This article was originally posted on WomenLearnThai.com.
Who’s talking about learning Thai…
Gawd, am I late with this post, or what? I have no real excuse except for a back-to-back life, and playing catch up to that back-to-back life. How’s that? Weak… I know… I know…
Btw – if you know anything about the red character in the photo above, I’d love to know too. Ta.
WLT’s generous contributors …
In February, Hugh Leong had two great posts for learning Thai: Thai Language Thai Culture: A House is a Home and Thai Language Thai Culture: How Many Rainy Seasons are You?
Also in February, two new series were added. First up, Tod Daniel’s informative Thai Language Schools in Bangkok, where Tod outlines the benefits of Language Express. The second arrival, by yours truly, is Getting By With Learning Thai, where Greg Jorgensen promises, well… you’ll have to read it to see.
A third series hosted by Luke Cassady-Dorion was added in March but until I get around to it, here’s Luke’s interview Successful Thai Language Learner: Luke Cassady-Dorion. Pretty grand, yes?
Note: If you would like to contribute posts and/or if you have a talent for Thai, please contact me.
February: Who’s talking about learning Thai…
Julien: Diary of a Crazy Farang (no longer online)
Today I’m going to feature a recent find, ‘Diary of a Crazy Farang’. It’s written by Julian, a Frenchman with his eye on things Thai. A chunk of Thai bloggers are taking time out so it’s good timing. Julien’s aim? To be ‘fluent in Thai in 6 months’. Going great guns, Julien started out with the ‘Manee readers’ at the end of January and then switched to ‘Assimil’ in Feb. From my reckoning, there are three months to go before the end of his six month challenge. Stay tuned.
Andrej: Bakunin Learns Thai (no longer online)
When I visit Andrej’s site I put aside plenty of time to digest what he and those commenting have to say. In both Feb posts, Andrej discusses extensive reading (a decent subject to chew on): What to expect from extensive reading and Is extensive reading a good way to acquire new vocabulary?
Sadly, Anothai Dara’s YouTube account has been disconnected due to copyright infringement. There is worth in what Anothai Dara was contributing to the learning Thai community but YouTube drew a line and that was that.
Brett Whiteside: Learn Thai from a White Guy
Brett came out with a fine run of posts so I’ll share all: Your Favorite Dic, Quit yer jibba-jabba Jabba, Stories from the News – Wiki, and Did you know? – Wiki.
Hamish: Tweet Yourself Thai | twitter: @AjarnPasa
Hamish focused on school kids with When I Grow Up I Don’t Want to be Corrupt – Pt 1 and When I Grow Up I Don’t Want to be Corrupt – Pt 2. Again touching on Thailand’s youth is
A Rose by Any Other Name – Valentine’s Day Special. And like Brett, Hamish has a liking for Longdo, only he’s going for Longdo’s iPhone app version.
Josh Sagar: Learning Thai, now Let’s Talk Thai
Josh’s title says it all: Stop Thinking and Learning in English! I wish I could, I wish I could 😉
Kaewmala: Thai Woman Talks – Language, Politics & Love
The eloquent Kaewmala has three wonderful posts for Valentines Day: Thai Women, Me and the Monkey’s Uncle—Valentine’s Scrooge Edition and How to Call Your Sweetheart in Thai—Late Valentine’s Edition and Thai Particles of Endearment. All three posts are bookmark quality, for sure.
Palmisano: Thai Blog
More chatty posts have started to appear on Thai Blog so please check them out. But as my aim is to share mostly about the Thai language, here you go: If you say it enough times, it becomes the truth and How to use the Thai word Laew and You can do it, you haven’t done it, and you have got it.
Richard Barrow: Using the iPhone in Thailand (no longer online)
The Thai learning iPhone app market has started to slow down but Richard still managed to find two new additions: ‘Learn Thai for Free on the iPhone’ and ‘Google Translate for iPhone’. I tried Google Translate and while there is no denying that the potential is there, but for now it only works sometimes.
Sarawan: The Parent Vine Thailand (no longer online)
Sarawan’s excellent post about taxi safety went live on March 1st but I’m posting it in February edition because I’m running late… and… and… and I’ve got a mention 🙂 Be sure to stop by to find out ‘everything you wanted to know about kids and taxi safety in Thailand…but were afraid to ask’.
Snap: Learning Thai In Chiang Mai
I can always count on Snap to ask just the right questions. Both When does a dog not say woof ? – Onomatopoeia and So, why are you learning Thai? do just that.
Terry Fredrickson and Jon Fernquest: Bangkok Post, Learning From News
For February I chose posts that made me smile: First transgender flight attendants and Bike lanes for Bangkok? and Discount buying. And just because I have an interest I included Thai traditional massage.
Podcasts about learning Thai…
Bangkok Podcast: Thai Language Series
Fitting for February (Valentines and all that stuff), Bangkok Podcast interviewed the lovely Kaewmala from Thai Sex Talk.
YouTube channels about learning Thai…
Adjima Thaitrong: Learn Thai with Mod, fun & easy!
Sweet Adjima has a few tips for the guys/gals in Learn Thai – How to ask someone out (Shall we…?)
Bloggers who sometimes tweet more than they blog…
Bloggers who bounce between twitter and blogging:
Ajarn Pasa: Tweet Yourself Thai | twitter: @AjarnPasa
Ajarn Pasa is one of the few here who gives twitter and blogging equal time.
