Mastering Thai!

I figured I'd make a post about this incase people were curious. Since I'm in Thailand as an exchange student and living with a family, I must learn Thai language. You guys probably have known this from the beginning though, so I thought I'd give you an update as to how I am doing. The short story is that I know enough so I can go out into Thai society and not worry about not being able to get what I need. The longer story follows.

Basically, I am able to read and write quite well. I know some other AFS returnees who never managed to master the writing system, so it's good to know I'm on the right track. I've been memorizing the tones and grammar rules and I'll probably be able to read without too much thinking by the end of the year. However, the problem with reading in my case is that I don't understand 90% of what I am reading.

This is due to my lack of vocabulary, which I am slowly trying to revive. I had a few months in the past where I was literally at a dead end with vocabulary because I just wasn't using it. I would learn the words, but because I wouldn't talk that often, I quickly forgot them. But now I realized my problem and am doing better with remembering words just by talking with people.

By talking, I reinforce my mind to what words I still need to learn. For example, I may have a sentence like "I want a giant cupcake." Let's say I know the words "I want" and "cupcake", but I am not sure about "giant". Each time I say this phrase or something similar where I need the word "giant", my mind continually remembers that I must learn it. So when I go on my computer in the evening, I will soon remember to look up different words in the dictionary.

Right now I probably know about 5-600 words. That might not seem like a lot, but in the beginning I only knew like 50 words. This is most definitely a BIG improvement. More than anything though, learning Thai has taught me that it's possible to learn another language. I might not ever use Thai again in my life, but I learned things about other languages that will help me in the future. So I really think that when I go back to America, I will concentrate more on learning Japanese (a language I already speak at a basic level) because I know I will be using it. I'm sure I will still remember Thai words though. ;D