David Smyth updates Teach Yourself Thai …

Only a handful of Thai courses are highly thought of, and David Smyth’s Teach Yourself Thai is at the very top of that list.

When I asked polyglot Stu Jay Raj which books he’d recommend to students of the Thai language, David’s Teach Yourself Thai was the only course mentioned. And if you remember, Luca Lampariello (another polyglot), explained how he uses the series for his method described on WLT: An Easy Way to Learn Foreign Languages. There are many more kudos aimed at TYT, but I’ll stop here for now.

A heads up: Due to David’s generosity, I ended up with an extra boxed set of Complete Thai: Teach Yourself Thai. If you want to win one of your own, please read on.

Teach Yourself Thai: Contents…

When I sit down to write a review, I first check the contents to see what’s on offer. And skimming down the list below, you can see that Teach Yourself Thai is designed to continuously reinforce each lesson.

• What you will learn: Overview of the lessons.
• Dialogues: Thai script and transliteration that follow along with the audio files.
• Quick vocabulary: Newly introduced words.
• Insights: Language and culture tips from the author.
• Key phrases and expressions: Important phrases studied in the lesson.
• Language notes: Grammar usage pertinent to the lesson.
• Exercises: Questions to solidify the lessons into your brain.
• Reading and writing: Practice studying the Thai alphabet, vowels, tones, etc.
• Reading practice: Practice reading the Thai script previously studied.
• Key points: Outline of the main elements of each lesson.

To make sure the necessary subjects are covered, I also spend time with the chapter contents.

• Meet the author: A brief background on David Smyth.
• Only got a minute, five minutes, ten minutes?: Crash course on Thailand and the Thai language.
• Introduction: A bit more about the Thai language, as well as how to use the course.
• Pronunciation: Introduction to a tonal language.
• Lesson 1: How to say hello and goodbye, polite particles, addressing people, low class consonants, vowels, 1-10.
• Lesson 2: Your name, your nationality and place of origin, confirmation seeking question: chai mai, what questions, mid class consonants, vowels, 11-20.
• Lesson 3: Job conversations, where questions, location words, possession, live and dead syllables, 21-101.
• Lesson 4: Polite expressions, yes and no questions, mai and ler, location expressions, low class consonants, vowels, vowel shortener.
• Lesson 5: Taxi talk, how much questions, using can: verb + dai, hesitation device: gor, high class consonants, 1000-1,000,000.
• Lesson 6: Buying food at the market, asking what something is called, asking someone to repeat a word, question word + nai, yes no questions: ler and na, script review.
• Lesson 7: Shopping transactions, polite requests: kor + verb + noy, how questions, classifiers, colours, continuous actions, tone mark: mai ayk.
• Lesson 8: Ordering food, polite requests: kor + noun, reu yung, questions, alternative questions: X rue Y, location words: krun and tahng, two different uses of dooay, mai toh, and other tone marks.
• Lesson 9: Names of dishes, would like to: yak ja + verb hai, getting someone to do something, using can, verb + bpen, if sentences, verb + lairo, low class consonants, vowels.
• Lesson 10: Talking about your knowledge of Thai, verb + bpen + adverb, why questions, comparisons, mai koy – tao rai, using not very, words beginning with consonant clusters.
• Lesson 11: Kin terms, asking how many, asking who, nah + verb, less common consonants, vowel shortener.
• Lesson 12: Talking on the telephone, talking about the future, ja + verb, when questions, polite requests: chooy + verb + noy, verbs for saying and thinking with wah, seeking advice and making suggestions, miscellaneous spelling rules.
• Lesson 13: Coping strategies for when you don’t understand, to know: sahp, roo, roo jack, use of hai to mean for, names of letters, using a Thai dictionary.
• Lesson 14: How to talk about living and working in Bangkok, talking about things that happened in the past: keree + verb, ways of intensifying adjectives and adverbs, more uses for gor.
• Lesson 15: Making travel arrangements, to visit: teeo and yee um, expressing distance between two places, telling the time, questions about time.
• Lesson 16: Booking a hotel, days of the week, rue bplao, questions.
• Lesson 17: Looking for accommodation, gum lung ja + verb, negative questions, relative pronouns, months and seasons, dates and ordinal numbers, hai: to give, mai dai + verb.
• Key to the exercises: Answers to the lessons.
• Appendices: Consonant classes, Vowels, summary of tone rules, taking it further.
• Thai-English vocabulary: Roughly 400 words.
• English-Thai vocabulary: Roughly 400 words.
• Grammar index: Page numbers to locate the grammar rules discussed in the lessons.

