I've been crazy busy with school and AASIA, and I haven't been updating though my goal has been to update everyday. I have a paper and another midterm coming up so I might be crazy busy until then too.

Lao

I finally got my book today. I'm really excited. I kind of flipped through it once. I can't read Laotian, although there are some similarities between the Lao and Thai alphabet. I can't wait to learn. Unfortunately, they have only published Lao for beginners, and so I can't get very far self-taught. Hopefully, I'll be awarded the scholarship to study Lao at the University of Wisconsin next summer. That's something I'm just putting out there, definitely not something I'm incredibly serious about. There are a lot of things I would like to do next summer.

Thai
I learned the Thai months. I never knew what they were in Thai (or in Lao) and now I know them. :D YAY!! They're so long:

January = magaraakom

February = gumpaapan

March = miinaakom

April = meesaayon

May = prutsapaakom

June = mitunaayon

July = garagadaakom

August = singhaakom

September = ganyaayon

October = dtulaakom

November = prutsajigaayon

December = tanwaakom

Okay, I did that from memory so hopefully I didn't get any of them wrong. :D Maybe by the next journal, I will know how to write them in

Thai. :P

Japanese

Oh boy...it might be because I'm just starting or something, but I really dislike kanji. It's hard especially if you're not an artist. I thought to myself, if there is something that would make me dislike Japanese or something that would make me want to give up, it's kanji. It's boring and frustrating when I can't get it to look right.

Otherwise, class is going great. I got a "よくできました”on my last homework assignment so I'm happy. I still haven't practiced learning katakana yet, and it's putting me very far behind so I should buckle up and get on that as soon as I can. But anyways, I should keep track of the kanji we're studying so that in 201 I can look back in this blog and remember:

機 （き） = machine

あっち側 （あっちがわ） = on the other side

階段 （かいだん） = stairs

電話 （でんわ） = telephone

自動販売機 （じどうはんばいき） = vending machine

食堂 （しょくどう） = dining hall

学生　（がくせい） = student

女子学生　（じょしがくせい） = female student

留学生　（りゅがくせい） = international student
宿舎　（しゅくしゃ） = lodging

場所　（ばしょ） = place

階　（かい） = floor (story)

田中　（たなか） = Japanese name, Tanaka

I think I'm going to make a habit out of separating the 3 countries into their own sections and, if room permits, to provide a photo taken from each of the countries. I find it fascinating how all 3 of these countries (along with others) are so rich both in culture and history. You can't pick one photo to represent them.

Lao
I have yet to receive my book from the mail, and I haven't found Lao font for windows yet. But I have this great picture of the steps to Wat Phou (Khmer Buddhist temple located in Laos) for you all to enjoy. It's dated, but it's still beautiful. I think the temple was structured around the 11th century. I think it's wonderful how many ruins are still left standing, because Laos (correct me if I'm wrong) is the most bombed country in the world. I think something like 10,000 bombs were dropped every 8 seconds for years during the Vietnam War. It's an alarming statistic, but if it's an untrue statistic, please let me know.


Thai
I did a lot of Thai studying today. I reviewed the letters I learned and made sure I noted the English keyboard code for them. Let me repeat: typing in Thai is very difficult! I can't imagine what it's going to be like typing in Lao, because I'm not as familiar with the Lao alphabet.

I took lesson 4's test and finally passed it after the 3rd time. I think I sort of understand Thai's way of telling time, but I will review tomorrow again before I move on to the next lesson to make sure I still remember. So 1:00am-6:00am are as they are. 7:00am-11:00am may also be 1:00pm-5:00pm because of the quarterly-based system. Umm...I guess I'll stop now. :P

Japanese
I translated our class' next lesson after typing out the conversation and printing it out. The book doesn't provide enough space for all the notes I have to take so I retyped it and printed it out. I also was informed that I made some mistakes on yesterday's blog when I was demonstrating my knowledge. There's no question mark after か because the question is already intended. And I should have typed "Malivahn" and "Laos" in Katakana instead of Hiragana because they're foreign words. So here it is again, revised:

あ、こんにちは、わたしのなまえはマライワンです。 ラオスからきました。かわいいね。　わかりますか。　またね。

Because I find new alphabets fascinating, I do not wish to learn anymore European languages since the Roman alphabet is used among all of them. I have now decided that my life goal is to be a multi-linguist, to know as many Asian languages as possible, beginning with 3.Two of them happen to be my first two languages and are already in my nature: Laotian and Thai. And the third, I introduced to myself about a month and a half ago: Japanese. I would like this blog to be a personal diary of my struggles to learn or re-learn these three languages.

