Frank Timmons’ Blog

I have been making a more concerted effort to learn Thai this past year. I have made quite a lot of progress, and have generally improved my comprehension, speaking, and reading / writing skills. However, I still find that I am far from satisfied with my ability to follow some conversations, understand some of the details of the evening news or newspaper articles, or speak with confidence especially concerning business related subjects.

I think one of my barriers to significant progress is that I am unable to properly immerse myself in Thai language. At home I need to speak English to ensure that my children have the opportunity to develop into proper bilingual Thai / English speakers. At work I spend most of my time mostly immersed in English, either reading, writing, or thinking deep thoughts (at least I want the boss to think that I am thinking deep thoughts). I have been conversing in Thai more often in the office, which has been a great help, but it would be an exaggeration to describe this as “Thai immersion”.

One of the things I’ve been doing to increase my exposure to Thai language is reading the Thai newspapers whenever I get a chance. If I am in a waiting room, or enjoying a bowl of noodles in a small shop, I always try to pick up the current paper and read some of the headline stories. I often read the editorials that are always posted at the top of page 3 in the Thai Rath daily newspaper. I can always follow the basic storyline, but there are always important aspects of the articles that I am unable to grasp due to unfamiliarity with some of the special words used.

Last week I resolved that I would buy an electronic dictionary to carry around, so I could look up unfamiliar Thai words, and also so I could do a better job of translating my thoughts into Thai when speaking with friends. I choose the Besta CyberDict 11, which is a new model in the popular CyberDict family of electronic dictionary products.

I must say that I find the quality of the Thai English and English Thai dictionaries to be much better than the “ThaiSoft Dictionary” commonly found on PC’s in offices throughout Thailand. I was often frustrated with the ThaiSoft Dictionary, as I felt that it didn’t do a very good job of translating common Thai words and phrases into useable English. By comparison, the CyberDict 11 does a wonderful job, and even when I am sitting at my PC, I reach for the CyberDict 11 instead of opening the ThaiSoft Dictionary.

Carrying the CyberDict 11 has definitely helped me to increase the amount of quality time I spend each day learning useful Thai words and phrases. It can’t make my rapidly aging brain any more supple or able to absorb and imprint new words; I still find myself looking up the same words 2 or 3 (or more) times before I am able to properly retain them in gray matter. However, I am pleased that I am at least steadily adding new words and phrases to my Thai vocabulary.

I also bought a 4 GB memory card for the CyberDict, so I can use it as an MP3 player. If I am going to carry it nearly everyplace, I decided that I didn’t want to also be carrying a separate MP3 player. The CyberDict actually produces a much better quality sound than my cheap MP3 player, and holds around 10 times as many songs. Unfortunately it is also 10 times as heavy. It fits well in my shirt pocket, but it definitely is a bit too heavy to keep there comfortably all day. Wish the leather pouch that comes with the CyberDict would allow it to be worn on my belt, but perhaps that would make it a bit too “geeky”.

If you are looking for a decent electronic dictionary, that also can double as an MP3 player and has some PDA type functionality, you might want to check out CyberDict.

Frank T.