I’m not going to go over each aspect of the course, but I would like to bring up the above mentioned 400 word vocabulary list.

The early stages of learning a tonal language such as Thai can be rough because everything is new. But with learning most any language, we are told that communicating at a basic level is possible with a bare bones vocabulary of 500. Fine. I buy that. Sort of.

But here’s the thing… where do we start with Thai? I’m bringing up this because, unlike with other languages, there is no such list available for the top 500, 1000, 2000, or 3000 words even, that one must know to get by in Thai.

Bottom line: David’s course is designed to teach students how to use 400 of the most commonly used Thai words (yes, I peeked – and yes, there are more than 400).

So there you go. The top 400 must know Thai words = an important selling point of David’s Teach Yourself Thai Complete.

Going for the quotes…

For comparisons, I do have the earlier version of Teach Yourself Thai. But instead of explaining the differences to you, I thought it more beneficial to ask David Smyth for a run down of his updated work.

The new version of Teach Yourself Thai (called Teach Yourself Complete Thai) is, at 358 pages, rather longer than the previous edition (242 pages).

I like to think that there have been a number of improvements. The first and second editions had 2 long dialogues in each unit, which was the standard format for all Teach Yourself language books. The result was that the dialogues were rather long and sometimes contained too much vocabulary and grammar for the learner to take on comfortably in one section. In the present edition, most units contain 3 or 4 shorter dialogues which, I hope, makes the content easier to absorb.

Another significant difference is that Thai script is now included in the language notes, with example sentences now appearing over 3 lines, in Romanized Thai, followed by Thai script and then English translation. This means that there is now more Thai script in this edition than the previous one. By covering up one or two of the lines, users can use the examples to test themselves on their reading and writing. I was really pleased that the publisher recognized the value of this revision, even though it is not the most efficient use of space on the page.

Other changes include revised ‘insight’ notes, a ‘key points’ section at the end of each unit, more pronunciation exercises, replacing some unwieldy dialogues (e.g getting to the Reno Hotel in a samlor, and buying four 12-baht stamps) and updating with words like ‘internet’ and ‘Suvarnabhumi.

No matter how many times you proof read a book like this, there are always misprints and errors that slip through. If any users notice errors and care to inform me at I will try to ensure that the corrections are incorporated in future reprints.

Btw: David’s interview on WLT can be read here: Successful Thai Language Learner: David Smyth.

Polyglot Geoffrey Barto from Multilingua (and others) recently wrote a review of the Teach Yourself Complete update.

With Teach Yourself Complete, it feels like some real strides have been made. There seems to be more emphasis on content and doing something with it and less emphasis on puzzling things out by means of vocabulary lists.

If you take up the whole package – text plus CDs – and load the CDs on your iPod, you wind up with a fairly handy program for learning [ ] 5-15 minutes at a time. If you’re short of time, you can do one dialog. If you’ve got half an hour to kill, you can make it halfway through a chapter. In either case, you should start by listening, then turn to the book to make sure you’ve understood. In this way, for the first time, you can really use a Teach Yourself course to learn a language by ear while having a text as a fallback, instead of the other way around.

And as Sophie (regular visitor and fellow hermit) is presently learning Thai via TYT, I asked for her opinion as well.

I cannot say enough positive things about Teach Yourself Thai by David Smyth. I have been trying other resources and I have to say this one works the best for me and is my absolute favorite. It is the one I will be using. Why?  Because it is so wonderfully well written, clear, and easy to understand.

