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Bakunin TAC 2013 Asian 鶴 / Żubr | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5131 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes  Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 1 of 94 30 December 2012 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've been lurking around on the sidelines looking for fellow South East Asian TACies, but they're few and far between. So I'll join my mighty Northern brethren on the Asian Team 鶴 for the upcoming TAC 2013. The language I study is Thai, and this will be my first TAC.
I've been learning Thai for about 3 and a half years now, and I'm tremendously enjoying it. I started out using a natural approach (adapted from ALG [automatic language growth]) with a very long silent phase (22 months), no translation and no explicit grammar study. After those roughly two initial years, speaking started to happen, then reading and writing. Now I actively use all four skills, with a focus on listening and reading, but I've also developed a few friendships in the language and enjoy talking and chatting with them. Listening: I listen to anything I can get my hands on, which is not much, unfortunately. But it includes the daily news podcasts of Voice of America and NHK (Japan), the stuff SBS (Australia) uploads to itunes, TV on demand and tailor-made recordings. Reading: I still enjoy books for young readers, they're easy to read and good fun. I'm currently reading through a stack of Enid Blyton adventure stories, but I also have several kilograms of books for young readers by Thai authors, science magazines and other stuff I want to read like Steve Jobs biography or The Hobbit. I buy way more books than I manage to read... I also do a lot of reading on the internet, ranging from stories and news articles (mostly in preparation for tutoring sessions) to random blog posts. Speaking: I have regular conversation sessions through italki where we discuss up to three news articles per session which I prepare in advance, and I talk with friends on a regular basis. Writing: I chat a fair bit on whatsapp with Thai friends, and I also write the occasional lang-8 entry when I see that I write too little. My TAC goals are to spend 1000 hours on Thai during 2013, keeping a healthy balance between the four language skills. I plan to update my log every 20 hours or so, and of course I'll try to stay up to date on my team mates' logs. I wish everybody a successful TAC 2013 with lots of fun! EDIT: Updates for Polish start with message 53. Edited by Bakunin on 12 April 2013 at 10:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4869 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 2 of 94 30 December 2012 at 7:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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Your study approach sounds very interesting! I'm thinking about trying something similar (but not as extreme) with Mandarin. Good luck with TAC 2013!
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5131 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 3 of 94 30 December 2012 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks, druckfehler, good luck with TAC 2013 for you as well! And thanks for organizing the Asian team!
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| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4869 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 4 of 94 30 December 2012 at 9:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks :)
How did you get into Thai? It doesn't seem like the most obvious language choice for someone living in Switzerland. I'm all for learning less commonly studied languages, so I think it's great that you chose an "unusual" one. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5131 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 5 of 94 30 December 2012 at 10:30pm | IP Logged | ||
I'd been to Thailand a few times and always had a great time. I'd also made friends over there and developed an interest in Thai culture, buddhism, Thai food etc. This, together with a general interest in language learning, was enough to get me started. Once I'd progressed a bit, I started to enjoy it more and more. This year, I was lucky to be able to spend around six or seven months in Thailand, doing some volunteering work and some traveling. I'm now at a point in my language endeavor where everything seems to fall into place, which is very motivating (and fun). But there's still a long way to go, and TAC2013 is only one (hopefully big) step towards my long-term goal of becoming fully proficient in the language :) Edited by Bakunin on 13 January 2013 at 7:36am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| yuhakko Tetraglot Senior Member FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4633 days ago 414 posts - 582 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishB2, EnglishC2, Spanish, Japanese Studies: Korean, Norwegian, Mandarin | Message 6 of 94 31 December 2012 at 1:32am | IP Logged | ||
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My brother has been living in Thailand for a year and doesn't even know how to read... He
told me a lot about it and I got me interested so I'll definitely follow your log. Your method seems to be quite effective! My brother will be back in a year now and as I want to bother him by being better than him when he'll come back, I want to start around July-August. I'm sure your log will make me even more motivated to do so! Good luck team mate! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5131 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 7 of 94 31 December 2012 at 6:24am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks, yuhakko! Good luck to you as well, and I hope you'll beat your brother in your Thai challenge :)
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5131 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 8 of 94 31 December 2012 at 6:30am | IP Logged | ||
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A few days ago, I found a new app for my iPhone: TuneIn Radio. It's the first app that allows me to stream Thai radio stations semi-reliably here in Switzerland. Reception is still spotty and seems to depend on the time of the day (or some other mysterious factor), but I managed to listen to quite a few stations for solid 20, 30, 40 minutes in a row. Great while cleaning the house or preparing food. These days, Thailand is obsessed with counting its road accident facilities over the New Year period. With nobody wearing helmets, three to four people per scooter, and crazy SUV drivers who think the road belongs to them, no wonder!
TuneIn Radio supports many languages, including Korean, Japanese and Mandarin. Edited by Bakunin on 13 January 2013 at 7:37am 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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