language learning Archives - Page 3 of 6 - Learn Thai from a White Guy

Wolverine

May 3, 2009 by Leave a Comment

So I watched Wolverine today.  I thought it was decent.  I was entertained even though I was bullied into watching it at Robinsons which I despise due to 21-28 minutes of pre-movie garbage (and paying 140 baht when I can watch it at Central for 70 = no-good).  Maybe 4 minutes of that are previews.  And in the Thai subtitles at the end it says something like อย่าพุ่งไป…จะมีอะไรต่อ.  Don’t bother.  You can wait through 10 minutes of credits to see Wolverine drink 2 shots of booze in Japan.  Oooh.   Wish I had left with everyone else…

อย่าพุ่งไป = don’t run off (just yet)

พุ่ง is a surprisingly useful word that I didn’t really know until last year.  Perhaps I’ll do a whole post on it sometime if I remember (dubious).  Remind me!

This one shouldn’t be too tough.  Give it a try.  Really..just do it for 5 minutes.  I pulled it from movieseer.com which is occasionally useful for movie showtimes, but not always correct.  The Thai is almost always short and easy.  This is a good example… 

เอ็กซ์ เม็น กำเนิด วูลฟ์เวอรีน(X-Men Origins: Wolverine )

ในภาคกำเนิด วูลฟ์เวอรีนนี้ โลแกน/วูลฟ์เวแรน (ฮิวจ์ แจ๊คแมน) เป็นมนุษย์กลายพันธุ์ที่พยายามจะค้นหาความลับในอดีตของเขา ซึ่งเนื้อเรื่องจะเป็นเหตุการณ์ก่อน X-Men ภาคแรก เล่าเรื่องราวการไล่ล่าล้างแค้นจอมวายร้ายที่เป็นตัวการในการสังหารแฟนสาวของเขา โลแกนจะพาเราไปสู่ต้นกำเนิดและค้นหาความจริวที่เราไม่รู้มาก่อน โดยมุ่งไปข้างหน้าด้วยความกล้าหาญและเส้นทางใหม่

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Wolverine

เป็นมนุษย์กลายพันธุ์ is a mutant

ที่พยายาม that is trying to…

จะค้นหาความลับ find out a secret

ในอดีตของเขา from his histroy

ซึ่งเนื้อเรื่อง so the plot of the story ..

จะเป็นเหตุการณ์ is the situation/cause

ก่อน X-Men ภาคแรก before the first X-Men movie

Filed Under: Articles, Beyond Intermediate, Movies Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Stages of Learning

April 15, 2009 by Leave a Comment

In my experience, there are 3 stages involved in going from the point where you sort of understand to being able to use something in a language.  You don’t have as much control as you might think and schools and teachers usually have even less.

We could analyze this stuff much deeper, but I find this to be the easy way to break it down.  We progress through these stages by encountering these words/expressions/sentences in real life (read/heard/tried to use).  Spaced repitition will significantly increase the chance of the words in question staying in your short term memory indefinitely so that when you encounter a situation where it is used…you can remember/use/understand it.

  1. Able to understand the underlying meaning of the question and possibly able to offer a simple answer such as in the case of กินข้าวรึยัง – กินแล้ว  or “have you eaten yet?” — “ate already” but unable to reproduce the original question or even work out for certain the words involved. It is still just a string of sounds which one can’t distinguish between or repeat with any accuracy, but somehow by having heard it over and over, you know what they are asking you.
  2. Able to understand the entire meaning and can now pick up most of the words in the sentence and answer properly, but still unlikely to be able to produce the actual question correctly.
  3. After having heard the sentence countless times, with varied repetition, we reach a stage where we can completely understand the question in most if not all of its forms and can now reproduce it naturally (or close to it) as we have heard it used naturally repeatedly for some time now.
Filed Under: Where to start? Tagged With: , , , ,

Another Vid – Mostly English

April 9, 2009 by 1 Comment

This is the 2nd vid I did like this.  The first one is coming soon.   Let me know if you want more stuff like this.  I did it because of some requests on my youtube channel a while back.

Also, I’m probably going to Bangkok for a few days at the end of this month if anybody wants to meet up and/or get a lesson I should have some free time.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgSpD2SSFQs]

Filed Under: Exposure, Media, Video Tagged With: , , , ,

I Also Speak English Sometimes

March 26, 2009 by 8 Comments

Not too often though.  This is a vid about tones.  It got cut off when the mem card filled up and I never finished it.  Its a bit raw. I’m away for a few days so it will just have to do.

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZkNHDa7Ri8]

Filed Under: Video Tagged With: , , , , ,

Another LTfaWG Video

March 20, 2009 by 3 Comments

I’m off-camera this time interviewing someone else.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqhCSLla19c]

As requested, here are some potentially SRS-worthy vocabulary from the clip:

  • อากาศไม่สะอาด       the air isn’t clean
  • เพิ่งกลับมาเมื่อวาน   I just got back yesterday
  • พูดดัง                         speak up/speak louder
  • ไกล้ (จะ) สอบ แล้ว   almost time for exams
  • Mau ke mana?        where are ya going?
  • Mau belanja.          Going to the market.
  • Bagaimana.             Its good/I’m good.
  • Apa kabar?              Whats new?
  • ที่อินโดมีศาสนาอะไรบ้าง    What religions to they have in Indonesia?
  • ค้นหา คือ search       ค้นหา means (to) search
  • ไ ปนานมี้ย                       did you go for long?
  • พูดไ ด้รึยัง                 So then can you speak (something yet)? **refers to Bahasa Indonesia
Filed Under: Video Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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