Tag Archives: Bangkok

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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Thai Monday – The Elephant song

I love this song.  It wasn’t long after getting to Thailand that I heard this song being sung by random primary kid.  I don’t sing it well, but that’s ok.  Below is fun phrases to learn from the song.  Enjoy:

  • ช้าง – Elephant
  • โต – Large
  • ไม่เบา – Quite
  • โตไม่เบา – Quite large
  • งวง – trunk
  • งา – tusk
  • หาง – tail

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Thai Monday – Volunteer

Here is my Thai Monday Post.  Today I am speaking all about volunteering.  I put the words down for a few the most interesting words in my little 3 minute video.  For your reference I have put them down below the video as well.  Enjoy:

  • อาสาสมัคร – Volunteer
  • ทำบุญ – To make merit
  • องค์การ – An organization
  • โดยตนเอง – by yourself

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Out of The Mouth of Babes Part 2

20120520-100730 p.m..jpgIn Utah there is a store called the Deseret Industries, or D.I. for short.  It’s a thrift store just like many of the goodwill thrift stores found in the world.  These are treasure troves of old, and sometimes not so old, books that someone didn’t want anymore.  A few weeks ago I found these two books: Nuestro mundO and Español tercer grado LECTURAS.  They are two elementary level readers.  These are fantastic, because they are right at my level of understanding of Spanish and, despite the fact that they are written for a younger audience, the Spanish I have learned and will continue to learn is fantastic.

An Example of how elementary readers can help

In the very first story of Nuestro Mundo, I came across this phrase: Ya estarán por llegar y podremos comer.  By context I figured out that this meant that they are about to arrive and then we will eat, but the wording of Ya estarán por llegar confused me.  So I looked it up. Continue reading

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My Love Affair With the Communicative Approach to Learning a Language

This is my first guest post here at want2speakthai.com.    I was approached with this post.  I love learning how others approach language acquisition.  I am very found of the Speak Your Language approach and what Olivia says here is definitely in line with that mentality.  So without further ado…

How do you approach a new language? How do you begin a journey which may very well be a torturous one? How do you make things easy (or easier at least) for you, the learner?

Those are questions that beset many language learners, and unfortunately, the answers are not always cut and dried. No matter what new language you are tackling, there are many different options available to make the experience easier, more effective, and more enjoyable for you.

I have had my fair share of language learning struggles, both as a teacher and a learner. Having been an English as a Second Language teacher for many years, I walked with my learners and witnessed their struggles. Naturally, I had to play an active role in helping them get past the issues.

From the other end, having engaged in Spanish and French language courses, I also found myself facing the very same struggles my learners did.

After all these years, one might think I am done with all that work. Contrarily, however, my experiences have only served to strengthen my desire to learn more languages if possible.

In the course of my language teaching and learning experiences, I have worked with so many approaches. I remain by what I said earlier: there is no cut and dried answer for everyone.

However, there is one approach that I have learned to love and appreciate, if only because I have seen how it makes the learning process all the more enjoyable and effective.

I am talking about the communicative approach. Continue reading

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Thai Monday

Here is my Weekly recording of me speaking Thai.  It may take a couple of days to get captioning up, because my time is very full right now.  Anyway enjoy:

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