Behind the Curtain - Stuart Jay Raj

Polyglot Tradecraft 101 - Social Engineering and Language Learning - A Case Study in Thailand

2010-09-15T15:28:00.002+07:00

I'm very reluctant to reveal too much about this subject. It's very personal, very effective and if used in the wrong way, can do a lot of damage. When I sit down and think about my long term affair with language over the years though, this is an inextricable part of who I am and how my languages came to be. It could well be the Holy Grail that fuels my insatiable desire to devour languages. Given that, I think it warrants ... Read Full Article ...

Stujay.com – Crazy Indian / Kiwi Video Clip

2010-08-29T18:55:00.000+07:00

[caption id="attachment_467" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Hey!.. You should be SHEARING that!"][/caption] I've just spent the past week setting up a mini TV studio at home here so I can start producing some great content for all of you. I'm busting to get it all produced as fast as possible ... my mind is in overdrive and I think I have enough content running around my grey matter at the moment that I could be recording every day for the next few years. To start you off though, I've put a little clip together to help promote our cause. I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free.... no, feel OBLIGED to pass it on to your loved ones. You could be helping them open up to potential that they never realised they had. At the very least, it might put a smile on their face! Enjoy :)

Learn Braille on Your Way to Work

2010-08-25T04:53:00.002+07:00

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Latest Blog Article from Stujay.com

I had a sensuous train ride today. I’ve gotta tell you – you would be amazed what two Taiwanese women on a train will say to each other in Chinese in front of you when they think that you don’t understand them! I milked the situation for all it was worth, listening for about 20 mins of my 1.5 hour journey to one Taiwanese girl tell in gory details to her other Taiwanese friend what she should do for her boyfriend and how to to it if she didn’t want to lose him. It was hard to top that, but alas … my mind wandered onto other things to keep it occupied… and then I spotted it …. BRAILLE!

I went through a passing Braille phase several years ago. I managed to get hold of a few Braille books, and after a few days I reached the stage of being able to slowly read texts. I think if I had have kept up with it for another couple of weeks, I definitely would have gotten faster, but something happened. One of the Braille books I was using must have been contaminated – I contracted .... Continue Reading this article ...

How to Become ‘Gifted’ at Learning Languages – You’re Never too Old (I'm Spilling my Secrets!)

2010-08-11T18:35:00.002+07:00

Hi 'Behind the Curtain' blog followers. You're going to be the only ones reading this email... the 'Behind the Curtain' blog is for all intents and purposes closed... but that's actually GOOD NEWS! I have migrated all of the old posts over to my new site at http://stujay.com As part of my promise to bring 'killer content' to my site and value to the readers, I have just posted an article that I was originally going to only post to the site's 'members' and not make it public. In the end after reading through what I had wrote, I really thought it would be much more valuable sharing it with the rest of the world. Many people have asked me to write more about my secrets, techniques, mind strategies and so on. I hope you enjoy 'How to Become 'Gifted' at Learning Languages - You're Never too Old'. It's basically a Mindcraft lesson in a post... something that my customers in the past have paid good money for. Please don't forget to sign up as a member to the new site. Membership is free, and I will be delivering 'killer content' to you via email bulletin, downloads, eBooks and Video clips that won't be available to the rest of the public. So what are you waiting for - Click here to continue

How to Become ‘Gifted’ at Learning Languages – You’re Never too Old

Stuart Jay Raj's Blog has Moved - Please Update Your Subscription Feed Links

2010-08-05T20:45:00.002+07:00

I have just moved over to Wordpress. My new blog (with all the old posts too!) has moved to http://stujay.com The RSS feedlink for subscriptions is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/StuartJayRaj-PolyglotSecretsOfALinguisticJunkie The direct feed link is: http://stujay.com/feed/rss Using the feedburner one is probably better, as should anything change on the backend in the future, the feedburner feed address will remain the same. Lots of great stuff I'm preparing for the new improved website!... resources galore. Please swing by and share your thoughts. Stu Jay Raj.