Kaewmala: Thai Women Talks | twitter: @Thai_Talk @thai_idioms
Kaewmala is a political gal at @Thai_Talk but also shares needed insights on the Thai language at @thai_idioms and @lanna_talk.
Rikker Dockum: Thai 101 | twitter: @thai101
Rikker sometimes blogs, sometimes podcasts, but mostly twitters.
Who’s doing all that Thai twittering…
The (mostly) complete Thai twitter list:
@AjarnPasa
@andrewbiggs
@English4thai
@js100radio
@ikimmim
@lanna_talk
@literallythai
@stu_jay
@Thai101
@ThaiAlive
@ThaiShortNews
@thai_idioms
@Thai_Talk
Note: The full list of both twitter people and bloggers can be found here: Thai Language Bloggers. Again, let me know if anyone is missing.
Until March (coming real soon!) enjoy…
Sage, you’ve asked the 5 million dollar language learning question…
If your time is already saturated it’s really all down to how bad you want to speak Thai and how good you are at organising the time you do have.
Just my opinion… I’d go after all three at the same time: Alphabet, vocab and phrases. But if Thai is totally new to you then I’d put the main focus on common everyday phrases over vocab lists (but don’t ignore vocabulary groupings if you find you have the time). And to get your ear used to a tonal language start listening to Thai every day. You can do that easily with Thai TV and songs (both can be found on YouTube), Thai books in audio, and your Thai lessons.
The next five months are just going to fly by but with only 11 months here, if you don’t put some time into getting comfortable with Thai you just might just arrive with regrets. And just maybe, by getting your ear acclimatized to Thai, you’ll arrive confident not confused.
Oh, and if you need free resources, here you go: Learn Thai for FREE
Good luck and please let me know how you get on – you are sure to have a blast 🙂
Sarawan, it was my pleasure to get the sound files for you 🙂 and my sympathies for losing a morning’s work! Today is my Monday so I’ve blown most of the day off too. Tomorrow… yeahhh…
Thanks for the mention (and again for providing the soundbites for the taxi phrases!) I’m especially flattered since I know that it’s only tangentially Thai-learning related.
And now, of course, the morning’s work I had carefully planned out is going to be spent instead following all the other great links you’ve collected…. so much for productivity….
Morning Snap, I have a passion for all things learning Thai is why… now if I could just get my study schedule on the same level 😉
Palmisano’s blog is a good one as he has the explanations needed to get Thai vocab/grammar into your head. And I have to check with Richard’s blog often because I’m so very behind on the iPhone apps for learning Thai. Richard winkles out the new ones far faster than I’ve managed to – he must have a trick up his sleeve!
I feel that Julien will get a fair way into his studies. Not fluent, but he’s saturating himself with Thai while his energy to learn the language is at the highest and I believe there’s something in that.
Catherine, I don’t know how you manage to do what you do…I can barely keep up with reading blogs, let alone reviewing them, while also updating WLT with interesting and relevant articles, like you do. Once again, you’ve highlighted some blogs I wasn’t aware of. I’m now keeping an eye on Julien’s Diary of a Crazy Farang to see if he reaches his goal.
Since your January review I’ve also been visiting Palmisano’s Thai Blog and Richard Barrow’s blog regularly, on top of those I already frequent. Thanks for the mention, again, this month.
Heyya 🙂
This may be a dumb question 😛
But i was wondering what are some ways for a teen to learn thai?Im a high school student and am often busy and in the times im not busy im doing homework or taking a break.
How would you recommend me learning thai?(fittin it in, and sometimes spending long periods of time on thai)??How could i keep full interest(i mean how could i do it for long periods of time)(if i have the time)
And another question i have was is a good order to learn thai?
alphabet
phrases
words(vocab)??
Oh and by the way im Going to Thailand with Rotary Youth Exchange. I will leave for Thailand in early August and i will be there for 10-11 months
Love ya blog
Sage Y.
Good morning Martyn, the Thai learning blogging group / industry is small but growing. And it’s small enough to pretty much know what each get up to. But imagine trying to keep up with French, or Chinese even – that’d be a task too far.
Julian from Crazy Farang has developed an envious energy for his studies. When Luke Cassady-Dorion decided to go after Burmese he took a similar approach during school break. The concentration those two have is commendable!
The monthly reviews do take time but I’m getting on a roll with gathering them in so not it’s not as time-consuming as in previous months. Still, I’m sure to be missing a few (and I really do need to start paying attention to YouTube teachers).
Catherine – Thai language blogs have their own smaller world within the big universe of the Thai blogshere. I didn’t realize there were so many language blogs about. They are a huge collection of free resources, hints and tips.
I checked out the Crazy Farang and he now has 114 days to go in his quest to speak fluent Thai. That’s a big ask but good luck to him.
The monthly review must take one hell of a lot of time to compose but I’m sure all your readers appreciate the links. Better late than never is certainly true in this case. Excellent round-up.
Thanks Talen, it’s been rip-roaring these past months and doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down.
And thanks to you too Bakunin (once again you have top posts). There’s a slowdown on those talking about learning Thai but what’s out there is excellent. No one will go lacking, for sure.
Cat, thanks again for the mention! As always, there’s a lot of good material out there. It’s great that you bring it all together in one place.
Great wrap up of February Cat…I don’t think anyone will mind if it’s late by your standards because it is always jam packed with goodness.,