I have the sudden urge to learn some Thai
Which would be incredibly dumb, because I'm already preoccupied with another language. However, I am me, you see. And I am very dumb. So I can see myself saying "What the hey" and just going for it. I kind of already have. I've been compiling some resources to learn Thai and have been mulling where I can fit it into my schedule.
I describe it as an "urge" because that's honestly what it feels like. I'm hungry for it. I gotta order some, eat it, let it sit, and I'll be satisfied. If I don't satisfy this urge, it'll constantly be on my mind. And this happens quite a bit. I'm fascinated by languages, but understand that it's a massive (and I mean massive) undertaking. Once I take an interest in a language, I have to learn some of it even if there's no "use" for it.
I'll compile a list of resources and give myself a week to learn and immerse in the language. I'll read up on grammar, learn the writing system if applicable, look up common vocabulary, and make basic sentences. Usually, that'll suffice. I'll either lose interest in the language or I'll be satisfied with my exploration. I understand that I won't gain a deep understanding and I'm fine with that. I'm not looking for fluency in the context of that urge, but rather an exploration. I have my main squeezes in Japanese, Korean, and Arabic. Anything else is just icing on the top.
Often, that urge will settle down and I'll have learned something new. This happened with Swahili. I found its agglunative nature (adding suffixes and prefixes to create meaning, to put it simply) endlessly fascinating (I might write another post on just that) so I spent some time with it and learned a bit. Ninapenda kusoma Kiswahili (I like studying Swahili). I'll be satisfied and move on with an appreciation and admiration for the language. Additionally, I'll have also learned some history and culture, too. Language invites more avenues of study.
Other times, however, that urge grows and grows. This happened with Arabic. At first, I just wanted to learn a few phrases because I thought the language sounded cool. But then that snowballed and here I am digging deeper into the grammar and have grown interested in Arab history and literature (I'm particularly interested in contemporary Egypt and Syria). I've got a bunch of grammar and history books I've thumbed through and read.
For Thai, that urge came last week.
I like to have music on in the background whenever I'm working at my desk. Last week, I didn't know what to listen to. Lately, I've been listening to a lot of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but was itching for something different.
So I opened up the Shazam app on my phone and browsed the tracks I looked up. I found this song (that I don't remember where I first heard) called ฟ้า (Blue Heart) by LANDOKMAI and was mesmerized by the sound of the language. I thought it sounded so beautiful. So sing-song-y and delightful.
Then I remembered that a K-Pop group I like has a Thai member. Whenever she spoke in Thai, I found it so beautiful. Thai is a tonal language and to my un-trained ear (read: ignorant), it almost sounded like a lot of the same sounds were made. Obviously, that's not the case. I don't know Thai so of course I cant differentiate between the intricacies of its tones. What sounded like one singular sound was probably four different sounds.
But the tones fascinated me. What sounded like similar sounds was more like a vast constellation of tones and syllables. I wanted to understand them. I wanted to learn them. I wanted to go from "All of this sounds the same (no offense)" to "Ah, yes. She said so and so and such and such."
Then I saw the writing system and that sealed the deal. As someone who really loves writing systems, Thai is gorgeous. So many loops and curves. I had the same feeling when I saw the Korean and Arabic systems. I just knew it was going to stick with me. Even now, I'll just grab a sheet of paper and practice my Korean and Arabic handwriting with random words and sentences. I love looking at a native speaker's handwriting. I also love looking at my own handwriting and comparing it to when I started. There's such a fascinating evolution in written skill and dexterity.
The Thai alphabet also looks challenging in its composition and layout and I'm always up for something difficult. It's very puzzle-like in its construction.
I've also been reading some Thai history, politics, culture and contemporary subcultures, music, and its film and television industry and have found it interesting (all the good and bad). I also like the "look" of Thailand, if that makes sense. The architecture and the plant-life, specifically. I don't mean to sound like a dipshit tourist.
Anyway, so here I am. Gathering resources and mulling on whether or not I should go for it. Who am I kidding, of course I will.
I know I've got a tough road ahead of me. I'm not familiar with explicitly tonal languages. I can sort of hear the differences in tones, but I know it'll be a crapshoot to hear and identify them. I'll listen to a word and think it's the low tone but find out its actually the high tone, for example. Even though I think the writing system is beautiful, it is quite intricate. Likewise, as I understand it, Thai doesn't seem to normally have spaces outside of putting a space in front of a new sentence. That means sentencescangoonandonkindoflikethis.
There are also some interesting features of Thai. From what I've gathered, verbs seem to not inflect much. They take a basic form and keep it. The word for "go" in Thai is just that: go. No change in tense or person like in "going, went, will go, I go, she goes" and so on. Ambiguity is supplanted by time expressions or the context. That sounds neat! None of the languages I know have that feature and I'm curious if that'll make learning and understanding easier or harder. We gotta conjugate like no-one's business in English. Basic adjectives come after nouns, which I'm already familiar and natural with through Spanish. So there are certain features that stick out and make me even more curious to dig deeper.
In any case, this endeavor is going to take some time to acclimate to. And yet, that makes Thai all the more appealing. I love that challenge. Learning is a process and I have no qualms in being patient for something I find immensely rewarding.
So, as usual, I'm going to give myself a week to learn and immerse in Thai and explore the language. If it sticks, cool. If not, cool.
Wish me luck.