Please Vote: Top 100 Language Learning Blogs 2012

Please vote for the Top 100 Language Learning Blogs of 2012… Each year the Top 100 Language Learning international competition...

Please Vote: Top 100 Language Learning Blogs 2012

More Learn Thai by Speaking Your Language

Learn Thai by Speaking Your Language… Over a decade ago I learned Thai by using a method called Speak Your Language. I wrote a post on...

More Learn Thai by Speaking Your Language

Thai Chili Pepper Scale: A Spicy Secret to Ordering Thai Food

Thai chili scale: A spicy secret to ordering Thai food… I’ve been eating Thai food for like a gazillion years...

Thai Chili Pepper Scale: A Spicy Secret to Ordering Thai Food

Thai Language School Review: UTL Unity Thai Language School

Thai Language School Review: UTL Unity Thai Language School… Review: UTL Unity Thai Language School Website: utl-school.com...

Thai Language School Review: UTL Unity Thai Language School
Please Vote: Top 100 Language Learning Blogs 2012

Please Vote: Top 100 Language Learning Blogs 2012

Please vote for the Top 100 Language Learning Blogs of 2012… Each year the Top 100 Language Learning international competition put on by bab.la and Lexiophiles has gradually gotten tougher. But this year the quality of the sites have taken a noticeable leap, meaning it’s a win win for anyone interested in learning languages. It [...]

Café Dīcō: Talk • Share • Learn

Café Dīcō: Talk • Share • Learn

Café Dīcō: Talk • Share • Learn… There are several Thai-English social language exchange groups in Bangkok. Meetup’s Thailand Language/Culture Exchange is just one. Another came to my attention just this week: Café Dīcō. Café Dīcō is a learning environment for those who wish to be proficient in a language. Dīcō in Latin means to [...]

More Learn Thai by Speaking Your Language

More Learn Thai by Speaking Your Language

Learn Thai by Speaking Your Language… Over a decade ago I learned Thai by using a method called Speak Your Language. I wrote a post on what Speak Your Language is, but to summarize: I learned to speak Thai by starting with what I knew about English, slowly converting it into Thai one word and [...]

Thai Chili Pepper Scale: A Spicy Secret to Ordering Thai Food

Thai Chili Pepper Scale: A Spicy Secret to Ordering Thai Food

Thai chili scale: A spicy secret to ordering Thai food… I’ve been eating Thai food for like a gazillion years now and while I can order เผ็ดเผ็ด /pèt-pèt/ just fine, what arrives is almost never “up to me”. Tom Stephan has the same difficulties, only in a slightly different direction. Tom: I wish I knew [...]

Thai Language School Review: UTL Unity Thai Language School

Thai Language School Review: UTL Unity Thai Language School

Thai Language School Review: UTL Unity Thai Language School… Review: UTL Unity Thai Language School Website: utl-school.com Address: 18th floor Times Square Building, 246 Sukhumvit Rd, Khlongtoey, Khlongtoey, Bangkok Thailand 10110 Telephone Number: 02-653-1538 Email: info@utl-school.com Location: UTL Unity is in the Times Square Building. The school is easy to get to by either the [...]

Thai Language School Review: Rak Thai

Thai Language School Review: Rak Thai

Thai Language School Review: Rak Thai… Review: RTL – Rak Thai Language School Website: www.rtl-school.com Address: 888/104 Mahatun Plaza 10 Fl., Ploenchit Rd. Lumpini Patumwan, Bangkok 10330 Telephone Number: 02-255-3036 Location: Rak Thai Language School is easy to get to from the Ploenchit BTS exit. The only tricky part is to enter the Mahatun Plaza [...]

Successful Thai Language Learner: Don Sena

Successful Thai Language Learner: Don Sena

Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners… Name: Don Sena Nationality: American Age range: 68  Sex: Male Location: Phoenix, AZ, USA Profession: Translation (Thai – English), Editing (English); semi-retired What is your Thai level? Intermediate – Advanced (I think). Do you speak more street Thai, Isan Thai, or professional Thai? Standard Thai (Central Plains dialect). What were [...]

