andrej, featured in the second post in this series, shares the resources working for him in List of educational kids videos. Andrej walks us through the method in Go Genius รู้รอบตัว – contents. The resource ’100 interesting things’ book series by Se-ed is new to me so after the holidays I’ll see about tracking them down.
As you know, Andrej is studying – or rather, ‘not’ studying – Thai via the ALG/TV method. And after reading a couple of November posts about learning a foreign language, he just wanted to make the point that for him, Learning Thai is a pleasure.
Still on a roll, Andrej finishes November with the informative, Working with a language partner.
Anothai Dara: Anothaidara.com
Anothai Dara is my favourite musical energiser bunny. And as it’s not possible to share everything posted, I’ve grabbed a few songs from the November blogroll: Pay Obeisance to the Earth, Is the Reception Bad (Or Is There a Problem With Your Heart)?, and Sleepless (it’s a sad song – but I couldn’t resist the title).
Thank you Anothai Dara, for taking the time to sub so many Thai songs.
Chris: chris_thai_student
Chris has two posts for November. The comic Opposites, where he shares the hilarious video by David Allen (not for young ears). And the more serious Homophones, where Chris discusses Chinese and Thai. It’s something I really haven’t thought about. Apparently, as Thai is tonal, with a tonal twist we are automatically thrown into new vocabulary, avoiding the homophone problem. Mostly.
David Long: AUA Thai blog
Last month I totally missed David Long’s post, The Natural Order of Language Acquisition where he discusses the order of learning a language: Understanding, speaking, reading, writing. Apologies David, you have now been included in my monthly check.
Hamish: TweetYourselfThai | twitter: @AjarnPasa
TweetYourselfThai covers recent happenings in Thailand. As this is November, we were treated to Loy Krathong. In Poo Dee Angrit – The English Gentleman Hamish brings in sound. I believe it’s a fabulous idea so if you do too, please stop by and say so.
Btw: not only is TweatYourselfThai on twitter, but Hamish has recently gone Facebook too.
Jon Russell: Jonny Foreigner
New daddy Jon offers some excellent advice in his post Preparation before learning to read Thai. My top pick? Ignore phonetic western spellings. Absolutely.
Kaewmala: Thai Woman Talks – Language, Politics & Love
The lovely Kaewmala treats us not only with two guest interviews on WLT, Part 1 and Part 2, but on her site she enlightens us about Thai Dog Idioms – Part 1: Pissed for My Canine Friends. And truthfully, I didn’t realise the lack in Thailand either (please read her post to see what I mean).
Lani Cox: tell thai heart
As mentioned above, guest author Lani sent in her wonderful post, A Thai Learning Thai: Lani: Part 2. And on her blog, she also penned Learning Thai is making me a better English teacher. If you too are doubting your Thai studies, or are teaching English at the same time as learning Thai, it’s a good read. Actually, it’s a good read no matter what.
Megan: Bangkok Reality Smackdown
While not exactly about learning Thai, I couldn’t resist sharing Megan’s clever post, Challenge: Explaining a Thai Music Video. Well done Megan :-) And with much hilarity, Megan delves into Challenge: Asking WHY. Btw, why in Thai is ทำไม /tam-mai/ (often followed by ไม่ เข้าใจ /mâi kâo jai/ – I don’t understand).
Paul Garrigan: paulgarrigan.com
Paul makes his first appearance in this series with the comic: And the Award for Slowest Ever Thai Language Learner Goes To… More please. Oh yes. More!
Palmisano: Thai Blog
Worth a look are three posts on ending particles: krap and ka, na and ah, and wa, woi, fa, and foi. Breaking the Thai Tones, Legally gets a mention as well.
Rikker Dockum: Thai 101
Rikker puts out a call for help with his Project Gutenberg Thailand (liberating public domain Thai literature), following it up with instructions in Some nitty gritty (and a sample Thai ebook).
And in Rikker’s October post, Bureaucracy insanity: What makes a good Thai teacher? the comments heated up a treat.
Sarawan: The Parent Vine Thailand
Please give a warm welcome to Sarawan (a Thai learning Thai). Sarawan brings us a brand spanking new site, The Parent Vine. The soft launch introduced the section, Learning Thai with your child. And while the post is marked October, the site wasn’t really open to the rest of the world until November sometime (hence, the mention here). The Parent Vine also has a forum, so drop in to say ‘hey’ if you have the time.
Snap: Learning Thai In Chiang Mai
In Probably my dumbest question…ever!, Snap asks a great question: “If singing is tonal and Thai is tonal, how can Thai be sung to a tune…exactly?” Rikker stops by to enlighten us all, so you be sure to stop by too! Following her musical debut, Snap jumps right into Dissecting The Elephant Song.
It’s interesting to watch Snap finding the many quirks of the Thai language. In So, is it soon, soon or soon? she comes across the R/L switch in Thai conversation.
Snap finishes off November with her First day of school. Yeah and congrats! I’m looking forward to many more posts from a new student learning Thai.
Talen: Thailand, Land of Smiles
Talen is doing fabulously with his Thai studies. Early November he came out with The Consonants. Impressive, and I can’t wait to see what he writes about next.
Terry Fredrickson and Jon Fernquest: Bangkok Post, Learning From News
While their section at the Bangkok Post is for Thais learning English, students of Thai reap the benefits as well.
My picks for November are: tolerance/intolerance, Living in America: conclusion, and Flood watch.
Podcasts about learning Thai…
Rikker: Bangkok Podcast
In the 7th of their Thai Language Series, Rikker covers Thai holidays. If you want to fast-forward to where Rikker makes his entrance, skip to 13.40 in iTunes.
YouTube channels about learning Thai…
This is a new section but as I’m out of time (Nov/Dec are crazy crazy) I’ve limited myself to introducing just one YouTube channel, the lovely Adjima (Mod).
Adjima Thaitrong: Learn Thai with Mod, fun & easy!
A new addition to Thai lessons on YouTube is Adjima Thaitrong, known as Mod. In November Adjima added four posts to her channel: Taxi conversation, verb to be, How to form Yes/No question and Learn Thai – Thai numbers (counting down).
Isn’t she lovely? If you want to take Thai lessons from Mod either in person or via Skype, her contact details have been added to WLT’s two sections for Thai teachers: Thai Teachers and Learn Thai via Skype: Locating Teachers and Schools.
You can also contact Mod via her new website: Learn Thai With Mod.
Please stay tuned for a dedicated post about Mod and her wonderful YouTube channel, set to go live towards the end of the month.
Bloggers who sometimes tweet more than they blog…
Ajarn Pasa: Tweet Yourself Thai | twitter: @AjarnPasa
Ajarn Pasa is one of the few here who gives twitter and blogging equal time.
Kaewmala: Thai Women Talks | twitter: @Thai_Talk @thai_idioms
Kaewmala is a political gal at @Thai_Talk but also shares needed insights on the Thai language at @thai_idioms and @lanna_talk.
Rikker Dockum: Thai 101 | twitter: @thai101
Rikker sometimes blogs, sometimes podcasts, but mostly twitters.
Who’s doing all that Thai twittering…
The (mostly) complete Thai twitter list:
@AjarnPasa
@andrewbiggs
@AnothaiDara
@English4thai
@js100radio
@ikimmim
@lanna_talk
@literallythai
@stu_jay
@Thai101
@ThaiAlive
@ThaiShortNews
@thai_idioms
@Thai_Talk
Please let me know if I’ve missed anyone.
Signing off…
Note: The full list of both twitter people and bloggers can be found here: Thai Language Bloggers. Again, let me know if anyone is missing.
Until the December version, enjoy…