Category Archives: Thai

September 9, 2012 · 10:02 pm

Repentance: It’s not just for religion

Repentance

Repentance (Photo credit: Moh Tj)

I went to church today and no I didn’t have anything specifically about repentance, I do think about it.  For me church is a fantastic opportunity to go and think about what I messed up on and to recommit myself to doing better.  No I will probably fail again, but no one is perfect.  The important part is to get up when we fail and start again with a new commitment to keep going.  This is what repentance means to me.

What does this have to do with language learning?

I’m not turning my blog into a sermon.  I was thinking about how this applies to language learning as well. Continue reading →

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September 4, 2012 · 10:52 pm

Back from my “Thai” Vacation

Last week was Thai week.  It was great.  I listened to Thai TV, especially a very interesting hour all about Taxi driver’s not legally being able to reject passengers without a valid reason, and I read and practice speaking in Thai.  It’s great to have this monthly vacation from Spanish.  Eventually you work yourself so hard you get frustrated and you wonder if you are making any progress.  Today, I felt my Spanish is the best it has ever been, and I did not actively learn Spanish for over a week!

Despite last week being about Thai, I still found a fantastic tool that I want to share with you to help you learn Spanish.  What is this tool you may ask?  It’s a website called Duolingo.

What is Duolingo?

The best way to answer that is to watch this video:

It’s a win/win situation.  They get more people to translate, which the more people who translate, the better their translation is, and you get to learn Spanish.  Functionally it is a great program.  If this was your only method of learning Spanish, you would be lacking a lot.  As a complement to your other programs out there, it is great.  You can test out of subjects and levels you already know, which lets you move on quicker to the subjects you don’t know as well.

The vocabulary builds on itself, so you need to learn basic animals and clothing before you learn colors.  Why?  Because you will be taught using sentences such as gray elephants drank water or I have a red hat.  So you are constantly reviewing old vocab as you study new ones.  Don’t worry if you learned plumo instead of bolígrafo.  It will accept any answer for “Pen” that exists.

Four more months!

As of this month, I only have 4 more months of Active Spanish left.  I really need to get down and push myself hard.  I have turned my Google Chrome immersion tool to “fluent” so that it translates whole paragraphs now.  I sometimes feel like I am way off, but I know that If I push myself hard enough I will make my goal to be basically fluent in speaking by the end of the year.

So four more months and you will hear me Speaking a new language.  What is that language going to be?  It’s one of those 4 on the right.  Which one would like to learn?  Vote now and share which one you would like to learn.

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August 27, 2012 · 10:14 pm

Thai week

Thai Emblem

Image from Wikipedia.org

Today was the official start of Thai week for me.  A few weeks back I mentioned that I will be doing “Thai Week” once a month so I can take a vacation from my Spanish Langauge studies.   This is a helpful in that it allows me to take a momentary step away from the problem and let what I have learned sink in.  I can rest and get ready to start again.  In the mean time, I can take some time to focus on one of my other passions: Thai.  Like I said in my ‘vacation’ post, you don’t have to study another language on your time off.  You can read a book or just catch up on some other hobby you enjoy doing.  The point is to take a break.

Taking a break doesn’t mean I’m still not learning

I also recently posted about how to learn two languages at once.  So even though I may not be ‘actively’ learning Spanish, I am still improving my knowledge of Spanish.  I realized that I don’t need to use English as my reference language.  When I learn Thai, I cross-reference into Spanish and the same goes the other way around as well.  It’s very powerful to make connection between the two languages, that I never would have made with just English as a reference.

There are two major things I am doing.  The first thing is that I am pulling out my old beginners podcast/audio courses in Spanish and translating them into Thai.  I got this idea from my post about going back to the basics.  I listen to these courses that are partly in English and partly in Spanish.  The Spanish is very basic so it allows me to really solidify my understanding of the basics, in both languages.

The second is adding cards to my Anki decks.  When I look up words in Thai, I cross-reference them into Spanish.  This forces me to have to learn both at the same time.  Why shouldn’t I learn the word in Spanish at the same time as in Thai.  Of course, I use my Anki Deck efficiently and don’t waste too much time per day on it.