Successful Thai Language Learner: Scott Earle

Successful Thai Language Learner: Scott Earle

Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners… Name: Scott Earle Nationality: British Age: 46 Sex: Male Location: Bangkok Profession: General Manager of a local software development company with a very large US parent company. Blog: Scott Earle What is your Thai level? Intermediate/advanced. Do you speak more street Thai, Issan Thai, or professional Thai? More ‘street’ Thai, [...]

Siem Reap. Cambodia. Again. Part Three

Siem Reap. Cambodia. Again. Part Three

Siem Reap, Cambodia… As mentioned in Part One and Part Two, on my return to Siem Reap I revisited Viva’s nachos and ‘buckets’ of margaritas, Ankor Wat, Ankor Tom, and the heads of Bayon. A new (and not to be repeated) adventure was the fish massage. And day two? Well, the second day was saved [...]

Siem Reap. Cambodia. Again. Part Two

Siem Reap. Cambodia. Again. Part Two

Siem Reap, Cambodia… Carrying on from Siem Reap. Cambodia. Again. Part One… Snap (Cooee) and I have been leapfrogging Cambodian posts (but she’s far quicker off the mark). Onward to the Bayon and Thom: A good hour and a half later after wandering around Angkor Wat, we cooled down in a nearby café. It was [...]

Bangkok's Top 50 Street Food Stalls. Food Poisoning. Bleeeech.

Bangkok’s Top 50 Street Food Stalls. Food Poisoning. Bleeeech.

Food poisoning, the Bangkok street food way… After spending the past 12 hours hugging a toilet and worse, you could say that I have an up close and personal perspective on Bangkok’s street food. And the irony? The food poisoning was totally down to researching for a review of Bangkok’s Top 50 Street Food Stalls. [...]

National Museum Volunteers Annual Lecture Series: Jan-Feb 2012

National Museum Volunteers Annual Lecture Series: Jan-Feb 2012

National Museum Volunteers Annual Lecture Series… Last year was my first chance to attend the lectures about Thailand, Thai history, and culture arranged by the National Museum Volunteers. Along with many events, their Annual Lecture Series was postponed due to the Thai floods. But, now that the new year is upon us, the series has [...]

Songkran 2012: Siam Square: On Day Two

Songkran 2012: Siam Square: On Day Two

Songkran 2012: Siam Square: On Day Two… Did you miss the first day of Songkran? Me too! The closer it got to 4pm on the first official day of the celebrations, the more I wanted to stay high and dry (so I never made it out of my PJs). But seriously, getting drenched at Songkran [...]

Rules of Songkran 2012: No Drink Walking. No Talcum Powder

Rules of Songkran 2012: No Drink Walking. No Talcum Powder

Rules of Songkran 2012: No Drink Walking or Talcum Powder… In a few days the Songkran festivities will take over Thailand. In Bangkok, where I’m at, tourists flood in and a chunk of locals (mostly from up north) stream out. Except for sampling Kao Chae (a first), my Songkran plans are not set. I might [...]

Please Vote: Top 100 Language Learning Blogs 2012

Top 100 Language Learning Blogs 2012

Please vote for the Top 100 Language Learning Blogs of 2012…

Each year the Top 100 Language Learning international competition put on by bab.la and Lexiophiles has gradually gotten tougher. But this year the quality of the sites have taken a noticeable leap, meaning it’s a win win for anyone interested in learning languages. It also means that you have even less excuses for not learning a second or even a third language. Yeah, I’m bad.

Which reminds me… Top 100 Language Learning Blogs if you don’t want to read all the way to the bottom of this post before voting, just click on the button to your right. Tip: Scroll all the way to the w’s for Women Learning Thai… and some men too ;-)

No doubt, competing in the Top 100 Language Learning Blog competition has improved WLT immensely. It’s also taught me that qualifying for the competition isn’t about making pretty right before the event, but working on improvements throughout the year.

In the early days I concentrated on tweaking WLT’s design, creating posts and series useful to students of Thai, and adding knowledgeable guest authors (megga thanks go especially to Hugh, Tod(d), Rikker, and Luke).