I love the way the lessons progress and build upon each other. He puts it all together as far as the study course. Read, write, listen, and repeat, repeat, repeat. The audio is clear and easy to understand and I love the voices of the people he chose to use. If I don’t care for someone’s voice it is extremely hard to listen to them. I like the way he gives you a road map of how to draw the letters. I love how he explains everything so well and it is actually interesting to read and certainly helps one grasp the reason behind it all. I am so new to learning Thai but his book truly makes me feel like I can definitely do this.

How to improve this course…

As I mentioned – or did I? – I believe that Teach Yourself Thai is one of the top courses for beginners of the Thai language. But even so, improvements can be made.

• Thai script: Even with the increased amount of Thai script, more could be added.
• Binding: The binding of the book did not last long (either that or I’m awfully hard on books).
• Audio: In addition to the present audio files, audio without English speakers would increase the usefulness.

If I were to shoot for the moon, I’d also like flashcards with sound, online games, etc, to compliment this course.

Now, this next point I’m making is not about improving the course, but a heads-up. The transliteration targets some British speakers and you might be confused when the audio files are not what you expected. So when you come across fuzzy spots, perhaps write down what you believe you are hearing? Just a thought.

Where to buy Teach Yourself Thai Complete…

When Teach Yourself Thai Complete first arrived in Bangkok, it was the book only (no boxed set with audio files). A few weeks later, the entire package appeared at Kinokuniya. It was total weirdness back then so I’m guessing that the delay was due to the Red Shirts taking over our shopping district.

For online stores, Amazon has the product at their UK branch: Complete Thai: Teach Yourself (Book/CD Pack). And the UK Book Depository has it in stock as well: Teach Yourself Complete Thai (Teach Yourself Complete Courses) (Paperback). But at the time of this post, I have been unable to locate it in US stores.

Now about that contest…

When I decided to review Teach Yourself Thai, I bought a copy at Paragon. And when I contacted David for a quote, I was sent another copy (thanks TY!) And now one of those copies is up for grabs.

To be included in the draw, the rules are simple.

• You need to leave a comment(s) below.
• The comment(s) need to be reasonable.

Each comment gets counted, so go ahead and leave as many as you like. But the comments must add to the conversation as well as pertain to this post. So ‘cool’ ‘great’ ‘rad’ on their own do not count as comments. Nor does, ‘this contest is really really fab and I really, really, really, wanna win a copy’.

The draw will run a week and be over on Thursday morning, 8am BKK time. I will number the reasonable comments and email the total to Kaewmala (Thai Women Talks). Kaewmala will throw the numbers into a beautifully coloured bowl, stir them around a bit, select one, and then announce the winning number in the comments below. Ajarn Pasa (Tweet Yourself Thai) will come in with the name that matches the winning number.

And that’s it really. If this draw goes well, I will consider a repeat as I’m sitting here with dual copies of a number of Thai courses and resources.

Enjoy…

A Sticky Problem…

I was reading one of those Thai expat blogs recently when I came across someone discussing the Thai word for “stingy” (seems like his girlfriend uses this word with him often). To add a little humor to his blog he did a direct translation of the Thai word for “stingy”, ขี้เหนียว /kêe-nǐeow/. ขี้ /kêe/ means “sh!t” he said and เหนียว /nǐeow/ means “sticky”. So, according to him, his girlfriend was calling him “sticky sh!t”. Good try. But the blogger, like Rick was about the “waters” of Casablanca, has been misinformed.

The problem our blogger (and many expats) have with this interesting little word is that they have learned only one definition of the word ขี้ /kêe/. Since one of the definitions really is “feces or excrement”, many people think that all uses of this word have a connection with this meaning. But this little word, the root of dozens of good polite Thai words, is a little more robust than that.

