learn thai from a white guy Archives - Page 15 of 29

I came up with this story the other day while making flashcards for one of my students. Mnemonics are great.

In order for this mnemonic to work properly, you should try to imagine the story in your mind. Pictures you make in your head are easier to remember than actual images.

To reinforce it you might make SRS cards to quiz you on the story. Ex – Q – What pets does the middle class kid keep? A ปลา ไก่ เต่า

There is a middle class kid (เด็ก) who likes to keep pets.

He has a fish (ปลา), a turtle (เต่า) and a chicken (ไก่).

Where does he keep these pets? In his basin (อ่าง) of course. (Actually try to imagine a big bucket with a chicken, a turtle and a fish swimming around inside it always bumping into each other)

He needs to feed the pets. They eat leaves (ใบ ไม้).

Also, he needs to make sure they don’t get out so he keeps a big plate (จาน) on top of the อ่าง.

Yes, I left out the other 2 as they aren’t vital when you first start reading. If you are solid on this story its easy to add in the other ones.

So in a recent (2009!) post I posted a brief excerpt from a book I’m reading at the moment. I was hoping somebody had read the book or seen the movie and remembered one of the more famous lines, but perhaps not.

Getting the book was a bit of a hassle. Not for me, but for my student, Boo, who is often roped into being my speaker for the Language Space vids. You can hear about some of the adventure in this vid. As it turns out, there were only 2 sets (sold as a trilogy) left in Thailand. Now there is only 1.

Anyways, I often look through the wikis of stuff that I like or used to like so I thought I’d break down the really short wiki on Dune in Thai because there is some great SRS stuff inside if you ever end up digging into this kind of stuff.

Remember, it is only hard because you have no experience doing it. You can study for 10 years and it will still be hard. The only way it will get easier is if you actually start doing it. I’m not just referring to language here. You only suck at something because you haven’t put in enough time yet. Don’t let the nonsense that comes out of other people’s mouths affect how you think about yourself and what you are (in)capable of. Everything gets easier with practice. Don’t wait for the right time or the right setup. Just get started now. Figure out how to make it better along the way. Just do something and stop whining. You certainly can’t get worse by doing it.

I expect it to take me at least a year to finish the Dune trilogy in Thai. Thai is pretty low-priority for me these days, but I keep plugging away to keep the new words coming in. I’ll sit down 2-4 times a week and set a min time limit. Usually 15 minutes. Then I just read. There are always words I don’t know, but I know whats going on in the story. It tends to be the more artsy descriptive language that I end up guessing with. I allow myself to write down 1-2 words/page that I may want to look up later, but only if a word really jumps out at me. After 15 min is up, if I feel bored, tired or whatever I stop then and move on to something else. If I am into what is going on in the story and want to keep going, I give myself another 15 min. Its rare that I get past 30 min in one sitting. The Thai version is nearly 700 pages and I think I’m in the 70s at the moment. The thing that keeps me going is that I want to read the story and my Thai reading ability is passable enough that I can do this. But I also know that by the time I am halfway through the book, I will be used to the style of writing, have a better idea what a lot of those funny descriptive words mean making the whole process worth it. It will get easier and more fun. The first book will take the longest for sure.

*I eventually finished all 3 books from the first 3 Dune books by Frank Herbert (Thai translation) and it took just a few months of trying to read at least 15min/day. It was slow going at first, but once I got used to the style and some of the new Thai vocabulary, it got easier (but still not easy!).

Want to learn how to read and speak Thai? Check out my full program here.

http://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/ดูน_(นวนิยาย)

ดูน (อังกฤษ: Dune) เป็นนิยายวิทยาศาสตร์โดยแฟรงค์ เฮอร์เบิร์ต ตีพิมพ์ครั้งแรกเมื่อ ค.ศ. 1965 จำหน่ายได้มากกว่า 12 ล้านเล่มทั่วโลก ^[1] ได้รับรางวัลเนบิวลาประจำปี ค.ศ. 1965

ดูนมีเนื้อหาเกี่ยวกับโลกอนาคต กล่าวถึงการดำรงอยู่ของมนุษย์ วิวัฒนาการ สังคมวิทยา นิเวศน์วิทยา โดยอ้างอิงถึงเรื่องศาสนา การเมือง และอำนาจ ได้รับการยกย่องให้เป็นหนึ่งในสองวรรณกรรมวิทยาศาสตร์ที่ดีที่สุดในโลก เทียบเท่ากับ เดอะลอร์ดออฟเดอะริงส์ ของเจ. อาร์. อาร์. โทลคีน ^[2] (จากการสำรวจเมื่อปี 1975)