Something must have worked because WLT is now listed as a go-to resource for learning Thai on BBC – Languages – A Guide to Thai, CNNgo, Yahoo, and elsewhere.

When I first entered the Top 100 Language Learning Blogs competition, I took Lexio’s suggestions on what makes a good language blog to heart. In 2009, competing against more popular languages such as English, Chinese, French and German, WLT came in 85th place. Sweet. In 2010 I kept up with the improvements, and even though I mostly quit blogging about learning Thai during the Red Shirt protests (it was too heartbreaking), WLT came in 54th place. Not too shabby (especially as I didn’t expect to place at all).

Last year was a shocker when WLT came 10th in Top 25 Language Learning Blogs 2011 and 19th in the Top 100 Language Lovers 2011. Understandably, I was surprised and totally chuffed at the leap.

Shortly after the competition a tweet came through stating that placing where it did, WLT was representing Thailand. It was then that I realised that the Language Learning Blog competition was not just about the language learning community. It was about my responsibility to Thailand as well.

Seriously, it was a sobering thought. And with sobriety comes much responsibility.

No doubt, I have fun researching and writing posts for WLT. And I also enjoy being in the position to give back to Thailand (reason why I donate all proceeds from WLT to the SET Foundation). But ever since that tweet the idea of taking WLT to another level has been a concern.

After months of going through options to improve WLT I decided to focus on two main projects. One, started after the competition last year, will take more time to complete (and I’ll need even more of your help). But the other, already three years in the making, will launch following this post.

Project 1: Top 100 Thai vocabulary…

Since starting WLT I’ve learned that it’s not unusual for students to fizzle out soon after embarking on their Thai language adventure. And while it’s clearly a worry, I wasn’t quite sure what I could do about it.

From what I’m seeing the problems with learning any new language are: memory, available time, and sustained motivation. But confidence is also high on the list (especially for a tonal language such as Thai).

If you remember, last September I reviewed The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. The resources mentioned lead me to an idea that just might work as a mini Thai course.

The idea is simple. Start out by learning your way around the 100 most useful words in your target language. This includes using those mere 100 words to learn basic grammar. And if you make it through to the end, and still have an interest, work out from there. And if you don’t, you won’t have wasted too much time. Correct?

Choosing the top 100 Thai words was an adventure. These days I’m staying busy creating workable phrases (words on their own are just words) but I continue to tweak the list.

To see how the method operates I purchased several top 100 courses, but in Italian. Seems they all fudge on what they are calling 100 words (some shamefully) so back to square one I went. But whoever said that necessity is the mother of invention has it soooo very right because getting around the hurdles made me very creative indeed. And in the coming mini-course I’ll only cheat a little. Promise.

Disclaimer: In no way can you communicate fully by learning 100 words and choice phrases. But, with the right 100 words one can get a taste of a language. My hope is that a taste will tantalise students enough to push them over the quitting hump and into the excitement of learning more Thai.

People learn in different ways so I’ll be using a combo of resources (most free): BYKI, Learning with Texts and Brainscape. Scott came to my rescue with LWT so it’ll be implemented first. Ta Scott :-)

Even though I’ve been working on this project since last year, more time and collaboration is needed. That’s right. I’m in the need for guinea pigs. And if you want to pig out on Thai, please contact me.

Project 2: Successful Thai Language Learners Compilation series…

In 2009 I started the Successful Thai Language Learners series. One, two, three years have now gone by, with over 50 talented students and former students of the Thai language being interviewed.

Some of their replies were surprising, some quirky, and all were totally interesting. Well into the series a suggestion was made to tally the results, so I did. Wanting to share what I found, a compilation series was put together.

The compilation series will start next week. I seriously hope you enjoy reading the results as much as I have.

Oh. And btw. After sending out a zillion emails for the Successful Thai Language Learners series, I was able to interview 47 men and 3 women. So, as it turns out, I chose an appropriate tongue-in-cheek name after all. True?

Now back to voting for your favourite Top 100 Language blogs…

There are four categories to vote for. Please note that you are allowed just one vote for each section.

Other Thai blogs to vote for…

As before, there are other Thai blogs entered in the contest (three). Would I love your vote? Absolutely. But please check them out (if you haven’t already).