The following are the three basic definitions of ขี้ /kêe/:

ขี้ /kîi/
• waste product; feces; excrement
• characterized by, given to, having the quality of
• indicates a bad or negative character trait

Here are a number of words using ขี้ /kêe/, none of which is off color, and none having anything to do with “sticky sh!t”. Note that the meanings of a lot of the words using ขี้ /kêe/ are exactly the same as their roots. The prefix just adds a bit of feeling (usually negative as in Category 3) to the word. I have split the words into categories depending on which Category of ขี้ /kêe/ the word falls under.

Category 1: Waste product; feces; excrement…

Example:
ขี้กบ /kêe gòp/ – wood shavings (กบ = capenter’s plane, also frog)
ขี้กบ = the waste product from a carpenter’s plane, wood shavings, or literally frog droppings.

ขี้เขม่า /kêe kà-mào/ – soot (เขม่า = soot)
ขี้โคลน /kêe klohn/ – muck; mud; grime (โคลน = mud)
ขี้ตา /kêe dtaa/ – eye snot; eye secretion (ตา = eye)
ขี้เถ้า /kêe táo/ – ash (เถ้า = ashes, cinder)
ขี้บุหรี่ /kêe bù~rèe/ – cigarette ash (บุหรี่ = cigarette)
ขี้ผึ้ง /kêe pêung/ – beeswax (ผึ้ง = bee)
ขี้ฝุ่น /kêe fùn/ – dust; dirt (ฝุ่น = dust, powder, fine particles)
ขี้มูก /kêe mûk/ – snot; mucus; boogers (มูก = mucus)
ขี้ยางลบ /kêe yaang-lóp/ – eraser shavings (ยางลบ = eraser, rubber)
ขี้รังแค /kêe rang-kae/ – dandruff (รังแค = dandruff)
ขี้เลื่อย /kêe lêuay/ – sawdust (เลื่อย = saw)

Category 2: Characterized by, given to, having the quality of…

Example:
ขี้โกง /kêe gohng/ – deceitful; cheating; crooked (โกง = to cheat)
ขี้โกง = having a cheating quality, deceitful

ขี้กลัว /kêe glua/ – always afraid, “scaredy cat” (กลัว = afraid, fear)
ขี้เกียจ /kêe giàt/ – lazy (เกียจ = idle, inactive)
ขี้ขโมย /kêe kà~moi/ – thieving; pilfering (ขโมย = to steal)
ขี้ขลาด /kêe klàat/ – cowardly (ขลาด = fearful)
ขี้เหนียว /kêe nǐeow/ – stingy (เหนียว = sticky, tough)
ขี้คุก /kêe kúk/- jailbird; prison inmate (คุก = jail, prison)
ขี้คุย /kêe kui/ – boastful (คุย = chat, speak)
ขี้งอน /kêe ngawn/ – peevish; petulant; churlish; fractious (งอน = to pout, sulk)
ขี้แง /kêe ngae/ – whiny; [is a] crybaby (แง = whine)
ขี้ใจน้อย /kêe jai nói/ – over sensitive (ใจน้อย = easily offended, sensitive)
ขี้บ่น /kêe bòn/ – complainer; nagging (บ่น = to complain)
ขี้เมา /kêe mâo/ – drunkard; drunken; very drunk; often drunk (เมา = drunk)
ขี้โมโห /kêe moh-hǒh/ – resentful; easily mad; irritable (โมโห = angry)
ขี้แย /kêe yae/ – given to crying; crybaby (แย = whimsical)
ขี้โรค /kêe rôhk/ – sickly; frail; weak; ailing (โรค = disease)
ขี้ลืม /kêe leum/ – absent minded; forgetful (ลืม = forget)
ขี้เล่น /kêe lên/ – playful; joking (เล่น = play)
ขี้อาย /kêe aai/ – shy; feel shy; is shy; timid (อาย = shy, ashamed)
ขี้อิจฉา /kêe ìt-chǎa/ – envious, jealous (อิจฉา  = envy )
ขี้สงสัย /kêe sǒng-sǎi/ – suspicious; dubious; doubtful; skeptical (สงสัย = suspect)
ขี้สงสาร /kêe sǒng-sǎan/ – overly sensitive; soft hearted (สงสาร = pity)
ขี้หึง /kêe hěung/ – jealous (หึง = jealous)
ขี้เหล้า /kêe lâo/ – a drunk; alcoholic (เหล้า = alcohol)

