A Complete Journey Into a New Language - Part 6
March note-taking process and making useful flashcards
I spent the first half of March busy with work and being inconsistent with my studies but the last two weeks might prove to be the most important weeks of my Thai journey in the long run.
As I mentioned in the last entry, I decided to change my goal from trying to hold conversations to reading instead. This wasn’t an easy decision because, well, that might end up being harder.
But it also helps me get rid of the (self-indulged) pressure of trying to speak soon even though I don’t feel like doing it.
Before I got to that decision, however, I had already begun straying away from conversations.
Most of what I did in March was in written form.
Using a golden opportunity
I am currently working as a project manager handling translation requests for a large company that happened to start localizing in Thai last year. Unfortunately, the quality received was quite awful and they had to redo some of the translations with other translators.
Feedback from reviewers came but the files reviewed were either handled by the former translators (meaning the new ones didn’t have the right files) or the files’ format had somehow changed.
(Very) long story short, fixing the Thai files became complicated and I ended up in charge of managing this part.
Side note: Interestingly enough, this had nothing to do with the fact I am studying Thai.
Being able to read the language allowed me to compare files and notice differences overlooked by the engineers (who don’t speak Thai).
I spent at least 10 hours comparing Thai texts, without even understanding more than a word here and there. I sometimes got lost and needed to know what the sentences were about so I’d Google Translate them. Unfortunately—or fortunately?—the copy-paste function didn’t work well and I had to type everything I wanted to look up.
It took time but got me used to typing Thai on my keyboard without trying 4 different keys for each letter I wanted to type.
Writing down sentences
The notes I had been taken ever since I learned the script—see this post about that—had been following the below process:
Write a new grammar pattern or vocab word to learn in black
Follow it up with an example sentence and its translation in blue.
I changed that process in early March to writing the sentence in blue and its translation in red. Halfway through the month, I started underlining certain words within those sentences to indicate which is which.
Here’s what it looked like:
You might be wondering why I put the translation in red instead of the Thai version but there’s a good reason for it.
I have a red transparent sheet I received with a book bought a long time ago in Japan. By hovering it on the page, the red text disappears and I can try to guess the translation of any text without influence, even though the translation’s right next to it.
Here’s what it looks like:
This is a common study method in Japan often called “赤シート” (“red sheet”) or “暗記シート” (“memorization sheet”) but I couldn’t find a proper English name nor an identical product. The closest I found was “Christmas Gel Filter” on Amazon (not an affiliate link) although it’s a bit larger than what I use.
I absolutely love this filter and would recommend this to anybody.
Creating useful flashcards
Flashcards are an amazing way to learn any topic well. They help you space your study so you remember more with less work. How could you not love it?
Now, I know some people hate flashcards, and especially Anki, but no matter who you are, it can be a useful tool to add to your toolbox.
I don’t exclusively rely on flashcards to learn. I learn about 7 new cards per day (for Thai alone, the rest is at 3 per day, if there are new ones). I also tend to miss about 3 days every single week.
Still, even as a bonus, it’s a good thing to have on your phone while you have a smoke, wait in line, or are trying to pull yourself away from social media.
Before diving into my flashcards, let’s see the two golden rules":
Never create single-word flashcards. They lack context and may only be useful if you need them for a test. Maybe.
Don’t use already-created decks. The act of creating your flashcards helps with remembering them in the long run. Even if it’s slow. Especially if it’s slow.
Now, here’s my process:
Find a sentence I want to remember. It may be for a few reasons:
New grammar pattern I want to remember
New word I want to remember
New sentence with a grammar pattern I keep on getting wrong
Sentence with a word/character I keep misreading
Other-person subject to learn the conjugation, ie. changing to “we” instead of “you” for example (Not applicable to Thai)
If I don’t have an official/confirmed translation, ask native speakers to translate it on HiNative and move to the next step.
If I have the translation from a textbook, bilingual book, or subtitles in multiple languages, I move to the next step directly.
If I don’t have the audio version of the sentence, ask native speakers to record it on HiNative and move to the next step.
If I already have access to the audio as part of a textbook audio file or video online, use ShareX to get a recording of just that sentence. Matt vs Japan made a great video to explain how to set it up.
If there’s a new word or if I want to be sure about the pronunciation, I might even drop by the Wiktionary to get the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
Doing this before you even master the IPA can be a great way to learn the IPA too! Which can come in handy for future languages.
If I have enough time on my hands during the study session, I’ll also write the sentence by hand in my notebook to strengthen the initial memory of it.
And here’s the result!
Even though I’m not focusing on becoming conversational anymore, I still get the audio version of every sentence because it helps create more connections in my brain too and gets me more used to the sound of the language. That’s what is often called “dual coding.”
Side note: I don’t put the audio on the same side of the flashcard as the Thai text so I can figure out the pronunciation on my own first.
Having fun reading the language
My language challenge for March was to dive into a story. I tried to fall in love with the webtoon Villain to Kill but I ended up struggling to read it. I missed the touch of paper and disliked having to alternate tabs whenever I wanted to look something up.
It was inconvenient. And inconvenience is an amazing excuse to procrastinate on anything.
Luckily, with all the typing and reading mentioned above combined with all the crazy fonts I encountered while walking around town, I actively tried to find a way to stop procrastinating on reading.
My feet led me to the library where I had bought a Dragon Ball tome in February and I looked around for books I could enjoy.
Side note: I have one tome of Dragon Ball in at least 6 or 7 languages. I just love the idea of, one day, being able to switch from one to the next.
This time, I found three books that could fit the bill:
A book with short chapters and tiny paragraphs
A kid’s book with games
A short bilingual book with images to complement the story
Once home I translated their titles with Google Translate and Papago, and ended up starting playing with the most difficult: the one with few images and no translation—on the left in the picture above.
I’ve now started translating it and digging into it. It’s always sitting next to me, often kept open at the page I’m at (still only the second one! 😅) so I can take a peek at any moment.
I’ll get more into how, and why I’m translating it all in the next piece though!
Until next time,
Mathias