More specifically, I am aiming to speak basic to lower intermediate Thai in the 8 weeks I’m there; asking directions, ordering food, basic small talk and haggling etc. and getting the gist of typical responses, without relying on my phrasebook.

That isn't even close to fluency. 8 weeks is actually pretty generous for that level of basic speech. The fact that phrasebooks seem to compose his learning resource doesn't sound too promising either.

He has good advice re: time management and speaking from the beginning, but I get the feeling that his definition of fluency is very very low. He has no real specifics about Thai or any of his other languages other than statements that that is what he's doing either.

Last edited by Jarvik7 (2010 March 14, 11:00 am)

One of my good friends is in Thailand for Peace Corps right now. She already knows several languages so isn't having too hard a time with Thai yet (she's only been there for about a month and a half though). She's in language classes right now and is also using some of the resources on this site:
FREE Thai Language Learning Resources

As far as what it's like there, she hasn't told me about anything culturally shocking. It's just really hot/humid and full of lizards

IceCream wrote:

lolol Thurd... i'm sure you heard the story about ウサギさん and 亀さん　；）　honestlyhonestly, i am not anything special!! i simply have no life!! lol. And, trust me, this is hurting me way more than anyone else. It sucks. But i have to be pragmatic about things, i guess...

Speaking of which, though, I've been watching Oum Ruk, and already i miss the sweetness of J-Dramas. >< Also, i can't even imagine some of those sounds ever coming out of my mouth properly. ughhhh. Well, i guess i'l think on it a while. Maybe i'l take up spanish or portugese and go to South America instead. Or europe somewhere. hmm.

Thanks for the Thai resources!!! I'l check it out!! ^_^

Or just keep studying Japanese because, you know, you've studied it for no time at all and expect to be way better at it than possible. You've made exemplary progress and I see no problem with just continuing.

i have decided to ditch japan

IceCream Seriously?!? I'm in utter shock! You're kicking some major 日本語 ass, and I guess I just can't believe my ears (eyes).

Whatever makes you happiest and is right for you of course, but I am saddened by this turn of events.

ta12121 wrote:

i do a 100 per day(well used to at least

how do you do this, and how long does it take, and how is your retention?
i find that unless i do iverson lists or similar, my retention suffers.

i am quite curious as to how you do 100 a day with (presumably) high enough retention

Say what Icecream is ditching Japanese? I must have missed the other thread where he announced that? Seriously dude, I think you need to reexamine your approach to life. I think you got too obsessed with mastering it in an unrealistically short time believing that knowing Japanese would solve all your problems. You just need to chill, take a more relaxed approach to learning japanese and not over do it so you burn out. Also realize that there is no place on earth that is paradise. Everywhere has good or bad points, but some have more good or bad points than others ! Also whatever dissatisfactions you have with life, I can assure you that moving to another country will not solve them, you have to find some other way of finding a solution.

I have travelled extensively in Asia, and in my opinion Japan is the best country in Asia to live.

The weather in Japan does suck at times, but the problem is not the cold, it is the heat ! It is so damn hot and humid from about June - September !! The winter is not that cold in the main cities like Tokyo, Osaka etc. It only snows heavily a few days a year.

Here are my gross asian country stereotypes
Korea - not so dissimilar to Japan. Urban landscape is generally ugly. Not many good jobs for foreigners. More likely to be screwed teaching english than in Japan.
Japan - Most interesting country I think. Good infrastructure, relatively safe. Crowded. Not many good beaches unless you go far from the cities. Even then tetrapods are everywhere.
Philippines. Good for beaches, scuba. Poverty is everywhere, dangerous in cities. Very poor infrastructure.
Singapore. Most westernized country in Asia. Clean, efficient, safe, sterile, small.
Malaysia. Relatively wealthy asian country, not much visible poverty. Nice islands, good diving. Borneo is cool for wildlife and travelling. Probably OK to live there. Kuala Lumpur is very busy though, not especially friendly city.
China. Developing quickly, pollution and factories everywhere. Countryside not developed. Didn't like it much too be honest.
Thailand: Super hot and humid, only winter is tolerable. Nice islands etc, but too many tourists. Cities horrible. Dodgy sex tourism in many parts.

Unless you get a job with a foreign company and get an expat package, forget about making much money in any asian country. Probably your best bet is Japan and Korea. Having a holiday somewhere is not the same as trying to live there.

