The amount of Thai I can read has exploded recently. I’m nearing the end of แฮร์รี พอตเตอร์ กับศิลาอถรรพ์ (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) and it is going smoothly. At this point I can read it at a natural pace, without stopping to look up words at all. Most unknown vocabulary I can guess from context, and what I can’t I can *usually* skim over without worry. Once in a while I will come upon a very peculiar sentence; After backtracking to catch something I missed, it will suddenly “pop” and make obvious sense. It’s an easy read.
For more of a challenge, I’ve been working through the Wanakam translation of Animal Farm, ฟาร์มสัตว์. I printed the whole thing out in tiny font on 17 sheets of paper. Again my handle of the grammar is surprisingly good; but this is a much more difficult read. I sit with the SEAlang dictionary online in front of me and look up unfamiliar words, roughly one per line.
I had qualms focusing so much on translated works, but I see one large benefit: I’m familiar with both stories, so I have a prepared referent for the Thai I learn. Also you can pick up a lot of words from context. Still, I try to keep in mind that they are translations.
I decided to focus on my listening comprehension for a while… and I did… and it worked! Pretty much exactly how I expected it to. I corrected my pronunciation, and suddenly, I could *hear* Thai. I can now comprehend much of the “Thai Basic Reader” when listening along. Music lyrics suddenly became partically intelligble. I know most of the choruses on my Modern Dog and เสก โลโซ albums- some I know perfectly fluently and I can’t help singing along. More conversational Thai is obviously more difficult, but it’s getting there.
My corrected pronunciation makes reading so much easier. It’s starting to come kind of naturally. The little voice in my head that reads stuff can read Thai now! The tones, and the short/long vowels… it all makes sense, and it all flows naturally. In my head. Reading out loud is slow and tentative, but I honestly do think I have a good grasp of the basic phonology. But I can’t really be sure, because of course I still haven’t actually had a conversation in Thai with anyone. Oh man.
As for writing… well, I haven’t done much. I write little notes on Facebook, mostly to talk about roommates behind their back, but I really haven’t given much effort to writing. I really don’t feel the need to. My Thai is improving at such a quick rate, I think it makes sense to wait until I’ve absorbed more.
It is, at this point, all about passive absorption. I have done very little “study” of any kind. I just read. And listen. And I think that’s a good plan.
