"Culture Shock"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjqDWemycYk

This video represents one of the responses, hatred and grief, in the negotiation stage of culture shock.

Culture shock usually progresses from a honeymoon stage, where all the differences are shed in a fun sort of romantic light, a negotiation stage, an adjustment stage, and a mastery stage. I recall from my experience abroad that it was difficult for many of my peers to be happy during the negotiation stage a couple of months in. I think many of them were trying to reaffirm their believes and norms from the US and were on the verge of adjusting to Thai culture but resisting. I decided to just reject the concept of culture shock altogether and just roll with the punches as they came. Although, I definitely had some tough times with formulating my identity in a new environment and adopting to a new set of norms, I didn't let these small instances get the better of me. I just let them pass, recognized them for what they were, differences, and continued on.

Pg. 364-408

I do not feel the section describing the methods behind comparing languages and grouping them into language families was very useful to me as a language learner, but it did help me understand the origin Thai as an isolating language, one in which all the words are invariable as opposed to inflecting languages, agglutinative languages, and polysynthetic languages. The book mentions Chinese and Vietnamese as two other isolating languages. If I had to guess this may be a result of East Asia's separation into kingdoms, specifically in Thailand and China, that prevented a transfer of languages across different regions. All of these languages are what the book describes as the "Austro-Asiatic" language family. It is interesting that there is significantly less information in the book and on the internet about the history of the Thai language. The book states, "The relationship between the Tai family and other languages is unclear" (391).

I did find parts of this passage interesting but I don't understand why we were told to stop reading on page 408. The next section titled "How multilingualism works" ties the rest of the reading together by describing how languages connect and merge. Crystal even brings it to a modern day context in the USA.

Rather than delve deeply into how linguistics classify and group languages I would have preferred to learn about Thai's language family specifically and which languages influence it the most so that I might be able to apply it to my language learning activities. It is always useful to have background information on a language whether it is contextual, cultural, political, or historical. Possessing a history of Thai linguistics may help me better understand the modern day words themselves.

MLC%20110%20SDLAP_learningplan-1.docx

Self-Evaluation

Overall, I am very pleased with my ability to meet my goals set out in my learning plan.

Interpretive Listening: I gave considerable effort to listening to Game speak. Even when I couldn't understand everything that he was saying, I continued to listen and attempted to piece together his sentences. It was very helpful to guess what he said at times and have him fill me in on the exact meaning behind each word. We also applied this same method to numerous Thai movies that I watched and review with Game.

Interpersonal Speaking: I kept up on learning 5 new vocabulary words every day. It was difficult to utilize these words in conversations with Game in a way that I would actually remember them. We developed strategies to pick topics ahead of time, so I could go out on my own and learn words relevant to the specific topic.

Presentational Speaking: I never presented an entire Thai presentation to a large audience but I prepared adequately for each of my spoken artifacts so I feel confident enough to have presented those to an audience.

Presentational Writing: It was difficult at first to find a systematic approach to my random habits of transliteration. I worked with Game utilizing his knowledge of linguistics to help hone this down.

Personal Goals: I was happy to meet with numerous Thai-speaking students throughout the semester, mostly Carter, Game, and Sobpisa. Meeting new people also helped boost my confidence because they were impressed with my ability to carry on basic introductory conversations with ease. Unfortunately, I never took the opportunity to conduct a mock interview in Thai mostly because I did not receive job offers from the Thai-based organizations I had originally hoped to work for.

It was very interesting to be able to continue with learning a language that I thought was hardly used in the United States without having to travel anywhere. I hope to pursue other avenues and get to know other Thai speakers so I don't lose what I have learned and hopefully can learn more. Although I will be working as a teacher in rural Mississippi where there is not bound to be a plethora of Thai-speakers, I hope to continue to practice via skype or just reviewing my notes so that when I return to Thailand in the future I will be able to communicate effectively.

We were offered an opportunity in MLC 105 to teach the class something in our target language. I chose to focus on a difficult pronunciation not found in English, the "ng" sound at the beginning of a word. For example, "ngaan" means work and "ngun" means money.

I attempted to use the descriptions of the mouth and the tongue from our text to describe how to make this difficult sound. Unfortunately, except for a few of my peers this method largely failed. I then did what my Thai language partner does with me, continuous repetition. This was a much more successful method because my peers were able to continuously practice and hear themselves getting closer.