Laotian
I understand my parents, I understand music. I understand movies (being one of the most underdeveloped countries in the world, Lao acting is horrible), and TV shows. When I was little, I never dreamt of forgetting my language. I remember walking down the street one day trying to remember what the color "brown" was, and I couldn't figure it out. That was the first moment I finally addressed that I was no longer Lao-speaking.

I haven't started Laotian yet. My plan was to get Thai down first so that Laotian would be a cinch, but I can only stay patient for so long. I ordered Lao for Beginners. Hopefully, my mind won't boggle with the study of both languages at the same time. I'm still in the process of finding Lao font for windows, and I spend a lot of time learning about Laotian culture. I've found out a lot of things I admire, and I can't wait to go back home to visit.


THAI
I LOVE Thai music. It's pretty much all I listen to. I understand it. I also love Thai movies and TV shows. I understand those too. And admittedly, I like the Thai language better than my own. I don't know why. Both languages are polite, both make me happy when I hear them. I don't know why Thai tones, for lack of better terminology, seem to put a broader smile on my face. Thai is probably my favorite culture in the whole world. It's almost identical to Laotian culture, but their temples and traditional outfits are well, admittedly, a better version of ours (Lao). I can't wait to go to Thailand to visit.

I've zoomed pass 4 lessons from Thai for Beginners. Because Thai is a tonal language, I do make tonal mistakes at times. It's been fairly easy until lesson 4, because I can understand it and can already read a lot of it (though not fluently and at snail's pace). But lesson 4 was learning how to tell time. I'd like to quickly quote directly from the book:

"Colloquial Thai divides the 24 hour clock into four hour blocks. One o'clock and seven o'clock are both one o'clock in this system; two o'clock and 8 o'clock are both 2 o'clock, etc. (this holds true for both a.m. and p.m.)."

I never knew this, and it's quite mind-boggling. I'm beginning to get less confused about it, but it's going to take a lot of repetition. I won't move on to the next lesson until I have this down, because lesson 5 will also take memorization. Thai months have long names that I can't read.

What's most fun about my study of Thai so far is breaking down the alphabet. I knew some of the letters but now they're categorized: middle consonant, sonorant consonant, stop consonant, long vowels, and short vowels. Thai has 44 consonants, 32 vowels, and 4 tone marks (though there are 5 tones). I have a difficult time with the tone marks.

What's least fun is the Romanced Thai used in this book. It's absolutely horrible. I have a better time reading the actual Thai, which I do most of the time. But during the tests and quizzes when they ask to write bpəəd (เปิด) in Thai, I have no idea what to write. I can't imagine how horrible this must be for someone who has no experience at all with Thai writing.

Typing in Thai is hard! I use the Thai language bar. It's tough hunting for the letters, but I will get it down one day.



JAPANESE
I introduced a new language to myself about a month and a half ago, and it is the beautiful language of Nihongo. I don't have much to say about Japanese culture, other than the fact that it's different. What I admire most about Japan is how nice people can be. I don't doubt there are mean people in Japan just like everywhere else in the world, but I haven't met them yet. Who knows, maybe I have to be there first, and I can't wait to go.

I'm actually struggling with Japanese. It's harder than I thought it would be, but I don't blame it on anyone else but myself. I haven't been studying as much as I should be. I still don't have the alphabet down yet, even though we were all supposed to have it down by midterms. But I've been studying my butt off since I found out how behind I was, making flashcards and using the Japanese language bar. Typing in Japanese is really easy if you know what you're typing, and it's actually really fun. My Hiragana is 10x better than my Katakana right now. I'm not even going to touch Kanji yet.

I use this Japanese program (borrowed from Kyle), and it's really fun. I actually learn more from these cd-roms than I do in class. It teaches me basic nouns like colors, body parts, etc. I don't get that stuff in class. And although it isn't my best class academically, it is my favorite class because of how much fun my sensei makes it. There's a lot of interaction, and the native speakers (who are pretty much my only friends in class) really help a lot. Some of them really care about my progress.

Here is an example of what I've learned so far:
あ、こんにちは、わたしのなまえはまりわんです。 らおすからきました。かわいいね？　わかりますか？　またね。

I hope I continue to progress, and I hope I don't give up on this like I did Spanish.