Category 3: A bad or negative character trait…

Most of the words in Category 1 and 2 sound a bit negative. Here are a couple that leave no doubts:

ขี้กลาก /kêe-glàak/ – ringworm (กลาก = ringworm)
ขี้ข้า /kêe-kâa/ – slave; servant (ข้า = servant)
ขี้เซา /kêe sao/ – halfsleep; sleepy; sluggish; torpid (เซา = calm down)
ขี้อ้อน /kêe ôn/ – crybaby (อ้อน = to beg)

Special cases…

ขี้นก /kêe nók/ – [usually preceded by ฝรั่ง /fà~ràng/] fake; inferior; worthless (ฝรั่ง = guava, foreigner, ขี้นก = bird dropping)

The guava, being introduced from the West Indies, was referred to as a foreign or ฝรั่ง /fà~ràng/ fruit. There is a special kind of guava called ฝรั่งขี้นก /fà~ràng kêe nók/ which is deemed a worthless fruit since no one would buy it. This doesn’t lessen the opinion of many an expat that the Thais are calling all ฝรั่ง /fà~ràng/ or foreigners, usually westerners, worthless bird droppings. You can take your pick of which definition is more fun. It is probably a bit of both as Thais simply love word-play of all kinds. I have heard women of the night refer to stingy expats as ฝรั่งขี้นก /fà~ràng kêe nók/ or worthless foreigners. Just know that if someone calls you this it is definitely not a compliment.

พริกขี้หนู /prík kêe nǒo/ – chili pepper (ขี้หนู = mouse droppings)

These little green and red chili peppers are to be eaten in limited quantities except for those without the taste buds for “hot”. It is probably their shape that gave them their name. They look exactly like their namesake.

Hugh Leong
Retire 2 Thailand
Retire 2 Thailand: Blog
eBooks in Thailand

James Higbie and Essential Thai…

From the inception of the Successful Thai Language Learner series, I’ve had my eye on James Higbie. I was patiently tracking Jim down, but he found me first.

During our back and forth Jim mentioned that his highly prized Essential Thai is being tidied up for a reprint. And just this week he sent over the official announcement.

Essential Thai will be available late in 2010 or early in 2011.

Chris Frape, Publisher of Orchid Press, has announced that the Bangkok-based company will reissue Essential Thai, a popular beginning level Thai language book that has been out of print since the demise of the book division of Post Publishing almost ten years ago.

The book will be reissued in its original A4 format and will include standard sized CDs for pronunciation.

I was chuffed to hear his news as I’ve been trying to beg, borrow, or even steal a copy for ages. And I’m not alone in this (google to see what I mean).

And I promise that as soon as the book is ready, I will announce it here. Right after I get my very own copy.

Other books by James Higbie (published by Orchid Press) include: Thai Reference Grammar, Let’s Speak Thai, and Let’s Speak Lao.

Note: In the picture above is James Higbie, author. Standing to his right is Victor Titze, General Manager of Orchid Press. They are in front of the Orchid Bookstore, fourth floor Silom Complex, Bangkok.

Enjoy…

Google Translate, the challenge…

Over a year ago, Google Translate launched, and the language sites started buzzing at the possibilities. My contributions were Thai Translation: Google Translation & Thai Dictionaries and Google Translates Documents and Email Too and Thai Google Translate: Will Crowdsourcing Work.

During it all, Jeff Gray mentioned the below:

…the sheer volume of people adding useful stuff to Wikipedia makes it immensely useful. Wikipedia is also inherently self correcting, because if someone writes rubbish, it will be corrected by others.

In the same way, having millions of users making minor improvements to the translation system does something that any single company could never do with internal resources only. It might be chaotic, but the sheer scale is unbeatable.

