SoftWater

LivinLOS, on 2011-01-30 09:47:09, said:

I'm reminded of the time I told my father I'd turned vegetarian (this at the tender age of 16), and his genuine reply of concern: " So do you just want one sausage instead of two?" (I kid you not, that is verbatim).

Sometimes the problem is not language, just a willingness to listen and understand.  

That said, I agree with the suggestions above (and the Thai translations). There are many non-Thais in Thailand working the food carts and in other service industries. Most can speak Thai fairly comfortably, but reading is another issue. Go with the card AND sound file if you can get one. Better still, steer clear of all seafood if the consequences of a mistake are really that serious.

slim, on 2011-01-26 17:35:04, said:

I think you may have missed the boat on that one. Those are among the things the current UK gov't are trying to take out of the public purse in the name of 'austerity'. All the news coming out of Britain is that its going to be a very expensive and uncomfortable place to live for the next four years.

klons, on 2011-01-13 09:20:47, said:

AudioHiJack (free download) will also do this, without loss of quality. But its a mac only program.

klons, on 2011-01-12 16:06:54, said:

Klons, you could run Windows on your Mac using Parallels, that's what I've started doing recently as there was a couple of high-end technical documentation programs I needed that were never going to get ported to the Mac. However, if all you want to run is a dictionary, the cost is prohibitive. Parallels itself costs around 2000 baht if you download it from their website, or you can buy the CD in the iBeat/iStudio Mac shops around Bangkok for about 3,200 Baht. Then there's the cost of Windows 7 (I think I paid about 5000 baht for it)...


Still, it does come in handy, and I was able to evaluate the trial version of the dictionary on my Mac. I agree it does look good, and I'm tempted to buy. I had a couple of problems though - 1. the sound is clipped on some of the audio files at the end the first time you play some of them; I found that playing them a second or (sometimes) third time got rid of that error. The dictionary also crashed Windows 7 the first time I ran it, treating me to something neither Klons nor other Mac users ever normally have to worry about:





and about an hour of lost time trying to get Windows and Parallels running again (fortunately, it didn't affect my Mac, which is somewhat more robust).

Anyway, it seems to be working fine now, but I'm going to run that trial a few more times before I decide to shell out. If it works without problems, it does look very good.

edit: I forgot to say, the Help documentation is very well done and very well-integrated; something that is often an oversight on many pieces of software, but not here.

Ratsima, on 2011-01-12 09:38:54, said:

This is a common phenomenon amongst learners, and especially for those who are naturally shy. There's a couple of techniques, this is by far the best:

1. Find a one-on-one personal tutor/language partner who doesn't speak any English.
This could be a trained teacher, but it also could be a neighbour or relative who's willing to spend 20 - 30 minutes a time with you. I think finding such a person is actually the hardest thing, but if you can find someone and meet them regularly you're more than half way there.

You can pick simple topics with vocab you already know, or try to learn new vocab (since you can read and write Thai it should be easy to find some material for your tutor to play with.). The essential thing is to forget about going over fixed sentence pattern and pronunciation/tone rules, but to pick a topic that can result in a genuine conversation - describe your home town, your family, your previous or current job - ask about the same topics with the tutor/language partner. Neither expect nor try to understand everything or make everything understandable. Just try to keep the conversation going.

If you try something like this I can't emphasize enough - 1. forget trying to write anything down or remember anything; 2. repeat sessions as often as possible - - short 20 minute sessions every day are far more use than an hour once a week. The learning occurs

A. by repetition and
B. by not concentrating or consciously 'trying to learn'.

Don't expect miracle results, but 3 months of this and you'll find your reticence to speak to others has vanished, and your language skill will be on a much firmer footing.

2. Use a voice recorder
Finding a tutor or getting over shyness on one's own is not for everyone. Here's an alternative. Buy yourself one of those mini digital voice recorders (Sony do a nice one for about 3000 baht that's got more memory than you'll ever need - you can also download the mp3s to your computer). Take yourself off for a nice walk if you can't find any solitude around the house. Give yourself a topic - e.g., 'What I am going to do today' and try to talk about it for 2 minutes (the recorder has a timer on the display) in Thai. Do this everyday (or more than once a day) and be creative and more adventurous in your 2-minute topics as you get more confident.

Play the 2-minute recordings to your wife, and ask her what you're talking about. Try to identify the parts she can't make sense of, and try them again the next session. You can get her to model the pronunciation on the voice recorder and play it back to yourself while out on your walks.

Lastly, keep learning to read and write. I'm not particularly outgoing myself, and when I completely fail to say something sensible, sometimes I just write it down and ask someone to say it for me. The voice recorder is useful with this too. You can keep a library of stuff you find particularly difficult.

Best of luck

SW