Before I sign off I’d like to thank the teams at bab.la and Lexiophiles. As I mentioned before, it’s clear that without their yearly competition and advice, WLT wouldn’t be the site it is today.

Once again, stop by Lexiophiles Top 100 Language Learning Blogs to leave your vote. Ta!

More Learn Thai by Speaking Your Language

Learn Thai by Speaking Your Language

Learn Thai by Speaking Your Language…

Over a decade ago I learned Thai by using a method called Speak Your Language. I wrote a post on what Speak Your Language is, but to summarize: I learned to speak Thai by starting with what I knew about English, slowly converting it into Thai one word and one grammar point at a time. By using the Thai I knew, filling in any gaps with English, I was able to communicate right away, and at the same time focus on what I needed to know next.

Times have changed over the last 10 years and so have I. I am now a father of four children living on the opposite side of the world (at least as far as time zones go). I am not living in a fully immersed atmosphere of Thai language 24/7. Despite that, I can still perfect my Thai. And I do that by using the Speak Your Language method.

Don’t you already know Thai?…

Let me ask that question another way. Despite being a native English speaker, do I know all there is to know about the English language? The answer is no. I have gaps in the lingo of lawyers, doctors, politics, cars, and the list goes on. My ability to talk incomprehensibly about any of those subjects vary considerably. And while I might be able to hold conversations in Thai, depending on the subject they are talking about, keeping up on the news is hit and miss. So there is always room for improvement.

When I learned Thai, I was a missionary. As missionaries we sacrifice many outside pleasures. One of those pleasures is watching TV or reading anything that is not related to the church. We got to go to an Internet Cafe once a week to send an email home and that was it. Now speed up 10 years and I am no longer living as a missionary. I have the new challenges of being a full-time working father with four children.

Ten years ago high-speed internet in the home was a novelty. It was the swimming pool in the back yard. We all know someone who had one, but never had one ourselves. There are now many advances in technology that I would never have dreamed possible when I first learned to speak Thai. Logically, to take advantage of these useful tools, I upgraded how I use Speaking Your Language.

Record yourself speaking to the wall…

The wall is such a nice conversational partner. It never talks back. It will listen to you ramble on and on. I’ve been told that steering wheels have a similar personality. Don’t just talk to the wall, record yourself while you talk. Digital recorders are fantastic upgrades from the tape recorders of old. They are not only smaller, but let you separate the recordings into individual files that can be kept independent from each other.

With digital recorders, you can record yourself talking about any subject you want. And as you fill in the gaps with English, you can figure out more words and phrases you want to learn. You can also record yourself translating TV, Radio, or whatever.

Use Anki to practice the words you need to learn…

Now that you have these words and phrases you need to learn, what do you do with them? Back in the day I would have made a list or flash cards. It’s not a bad method but flash cards are so old-fashioned. If you want to be hip and with the times you use a spaced repetition system, known as SRS. There are many on the web for free; the one I like the best is Anki.

Why is SRS better? It’s like flash cards on steroids. SRS gives you a new list of words to review every day based upon how successful you were in the past. Words you need to work on more come up more frequently. On the flip side, those you know better appear less often, but are not taken out entirely, so you still get a chance for a review. It’s like having a tutor pick which words and phrases you should review that day.

Post your Thai online using social media…

Just because you are not sitting in a street vendor’s fold up chair waiting for a plate of kài jieow mŏo sàp, doesn’t mean you can’t have the benefit of having a native correct you. There are many websites like lang-8.com or thai-language.com that let you post something online for others to correct. Twitter and Facebook have also proven to be useful tools. The great part is that you can continue to use English to fill in the gaps, while getting instant feedback from native speakers on how to say what you want to say.

The point I’m making is that it’s not the tools that improve your Thai, it’s how you use them. The point is that with Speaking Your Language, you need to speak as much Thai as possible, while using English to bridge the gap. And the more you speak Thai, the better you will become.

Justin Travis Mair
I Want To Speak Thai | I Want To Speak Spanish
Successful Thai Language Learner: Justin Travis Mair