Time will tell, but the approach they’ve taken is potentially a very effective one.

Taking it from there, on the 23th of July, 2009, I set out my Google Challenge. You can read more about it here: The Google Translate Challenge.

Note: As before, roll your mouse over the Thai script to see the transliteration.

Google 2009 – 2010…

What you see below are Google’s translations from last year on the left, and the very same sentences from Google Translation from this year on the right. There is indeed a marked difference between the two.

• Google Translate: 23 July 2009
• Be careful! There is swine flu!
  ระวัง! มีไข้สุกร!

• Google Translate: 23 July 2010
• Be careful! There is swine flu!
  โปรดระวัง มีสุกรไข้หวัดใหญ่เป็น!

• I have swine flu already, thanks!
  ฉันมีสุกรไข้หวัดใหญ่แล้วขอบคุณ!

• I have swine flu already, thanks!
  ฉันมีไข้หวัดหมูแล้ว, thanks!

• I don’t know! Why do you ask?
  ฉันไม่ทราบ!ทำไมเจ้าถาม?

• I don’t know! Why do you ask?
  ไม่ทราบ! ทำไมคุณถาม?

• Did you eat yet?
  คุณกินยัง?

• Did you eat yet?
  คุณไม่กินหรือยัง

• Oh no! You’re a liar!
  แย่ละ!คุณเป็นคนพูดเท็จ!

• Oh no! You’re a liar!
  Oh no! คุณโกหก!

• I don’t want to see your face again.
  ฉันไม่ต้องการดูหน้าของคุณอีกครั้ง

• I don’t want to see your face again.
  ฉันไม่อยากเห็นหน้าคุณอีกครั้ง

• He is busy lighting a mosquito coil.
  พระองค์คือยุ่งแสงสว่างที่ยุงม้วน

• He is busy lighting a mosquito coil.
  เขาเป็นไฟม้วนยุ่งยุง

• Don’t put any fish sauce on the rice.
  It stinks!
  โปรดอย่าวางใดน้ำปลาใน ข้าว. มัน stinks!

• Don’t put any fish sauce on the rice.
  It stinks!
  ไม่ใส่น้ำปลาบนข้าว It stinks!

___________________________

New sentences with Google…

As a control group, I ran the sentences below through Google Translate in 2009 and 2010, but I didn’t post them until now. As above, they are different a well.

• Google Translate: 23 July 2009
• He tells me that he loves me with all his heart.
  เขาบอกผมว่าเขารักฉันกับหัวใจของเขาทั้งหมด

• Google Translate: 23 July 2010
• He tells me that he loves me with all his heart.
  เขาบอกว่าเขารักฉันด้วยหัวใจทั้งหมดของเขา

• Do you speak English?
  คุณพูดภาษาอังกฤษ?

• Do you speak English?
  คุณพูดภาษาอังกฤษ

• What did the nurse say?
  อะไรได้พยาบาลกล่าว?

• What did the nurse say?
  พยาบาลพูดว่าอะไร?

• That water buffalo meat comes from the north.
  นั่นควายเนื้อมาจากทางเหนือ

• That water buffalo meat comes from the north.
  ที่เนื้อควายมาจากภาคเหนือ

• Please give me a glass of orange juice.
  กรุณาให้ฉันหนึ่งแก้วน้ำส้ม

• Please give me a glass of orange juice.
  กรุณาให้แก้วน้ำสีส้ม

• The turtle reaches the finish line before the rabbit.
  เต่าที่ครบตามเส้นชัยก่อนกระต่าย

• The turtle reaches the finish line before the rabbit.
  เต่าถึงเส้นชัยก่อนกระต่าย

___________________________

The Google Translate Challenge summary…

So, what do you think? Has Google improved in translating Thai? Gotten worst? Or are the results pretty much the same?

