Off to Indochina to Test the Theory

I had a finished "language sheet", as I was calling them then, for Lao. I knew that using it I could create thousands of phrases in that language but I still wasn't convinced it would actually work in the field. I decided to shelf my plans for going around the world and instead decided to create two more language sheets: one for Burmese and another for Thai. I would then go to Indochina to test if the theory worked or not.

It took several months to dissect the languages, write up the language sheets and prepare for the journey. At the beginning of 2005, I flew to Thailand.

I arrived in Bangkok's international airport at 2am. My memory of it all is pretty fuzzy, as you can imagine. It's funny, the purpose of my journey was to see quickly I could speak basic Thai and I have absolutely no idea what my first words were. The first sentence I remember using was said while looking for a hotel room in the Khaosan Road area of the city - "Do you have a room?"

Over the next few days I happy to learn that my Thai language sheet was capable of doing exactly what I'd hoped it would. I got to use the Thai language pretty extensively. I remember being in a tuk-tuk on my way back to the hotel after some excursion. While we were stuck in traffic, the driver and I got into conversation. It was basic stuff but I was able to make myself understood and get a grasp of what he was saying too. And I'd been in the country three maybe four days in total. I look back on that now and shake my head in wonder at it. I love this system of mine. I bearly remember anything in Thai now but I know that when I go back to Thailand all I have to do is pop open the new version of the Thai Phrasemaker (that's what they're called now) and I'll have that language laid out before me, literally at my finger tips.

Burma was my next destination. Before long I had my visa and a plane ticket and flew to Yangon, the capital.
More about that in the next blog.