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.