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… 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.

• Language Learning Blogs
• Language Professional
• Language Facebook Page
• Language Twitter Account

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).

• Learning Thai
• Thai Language Hut
• Learn Thai from a White Guy

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!

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 talk. We believe that the most effective way to be fluent in a language is to use it daily by speaking with those who are native to the language and also with learners alike.

Café Dīcō is not a language institute. Instead, it is a club where people practice using a language through socializing. Café Dīcō aims to allow people to immerse in a language with others by providing an engaging and relaxing atmosphere where they can talk, share, and learn.

If you are interested attending Café Dīcō’s next get-together, sign up to be notified. And if you do attend, please let us know how it went (I’m always curious).

Review: GoldList Method for Long-term Memory…

Are you familiar with the GoldList Method? I wasn’t until Stuart emailed to ask if I’d heard about it. No. I hadn’t heard of the GoldList but I do enjoy trying out new methods! Thanks Stuart.

After poking around I discovered that the GoldList Method was created by quite a character, British born David J. James. James, an accountant residing in Poland, is known as Uncle Davey on Youtube (not sure why).

Once you understand the method (and now I sort of do), you just might enjoy its simplicity. Warning. The method is simple but many explanations are not.

The GoldList theory in a nutshell…

GoldList Theory: Physically writing out new words and phrases burns them in your long-term memory. Distilling words (throwing them away) tricks your mind into putting discarded words into long-term memory.

GoldList Method: Note that we tend to lose and spend time looking for things which we intended to keep and often put in a special hiding place, but we rarely forget the things that we have thrown away or given away. We don’t usually think we still have them and look around for them. So the very conscious act of discarding tricks the subconscious memory, namely the long-term memory, into being sure it jolly well has got those discarded bits. So if in doubt, discard rather than merge, when distilling.

By not revisiting words for two weeks to up to two months, the words go into your long-term memory instead of your short-term memory.

Before I get to the intricacies of the method, please remember this: The GoldList Method is all about going for the gold, but not all rules mentioned are set in gold.

Goldlist is a game of solitaire. You play against yourself so how you play is a matter of individual preference.

Before you start the GoldList Method…

You first need to acquire a feel for the sounds and rhymes of your target language. To do this, David suggests completing at least one audio course such as Michael Thomas or Pimsleur. Michael Thomas doesn’t have a Thai version (pity, because the MT method works) but Pimsleur (such as it is) does.

Assimil Thai is another course that’s chockfull of audio but beware of the odd phrases. Actually, Pimsleur’s Thai phrases aren’t anything to write home about either but as your aim is to get used to Thai, either will do.

What you’ll need for the GoldList Method…

The required list of materials for using the GoldList Method is sweetly short.

Materials: A4 hardcover notebooks, pen or pencil, timer.
Vocabulary list: 2000-2500 words.

James Higbie’s Essential Thai would be my top Thai pick. Essential Thai is not only a great course but it has the needed 2000 word vocabulary list.

There are 3 other decent Thai courses to consider but they don’t have the vocabulary count. Benjawan Poomsan Becker’s Thai for Beginners has 880 words, David Smyth’s Teach Yourself Thai Complete has 400, and Spoken World Thai has around 300.

Grammar: For additional grammar (if that’s your thing), it would have to be James Higbie’s Thai Reference Grammar and/or David Smyth’s Thai: An Essential Grammar. David also has a Kindle version: Thai: An Essential Grammar.

The GoldList Method (as I understand it)…

Over 4 sessions the goal is to distill each lot of 20-35 headwords by around 30% each time, down to a semi-final shortlist of around 7-9 words. The shortlists are then thrown together and distilled until nothing is left (or you wander off).

And distilling (choosing which words get cut) just might be the hardest part of this method.

GoldList Method: When to distill a word:

1. When you see the word in the target language, you know its meaning(s).
2. When someone says that word to you, you can write it down, spelling it properly.
3. From seeing it written down, you know how to pronounce it.
4. You know all the unusual grammar exceptions applying just to that word (at least those covered in your study approach so far).

