Getting Back to Thai

First a little backstory: I had known in the back of my head about this podcast production called Bangkok Podcast, but I had forgotten about it until I read Cat's post that it was shutting down. So in my curiosity, I went to iTunes and downloaded a couple of episodes and was extremely impressed with the production.

So impressed, in fact, that I've been voraciously listening to multiple episodes per day, reminiscing about my time in Thailand from 2001-2005. Greg, one of the Bangkok Podcast hosts, has been there since 2001 as well and on his personal blog, he had commented about spending the last decade in Krung Thep and how much change had taken place. Boy could I relate to his photos of the new Paragon shopping center under construction and how sad it was to see the beautifully designed Intercontinental Hotel get torn down (at least I got to go inside once and tour the gardens before Paragon!) I also remember the opening of the MRT subway and how exciting that was despite the initial glitches.

Anyway, getting back to Thai. In their Bangkok Podcast, Greg and his co-host Tony have a Thai language series where they talk about learning Thai from foreigners who have become fluent in the language and they discuss how they did it and what it is like living in Thailand when this major form of communication is opened up to them. It's been so engaging and encouraging that I've decided to crack down on my Thai again.

I have 7 months to see how far I can get and this is my plan. Rather than go out and spend a ton of money, I'm going to work with what I already have and the goal is to READ. Reading will improve my vocabulary and therefore improve my speaking. It will open up my world.

So I will finish with my two novels I'm currently involved in and as soon as I'm done with them, I'm going to finish the Teach Yourself Thai book I'm in the middle of - and have been for over a year - and then get Benjawan's newest talking dictionary. Even that one is on hold, because I have her old one that I think will do for now.

Then I plan to go through all of Aidan's worksheets from his summer Thai school and read all the new words on them, write them out, translate them and study them. Learn Thai with a 6-year-old! I'd like to see how far I can take it by March or April 2012.

Because our goal is to go back to Bangkok at that time!