Attempting to Learn Thai 3

September 24th, 2006
Months in Thailand: 3
Hours at AUA: ~110 (Level 1)
Other study: None since I started at AUA (before that, some minimal self-study and 6 very poor classes at another school)

Progress:
Other than missing class on Wednesday (I guess since Thailand never has a snow day, it has to have the occasional coup day to make up for it), I noticed some substantial progress last week. I am understanding increasingly more of what is being talked about in class. I had a few moments when I thought to myself, "wow, I understand every word that was said for about 30 seconds," and I would say that I almost always understand the basic gist of what is happening.

It is also very apparent that I am now understanding more than most other Level 1 students. I notice when other students don't understand a question and give a confused answer, and often it is clear that I am following something that others are not. This is actually a very useful and encouraging benchmark for my progress. I should mention that AUA levels are meant to take 200 hours, so this is not terribly surprising as I am now more than halfway through and have more hours in than newer students.

Outside of class I've had a few breakthrough moments as well. At a party last night, I listened while another American spoke in Thai to answer a question that a native Thai speaker had asked him. He replied with 6 or 8 sentences, and when he was done I realized that I had understood each individual word as well as the meaning of the sentences. Now as you might expect, he was speaking very slowly and using easy vocabulary. It was still exciting though. I am also picking up on more random words and phrases that I hear around me, on tv, etc.

Other:
Still leaving Thai TV on, and I've been to 3 Thai language movies in the last 2 weeks. They all had English subtitles, though, and when you watch a subtitled movie you tend to tune out the language being spoken. The exposure can't hurt though.