Obviously, if your initial aim isn’t to learn how to spell using Thai script, then pass on number two.

If you find that you can’t distill a sizeable chunk you can always cobble words together to create mini-phrases or a poem, match the words with their opposites, or put extra words all on one line.

Remember when I said that all of the GoldList rules are not set in gold? Well, I believe this one is (sort of):

It harms this method to go over the list several times. That switches on short-term memory functions. You should do it once, at a leisurely pace so that you enjoy doing it, and then go on to the next page and the next 25 of headlist if you are on the headlist, after a short 10 minute break.

In the comments on David’s site readers complained about not being able to find, compile, write and read aloud their 20-25 words all within that tight 20 minute timeframe. David replied that you can indeed separate the chores but you still need to keep the sessions to 25 minutes with 10 minute breaks between.

With that in mind, perhaps this is a possibility: In one 20 minute session read the materials and carefully write out your words (or phrases) and notes. Take a ten minute break. Then, for the next 20 minutes, carefully read the words and say them out loud. And since you’ve got more time to kill you could also listen to accompanying sound files as well. David, what say you?

Timing: Revisit headwords every two to eight weeks (but no longer). You can have up to 10 sessions of headwords on day one, and 10 more sessions of headwords on day two, and so on. But they will be different lots of 20-35 headwords because you won’t start distilling until day 14 (the soonest).

Tips for keeping track: To keep up with which lists need to be distilled when, create alerts via Google Calendar. You can also send word lists to yourself via email. [link]

Individual headword sessions…

Walking you through the method is more complicated than actually doing the method. But, here we go… explanations in both graphics and text.

List 1, Session One: Write down the first 20-25 words (headwords) on the left hand page of your notebook. Write, read, and say out loud the headwords one time only. Number the words and date the session.

Depending on your aim, include phrases and notes on grammar. For Thai, adding classifiers (where applicable), would be beneficial. And as previously mentioned, if you don’t have time to source words plus do everything else, after 20 minutes take a ten minute break before going back for a second session.

List 1, Session Two: After 2 weeks or more (but no longer than 2 months) go back to List 1, Session One to see how many words you remember.

You can test yourself by covering over the English, but that is not the best way. The best is to say “I know that I must now discard 8 of these 25 words which are on the top of the left page and write 17 of them on the top of the right page. Which do I think I have remembered best?

To distill by 30%, put an X next to each word you do know. Carefully rewrite the words you don’t know on the opposite page, right hand side (around 15-17 words). Read those words out loud. Date the session.

List 1, Session Three: Go through the last list, putting an X next to the 5 or so words you know best. Write the remaining list of 10-12 words underneath Session Two. Don’t forget to read the words out loud. Date the session.

List 1, Session Four: Mark 4 words with an X. That will leave 7-9 words. Write them underneath Session One. Say them out load. Include the date.

Combining: Distill Session Four. Write the remaining words in a second GoldList notebook, or on a different page in your main notebook. Up to you.

At 5 headword sessions a day, with 20-25 words per headword list, you’ll be adding 100-150 new words a day. If you take weekends off, after five days you’ll have 500-625 new words rolling around your head. In 2 weeks you’ll have introduced something like 1000-1250 new words in your target language. And here’s the thing… unless you add more hours of study, due to distilling the previous lists, at 2 weeks the introduction of new words slows down. By juggling lists you can add 25-60 new words a day until the 2000-2500 mark is reached.

Using the GoldList method with the Thai alphabet…

Learning the Thai alphabet using the GoldList method should be fairly straightforward. You can go the tough route (Thai grade school materials) or go an easier route by creating lists from 60 Minutes Thai Alphabet. And as you’ll want to get the sounds down I suggest making good use of audio files too.

