Decided to try to Learn the Thai Language, wish me luck!!!!

 

     As if learning a new language is not hard enough, trying to learn Thai is a real challenge as it will require rote memory in a brain where that is not its strong suit at this stage in by life.  The main killer is the 72 characters in the Thai alphabet. The second killer is there are no spaces in written Thai. So, a sentence is written out as one continuous Thai characters stream. What you see in the picture is a phonetic version of the Thai sentence, as I learned in my first two Thai language class, which I signed up for in attempt to give my life a little bit more structure. 

     Yes, I began to feel like my life had become a bit unmoored.  I fell into the "Staying up Late and Sleeping most of the Day" like I was back in my 20s, not like my true old man age of near 67. (Oh, it hurts type that!)  

    So, when I found a Thai language course that I could easily afford that meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 90 minutes, I thought to myself there is my anchor. It helps that the teacher, Ms.Jom, is entertaining and informative, and not afraid to correct you when your pronunciation is off.  

  My fellow classmates are all young, in the range of 20 to 30.  One of the easiest visas to get for person under 50 is an Education Visa for 15 months. The two main options are a Language or a Muay Thai Boxing school. Either one will kick your ass. I am the only old guy in the class, but everyone is super nice. 

   So, what are my goals? To be able to do easy tasks without the use of Google Translate and have short breezing conversations with the local community.  Don't think I will be reading any books in Thai, but I hope signs should be an easy goal to attain. As it is I figured out the " buy one get one" thanks to a local clerk at the Big C, my local market. Hope by the end of the year I will be able to read instead of guess sale signage.