The Tower of Confusion and Smart.fm…
The Tower of Confusion discusses language learning. If you have the time, cruise through Edwin’s Learning Tips or see what he has to say about Stuart Jay Raj.
In Edwin’s post, The Most Effective Way to Learn Hiragana, I was reminded once again about Smart.fm.
One nice thing about Smart.fm set is that it provides example sentences and audio clips associated with each word.
(Please note that the Thai section is different from the Japanese in that not all sets have sound)
Learn Thai with Smart.fm…
Smart.fm is similar to Byki Deluxe (a top fav of mine) in that you can add your own files. One difference is that Smart.fm for English is 100% online, and with Byki you don’t need to be connected to the Internet.
At the present time, Smart.fm has 39 sections for learning Thai: consonants, vowels, holiday vocabulary, basic conversation, reading, speaking, etc. Some have transliteration only (no Thai script), some have Thai script, some have sound. Some have even been lifted from Benjawan’s Thai for Beginners.
Overall, for Thai it’s a crap shoot. No surprise as Thai is not exactly a popular language to learn. But as Smart.fm is a quality product, the Thai section will eventually grow. Maybe.
I did a quick whip round to select a few sections, and found Paul Garrigan. Small world. Paul is a busy guy but he was happy to share his experience with Smart.fm.
I think Smart.fm is probably the best example of this type of tool. It is easy to manage and fun to use. I particularly like the Brain Speed test. I turn off the typing part of the test because I just can’t type Thai that fast; I might try to learn Thai touch-type when I have more time.
The Brain Speed test is one of the learning options. It is a game and you only have a few seconds to give the correct answer from a list of options; it is very fast. Those who get the highest scores on the game go into the Smart FM wall of fame – of course my name is missing from this list.
I only use the most basic functions. It is possible to add sounds and pictures but I don’t bother with this. I just create a set and use the add item to input a Thai word and its English equivalent.
A bit of what Paul has been up to on Smart.fm:
Thai Numerals
Reading Thai Vocab 1
Reading Thai Vocab 2
A sampling of what’s on offer at Smart.fm…
Most of the items below have both script and sound. I didn’t check for transliteration (my bad).
Thai month names
Creator: crishoj
Items: 12
Reading 1
Creator: thailessons
Items: 169
Speaking lesson 1
Creator: sfrents
Items: 204
Sentences: 77
The sentences are what makes this set a powerful lesson.
Random Thai vocabulary
Creator: indicus
Items: 305
This one has script but no sound, but the vocabulary is interesting.
Smart.fm on YouTube…
If you want to know how Smart.fm works, these two YouTube videos will do:
More explanations are on the tour: smart.fm/tour
The Smart.fm iPhone app and more…
Woooof! Smart.fm has an iPhone app! But… they’ve already discontinued it. Well, all except for the Japanese market… Grrrrrrrr.
Anyway, I’m sitting here with scads and scads of old Thai lessons with script and sound, so maybe I’ll throw them on Smart.fm in the coming weeks. And maybe my stuff will be live before this post is. We’ll see…
Follow Smart.fm on Facebook and twitter:
Facebook: SmartfmTeam
Twitter: @SmartfmTeam
And if you do follow Smart.fm, please tell them to bring back the iPhone app for English users!
Enjoy…