That isn’t all I do in Thai

Of course, not everything I do is cross referenced into Spanish.  For example, I listen to Thai TV at work.  I listen because I need to be actively doing something.  I like listening to Thai TV instead of Thai radio.  For me, there are different types of social interactions on TV that are not on Radio.  It’s more entertaining.    I am also Reading Thai news papers and other Thai websites.  I am also using the Google immersion tool set to Thai.

That’s how my Thai week is scheduled.  Like my plans?  Got any suggestions.  Please share.

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August 25, 2012 · 12:16 pm

How to use Spaced Repetition effectively

Flashcards | [Day 31/365]

Flashcards | [Day 31/365] (Photo credit: rocknroll_guitar)

One of the hardest things that most language learners have is keeping up with the vocabulary.  You’ll hear a word and think, “That sounds familiar, but I don’t know what it means.” or you may “know” a word you want to say, but can’t seem to remember what to say.  This happens to everyone.  There are words that, though useful, may not come up often enough to stick in your brain, especially when learning in a non-immersive environment.

This is where Anki or other similar spaced repetition systems can come in handy.  They are Flash cards on Steroids.  They not just let you have a “deck” of cards, these cards can have audio and pictures as well.  But most of all these cards have a logical review schedule created as you study with them.  The easier the card, the less often it comes up for review.  It’s like having a personal tutor create a personal set of cards to review everyday.

I do not believe that one can “learn” a word by any flash card system alone.  I’m not a memory expert, but my experience is that flash cards, by themselves, don’t effectively get things into the long-term memory.   What they are good at doing is keeping it in your short-term memory until your mind is able to create a long-term map to it, which normally happens in regular every day uses of it.  It is kind of like putting your food on simmer, until you are ready to add more ingredients.

When SRS becomes ineffective

I am a proponent of using them, but if they are used wrong, Continue reading →

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August 22, 2012 · 7:59 am

Want2SpeakThai’s Greatest hits

When I started this blog, it was actually a Spanish blog.  I eventually started a separate Thai blog, before I eventually combined them both into this one blog.  While many have followed me for a while now, most probably were not there from the beginning, there fore I thought I would repost one of my old post from when it was just a Spanish blog.  With out further ado, Seesaws: The key to success in language learning and in life.

How many of us can sympathize with the picture on the left.  All of our lives are full of ups and downs and this only gets exaggerated when one does anything new or attempts to change anything in their life.  It is hard to learn something new and doing anything that disrupts our routine is painful.

We can be on top of the world one moment and down in the dumps another. These drastic changes are the biggest reasons we fail to follow through on new things we want to do in our lives.  Hows did your New Year’s resolutions work out this year?

It’s just too uncomfortable dropping, from such high heights to such low lows, that we would rather not do it again.  So when the first sign of  ”failure” happens, we loose all motivation we need to keep going.  There is a trick, though, Continue reading →

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August 7, 2012 · 8:21 am

Take a Vacation from your Language

Picture from wikipedia.org

I just got back from a lovely little camping trip with my family.  There were many things about this trip that I loved.  I loved playing with my kids in a river and in a lake and spending time with my sister and brother-in-law, but the thing I like the most about the trip was that I was unplugged from the world for several days in a row.  I was able to relax, think, and basically clear my mind of things.  There is some type of healing that goes on when you totally walk away from things.  You get a fresh start and a clearer picture of what is most important to you.  It’s something you can’t do on a weekend.  You need a “vacation” to help you step away from your world, so you can see it better.

How this applies to language learning

Up to this point I have spent my weekends focused on Thai.    Continue reading →

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August 2, 2012 · 8:29 am

My August multilingual video

I am going to be away camping with my family for a couple of days, but before I left, I was able to make a video.  Sorry I ran out of time to make the CC work, but I will try to fix that as soon as possible.  So sit back and relax and enjoy the show (don’t forget to vote on the language you would like me to learn the least ->):

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July 30, 2012 · 7:42 pm

Another Guest post at Women Learn Thai

I recently wrote a guest post over at WomenLearnThai.com about the benefits of the new Google Chrome immersion tool extension. Thought my post focuses on Thai, it also benefits those learning any of the languages offered by Google translate.  So I recommend everyone go check out the post over at Womenlearnthai.com.