Profile of stuart jay raj mar logo title 2010 1.1

2010-07-12T10:02:00.001+07:00

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Interview with Polyglot Stuart Jay Raj - Part 2 for Womenlearnthai.com - Getting over the Mental Barriers of Language Learning

2010-04-07T16:32:00.004+07:00

Interview with Polyglot Stuart Jay Raj - Part 2 for Womenlearnthai.com

This is the 2nd of 3 interviews I did with Cat from the Womenlearnthai.com site. In this interview Cat asked me about the common obstacles for people learning Thai and how I help them get around them. We also touch a bit on my Mindcraft series.

Interview with polyglot Stu Jay Raj…

Heads-up everyone: This post is a continuation of Stuart (Stu) Jay Raj: Interview Part One.

Stu, with Cracking Thai Fundamentals and now Mindcraft, you’ve taught the Thai language to expats for some time. In your experience, which learning difficulties are the most common?

The writing system always stands as one of the biggest mental barriers for learners of Thai. Many people say ‘I just want to learn to speak Thai, I don’t need to learn to read or write’. I really believe that embarking on learning Thai with this attitude is shooting yourself in the foot before you’ve even started. The Thai writing system is based on a very logical system that’s actually a map of the human mouth. People shouldn’t count consonants and vowels and use that as a measuring stick for how hard a language is to learn.

The first thing you learn when you learn Mandarin is Hanyu Pinyin – the Romanized sound system. Luckily for Mandarin, Hanyu Pinyin was put together by linguists who knew what they were doing and can be used very accurately to produce the sounds in Mandarin.

Unfortunately for Thai, although there are many transliteration systems, the best ones I have seen are based on the IPA phonetic symbols. I notice with other Roman systems, unless you’re a linguist, learners’ mother tongue’s interpretations of roman letters filter the sounds when they’re reading the Thai words. The result, confused looks on Thai people’s faces and frustration from the learner when they think they’re saying the right thing but aren’t understood.

Investing a little bit of time getting a solid foundation when it comes to pronunciation and the sound system – and the writing system as an extension of that, will help you avoid hitting that ‘glass ceiling’ that many learners of Thai hit when they realize that they need to ‘unlearn’ a whole lot of language that has now already been embedded into their muscle memory.

How do you address these learning difficulties?

I tried to develop a system that enabled learners to spend a short time in learning the sound system and writing system in a fun way and kept it in the long term memory. That’s where Cracking Thai Fundamentals came from. You can see some examples of how I’ve done this in my blog, or on my youtube channel. Here’s an example:

With these two clips, most people can learn most of the Thai vowels in around 20mins to half an hour.

Many expats struggle with learning Thai. What advice do you have?

Don’t compare apples with oranges. Thai is not English… However, just because it looks different, doesn’t mean that there aren’t similarities. Up to 60% of Modern Thai has roots in Sanskrit. Sanskrit is an Indo-European language as is English. There are some amazing similarities that are ‘masked’ through the ‘different look’ of the language. Once you start to scratch the surface a little you’ll realize that the things that you thought were difficult – writing, tones etc, aren’t that difficult at all. They’re just different.

Don’t be put off learning Thai just because you’ve had a bad experience with Thai teachers. Just like many native speakers of English, many Thais don’t have a deep understanding of their own language.

When learners of Thai ask a question like:

‘Why are there 3 consonant classes?’
or
‘Why does the high tone actually rise?’

the response is normally something like:

‘There are 3 consonant classes – High, Middle and Low. The High class has ‘x’ number of letters, the middle class has ‘x’ number of letters etc etc.
Or,
‘you are a Farang, you don’t need to know that’.

The fact is that for most of them, they’ve never learned ‘why’ themselves.

One good formula is to have several different people that you learn from. Learn something ‘advanced’ from one of them. Something that a normal learner wouldn’t normally know. After that, go and try it out by just dropping it into a conversation with another Thai that you consult with. They will be impressed and think that your level is higher than what it really is. Then ask them to teach you something new. Keep rotating around your ‘Thai Consultants’ with new terms, new words and slang until your proficiency catches up with their perceived proficiency for you. It’s a great way to get past the ‘farang’ Thai that farang get taught and sound more native-like, not to mention keep motivated and positive about learning after each positive impression you make.

If you could pick five books from your librarything to help learners of the Thai language, what would they be, and why?

