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April 19th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Hi both of you,
This is quite a longish reply which you deserve.
1. What makes your lessons work is the interaction between the two of you. You do not always totally agree and this gives it a human aspect. You must never lose this warm, personal feeling which makes the listener involved.
2. One of the most difficult decisions for a farang is whether to learn to write Thai. It looks awesomely difficult. My guess is that you keep this separate so that people can dip in and out. I like you using Thai words so that I can at least get the feel for the shape of them but a course on writing Thai would, I think, put most farang off — especially at the early stage.
3. Learning Thai has three — probably lots more — stages. In stage one I want to me able to put off persistent street hawkers with ‘Mai yao, kap.’ Which works. And I want to be able to tell a cab driver to stop here. And to ask the price of a shirt. And navigate the menu. Your podcasts already do that although you are inconsistent in your English punctuation — Grumpy Old Man syndrome on my part — but correcting it was pretty easy.
The second stage is a series of sentences which can be worked up into a simple conversation. Talking about the traffic in Bangkok with a taxi driver is always a good one.
The third stage is to be confident enough to deal with a total Thai situation where there is no one to help you. This has happened to me a lot.
4. It would be helpful if you used the anglicised spelling of words as used in a dictionary. Should it be Pom or Phom for I will do as an example. I have Practical Thai by Suraphong Kanchananga, English-Thai from Bangkok Books and Robinson and Lonely Planet. It would be useful if you picked the one nearest your method and declared it. Then the user could have a dictionary that fitted your lessons — and vice versa. I never go anywhere without a dictionary. I would just like to settle on one that fitted your lessons.
5. I think putting love talk at the beginning of your podcast demeans the product. Yes, many farang come to Thailand for sex — I am not one of them — but the chapter, the lesson, should be kept separate in some way.
6. This bit I am not sure about but put it forward anyway. There is a guy called Michael Gruneberg who took a system invented by, I think, Cicero and he sells it as a way of learning words. It works. Example:
The Thai for umbrella is RÔM
Imagine you roam the streets with an umbrella.
You may find this tediously simplistic — it is — and Michael, who was a professor at Cardiff University, agrees it does not work very well with tonal languages like Cantonese, Thai, Laotion and what have you. But it is a way of remembering and SOMETHING like that could be incorporated into your podcasts. For example, I will never, ever forget that dentist is mor fun. Which also give me doctor as mor and fun as teeth.
7. There are probably 500 words which are Thai equivalents of the English word — as in apartment. Perhaps these could be given a special podcast so you could see the similarity but learn the difference. (Did you know that pen is called pahkah because the Parker pen was the flash pen to have back in the fifties?)
8. I have put all of your podcasts on my iPod which I use pretty constantly. One point that you do not emphasize enough is the absolute willingness of pretty much every Thai — I have only met one exception and he was an immigration officer — to help. Perhaps you can emphasize this feeling of sanuk and helpfulness which is not a cross-gender nonsense. You do not actually have to be lying in bed with a Thai of the opposite sex — pleasant though it may be — to get help with your Thai. Everyone is willing to help. Astounding.
As you progress with your site I will be watching it and using it most days and I will keep up a running commentary because:
1. I am learning Thai.
2. I am a writer by profession and bunging off notes to people is double easy. Easier than conversation.
3. I like your style. It is warm, informal, helpful. It is absolutely essential that you keep it that way.
Regards to you both,
Gareth Powell currently in Thailand
April 19th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Hi Jo and Jay
Brilliant! The photo with the knife and fork,etc is really good. Better than genkjapan.com even. Keep it coming. I know from my investigation into learning Thai that there is a huge gap in the market for interesting interactive software like yours.
Good luck!
Si
April 20th, 2008 at 5:20 am
Thanks both of you!
@Gareth, really awesome suggestions thank you! much appreciated!
@si, yes we try to really make this a fun experience and have some more ideas (some are really funny) to keep you guys entertained + motivated to learn the language.