Enjoy…

Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners…

Name: Andrew Biggs
Nationality: Australian
Age range: Mid-twenties. Oh allright, 47.
Sex: Male
Location: Bangkok
Profession: Writer, TV producer, Tv and radio emcee, school owner … you name it
Website/blog: www.andrewbiggs.com
Products (books, courses etc): Too many to mention

What is your Thai level?

That depends on how much sleep I’ve had. I can sound incredibly fluent with the aid of a script, or Khaosan Road-ish with the aid of a hangover.

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

In a bad mood I’m excellent at street Thai, but I think I veer towards professional (for the first time in my life).

What were your reasons for learning Thai?

I wanted to learn how Thais tick. I figured knowing their langauge would explain their nuances, personalities and habits, and I was right.

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

I arrived on Valentine’s Day, 1989. Recently I spent three months in the USA, the longest I’ve ever been away from Thailand since then.

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

Since the day I arrived.

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

Right away. It was a good decision of mine, too. I got right into it the moment I arrived.

Did you stick to a regular study schedule?

Yes I did. I was incredibly disciplined. I learnt the alphabet, then the tone rules, and then ten new words a day for at least a year. Then I went to Ramkhamhaeng University to study a degree in Thai. All the time I was working a full time job – sometimes two full time jobs.

What Thai language learning methods did you try?

I started off by learning how to read and write the language, and I think this is the way to do it. The tone rules gave me lots of headaches but once I understood them I felt as though I’d made a major breakthrough. I went to a school very early on but they laughed at me when I told them I wanted to do the Education Ministry’s Grade 6 exam in three months time. They said if I didn’t take their five-day-a-week expensive course I’d fail it for sure. I walked out of that school and got to work by myself with the help of a lovely Thai teacher. I ended up coming first in that exam three months later.

Did one method stand out over all others?

Immersion, immersion, immersion. Read the newspaper. Watch the hideous Thai soapies. Listen to Thai pop music. Sit quietly with your Thai friends as they open a bottle of whiskey and solve the world’s problems in three hours before passing out. This all helps.

How soon did you tackle reading and writing Thai?

One millisecond after I started learning the language. It’s the ONLY real way to learn Thai. This phonetic rubbish with the squiggles for tones just makes you sound like a farang sputtering through the language. You will never get fluent doing it that way.

Did you find learning to read and write Thai difficult?

No. I love it, actually.

What was your first ‘ah hah!’ moment?

I was in Kanchanaburi one year after arriving here, doing a story for The Nation when all my stuff got stolen. I raced into the nearest police station and blurted out, in Thai, that all my stuff had been stolen. I screamed for about five minutes. At the end of it I realized it was the first time I’d been fluent.

How do you learn languages?

With Tylenol and Xanax.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Catherine, are you serious? My strengths are I am creative and manic obsessive so when I put myself into a task I stick with it. My weaknesses … you simply don’t have enough room in your column to list them all. Kate Bush is my greatest weakness.

What is the biggest misconception for students learning Thai?

That you can do it without reading and writing it.

Can you make your way around any other languages?

I used to be good at French. The last time I went to Paris, everytime I wanted to speak French, Thai came out! “Je voudrais kin khao.”

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

No. I’m not clever enough for that.

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

No! Why would you ask that?

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

Yes. I play the piano and I have a great passion for music.

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

60 million Thais can speak it. You’re no different. Ditch the excuses and get on with it.

Again, thank you so much for reading.
(fingers cross and crossed again… and once more for double measure)

Andrew Biggs,
www.andrewbiggs.com

The Series: Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners…

My personal thanks for this series goes to: Andrew Biggs, Ian Fereday, Doug, Gareth Marshall, Martin Clutterbuck, Stuart (Stu) Jay Raj, Herb Purnell, Celia Chessin-Yudin, Stickman, Thomas Lamosse, Vern Lovic, Colin Cotterill, Jonathan Thames, Hardie Karges, Peter Montalbano, Jonas Anderson and Christy Gibson, Daniel T. Murphy, Paul Garrigan, Marcel Barang, Chris Baker, Hugh Leong, Terry Fredrickson, Glenn Slayden, Rikker Dockum, David Smyth, Tom Parker, David Long, Aaron Handel, and Chris Pirazzi.