I have decided to respond to Andrew's presentation on Bangladesh because of my interest in that area of the world and that nation in particular. Initially, I planned to learn Bengali because I had plans to complete a Fulbright Research Grant in Bangladesh. My plans fell through but not before I learned a great deal about life in Bangladesh. It is interesting to draw comparisons to the traditional dress that Andrew was wearing during his presentation (Sarong, light shirt) and the outfits of people other countries in Asia I have traveled. There are some similarities to Thai dress but I have noticed that the closer the country is to Central Asia, the more alike it is to Bangladesh and India customs. For example, the tendency to wear long sarongs and drink tea is very similar to what I witnessed while traveling in Myanmar (Burma). It was also interesting to witness the similarities in script. The Bengali script is very similar to Burmese and to the script presented during the presentation on India.

I can also connect to the slow-paced lifestyle which Andrew described. He explained how men sit around their tea shops all day, working more than willing to have a long conversation. This is one of the more appealing aspects of the Asian life style that i experienced. Although, the long work days sounded extremely draining and stressful as many of the shop vendors make just enough to feed themselves for the next day.

Cultural Presentation: Thai Culture in Bangkok vs. Isaan

Slide 1: Map representing geographic separation between the two regions

Slide 2: Language Differences with a few examples

Slide 3: Food: Sticky Rice and Fish vs. Beautiful Rice

Slide 4: Livelihoods: Farmers vs. Businessman

Slide 5: Politics: Red-Shirts vs. Yellow-Shirts

Slide 6: Skin Color: Dark Skin vs. Beautiful Fair Skin

Slide 7: Personality Traits: Communal vs. Individualistic

Slide 8: Music: Country vs. Pop

Slide 9: Isaan Culture and Life style as seen in Bangkok

Slide 10: Bibliography

The opportunity to focus my culture project on the differences between the urban culture in Bangkok and the rural culture in Northeast Thailand was especially helpful in organizing many of my thoughts from my time in Thailand. It was especially helpful to ground these cultural differences in the lingual differences by working closely with my language partner to figure out the connections between the two.

It is important to note that this is only one way of perceiving Thai society as a whole. Other views highlight many of the positive aspects of the growing westernized urban culture, of which there are many. But from my experience in Thailand, where I was located and the people I interacted with, I can't help but generate an opposing view.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFgSYtZydiw

This video explains the violent conflict on the border between Thailand and Malaysia. This is a very unique case in Thailand because the country is 98% Buddhist contributing to a very homogeneous communal society. However, the largely Malay Muslim region is within Thai national borders causing serious disagreements and extreme violence.

Weekly Logs since February 21^st:

Overall, I am very pleased with the way my Thai language partner, Game, and I have worked collaboratively this semester. Despite some early confusion, we have been able to get on the same page and adopt an effective procedure for making the most of our two meetings per week. We got in the habit of adapting my language learning to relevant issues to our lives and current issues/cultural intricacies of Thailand. For example, before I left for a hockey tournament I learned the Thai vocabulary pertaining to Sports and Competition. And when Thai forces engaged in violent conflict with Cambodian forces over a border dispute, we learned the Thai vocabulary pertaining to the military and conflict.

One of my favorite activities was watching numerous Thai movies, sometimes with and sometimes without English subtitles. I would watch the movies on my own time then return to discuss specific phrases and/or cultural aspects that I did not entirely understand. As a result, I was able to better understand native Thai speakers and learn numerous new Thai phrases. Here is a list of movies I watched and reviewed with Game throughout the semester: OngBak 1 The Thai Warrior, OngBak 2 The Beginning, The Overture, Shutter, and Fan Chan. A perk to reviewing these movies is that many of them reveal the historical context in which they took place. For example, OngBak 2 helped me learn a lot more about the ancient Thai Kingdoms of Sukhoythai and Ayyuhtaya.

Our weekly meetings also helped me formulate the 5 Thai vocab words I learned each day. Game was able to provide me with certain similar word groupings that fall within the same family so I wasn’t just sporadically learning 5 random words per day. For example, there are numerous adjectives with the prefix “Key,” denoting a negative connotation. I used this understanding to learn: Key-Neo = Stingy, Key-Glua= Fearful, Key-Mao= Alcoholic, Key-Now= cold, Key-Ron = energetic, Key-Geead = Liar etc.

Game also has a background in linguistics and transliteration. Therefore, he was able to help me develop my random transliterations of Thai words into a more formulaic process.

