Comments on: Successful Thai Language Learner: Hugh Leong

By: Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners: Marcel Barang | Women Learning Thai... and some men too ;-)

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:18:19 +0000

[...] personal thanks for contributing to this series goes to: Larry Daks, Chris Baker, Hugh Leong, Terry Fredrickson, Glenn Slayden, Rikker Dockum, David Smyth, Tom Parker, David Long, Aaron [...]

By: The Thai Language/Thai Culture Series | Women Learning Thai... and some men too ;-)

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:54:05 +0000

[...] 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, Hugh shared his Advanced Thai Reading and Vocabulary Building [...]

By: Jeff Gray

Jeff Gray — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 06:48:14 +0000

Another great interview! Thanks Hugh. As a fellow multi-lingual computer programmer, I can understand what you’re getting at.

The hint to hum the tones make a lot of sense. The idea of singing when we speak reminds me of helping people with bad stutters to get around it by singing. Apparently, singing uses a different area of the brain to talking. (This must be why people with thick Glaswegian accents sing with no accent).

The analogy of tones to consonants in English is helpful to me. As English speakers, we know what parts of speech are redundant & can be compressed or dropped. But knowing that different rules apply in Thai to what is key information makes the job of learning clearer.

By: Catherine Wentworth

Catherine Wentworth — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:25:37 +0000

‘So I guess I must retire’

Let me know what your boss has to say, as this should be fun… :-D

Well, I laugh, but my brother just this month got fed up with the rat race and walked away from his company and sold all his belongings. He flew to LAX to pick up a sail boat (he’s there now), with the plans of heading out to sea for ten months. Just like that. Bye bye civilization. Bye bye employment. Hello exciting world!

I know that Hugh and my brother would get along just grand.

By: SiamRick

SiamRick — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:16:50 +0000

Outstanding interview. I agree with what Martyn highlights, namely the music of the language being so important and the fact you’ll learn it if you really really need it. I think that might be the only way. So I guess I must retire. I’ll speak to my employer tomorrow ;-) (That ought to get a good laugh!)

By: Catherine Wentworth

Catherine Wentworth — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:40:52 +0000

Talen, I am confident that I’ll be interviewing you about your adventuures into the Thai language. Why? Because I know you are chiselling away at it.

And like Huge said… ‘In fact, if something were easy, then why do it in the first place? The fun comes when we try something difficult and we succeed.’

He’s right. I look back at accomplishments in my life and they all took plenty of time and effort. And the most cherished were the hardest to pull off. And what a RUSH when I did!