Back to School Projects
Posted by Stuart at 12:17 PM on October 24, 2004Wow, another long multi-day break from posting to this site. Does that mean I haven't been doing anything? On the contrary, I've been quite busy and even somewhat productive. Here's a quick run-down of a few things that have been keeping me busy lately.
It's back to school time, with no breaks until Christmas. Although the thought of no holidays is not very exciting, the idea of getting into a regular schedule and being productive is appealing. One of the things that I have been able to work into the schedule is (almost) nightly trips to the gym. I've built up to running 3 KM on the treadmill or swimming 1200 M in the pool. Hopefully I get work up to 5 K runs and 2500 M swims by the end of the year.
I've also been able to work on learning Thai (almost) every day. If I can spend an hour or so a day, I think I can make a lot of progress. Each of the last two weeks I have added about 50 flash cards to my "Mastered" pile. Now that there are about 225 words in that pile, it's time to start concentrating on learning some grammar so that I can string some of those words into real sentences.
The other project I have been working on is a write-up of the ICALT conference I attended in Finland. I wanted to summarize what I learned for my school (who was kind enough to sponsor my trip) but also to help me to figure out what direction I wanted to take with my PhD. I think it will be successful on both counts.
Apologies for a not-very-interesting post. Perhaps something better will appear soon.
Ben, let me start by saying that I think that learning to read/write/speak Thai is one of the hardest things I have ever tried to accomplish. Usually, if I put my mind to something, I can be successful. But this is such a LONG road that it's hard to feel like I am improving much because there is just so much to learn.
But, I am determined to make it happen. So... I started out making flash cards of the following topics, in order:
- Consonant letters
- Vowel letters
- One syllable words with no tone marks
- Tone rules
- Words with tone marks
- Grammar and conversation
It's interesting that most people start with the last item in that list, but for me that was not very helpful because 1) I learn better by reading and writing rather than speaking and listening, and 2) learning how to ask for a hotel room or bargain for a shirt is not helpful when real people don't follow the scripts in the books (damn them! :)
I have about 400 flash cards now and I have learned how to read/write/speak half of them. Now I am concentrating on grammar. I hired my friend Ekk to talk to me for 1 hour 3 times a week to help me learn how to string all those words together. (I know... pretty sad to have to pay people to talk to me, huh? hehe. But he is very good at both English and Thai grammar and linguistics.)
Chok Dee!
Could you perhaps share some info on exactly how you are managing to learn Thai? I need to learn more desperately.