My Chiang Mai Language Challenge Ends!

My Thai language challenge has officially ended in Chiang Mai itself, and is now about to start a new phase: on the road! But let me catch you up on what has happened since my entry on Day 62 on November 13th.

Thanks to 90-days-in-a-row studying in the Add1Challenge—and I do mean studying 3-5 hours a day—I reached my goal of 2000+ words in my active vocabulary. In a 14-day “mini-challenge” around Day 70, I succeeded in speaking Thai for a total of 47 hours—about 3.5 hours a day—bringing my team to victory! I officially finished this Challenge by making a “90-day video,” the final video required, in which I have a 21-minute conversation with a native speaker. In this case, it was my iTalki teacher Chonlada Yomchinda. It might be interesting for you to compare my speaking from DayZero and Day90, even if you don’t understand Thai. So here are the links:

Day0: https://youtu.be/-AM7-kvm1YU

Day90: https://youtu.be/ZFdzMgso4Ww

But the most important part of these last months is the closeness I am beginning to feel to my Thai friends and even the people on the streets. When I sat down and spoke to Khun Wisamun the artist, we poured out our stories since the last meeting, and are truly “puuean sanit,” “close friends.” Face-to-face with Khun Kit the dtuk-dtuk driver, we wept over his aged mother’s decline. On a 12:30 am video call with Khun Aan, the city bus driver, I gave him sympathy for having to drive until 2 am on an empty bus through the deserted Chiang Mai streets—an intimate view of Purgatory if there ever was one. Everyone has a lifetime of stories within, and they remain locked within—without WORDS to let them emerge as pieces of identity and soul. I do long to hear these stories, and let my friends hear mine. It is only through this sharing that I truly feel at home in any country. Otherwise, I feel I’m just passing through.Read more