Comments on: Foreign Language Polio: TV Method Thai Progress Report 2

By: josh

josh — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:28:03 +0000

I got really into reading these progress reports and then I realized I was reading them almost a year after you had posted them. haha oops. Anyways, are you still working on Thai?

I have been studying Thai for a while but after reading your posts and a few other blogs and such, I have decided to switch over to the TV method. I just started my own blog and right now I am trying to compile a nice list of Thai TV shows ( http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfddjr7q_7hgxxc8cx ) and other resources to help people out who want to study Thai this way. So if your interested please come check it out!

By: Saint

Saint — Sat, 30 May 2009 08:22:05 +0000

Well, nice post.. The TV method work great if you could find it with subs. That’s how I learn vietnamese through that. The language spoken is vietnamese and the sub is vietnamese too. This way, I learnt how the words being pronounce and by looking at the picture, I roughly know what’s going on in the show. That’s how you link the words to the meaning.

By: thomas

thomas — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:12:18 +0000

@lyzazel: I think the 1000 hour number comes from the ALG World people. They teach classes with a similar concept to the TV method (ie L2 only, with lots of visual aids), just with real people (the teachers) instead of a TV.

As far as TV Method, I don’t know if anyone has done those 1000 hours. But I’m going to try.

BTW, if I wasn’t doing TV Method, I wouldn’t be learning Thai at all. As far as studying goes, I have my hands full with daily Japanese study. At the end of the day I have no mind or energy to study more. Usually at night before bed I like to relax: I waste time on the internet or play guitar or read a book or something. All I did was replace those activities with watching Thai shows on Youtube. Just as relaxing, but I learn Thai now too.

By: Keith

Keith — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:10:36 +0000

lyzazel: I think my pronunciation is not too bad but not perfect. I have always impressed the natives with it. I don’t know what kind of country you live in, but if you have contact with immigrants you will find many that have been talking to natives for 20, 30, or 40 years and still have a strong accent. Once you’ve put speaking into practice, accent does not improve without a deliberate decision and determination. When I listen to myself speak Japanese, I don’t want to hear English vowel sounds. For me, using English vowel sounds is very relaxing and easy, but it doesn’t sound good in Japanese. Just like when a Japanese person uses Japanese vowels instead of the correct sounds when speaking English. It doesn’t sound good. So, I want to sound good. I have to be aware of which sounds are not coming out right and I need to replace the bad habits with good ones. Sometimes, when I say ‘ima’ in Japanese, the last vowel comes out as an English schwa instead of the correct Japanese sound. I probably don’t even say the first vowel correctly. Anyway, a foreign accent in Japanese is ugly. It’s harder for natives to process too. Must also get intonation, sound length, and rhythm correct as well. I’ve been living in Japan for 6 years. If I’ve heard an average of 1 hour of Japanese a day, then I’ve been exposed to 2,000 hours. After people start processing for information, they don’t notice the sounds anymore. As long as they are understood they don’t usually continue to make any progress with their pronunciation. I’m not a usual person though. So we’ll see what happens.

thomas: I am familiar with the interview and thus the software, but I’m a Mac. Here’s the link for the PC people. (hope that html tag works) Yeah, I figure if I fail to accomplish what I want with my Japanese pronunciation, then I’ll seek a specialist. Hopefully I won’t have to pay, though. I could be a good subject for a researcher.

By: thomas

thomas — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:18:48 +0000

@Keith: You might have to pay someone. You could hire a private tutor and tell them you only want to work on pronunciation. I also wonder if a Japanese speech therapist would have knowledge that could help?

Maybe a better solution would be speech analyzing software. Read this interview with Stuart Jay Raj: http://stujay.blogspot.com/2007/10/tomisimo-interview-with-language-master.html .. He talks a little bit on how he uses software to analyze his accent and correct it.

By: lyzazel

lyzazel — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:08:58 +0000

Well, I still don’t like the TV method. It seems to me like you are wasting time watching stuff not understanding it.

IF you got some basic knowledge of the language beforehand and then proceeded watching TV, you could understand some and infer so much from the context (and it would happen much faster) and your learning would accelerate way more than it is now.

And by the way, has anybody done those 1,000 required hours? I’d like to see if that worked.

Keith: I was just thinking…. why would you want to pronounce perfectly at once? I think that as long as you don’t get it too bad you should just speak to natives and sooner or later your pronunciation is likely to shift to the one they have. I don’t think enforcing it on yourself is that good of an idea.

By: Keith

Keith — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:14:08 +0000

Good post. I like the observation about Japanese too. I’m currently thinking about how I’m going to be able to continue speaking Japanese and improve my pronunciation at the same time. I feel that the natives are not going to be any help unless I should be so lucky as to find a special one. I need one who can tell when I actually pronounce sounds perfectly. I have some ideas but I need feedback as well. Any ideas?