Please Vote THAI: Top 100 Language Lovers of 2014

This article was originally posted on WomenLearnThai.com.

Voting commences for the Top 100 Language Lovers…

Often when there’s a Top 100 Language Lovers competition, Thailand has a political or natural disaster, or both. Just on time, and after recovering from an earthquake a few weeks ago, we are now under Martial Law. Well. Unless you are reading the Wall Street Journal (then we are enjoying a coup).

EDIT: It’s official. The Thai army has announced a coup. But don’t let that stop you from voting, ok?

Politics and natural disasters aside, there’s a major change in the Top 100 Language Lovers Competition this year. Previously, we could only vote for one candidate per category (tough, when there are so many good ones in the competition). But we can now vote for everyone we fancy. Once.

Lexiophiles.com: You can vote for AS MANY candidates as you want, but just ONCE per candidate. This goes for all categories. If you vote several times for one candidate, these votes will be deleted when we check for fraudulent votes at the end of the competition.

TIP: When, after you vote, you refresh your browser, you will no longer have a visual record of who you voted for. So it’s a good idea choose everyone in one go. Unless, of course, you have an excellent memory.

Vote THAI?…

I don’t have the room to list everyone in the competition, and as this is a Thai language site, below you’ll find a brief description of the Thai candidates who made it through the paring down process. And what a process it was.

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If I have the numbers right, over 1000 candidates per category are entered each year. Out of those, only 100 per category are chosen. So yes, it’s an honour to be included.

The joint team from Bab.la and Lexiophiles are sure to be recovering for weeks to come due to their marathon ruuuush to get us this list. My thanks to you all!

Top 100 Language Learning Blogs…

Learn Thai with Porn is a new site written by Wannaporn Muangkham and managed by Kris Willems. What makes this site unique is that the posts come from Wannaporn’s active Facebook group (also named Learn Thai With Porn), where she gives lessons and advice on learning Thai. It’s sort of like having a Thai language class on tap, only friendlier, and available 24-7.

BTW: Porn (พร) is short for Wannaporn (วรรณพร) and means ‘blessing’ in Thai.

Facebook: Learn Thai With Porn

Women Learn Thai is run by moi (as you already know) but I couldn’t do without the top contributors, Hugh Leong and Todd Daniels. Hugh writes the bulk of the learning Thai posts in his popular series, Thai Language Thai Culture. And Tod mostly writes a series about the best Thai language schools in Bangkok.

Facebook: Women Learn Thai
Twitter: @ThaiLanguageRes and @WomenLearnThai

–>> Please vote THAI here: Top 100 Language Learning Blogs

Top 100 Language Professional Blogs…

There are no Thai entries in this section. Pity.

–>> Please vote for others here: Top 100 Language Professional Blogs

Top 100 Language Facebook Pages…

Thai Language Hut is an established school in Bangkok that has partnered with Paiboon Publishing (by Benjawan Becker). Benjawan creates the largest collection of learning Thai products on the market. Bare none. You can take Thai lessons Paiboon-style at Thai Language Hut’s physical school, via Skype, or learn for free on their generous YouTube channel.

Site: Thai Language Hut
Twitter: @ThaiLanguageHut
YouTube: Thai Language Hut School

Todd’s Review: Thai Language School Review: Thai Language Hut

–>> Please vote THAI here: Top 100 Language Facebook Pages

Top 100 Language Twitter Accounts…

Andrew Biggs spreads his Thai and English talents across radio and TV shows, newspaper columns and magazines, YouTube, twitter and Facebook. If you are an intermediate student of the Thai language his twitter feed is for you. And me (I often retweet his tweets).

Site: Andrew Biggs
Facebook: Andrew Biggs

Interview: Successful Thai Language Learner: Andrew Biggs

–>> Please vote THAI here: Top 100 Language Twitter Accounts

Top 100 Language YouTube Channels…

Adam Bradshaw is another powerhouse performer on Thai TV, Youtube, Facebook and twitter. He mostly teaches English to Thais but his shows are invaluable to intermediate and up students of the Thai language. A new project Adam is involved with is VOICE TV Talking Thailand. It’s off the air at the moment (Thai politics, once again) but until they are allowed back you can catch previous episodes on YouTube.

Pick up Thai is run by Thai teacher Yuki Tachaya. What makes her materials stand out is that they are chockfull of real Thai. Thai you will actually use when conversing in Thailand. And if you are a student of the Thai language, you’ll know exactly what that means!

Yuki normally resides in the US but is presently in Bangkok for a few months. If you are in the area and are looking for an excellent Thai teacher, grab her right quick. If not, you can sign up for Skype lessons instead (my preference, even if a teacher is in the same city).

Site: Pick up Thai
Facebook: PickUpThai
Twitter: @pickupthai

On WLT: PickUpThai: Colloquial Thai Terms and Expressions
On WLT: PickUpThai: Colloquial Thai Compound Words

I could chat forever aboutStuart Jay Raj, polyglot extraordinaire. Stu has given much to the learning Thai community. Just his enthusiasm for languages alone is responsible for many of us sticking to our studies, whether we are learning Thai or Swahili.

At the moment Stu has two main courses at his online school, Jcademy: Thai Bites and Cracking Thai Fundamentals. I couldn’t imagine learning Thai without access to both courses, and Stu says there’s many more on the way. Are we lucky, or what?

Site: Jcademy
Twitter: @JcademyOnline
Facebook: Jcademy

Stuart (Stu) Jay Raj: Interview Part One
Stuart (Stu) Jay Raj: Interview Part Two
Successful Thai Language Learner: Stuart (Stu) Jay Raj

I’ve already discussed the generous Thai Language Hut School, so I’ll just briefly point out that they have over 300 videos on their YouTube channel, and all free to the public. Impressive.

–>> Please vote THAI here: Top 100 Language YouTube Channels

Well, that’s a rap. Please do take the time to vote for whatever candidates in the Top 100 Language Lovers you fancy, whether Thai language or not. But just the once. Ta!