That only has a small portion of my books.

I would recommend:

A Dictionary of English Thai Idioms – Ted Strehlow

From Ancient Languages to Modern Dialects – Marvin J Brown

Any one of Andrew Biggs’ books – written in Thai, are a great starting point to reading Thai. The stories he speaks about are normally easily understood by ‘farang’, so will carry you through language you don’t know. Start with a couple of lines. Move on to a paragraph. Within a couple of weeks, your reading speed will really start to pick up.

Teach Yourself Thai – David Smyth

ทะลึ่ง – ‘Thaleung’ – Series of books covering Thai risqué jokes and short stories. Most stories are only a paragraph or two and in most cases, the picture tells it all. Reading through it, you will start to appreciate Thai humour, see a lot of idioms and slang being used and get out of the normal ‘farang’ vocabulary that Thais think that farang have to use – as opposed to what’s really used.

What other books should beginner to intermediate learners of the Thai language read?

Everything and anything. There are some really great books and many extremely crappy ones. I’m yet to find a book that I can’t learn something from.

More than just reading books, I highly recommend learning to type in Thai from the get-go and get into blogs, web boards, MSN, facebook and anything else online that lets you interact with Thais in ‘everyday’ Thai language. The best thing about Thai on the internet is that it’s phonetic and is written to represent the way it’s really pronounced. You can ‘read’ someone’s mood / accent by how they’ve written.

Your Cracking Thai Fundamentals course is hilarious fun. Could we please get an overview?

Here is the blurb taken from one of the brochures:

This course is suited to anyone who has just arrived in Thailand and wants to start off on the right foot or for anyone who has lived in Thailand for a long time but their knowledge of Thai sounds like a clumsy shoe falling down the stairs.

Stuart Jay Raj has built up a reputation in Thailand for teaching the Thai language and culture to the expatriate community since 2000. When it comes to languages, take our word for it…this guy knows what he is talking about in any of the 13 different languages he can fluently speak, listen, read and write!

Aside developing conversational skills in Thai, other topics the course covers include:

Memory techniques and building

Building cognitive fluency when speaking Thai – training ourselves to react in Thai without thinking

Motivating in the Thai workplace and eliciting the information we really need

Using language to build a cross cultural rapport in the workplace

Street Thai vs. Formal Thai / what to say, when to say it and who to say it with

Expressing yourself in Thai to get the right reaction

Understanding and Using Thai humor to reach to the heart.

Learning with Stuart Raj

Language is an exciting, living, changing and flexible creature that lets us get into the minds of the people who speak it. As expatriates, the value that learning to understand and communicate clearly with locals is priceless – especially in the workplace!

Over 4 x 3 hour sessions you will achieve the following objectives:

Develop instinctive natural responses when conversing in Thai without passing through another language

Overcome the psychological barrier of learning a tonal language

Mastered the entire Thai Consonant System (including tonal classes) – Ideal for People who have learned previously but still have problems remembering symbols and classes – (Using imagery, mnemonics, sign language and 3-D spatial recognition)

Learned the entire Thai Vowel System – (using unique handsigns that directly relate to the vowel shapes in the Thai script)

Learned the Thai Tonal Rule System – (Using mind-mapping, imagery and story telling)

Learned new language learning techniques, including how to recognize and analyze many Sanskrit and Chinese based elements in Thai.

What will attendees learn in your Mndcraft seminars?

Mnidcraft empowers anyone with a will to succeed to develop the same aptitude for languages and communication as what Stuart Jay Raj possesses based on powerful NLP modeling principles.   NLP Modeling  NLP modeling is the practice of isolating essential patterns that makes someone successful and duplicating them into others in a way that they are practiced unconsciously.   Stuart has carefully designed activities where you will not only learn the secrets that have crafted his aptitude for language, but will also have these skills, habits and knowledge embedded within you, breathing new life into your relationship with language!

