My Language Hobby 2

I have just visited an interesting personal blog in Spanish about Latino American music and instruments from a 38-year old guy in Chile. Interestingly, I can understand a lot of what he said. It seems that I can read and understand more of it than my German. I guess that is because German sentence structure is so unnatural for an English reader, that I still can't figure it out. I am quite disappointed about my reading comprehension in German. After reciting more vocabulary I still do seem to progress much in comprehension, and not to say writing it. But I certainly have more confidence to write in German than in Spanish. I don't think I can do so. But I guess I can handle the infliction of case and tense much better now, and the sentence structure is a lot more relaxed and more similarity to English than German, I may be able to pick that up with some effort. Therefore, I should try to pick up Spanish again when I am done with German this year.

German

I need to make all the best efforts in the next semester as that would be the last semester I can learn from my univ, the final year of the course. I need to make the best opportunity to speak it, interact with it, and to write compositions on it, and be corrected by my teacher. She is excellent. And I don't think I can easily get someone to correct my compositions after this last semester. I need to be able to use the various sentence structures, and to use verbs in correct tense, the correct case after verbs and prepositions, and the adjective cases. I still haven't grasp that yet. If I can get that right, then I 'd be able to seek help on the less regular structures, to be able to say with relative clauses, main clauses, most of the structures that I use in English now. I hope to be able to use the structures I use to express in English, and to be checked by a teacher to see if I have used that correctly. For that, I need really to spend time to get right all the issues regarding cases (that I need time and exercises, many many), than the regular structures taught by the textbook, get that right too. I need to understand all the passages, longer ones, understand their word order, structures, and cases. I hope I can at least get the writing right. Then I would be able to speak it spontaneously and reading comprehension would be improved by far. The only difficulty that need time and may not happen so fast this year, is listening. For that I need to know more and more vocabulary.

Aim of learning in the last semester:
1) Immediately after I handed in my thesis:
a) Get right the cases, adjective declamation, word order in the 3 general sentence structures listed in Book 2.
b) Get right the past tense, and the perfect participle 2, past & present passive tense, and the past and present conditional mood.
c) Get a Grammar book to understand them, draw up tables if necessary for comprehension, comparison, and easy reference., and
d) do as much exercises as I can. Finish the exercises in Herr Li's 2 books first, as they are the easiest.
e) understand the long passages in the textbook. Can guess and learn the vocabulary, see how the word order and sentence structures, inflictions & cases are used. Write them out and recite the useful structures and sentences like what my mom asked me to do so during my summer holiday when I was small.

2) Write compositions for my teacher to correct. Make use of the sentence structure and vocabulary I learned in 1.

The aim is to be able to use
a) relative clauses, main clauses, with the right word order, like when I write English
b) be able to read German blogs & magazines, and newspaper articles, and even short/easier novels. Learn the vocabulary from there.
c) read aloud passages to get the accustomed to the articulation.

3) Can hold a conversation with classmates and my teacher. Do small talks during breaks.

4) From my teacher: Borrow easy novels and movies in German with sub-titles to get more familiar with German sounds.

5) If possible, learn the grammar structure and try to also comprehend and learn the passages in Book 3.

6) To continue with my German after this semester:
a) setup a German blog
b) communicate with Bb in German emails, send him my German Blog. I guess he would be very interested in my life though. I have to rethink whether it is good...possibly he has more interest in me than K has, How sad!. Maybe only for a while when his curiosity is satisfied, then OK lar. Well, I better not give him my blog, now thinking of it...it is kind of horrible almost seductive. Oh, jerk!...! I know T also loves me, but he is not interested in the inner me, he is good enough to want very much to take care of me. Well... K kind of would show up when he sees that I need help, when i can't handle myself, he'd show up. If he has decided that I can handle with no problem, he can't care less.
c) My aspiration: to be able to read simple novels, and be able to progress by myself just by reading more to accumulated vocabulary, like when I learned English in secondary school. By reading novels.

For the next semester, after my handing of thesis:

1) Need to think what I want to do with my research. I absolutely have very low motivation on it. Maybe I need really to get over the programming difficulty. Made myself at least a certain level of literacy on SPM. I should have no problem to understand the syntax for most parts. And be able to use macros written by Charlton, find the arguments. He has told me what each part is about. I should try to figure that out. Because only then i can try to appreciate the results and here come the fun of it. Then I can work on how to process longitudinal data, how to co-register them. Read read read widely first and see how others do that. Then make use of macro Charlton already has, and modify them to do what is needed. Most probably I can just use my desktop in my office to do that. So I can start to come to office first thing and very early in the morning, so I can have a long day and can finish and go home at about 7pm everyday.