If you are a successful Thai language learner and would like to share your experiences, please contact me. I’d love to hear from you.

Enjoy…

Mindfulness and learning Thai…

Reading a recent article by Catherine Wentworth, Learning Thai (for the shy), I hit upon a paragraph that grabbed my attention. She was talking about shy people learning languages but the thing that particularly piqued my interest was her mention of mindfulness in connection with learning Thai – I knew she was on to something.

A huge problem that I’ve had in the past when learning Thai is staying concentrated. I remember a few years back when I’d use audio Thai courses my mind just wouldn’t stay focused on the material. I’d be flicking through magazines or messing around on the computer; anything but what I was meant to be doing. I’d be doing the first lesson and turning the pages to the last lesson. I used to kid myself that I was learning subliminally, but I was more likely just wasting my time. I have since found that the most effective language learning occurs only when fully focused on the subject – I suppose this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.

What is Mindfulness?…

The first time I about mindfulness was about twenty-five years ago. Then I was an awkward teenager struggling to make sense of life. I bought a book called ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ by Robert M. Prisig. I learnt absolutely nothing about motorbike maintenance, but this book did influence me greatly – as it probably did many other people as well. It taught me the importance of being present in the moment.

Mindfulness is something that has been of great benefit to me since then; in fact it once helped to save my life but that’s a story for a different time. I often forget to put mindfulness into practice but when I do great things can happen. To be mindful you don’t need to be sitting in any position and you don’t have to buy any equipment or become a Buddhist– you don’t even need a textbook or DVD to learn how to do it. All you need to do is be present in the moment. This might sound easy, but doing it is another matter – a lot of the time my mind is either thinking about the past or more likely planning the future.

Two Types of Mindfulness…

I have found that there are two types of mindfulness. One of them occurs naturally and one involves remembering to pay attention. For me the former is easier, because there is no effort required. I feel that the best way to encourage this natural mindfulness is through regular meditation practice – in particular concentration meditation (สมาธิ). The other method involves deliberately focusing on the moment. So if you are studying Thai you keep on returning the mind back to what you are doing every time it begins to stray – this can be a constant struggle some days for me.

Mindfulness can help you learn Thai in other ways as well. Just walking around focused on the moment means you absorb so much more. I work as a writer, but I sometimes struggle with descriptions. I can get around this by being mindful of my environment; that way I capture a lot more detail that I can later use. Those of us who are lucky enough to live in Thailand can walk around the streets and really be present. This way we can pick up snatches of conversation and these will stay with us because we are paying attention. When we get home we can look up what some of the new words mean in our dictionaries.

Another thing that I’ve noticed about my Thai is that I speak it a lot more fluently if I’m mindful. I can hear a lot of Thai vocabulary in my head, and if I listen to this before speaking then the tones come out a lot better. It does meant that I speak a bit slower but this is actually an advantage.

The distracted mind that so often accompanied my early Thai lessons is the complete opposite of what mindfulness is meant to be all about. When I give my full attention there is a much better chance of knowledge being absorbed and retained. Using mindfulness to learn Thai can be a great tool that will really make a huge difference.

Mindfulness Tools…

Remembering to stay mindful can be difficult. I can be away in a daydream for a long time before noticing that I’m not in the moment. This is a common problem; luckily there are some tools that can help with this. One thing that has worked for me in the past is post-it notes; I can put one of these somewhere that I’m bound to see and write something on it like, “are you here?” There are also mindfulness clocks you can buy and these will sound an alarm every so often to remind you to return to the present. Free online or downloadable mindfulness clocks (Mac and PC) can be found at Mindful Meditations. As I’ve already mentioned the easiest type of mindfulness for me has been the natural variety that comes with regular meditation practice.

Paul Garrigan
paulgarrigan.com
Successful Thai Language Learners: Paul Garrigan