 More than just the ability to learn languages  , developing an aptitude for language is actually just a side effect of the Mnidcraft series. You will also tap into new abilities:  

Super Memory 

Perfect Pitch 

Touch-type in multiple languages including Thai, Sanskrit and Korean 

Be ‘funny’ across cultures

Increase self-esteem in yourself and others

Mimic sounds, body language and mannerisms

Build instant rapport with people you’ve just met

Master tones in Tonal Languages including Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese 

Solve the Rubik’s Cube

Use an Abacus 

Circular Breathing

Morse Code / Sign Language alphabets

Speed Reading 

Simultaneous Interpreting

XML and programming fundamentals

What are your tips for learning and retaining new vocabulary?

Think LOUD … full of colours, sounds, emotions. Make crazy associations and then link them with a system that you can recall.

Know what ‘pushes your buttons’ then wrap the language up in whatever that is.

Excitement is the best memory technique.

What other advice do you give to students of the Thai language?

Have FUN with the language – learn as much as you can about the language as you learn to speak the language.

Listen and observe – don’t use Thai as a vehicle to ‘say what you want to say’ to Thai people. Learn the stuff that they want to talk about and use the language to learn about them.

Stuart (Stu) Jay Raj
Behind the Curtain | stujaystujay’s YouTube Channel

The final section of this three part interview is: Successful Thai Language Learners: Stuart (Stu) Jay Raj.

Interview with Stuart Jay Raj - Part 1 - from 'Womenlearnthai.com' site

2010-04-06T16:01:00.004+07:00

This is a cross post of an interview with Cat from the 'Womenlearnthai.com'site.

This is the first installation of a 3 part interview.

Interview with polyglot Stu Jay Raj…

When I moved to Bangkok I was fortunate to discover Stu Jay Raj’s Cracking Thai Fundamentals course located at that time on Suk Soi 1. Once a week for eight weeks I’d jump on the MRT to travel into the bowels of Bangkok for an hour of hilarious fun. Fun, because Stu is not only a knowledgeable teacher of the Thai language, but a fabulous entertainer too. And ever since then, I’ve followed Stu’s climbing career.

Stu’s interview on WLT has been a long time coming. Due to his varied background, the interview will be in three installments (and I could have easily asked enough questions for a fourth or even a fifth).

Stu Jay Raj: Accredited Dale Carnegie consultant and trainer; regional advisor, trainer, and lecturer in cross cultural communication; IT developer; simultaneous interpreter, translator and editor; television and audio composer; TV presenter; and polyglot.

Stu, when I first met you, you were fluent in: Speaking, listening, reading and writing with over 13 modern languages; Chinese dialects, Spanish, Indonesian, Thai, Danish and Sign language; plus a working knowledge of more than 15 additionaly languages, modern and ancient. Have you added any more languages to your repertoire?

I don’t really like counting languages. Languages are songs.

It’s like being a musician and being asked “How many songs do you know?”

There are some songs you ‘know’ – you’ve rehearsed them every day for the past 20 years, you’ve played them in front of packed houses, you can improvise, you know how to pick a dead crowd up with it, you know what parts of the song to listen out for especially when you’re playing with new musicians and you can interpret what other musicians are doing with it. Those kinds of songs become just like another extension of your body.

Then there are the ones that you ‘know’, but you’d probably need to have the chord chart handy just in case.

Then there are the songs you ‘know’ – like when you hear them, you know who the composer was, what key it’s in and you could probably get away sitting in on a gig with another band playing it if you had the charts and were watching for the cues.

The ones I like are the songs you ‘don’t know’ – BUT … you can predict what they’re going to sound like. For example, most ballads you hear playing on the radio or a Karaoke bar deep in the Sois of Sukhumvit will probably fall into one of a handful of ‘formulas’ with some variations here and there. I don’t know how many sappy songs there are out there where the bridge uses the chords ‘IV – V/IV – IIImin7 – Vimin7 – IImin7 – V7 – I’ or some variation of it.

If I was sitting in on a gig and didn’t even know the song, as soon as I heard the first couple of chords starting to sound like that formula, I could probably follow through being pretty certain that what I play is going to be a decent fit.

So to make a short answer even longer, and carrying on the analogy of ‘language’ = ‘song’, I’m always learning new songs and even those songs that I’ve played for years and feel like they’re part of me – I always find ways of making them new for me. At home I have thousands of ‘song’ books and everyday am buzzed to go to my collection and learn something new, sometimes about songs that I already know, sometimes about songs by the same composer, sometimes about songs in the same genre and sometimes I try out genres I’ve never really touched before.