2) Need to persistently pray for my Internship, totally rest on God's hands, as to where best to go so I can serve perfectly for Him. I do have lots of imaginations regarding that. Then on Wed night, Friday and Saturday, either teaching or doing my placement, and Alpha.

3) Now I am to focus on how to have fun and depth in relating my results to the vast literature outside. Need to think think think and digest. I can share what I have digest with my Blog too. Possibly not too good to share with K, as then I would expect response and can get a low mood from disappointments. Possibly I just write very briefly and just a few key points will do if I share with K. For the full complexity and profoundity I share with my Blog, my mental space for free drawing and manipulation of my mental landscape, and my inner depth.


Thai

1) Be familiar with reading words from alphabets and pronouncing the word with correct tones.
2) Remember the form of about 50 - 100 Thai words
3) Be able to use most of the learned sentence structure, plus a few more verbs and nouns: for conversational use
4) in 2008-09, can write simple primary level composition
5) fluent for most. Don't know what to aim for reading and writing. Hope can read passages, apart from good conversations.
6) to be able to navigate in Bangkok, read signs and post, spread the Gospel & strike up a slightly more indepth conversation.
7) may need to find ways to keep up my Thai during 09-10 when I am done with the advanced Thai. See if I can accumulate enough grammar to learn gradually myself by serfing on internet, reading Thai around, and building the vocabulary, and by maintaining my Thai Blog. I hope that the Blog is about praying for Thai missionary work, and also my possible work in US with Thai.
8) see if I can do a summer 3-week course in Thai in 2010 before I go to US for internship in July 2010.


Spanish
1) Do advanced Spanish at night time, public course. Learn all grammar and vocabulary in Book 1 and 2 during summer holidays... maybe take it in 08-09, or 09 - 10. So I can have someone to correct my compositions, try out the sentence structure I learned, and speak the language. I hope I can read longer passages and even some simple novels with it. See if I can follow the steps of German with Spanish

Arabic
Just be able to learn Level one. Read the alphabets. I still have a free course. Possibly do that during end of 08. or after I hand in thesis. Just to know the mechanisms of it and so can take the exam of the easiest + 1 level up from the online Arabic class. Just learn Eyptian Arabic is OK.

Italian
As a low priority. Just read back Book 1 from time to time to remember the vocabulary will do. Spanish is of much higher priority. I just try to learn it so I feel better with Spanish. And just being able to read out Italian and comprehend some simple words will be fine.

French
The lowest priority until I am done with Advanced Spanish. I may then consider doing the conversational French at HKU or French Alliance in Jordan/Wanchai.
Just being able to read out French letters, know the rules of cases in "the", and adjectives, so as to be able to read some signals, post, big titles or Brandnames in French will be good enough.

Thay Keybroad in Windows

處理南亞語言文字和檔案
如果為泰文字母加上音調記號，便無法選取音調記號進行修改。而必須刪除整個字母，再重新輸入字母和正確的音調記號。

Vowels & Intonation>


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Thai Alpabets http://www.learningthai.com/downloads/alphabet_song.mp3

ก เอ๋ย ก ไก่ ... ข ไข่ในเล้า ... ฃ ฃวดของเรา ... ค ควายเข้านา

ฅ ฅนขึงขึง ... ฆ ระฆังข้างฝา ... ง งูใจกล้า ... จ จานใช้ดี

ฉ ฉิ่งดีตัง ... ช ช้างวิ่งหนี ... ซ โซ่ล่ามที ... ฌ กะเฌอคู่กัน

ญ หญิงโสภา ... ฎ ชะฎาสวมพลัน ... ฏ ปะฏักหุนหัน ... ฐ ฐานเข้ามารอง

ฑ มนโฑหน้าขาว ... ฒ ผู้เฒ่าเดินย่อง ... ณ เณรไม่มอง ... ด เด็กต้องนิมนต์

ต เต่าหลังตุง ... ถ ถุงแบกขน ... ท หทารอดทน ... ธ ธงคนนิยม

น หนูขวักไขว่ ... บ ใบไม้ทับถม ... ป ปลาตากลม ... ผ ผึ้งทำรัง

ฝ ฝาทนทาน ... พ พานวางตั้ง ... ฟ ฟันสะอาดจัง ... ภ สำเภากางใบ

ม ม้าคึกคัก .... ย ยักษ์เขี้ยวใหญ่ ... ร เรือพายไป ... ล ลิงไต่รา

วว แหวนลงยา ... ศ ศาลาเงียบเหงา ... ษ ฤาษีหนวดยาว ... ส เสือดาวคะนอง ...

ห หีบใส่ผ้า ... ฬ จุฬาท่าผยอง ... อ อ่างเนืองนอง ... ฮ นกฮูกตาโต

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My Language Hobby

The happiest time in my life so far: was when I study in a seminary full time.