We also took our learning past the weekly meetings by partaking in numerous language-learning activities. For example, we spent an afternoon cooking Thai Curry at my apartment. While cooking and eating I learned all of the relevant Thai vocabulary for what we were making, objects in the kitchen, etc. Game also came to a philanthropy fundraiser dunk-tank on the UR forum. He told me about a similar practice in Thai temples where young girls are dunked into the water. The phrase, “Sow Noi Thdok Nam” literally means, "young girl falls into water.” I was also introduced to other Thai students at the University of Richmond who I met with to ask about their past, tell them about my experiences in Thailand, and of course practice my speaking and listening skills.

All in all, I am very happy with my experience expanding upon my previous Thai language abilities. I feel that Game and I successfully completed all of the assignments of the class and utilized the flexibility of the course to learn a lot more.

The Overture: Thai Movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWojOCWoN44

Thanks to my Netflix account and the foreign films section I have been able to watch numerous Thai movies with English subtitles. Most recently, I watched "The Overture." In 1940 government officials ordered the rapid modernization of Thailand so they outlawed the playing of traditional music. The life of this famous musician represents the conflict between the push for modernization and the desire to hold onto rich traditions tied to Buddhism and the monarchy that still exists in Thailand today. The image of a Buddhist monk carrying a cell phone represents this conflict of ideals in a modern context:

Fan Chan (My Girl) Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yakCHla0oRY&feature=related

It is interesting to see the way in which the Thai media perceives the childhood "games and gangs" of young Thai kids. This particular movie is more indicative of a Thai rural setting than an urban setting because the kids are riding outside together on the open road rather than watching movies or playing video games in doors. Many of the jokes are similar to those used by children in the United States. The boys pick on each other for liking a girl and the big bully tries to boss everyone around. The gang calls the bully “Huan Dom” which is an insulting phrase that literally means "Fat and Brown." This represents the characteristics that are least desirable in Thai culture in regard to weight and skin culture.

Learning Journal #10: Cross-Cultural Experience and 260-282

I had numerous cross-cultural experiences that reinforced the major differences between text analysis and discourse analysis. Text analysis requires excellent reading capabilities and a background knowledge of the language and culture being studied. Discourse analysis, on the other hand, requires a certain sense of familiarity with the customs, beliefs, and expectations of a place and a people that allows you to react properly in social situations.  This is especially difficult in scattered dialogues, as opposed to monologues, when multiple individuals take turns in contributing to a conversation. There are certain bodily clues and cultural nuances that allow one to fit properly in this type of conversation. Many times during my stay in Thailand I felt as though I understood much of the vocabulary and sentences being spoken around me. But at times, during a meal for example, I still felt entirely lost in conversation and unable to contribute.

The cross-cultural experiences were most difficult for me not at the outset, rather after I had already displayed a level of language and cultural competence. A prime example of this is when I sat down for a meal with a Thai family having already had short introductory conversations with many of the individual family members. As the food was passed around, the “scattered dialogues” began and I was not able to keep up. All of the sudden everyone is looking at me and I have no idea what they want or how they expect me to react. It is at this point when I learned to admit failure and simply laugh in hopes that they would laugh along with me. Luckily, they usually did.

Cultural Competence and 289-335

What I found most interesting in this week's reading was the way in which the author differentiated between Accent and Dialect. In the past, even in previous blog posts for this class, I have used these words interchangeably. Now I know that accent refers to the distinct pronunciation a person makes when speaking. For example, a person from Alabama may be distinguishable from a person from the Northeast because of his or her "southern accent." Dialect, refers to a broader meaning which includes the grammar and vocabulary the speaker uses as well.

The discussion of accent and dialect pertains directly to the idea of "cultural competence." Accent and dialect play a major role in gaining added meaning out of something a person is saying. This is why language competence and cultural competence go hand in hand. Being able to decipher meaning from picking up on distinct accents and dialects is crucial in determining the speaker's background in terms of geographic location, socioeconomic status, level of education, employment, etc.

In order to raise my cultural and language competence I am continuing to try to reach out to any Thai resource and/or person on campus. Recently, I ate lunch with a Thai student who spent a lot of her childhood in Singapore. As a result, she definitely had a slightly different accent and dialect than other Thai people I have met. Additionally, she had a unique perspective of Thai culture relative to the other Asian cultures she has been a part of. Hearing stories like her's is very helpful for me in understanding Thailand's role in southeast Asia and the world as a whole. I will continue to reach out to others in the Richmond area to raise my "cultural competence."

I was intrigued by the discussion of the potential death to a language and pigeon languages. One is forced to wonder if English arising as a universal language could potentially contribute to the death of several more minor languages. At the same time, however, I have noticed that many less significant languages have adapted to the influx of English by attempting to teach both their native tongue and English in schools. Additionally, I have witnessed many people adopting English words and putting some sort of native accent on it to make it their own. I would tend to side with this trend of assimilation of languages over the mass death of many of the world's languages.