Just as a FYI, I have finally added another lesson to my Learn Thai Podcast.  Now that I have finished some major milestones at work, I hope to get those out at a faster rate.   So check it out and let me know what you think.

Finally I have rearranged my menu to be a bit cleaner.  I have combined everything to do with Thai/Spanish under the specific languages.  Just hover over Thai or Spanish resources and you will find other related pages.  Two of those related pages are my Real Thai Conversation fillers and Real Spanish Conversation Fillers.  As I find real and useful conversational phrases, I will update those lists.  So check back often to see if there are new words.

So thanks for checking those things out.  Now head on over to WomenLearnthai.com and read my post there.  Thanks

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July 26, 2012 · 8:03 am

The Spirit of the Law VS The Letter of the Law

Law Library DVDs

(Photo credit: William & Mary Law Library)

This is a fun idiom in English.  Wikipedia has a whole article about it here.  In short it means that one can follow the exact wording of a law/rule/promise/plan, but yet still not accomplish the purpose of the Law.  On the other hand one can seem to “break” the specific wording of the law/rule/promise/plan, but do it so that you follow the intent or “spirit” much closer.

It’s also, in my opinion become a way for people to shift responsibility from themselves to some all mysterious “law” spirit that granted them “wisdom” to break the law/rule/promise/plan.  At Womenlearnthai.com, I wrote a post related to that.  In the post I talked about my Mission President, the head of all the missionaries in Thailand, would often say, “Ask a better question.”  The better question would be, how can I follow the spirit AND the law of what ever we promise to do.

Following “the Spirit and the Law” of Your System

I am a major advocate of creating a system and the sticking to it.  I have already wrote how you should adapt your system and sometimes just throw it out.  So, I obviously don’t expect anyone to follow it so strictly it is detrimental.  What I expect is that you make your own system of Inputs and outputs.  If you intend to follow My system, then you need to  know WHY you are doing the various activities I suggest.  That way you can adapt and throw out your system as needed, because you will understand why.

Recently, I finished my exams to get my licences that allow me to do the job I was hired to do.  My job now has me do a lot of busy work on my own.  I control myself and I am responsible for getting my tasks done.  When I am at my busiest, I listen to Spanish Radio online.  If I miss things, because I am concentrating on my work, I don’t mind so much.  Later in the day, I am less busy and can listen to podcasts or other programs that require more concentration.

This means I get at least an hour a day of listening, not including my hour-long commute in and out of work.  Having a plethora or time that I can use, means I can devote my commutes to only Output based learning and my free work moments into Input based learning.  Yes this is a change from My Language Learning System, but the Spirit is kept because I am doing both input and output based learning and making use of all my free time.

So the point of all this is. Make a system or steal mine, I don’t care.  Understand why you are doing it and then follow it!  When opportunity calls for it to be adapted, do it under the understanding that it needs to still follow the spirit of the original system.  Your success in adapting your system will be much higher if you do.

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July 18, 2012 · 8:12 am

When to throw your system out

English: Countries where exist a spanish langu...

English: Countries where exist a spanish language academy. Español: Países donde existe una academia de la lengua española. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am a major advocate of sticking to a system.  I don’t really care which system you use, even though I am quite proud of mine, as long as you follow SOMETHING.  Too many people say, I’m going to learn X and they buy a lot of book and CD’s and Podcasts and just start studying.  They read one blog and then just start doing what they recommend, that is until the next blog contradicts it and tells them to do something else.  Even though they are doing it, it’s not consistent and with a purpose of know WHY they are doing it.   Systems help you organize yourself and help you plan those free moments that you have to practice.

Then why are you writing this post?

One of the most important things to understand Continue reading →

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