Learning Thai
How important is it to learn Thai ? For me, it's one very interesting aspects of life here. A language is so many different fundamental things all rolled up in the single fact of opening our mouth to speak :
- respecting your counterpart : talking his language is a great sign of respect, actually honouring him with the fact that his language is worth learning, and recognizing that we are on the same level.
- grasping new concepts : each language has a few or many words that do not exist in other languages, and very often, the concept or idea linked to that word is unique to the language also, and can only be expressed through a long paraphrase, if even it is possible. I just love the spanish word "tramitar" which describes the fact of going to do paperwork with an administration.
- discovering the deeper underlying unity in a language apparently full of inconsistencies : why does hôpital take a "^" on the "o" in French ? Because is replaces the "s" that used to be there, still found in english or in the word hospice. Satisfied ? But then, why does the symbol look like a little hat, and not something else ?
- picking up the history of the peoples and region specific to a language : why does the french word "laïcité" which in its orginal sense simply means "not a religious clerc", actually invoque a whole battle between persons wanting to purge society of religious influence and those simply estimating that religion being a part of mankind, tradition recieved from religion is not systematically evil.
- finally, learning new languages, or any other disciplin, handicraft, just the plain fact of learning, gives a fizz to the brain and stimulates curiosity ever more.
As I was learnin Thai in the first weeks in Bangkok, I had done a little programming to learn through funner ways, and only today I took the time to write a small manual of use. If anyone wants to play around or seriously learn thai, feel free to download it ! Zip file with excel datasheet, with macros, no viruses.
- respecting your counterpart : talking his language is a great sign of respect, actually honouring him with the fact that his language is worth learning, and recognizing that we are on the same level.
- grasping new concepts : each language has a few or many words that do not exist in other languages, and very often, the concept or idea linked to that word is unique to the language also, and can only be expressed through a long paraphrase, if even it is possible. I just love the spanish word "tramitar" which describes the fact of going to do paperwork with an administration.
- discovering the deeper underlying unity in a language apparently full of inconsistencies : why does hôpital take a "^" on the "o" in French ? Because is replaces the "s" that used to be there, still found in english or in the word hospice. Satisfied ? But then, why does the symbol look like a little hat, and not something else ?
- picking up the history of the peoples and region specific to a language : why does the french word "laïcité" which in its orginal sense simply means "not a religious clerc", actually invoque a whole battle between persons wanting to purge society of religious influence and those simply estimating that religion being a part of mankind, tradition recieved from religion is not systematically evil.
- finally, learning new languages, or any other disciplin, handicraft, just the plain fact of learning, gives a fizz to the brain and stimulates curiosity ever more.
As I was learnin Thai in the first weeks in Bangkok, I had done a little programming to learn through funner ways, and only today I took the time to write a small manual of use. If anyone wants to play around or seriously learn thai, feel free to download it ! Zip file with excel datasheet, with macros, no viruses.
posted by Gaspard at
22:18
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