At Rama IX Park

17 July 2015, TV = 1172.6 hours

AUA: total class time = 2180 hours; taking reading/writing level 2

advanced class = 1199 hours; reading/writing classes = 43 hours

At Rama IX Park, which I went to this morning and which is less centrally located than the probably better-known Lumpini Park, but which I think I like better because it feels more secluded — like you can actually kind of feel like you’re out of the city, and when you look off into the distance you don’t see a glass wall of skyscraper standing sentinel at the park’s edge —

Human Pictionary

20 June 2015, TV = 1169.5 hours

AUA: total class time = 2139 hours; taking reading/writing level 1

advanced class = 1178 hours; reading/writing class = 23 hours

สบาย 8 ส่วน, from an exhibit by Chulalongkorn University’s Industrial Design students

ดี part 1: ดีมาก

5 May 2015, TV = 1163.5 hours

AUA: advanced class = 1153 hours, total class time = 2091 hours

Late last year: In a last-minute add-on to my trip, I decided that  instead of going straight back to Bangkok, I’d take a detour to Lamphun, a small city in the north that was the former capital of the ancient, pre-Thai Haripunchai empire (how mysterious!).

Same Old Bag

27 March 2015, TV = 1113.5 hours

AUA: advanced class = 1114 hours, total class time = 2052 hours

Can you spot the Thai word that’s got an English cognate?

A Thai Keyboard And A Half A Song

16 January 2015, TV 1048.1 = hours

AUA: advanced class = 1068 hours, total class time = 2006 hours

I’ve really liked its theme song ever since I saw 1999’s เจ้าสาวปริศนา (jaosao prisana) last year, but the only copy of it I’ve been able to find is this low-fi fragment played over the show’s opening credits:

Acquiring New Words

10 January 2015, TV 1042.6 = hours

AUA: advanced class = 1068 hours, total class time = 2006 hours

In my experience with learning a language on its own terms, from the inside — in other words, not going through other languages (i.e., not getting translations or explanations in English¹), and a lot of the time not even asking what words mean, but just letting their sounds and meanings crystallize in my consciousness of their own accord — I think the acquisition process happens largely on its own timetable. The points at which I’ll start noticing a word, at which the sounds of the word become clear enough to discern, or when the meaning or use of the word comes into focus, don’t seem to be things I can predict or control, though I believe that continually getting more input is what keeps the process going forward.

Steps Taken Toward Reading Thai: 2014 Summary

5 January 2015, TV = 1034.6 hours

I really enjoy tearing things down in detail, and going into the minutiae of my encounters and collisions with the Thai language. I only get to write about a fraction of the things that I’d like to, and I usually have vague sketches of ideas or even whole posts knocking about in my head. But sometimes it’s hard to get down in words the things that I most want to write about.

Doing Heavy Research For The Weekend Music

2 January 2015, TV = 1033.0 hours

Music blared from the bus’ PA system almost the entire nine and a half hour bus ride back to Bangkok (this was Viriya Tours) — loud enough that I couldn’t ignore it, though thankfully not loud enough to be injurious. To me this is incomprehensible, given that most people have their own music on their phones; and though I did listen to music through my phone at times, what I inevitably ended up with was a mash-up between the bus’ music and my own.

On the other hand, at least it was almost all in Thai, and while I found some of it kind of ehh, there were some songs I quite liked, such as this anthemic piece:

โครม!

25 November 2014, TV = 1014.4 hours

One of my favorite new words is โครม — I learned it from the Thai children’s book กระรอกน้อย ไม่มีระเบียบ by ปิติพร วทาทิยาภรณ์.

If you turn the page, the very next words are “แง ๆ เจ็บจังเลย”…I should think so! 😂 — From กระรอกน้อย ไม่มีระเบียบ by ปิติพร วทาทิยาภรณ์.

Bad Signs

19 November 2014, TV = 998.2 hours

blah blah blah…ระวัง!…blah blah blah….

Things don’t always work the way they’re supposed to; and sometimes they don’t “not work” in the way that they’re supposedly not working.