The GoldList method elsewhere…

I realise your Google finger is not broken, but here are a few GoldList discussions I found interesting.

Huliganov TV: Grammar and the Goldlist
Huliganov TV: The stubborn ear of the first-time linguist
Huliganov TV: An amusing thought about the Goldlist vs Flashcards
Huliganov TV: Answering a person who is not attracted to the Goldlist system

YouTube: Uncle Davey lectures on Gold List System at Moscow BKC-IH
YouTube: Techniques for language learning – Goldlist Method and Captioning
YouTube: The gold list system of vocab learning

Language Geek: The Gold List vocabulary method

LingQ forum: The Goldlist Method
how-to-learn-any-language.com forum: Has anybody tried the Gold List method?

Have you used the Goldlist Method? I’m quite interested hearing from those who have played around with the Method for awhile.

Assimil Thai…

In his post, How to use Assimil Courses, Josh at Language Geek shares Assimil’s (often) missing instructions. Now, I’m not here to sell you on Assimil Thai out-of-the-box. With 50 lessons, Assimil Thai is a decent enough program but that’s if you don’t mind using transliteration (only). There is no Thai script in Assimil Thai. And come to think of it, there’s no English either because it’s for the French speaking market.

I don’t mind the French so much (I can almost muddle my way through). But I’ve never been able to get my head around Thai transliteration. So did I switch all of Assimil’s 50 lessons to Thai script? You betcha, but more on that later.

It’s the Assimil method I’m attracted to. It works (just ask the members of how-to-learn-any-language.com). And I believe the method can be used with most any language course.

Using the Assimil Method with Essential Thai…

As I’m a huge fan of Essential Thai by James Higbie, I chose to run it through a modified Assimil Method. With Essential Thai you can follow Assimil’s Method pretty closely, but given the differences in the materials, tweaks come in handy.

The Assimil Method has us reading through the explanations after we listen, read, and listen again many times. Fair enough. But Assimil Thai’s audio files are Thai only, while Essential Thai’s audio files are a mixture of English and Thai.

If you aim to follow Assimil exactly, and are extraordinarily ambitious, you’ll have to extract the Thai audio from the English. A no brainer, a fair bit of time will be needed.

Just my opinion… with the combination of Thai and English in Essential Thai’s audio files, reading the English translation (as often) isn’t necessary.

Essential Thai the Assimil way (sort of):

1. Read an entire lesson (or a manageable chunk).
2. Listen to the accompanying audio files on their own.
3. Listen to the audio files while looking at the Thai.
4. Read the Thai text aloud. Take time to understand the meanings.
5. Read the Thai text again, but this time without looking at the translation.
6. Listen to the audio files while looking at the Thai.
7. Listen to the audio files with the book closed.
8. Repeat after each word or phrase.
9. Read the explanations until you understand the lesson.

Note: 1 & 2 are interchangeable.

Obviously, whether you chose to read script or transliteration is totally up to your Thai level. And even if you are past beginners level, Essential Thai is good for reading practice.

Tip: To control the audio speed or extract the Thai phrases, drag the files into Audacity.

Updating Assimil Thai…

If you have your heart set on Assimil Thai, I strongly suggest studying with Thai Skype teacher Khun Narissa.

You see, after getting the Thai script typed the way I wanted it, I showed it to Khun Narisa in order to get a professional walk-through of the materials. Khun Narisa tisk-tisked at the many iffy phrases, and for Thai practice, guided me through a rewrite.

When I showed the updated Assimil materials to a Thai friend (another Thai teacher, just not mine) she looked surprised and said, “this is REAL Thai”. And that’s exactly what I want in Thai language materials. Real Thai, not old-fashioned Thai, poetic Thai, or faranged Thai.

If you do study with Khun Narisa using the corrected Assimil materials, to keep to the spirit of copyright you’ll still need to purchase Assimil. But that’s only fair.

Khun Narissa can be contacted at Thai Skype Teacher.