I have utilized my own creative adaptation of the Thai language at times by repeating phrases that make the most sense to me and by adding English words when necessary and understood by Thai people. For example, the Thai use the English word "computer" with a rising tone at the end. It is definitely reassuring to hear the random English word utilized when attempting to piece together sentences to make meaning of what a fast Thai speaker is saying. The problem with this approach is that only certain people in Thai society would understand my pigeon formulation of Thai language. It is difficult to figure out what exactly I should be trying to learn (extremely formal, slang words or something in the middle). It is certainly reassuring when my Thai language partner tells me that the Thai people will generally understand what I am saying even if I am not speaking their specific dialect or their level of formality. I hope to gain a more in depth understanding of Thai language particulars so that I don’t sound like as much of an outsider to Thai people. Fortunately, I have the opportunity to learn much of the "urban slang" from my Thai language partner who has spent much of his life in Bangkok. I can compare these words to the "rural Isaan slang" that I picked up on while studying in the northeast.

"Figuring Foreigners Out"

The exercises contained in this workbook are very similar to those I was asked to complete as a study abroad student through the Center for International Educational Exchange (CIEE) so I have already spent considerable time thinking about the differences between Thai culture and American culture. The "invisible" values and beliefs that are found in many Thai's collectivist hierarchical view of society are very different than the typically individualistic non-static American society. If you picture Thai society as a board with thousands of nails in it, in general, a Thai person does not want to stick out any more or any less than any of the other nails around it. He or she would prefer to be nailed back into their place. As a result, there are many "visible" behavioral cultural practices that play out. For example, Thai people are often very indirect and non-confrontational. Even if I were doing something that greatly offended a Thai person and challenged their cultural norms and societal structure (i.e. standing straight up in a room full of people sitting on the floor cross-legged) they would still often be very reluctant to speak out and tell me to stop. The Thai hierarchy, particularly with regard to age, is especially pertinent to what we are learning in MLC 105 and MLC 110 because there are entirely different words that one must use with increased formality when speaking with an elder or a superior. This is sometimes the case in the United States, but probably not as rigid, strict, and potentially offensive as in Thailand. Therefore, these types of exercises are extremely useful while learning a language and before you have to learn the hard way as many of us "pharangs" had to experience on numerous occasions.

Another point to think about is clash of cultures that is occurring in some drastically westernizing cities such as Bangkok. Since, much of the inflow of money comes into Bangkok from foreigners (i.e. tourists and international businessmen) the western culture seems to predominate much of the city. I was caused on numerous occasions to question my role as a foreigner under these circumstances. A large part of me wanted to fight against this cultural dominance and lean more towards cultural preservation of the once pure Thai culture. Activities in "Figuring Foreigners Out" could be especially useful in opening more foreigners eyes to the reality of the clash of cultures and could potentially make a process containing more mutual respect. 

Reading Response: (pg. 58-96)

This week's reading relates directly to a problem that arouse between my language partner and I during Monday's session. In the past I have relied heavily on my own non-precise system of transliteration so that I could speak and listen to Thai without memorizing the alphabet. It worked well for me in Thailand because I spent so much time in the classroom hearing the various sounds and words repeated over and over again. However, it is more difficult for me to put my finger directly on the sound I need to replicate or comprehend in a self-directed program. Therefore, I am going to use the suggestions in "How Language Works" and some reference to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to create a more systematic approach to transliteration. This will incorporate diacritical marks, as mentioned in the text. Most importantly, I am going to emphasize the 5 major tones while learning new words. Since, in Thai, is in 50% of the world's languages, the tone has the ability to entirely change the meaning of the word, I am going to stick to a very strict system of numbering and practicing the 5 tones so I don't mistake them while learning new vocabulary.

Reading Response (pg. 171-259)

This passage allowed me to consider many ways to design learning strategies for myself. Since the brain retains information in a variety of ways, some more effective than others, I have decided to try a variety of learning strategies. My goal is to learn 10 vocab words per day. To accomplish this I am going to use notecards and lists that I will have with me at all times throughout the day so that I can take them out and practice whenever I have a free moment. Making vocab learning part of my daily routine will ease the learning process. I will be able to see more words more often throughout the day than I would if I simply sat down for an hour and tried to memorize 10 words. I am also going to utilize as much conversational practice with my language partner as possible while implementing some games, music, etc. The reading emphasized "fields of meaning". This will guide my topic-based learning strategy upon which my 10 words per day will rest.