Let’s start from the very beginning

I have a confession: I tried something last week and I failed. I heard it could be done, I knew others who would attempt it with me, I gave it a go and I fell flat on my face. Well, maybe that last bit is hyperbolically overdramatic, but it kind of felt that way anyway.

On the last day of my second month of Thai class, I asked my teacher if she thought I could handle taking both sections of the next module at the same time. Up until now, each module represented a single month of classes. Moving forward, many of the modules are usually taken over two months, a speaking course then followed by a writing course. She told me she thought my speaking was strong enough, that I could handle it, and, as long as I had time, she thought it was a good idea.

I only made it through three days, but it was an incredible learning experience.

On the first day of class, I realized that while this is the fifth(!) language I’ve studied, it’s my first foreign alphabet. That afternoon, the teacher introduced us to the different letters we were to learn that day. As I practiced writing each letter, I remember thinking it was fun and relaxing like an art class, but wishing that our notebooks had bigger kindergarten-style lines. I thought about how pretty some of the letters were and how my first attempt was always the best. Towards the end of the class, the teacher stopped us and said it was time to practice reading. My stomach dropped a bit as I realized I hadn’t been trying to memorize the sound that went with each shape as I wrote.

In my class of six, we took turns around the circle reading out the two-letter words on the page. I am not exaggerating when I say each time it was my turn I read my one word slower than the five other people combined. It is humbling and, quite frankly, awe-inspiring to learn to read for the first time as an adult as you stumble to pronounce each sound punctuated by long pauses.

After realizing my pitfalls the first day I studied hard and caught up a bit. It takes a considerable amount of effort to train a brain that an “N” makes a “T” sound and that a “W” makes a “P” sound. I felt like I caught up pretty well until the third day when the teacher gave us six pages of homework one night. I got home at 5pm and did homework until I went to bed, taking breaks occasionally to study the vocab in my speaking class. I pretty much resigned that that would be the story of my life for the next month until I asked my classmates how long it took them to do the homework. With an annoyed look, one said an hour and the other said an hour and a half. I estimated it took me a solid four hours, and in that conversation I realized that there was a part of the assignment I had forgotten to do. A different poly-lingual classmate told me that it’s always like that going from a Roman alphabet to another alphabet for the first time. So with that, I dropped out of my writing class.

I feel like I’m coming across in a nonchalant, yet simultaneously complain-y manner, but I’m glad to have gone though the experience, reached my limit, recognized that I had reached my limit, and then fix it before it was to late. Burke said he was proud of me and confirmed it was the right decision, although I think he is biased towards having a wife with at least a few minutes of free time.

When I told my teacher that I was going to postpone learning to write until next month, she explained that it took me longer to do homework than my classmates because I tried to write until my letters were beautiful. I assured her that I only tried to write until my letters were finished. I will say that when I compared homework with my Chinese friend, my letters were much prettier; she said it’s hard to write Thai because Chinese characters are so straight that curved shapes are difficult.

In other news, Burke moved on to his next level as well. He continued with the same teacher I had last month, and it’s so fun to continue to catch up with the teachers and just love on them. Today Burke’s teacher told me that she thinks we are a cute couple.