I haven’t updated my log in weeks… I’m just too busy learning languages hahaha.
KhmerIn order to get my mouth moving and build up muscle memory etc., I’ve been doing the exercise I described in my last post almost every day. I’ve reduced it to 5 new sentences (or question-answer pairs) per day, and the program is now as follows:
Step 1: I extract 5 new sentences to mp3, save the transcript to file (which I have already, I’m not doing it myself)
Step 2: I go through the 5 sentences from the day before yesterday - first, I play the sentence, then repeat it, and I do this three times or until I get it right; then I chorus along for 10 or 20 rounds
Step 3: I go through the 5 sentences from yesterday - I play the sentence, then type it; then I compare my transcript to the correct one and practice misspelled words a few times
Step 4: I go through the 5 sentences from today (step 1) - first, I play the sentence, then repeat it, and I do this three times or until I get it right; then I chorus along as long as I like, usually 20-30 rounds
It seems to be a good program because it trains a number of skills:
- listen-repeat trains grammar and sentence construction - I’m forced to pay attention to word order, function words, prepositions etc.
- chorusing trains pronunciation and prosody as well as automaticity, muscle memory, native speaker speed etc. and on top of that is good fun
- transcription trains spelling and sometimes alerts me to details I’ve misheard or to discrepancies between spelling and pronunciation (in languages like French it would also train grammar)
I work on every sentence three days in a row and then let it go, reaping the benefits of repetition (and sleep between repetitions) while avoiding SRS torture.
Apart from that I still do a host of other things: I listen to picture stories, I check transcripts for my website, I’ve started listening to the news and very occasionally I write short picture descriptions on lang-8. I also do tutoring every two weeks, and each time it’s getting easier.
One activity I did with my tutor last time and really enjoyed was to take one of my basic vocabulary pictures (see
here for a sample) and take turns asking questions: I ask a question, my tutor answers, then he asks a question, I answer etc. We tried to ask as many questions as we could think of before moving on to the next frame. It took us a good 45 minutes or so for 15 frames (didn’t even make it through a full page).
Example questions for frame 1: What is this? Is this a type of food? What color is it? How does it taste like? What do you use it for? How many are there?
ThaiI was pretty busy translating interviews into German for our film project, all in all over 70 pages. Triggered by wordplay I’d encountered in one of the interviews, we had an interesting discussion on FB on that particular structure, alliterative reduplication: you take a two-syllable word AB and transform it into ACAB. The syllable C has the same initial consonant as B but ends in -ong. In English something like T-shirt —> T-shong-T-shirt, notepad —> note-pong-note-pad. I wasn’t aware of that pattern/mechanism, but it can be found all over the place for many, many words, and, of course, it carries a specific meaning (roughly: extends the meaning to things which are similar, and also sometimes adds a slightly dismissive quality). I had great fun pestering my Thai friends with this wordplay for a few days. Here’s a list of examples I pulled together from the FB discussion:
กระดงกระได
กระป๋งกระเป๋า
การบ้งการบ้าน
กีลงกีฬา
เชียงหม่งเชียงใหม่
ทะลงทะเล: วันหยุดไปเที่ยวกันไหม ทะลงทะเล อะไรแบบเนี้ย
ที่นงที่นอน
ผู้หย่งผู้ใหญ่
(พยาบงพยาบาล)
ไม่กงไม่กิน
ไม่วงไม่ว่า: ไม่วงไม่ว่าฉันน่ะ
วันกงวันเกิด
(สตุ้งสตางค์)
ส้มตมส้มตำ
สัญญงสัญญา
สุรงสุรา
เสียจงเสียใจ
เสียดงเสียดาย
หนังสงหนังสือ: ทำไมห้องรกอย่างนี้ ทั้งหนังสงหนังสือ กระป๋งกระเป๋า วางไม่เรียบร้อยเลย
อากงอาการ
อาจงอาจารย์
อาหงอาหาร
อิจฉงอิจฉา