Women Learning Thai… and some men too ;-)

You are browsing the archives of 2009 November.

No surprise, Thailand comes top for love… The latest HSBC report was emailed to me just this morning (thanks Lana :-) Expats fall in love with Thailand but not the language. Putting Thailand aside for now… I was not surprised to find that the UK’s scores were low, but I was surprised at how low [...]

Heart words, jai words, my words… I am a terrible Thai student. Fairly often, my Thai teacher arrives with a lesson plan in her satchel, and hope in her heart. When she goes to leave, it is with much laughter. Why laughter? Because at the door, seeing her off, there I am. Me. Promising to [...]

Surprise! Thailand has turkeys too… Unbelievable. There we were, my long suffering Thai teacher and me, arriving at Wát Chà-lĕrm Prágìat (วัด เฉลิม พระเกียรติ์). And there they were. White turkeys. Two. At first I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I mean, turkeys in Thailand? But I do know what turkeys are supposed to look [...]

Google Translate does more than before… Google Translate has added three more items of interest: Translations as you type: Type your text in the main box and the translation appears below. Romanization option: the ability to receive transliteration instead. Text-to-speech: Right now this if for English only. For more, check out the Official Google Blog: [...]

Is it Kun, Pêe, Aa-jaann, or Pôo yài Moo?… There used to be a time in the west when calling a person by their first name was something you didn’t do until you had known them for a considerable length of time, and then only when you had become very close. Nowadays, the new generation [...]

Ah, to have the insecurities of a kid again… When I was fourteen, I moved from the glorious New Zealand to the enormous U.S. The U.S. was too strange, too big, too shiny new. Worse, I did not assimilate. My experiences were not the same as my classmates, leaving me the outsider. Dense and awkward [...]

Alan Brewis: The Ultimate Survival Guide to Thailand… The true generosity of Thai language learners never ceases to amaze me. Last year, Alan Brewis put a highly polished draft of his book, The Ultimate Survival Guide to Thailand, online for anyone to read. For free. When I contacted him about adding it to WLT’s growing [...]

Sesame Street comes of age… This week, on November 10th, Sesame Street turned the big FOUR OH. My, oh, my, does time fly… So if you didn’t know Sesame Street as a child, then your brothers or sisters, nephews or nieces, or even your own kids did (or are doing so). But did you know [...]

Sightseeing around Bangkok… Last month a friend emailed to say, ‘I’M COMING TO BANGKOK!’ I emailed back, ‘Whooh! WHEN?’ A mere two days after his arrival, David had already paddled up the floating market, tussled for eight hours with tigers, then dropped a krathong into the klong. And more. Which got me wondering… … just [...]

L-Ceps Personaltrainer language learning software… I played around with L-Ceps Thai Language Software last year, but I did not spent a lot of time with it (my bad). There were three reasons: L-Ceps had too much of a PC feel I already had Rosetta Stone (also PC) I did not like Rosetta Stone (guilt by [...]

Thai language and Thai culture go hand in hand… Thai, just like any language, has multiple ways to say the same things. And culture has a lot to do with which words we use in which situations. Although this makes for a robust, fun language to learn and use, it causes us non-native Thai speakers [...]

Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners… Name: Paul Garrigan Nationality: Irish Age range: Just turned 40 Sex: Male Location: Lopburi, Thailand Profession: Freelance writer Website: AC: Paul Garrigan Book: Last Escape What is your Thai level? Intermediate. Do you speak more street Thai, Issan Thai, or professional Thai? I previously worked as an ESL teacher so [...]

The Loi Krathong song in Thai… My Thai teacher just loves to sing. And sometimes, right there in the middle of a lesson, she will stand up and belt out a Thai song. Often, she will drag me up too. Then, swinging her arms like a conductor, we prance around my sofa. In unison. Singing [...]