My hobby.... to be connected to people from a different part of the world. Therefore I like to learn languages.

It is like you like to sing, but it doesn't mean that you sing well, nor going to be a singer.

Learning languages is a hobby that I don't know when I start to grow into. I just feel closer to the people who speaks it. So learning their rules of sounds, and their basic grammar is intriguing for me. It is like opening up the legacy and culture door of the speakers for me. I like the feeling of being able to pronounce their sounds/words, and being able to know what language they are using, the sounds and rhythms of their language.

Maybe I need 100 times the effort I spend now to be able to really use the language, to speak well. Currently, it is just a door opened for me to peep into their language world.

What do I speak?

My mother tongue is Cantonese. Yet... I can't teach others. I don't know what tones and how to explain the grammar etc to others. I can just speak PERFECT Cantonese, that's all. So when I tried to exchange with my Japanese friend, she taught me Jap, and me Cantonese.... as she opened her Cantonese Textbook... I can't read a thing from there. Full of tonal marks, and English transliteration of Cantonese. I just don't know them at all. So........... I can't exchange with her ah...

My working language is English, as my boss is Irish. Have been using that for all my life, but still far from perfect. Because I did my first degree in UK, and have been working for British bosses in the past decade, I have a slight British accent alongside with my overwhelming Cantonese accent. It is no way I can make it sound kind of like US accent... well... because I am intending to do talking therapy internships in US... It just make me sound more foreign with my current mix of accent. I know minorities are sizable in US, but to me everybody has a more or less American accent, only to different degree.... that's why I am a bit worried

I use Mandarin with my colleagues from China (there are more and more of them these years and so can learn a lot from them about Modern China, and the new growing Middle Class. When I worked in the kitchen in UK, I also used Mandarin as a lot of the cooks speak Mandarin in different accents.

What language am I learning?

I am lucky to be in an university that welcome students to take language courses as a minor or an extra-curricular activity. There are 10-12 languages you can pick, all are taught by qualified lang teachers and in a leisurely way, for which I had taken 4 in the past 3 years. Even I can manage proceeding to the third year of German. But still mixing up the cases and the gender of the words. I got the lowest mark in composition in my class, really saddening...

My faith does give me the reason to take up a language as a course and the motivation to continue learning it. When I was in my first-year in a post-grad Protestant seminary, I found that my ignorance in Philosophy did hinder my study of theology because it is mostly done in the language of Western Philosophy. I know that if I want to do it seriously one day as my proper pastoral training, it would be good to learn German or French. And there are many great psychologist who are German, and so I picked German. I hope I can understand the German terms used in philo more, and be able to pronounce them. Of course, with years to come, and more effort, I hope to have an elementary reading comprehension. Of course, I won't be able to study theology or as such in German....

Mein Chef Lehrer (der Mann am der Link), Meine Leherin diese Jahr (die Frau am der Link).

THE ROYAL CREST COMMEMORATING THE CELEBRATIONS ON THE AUSPICIOUS OCCASION OF HIS MAJESTY THE KING'S 6TH CYCLE BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY 5TH DECEMBER 1999

For Thai, or pha saa thay:

• I have the idea of taking my children to wherever I go, even to the undeveloped areas, if I ever become a missionary, or related work in distant places. I don't know when I cannot stay away from home for too long, eg, when my parents get old.

• I'd like to help Mainlanders later in my work life. Before that can happen, I have been interested in Chinese, like overseas Chinese ever since my Univ days. I am learning to take more interest in South-east Asians, Indians, people who speak Arabian. I don't quite know why. Maybe I get so interested and opened my eyes for them in my multi-cultural project .

Also because I am aware that (from my seminary days) these are the places where Christianity is such a minority. Most of the non-Christians and people who have not heard about Jesus at all are in the 1/3 areas around the equator. THere is a missionary term for that...er..have forgotten tim. And many of them are Muslims, which I gradually found out is a major compatible religion of Christianity. We believe in Yahweh, a religion in divine history (God live in the world, come into the time dimension of human life), believe in giving up oneself and get salvation.

• So I would like to learn another Asian language. First I chose Arabic, but there were not enough students, so I have to choose another. I remembered that my church has missionary service in Thailand for quite a long time, and also in Cambodia. And there is Thai course, and so I took it. The only reason at that time was knowing that I can participate in the summer missionary program, which is highly fesible for me.

• Therefore, I only choose to continue.. or have the effort to continue only for languages that I see direct relevance to my faith development. Spanish was good, as I plan to serve in US for some time... but I had too much hard time as it was the first ever European language I learned with case and all the conjugations, and in seminaries.. usually the pre-requisite is either German or French. Later when I learned Italian, it helped me to overcome part of the fear. --> my theme song in August: Domenico Modungo ESC1958 in youtube.

.....

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