Why don't you learn a European language, and try and find some work in the South of France or in Italy somewhere. Asia is fun to visit, but I wouldn't like to live there unless it was in one of the more developed asian countries.

Last edited by MeNoSavvy (2010 March 16, 4:10 am)

I think you just need some relaxing time to come back to japanese or so. I feel for you. I remeber in the beginning i was obsessed with so many cards. Saying stuff like "I want to have 30,000 sentences in my sentence deck!!! and having 50,000 in my words deck and having 30,000-40,000 in my production deck" Which i still plan to do but in a much slower pace, b/c this will burnout anyone, and even me and i do quite abit of reviewing daily. But to  be honest, it's the immersion that will help you solidify concepts you learned in the srs. For me i doubt i will ever stop in japanese until i reach my goal of fluency in all 4 skills. Preferably in 2 years hopefully. (Unno about 18months but everyone is different i guess) (Pretty confident i should have reading/understanding skills to high level in a full year, but for speaking/writing those skills will take longer, but i will work on them soon)

Also i wanted to ask, is there links to speech between native speakers? such as audio and stuff i remember seeing it posted somewhere on this forum site before. It was on varies different topics such as psychology, basic conversations and other things. Anyone know about the site?

Last edited by ta12121 (2010 March 15, 10:18 am)

IceCream wrote:

i'm sure you heard the story about ウサギさん and 亀さん　；）

Hehe true, I guess there is something to it.

IceCream wrote:

i am not anything special!! i simply have no life!!

I find that term very overrated, something made up by people who expect everyone to behave like they do. It's mainly used to describe geeks who spend more time before computer than outside but who are they to judge? Each person can spend their life doing whatever he/she wants, there is no such thing as standard definition of "life" (scientists even have problems with defining what life actually is!) or a proper "way" to live it. There is an average but statistics lie and besides... since when striving for mediocrity is good?

You chose to spend a bit of your life studying Japanese, I'd call that a mighty fine life if you ask me.

blackmacros wrote:

Plus lately I've been concentrating more on output...and if I were to carry over my previous strategies into this endeavor well..."100 girls/day" just doesn't sound like a family friendly thread name (or physically possible)...

Yeah right, as if "family friendly" would stop you from creating such thread. You're probably doing "research" as we speak but want to keep your secrets to yourself

Oh and ta12121 seems to be getting pretty good at English Paragraphs, sentence structure, no wacky mistakes, overall much better to read (and in my case understand). Who says you cant learn two languages at a time

Last edited by thurd (2010 March 15, 12:59 pm)

Tobberoth wrote:

MeNoSavvy wrote:

Say what Icecream is ditching Japanese? I must have missed the other thread where he announced that? Seriously dude,....

You must also have missed the threadS where it was obvious that Icecream is what we could call a female

Yeah I must have missed that one ! ha ha. I don't read this message board for a while, then just randomly dive into threads, so I sometimes get a fragmented view of things. Also people create new study techniques, soon everyone is talking about them using a lot of jargon, and half the time I can't even follow what they are on about. Despite being a relatively regular reader ! ha ha.

Hey Icecream, why is it you can't go to Japan again? Why don't you apply to some of the crappy ALT companies? You are no more likely to be ripped off in Japan than elsewhere. Don't define things in terms of success or failure. Just go there, check it out, and if you don't like it, you just move on to the next thing.

Probably I don't have an accurate picture of your personality since I only read some of the stuff you write

I have decided to ditch Thailand in favour of somewhere sunnier ^_^. For instance... The sun's corona

Or Australia.

Where women glow and men plunder

Unfortunately, australia doesn't like criminals.

DO WE KNOW THE SAME AUSTRALIA?

IceCream - AAATT?  What about opportunities to use Japanese in other countries? Maybe try to embed yourself somewhere with a Japanese volunteer or NGO group (or company? ;-) )  I once spent some time in Burma helping a Japanese group with English - the common language of the 4 groups. A nice way to experience a country without having to commit or disrupt the path you're currently on. I imagine learning/maintaining 2 languages is tough for anyone - nevermind someone with your progress expectations! :-) 

Smackle wrote:

Or Australia.

Where women glow and men plunder

I just read that they just lost a case (and $) bc that song was too similar to the Kookaburra nursery  rhyme. Weird.

Last edited by Thora (2010 March 20, 1:06 pm)