Women Learning Thai… and some men too ;-)

You are browsing the archives of 2009 October.

Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners… Name: Marcel Barang Nationality: French Age range: 60+ Sex: Male Location: Bangkok, Thailand Profession: Literary translator from the Thai Website/blog: Marcel Barang, thaifiction.com Books: Over 40, mainly in English, on thaifiction.com What is your Thai language level? Fluent. Do you speak more street Thai, Issan Thai, or professional Thai? Both [...]

Pali and Sanskrit Roots of Thai Words… Have you ever seen those brilliant kids in the national spelling bees? When given a word to spell, the first thing they ask for is the word’s origin. Knowing the “Latin”, or “Greek”, or any of the many other roots to our English words they immediately not only [...]

Introducing Hugh Leong and the Thai Language/Thai Culture series… Regular readers won’t need an introduction to Hugh Leong and his passion for the Thai language and culture. Hugh first made an appearance in WLT’s Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners series. Then soon after, he shared his Advanced Thai Reading and Vocabulary Building materials. Hugh loves [...]

Rikker’s Friday post on bumper stickers, Bumper-to-bumper Language Lessons, reminded me that I had one more bumper sticker post waiting in the wings… Stickers from Buy Thai Books… When I ordered two packs of books from Buy Thai Books last December, as a thank you they sent over a handful of stickers. Yeah! And as [...]

Bumper stickers are us… Bumper stickers in Thailand make for an interesting language lesson and a good way to pass time when you’re caught in traffic. Apart from the typical เมา ไม่ ขับ (mao mai khap) “Don’t Drink and Drive” and เรา รัก ในห ลวง (rao rak nai luang) “We Love the King” stickers, one [...]

Learning Thai with Benjawan… What do I think of when I hear the name Benjawan Poomsan Becker? My mind immediately goes to her wide range of Thai learning products: Thai for Beginners, Thai for Intermediate Learners, Thai for Advanced Readers, Practical Thai Conversation 1&2, Speak Like a Thai 1-6, Thai for Lovers, Thai for Gay [...]

What’s up with iPhone application updates… I started collecting iPhone apps back in March, two months before I receiving my Apple 3G iPhone. I know exactly when it was because just this morning I did a mad scramble through my bills from iTunes. Why? Well, because of an unexpected invoice totaling £19.88. Ok, £8.95 of [...]

A farang by any other name… Any white foreigner who spends even a few days in Thailand will learn at least one Thai word: ฝรั่ง (farang). It’s being used by Thais to refer to them – whether they’re aware of it or not. Farang is one of the first words that will stand out from [...]

Considerations for Thai phrase book apps on your iPhone… Choosing a Thai language phrase book for your iPhone is similar to choosing a hardcopy Thai language phrase book. But not quite. For instance: If you aim to go clubbing, the higher Apple ratings may be a draw; if you are not technically savvy, a help [...]

Taking the long way home… One skill that will always come in handy when learning a second language is being able to say what you want without knowing how to say it. Yes, you read correctly. It’s the fine art of circumlocution: literally, talking a circle around what you mean. And it’s something you’ll find [...]

The iPhone and the DEVIL in me… Me: I need some sort of PDA. I’m thinking it would be sort of like a walking dictionary, where I can quickly access new Thai words and phrases. The DEVIL in me: Well, you are not really PC, so how about an iPhone? Me: But I already have [...]

Titles are here there and everywhere… What’s in a title? That which we call a Ms. by any other title would smell as sweet. Apologies to Shakespeare. I read an interesting Thai law the other day on the topic of titles for women. As you may know, the basic titles for women in Thailand are [...]