Since doing my TV show last year, I have been traveling all over the place, so I’ve been getting into languages like Tagalog, Turkish, Burmese and Vietnamese.

Your grandfather must be an amazing man. Not only is he a linguist with an extensive passion for history, but he took the time to share his love for languages with his young grandson. Did he use any language learning methods with you?

I can remember when I was about 4 and had the mumps. My grandfather sat with me and would read a book each day with me ‘Italian through pictures’. The book was made up with stick figure pictures and slowly building up functional vocabulary and structures. That book became part of me. Later on, if we were ever out, he would stand and point up at the birds just like the pictures. I would say just like in the book – “Gli uccelli sono là” (The birds are over there).

He also had sets of Japanese Kanji cards that we used to go through. He taught me all the different components of characters – the radicals and the other meaningful particles and we would have compete to see who could find them in the Kanji dictionary first.

He taught me all different memory techniques and we would use them to remember wordlists in English and other languages, memorize lists of numbers, calculate what day of the week any given date was, convert decimal to binary to hex, send messages to each other in Morse-code, build electric circuits from schematics, listen to shortwave radio broadcasts, taught me to touch-type at the age of around four and many other things that stimulated and bridged the senses.

He would play with words with me and we would make new meanings up by making ‘nonsense words’ with roots and affixes that only we knew what they meant.

I believe that all of these things had an impact on my ability to learn languages.

The combination of multiple language skills and training with the Dale Carnegie method must pack a punch when it comes to cross cultural communication. What is your advice for anyone going the same route?

Falling into Dale Carnegie was one of those unintentional happenings of fate. It was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Many of the things learned in Dale Carnegie were similar to what my grandfather had taught me and there were many other things that NO-ONE had ever taught me … but I needed to learn. The great thing about Dale Carnegie is that it teaches you to focus and build on the positive.

It took years just to be accredited to train a single programme. Being in training rooms day in day out during that time and learning under some amazing master trainers was an amazing experience.

The one main thing that my time with Dale Carnegie taught me was the value of ‘people’. You might have a slew of letters after your name, but if you’re not good with people, the benefit you bring to an organization is very limited and can even be a liability. If you’re not a people person, you better be pretty damn good at what you do.

When I came out of Dale Carnegie and started my own consultancy, I realized a potency of the synergies that language, cultural understanding and people skills brought. Companies, governments, UN agencies and NGO’s have also realized the potency of this and over the past ten years, many of them have trained me up to a level of competency in their industries and send me out to work with their people and be a conduit between local team members in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, India and other countries in Asia and executive management.

Advice for people taking the same route? Language + Hard-skills + People Skills = Higher ROI than just Language + People Skills.

After interviewing Miss Indonesia 2005 (Artika Sari Dewi), you landed the envious job of linguist for the yearly Miss Universe pageants. Has it changed the direction of your life in any way?

Being part of the official Miss Universe interpreting team since 2005 has been one of the most amazing and life changing experiences. Each year I have the pleasure to travel to some of the most amazing places on the planet (this last year we were at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas) and rub shoulders with some of the world’s most amazing, influential and gorgeous people. Most of all, I get to spend time with one of the most amazing, talented group of linguistically inclined people on the planet. Most of the interpreting team are polyglots and all have amazing life stories. Some are of royal stock, some have become extremely successful after escaping war and hardship in their home countries. In 2008 when we were in Nha Trang, the Vietnamese interpreter went back to her home village in Nha Trang for the first time since escaping from there almost 40 years ago.

It was that Vietnam event that we first met Lady Gaga. Most of us were wondering who she was. When she performed though, it became apparent that she would be the next ‘big thing’. Within months, she was topping the charts all over the world.

Miss Universe is an amazing cosmos to learn from. People who think it’s just about looks and ‘world peace’ are missing the bigger picture. It’s business. It’s marketing. It’s people.

It’s taught me once again that the ability to understand and build a rapport with ‘people’ is one of the most valuable assets anyone can have. With each pageant comes a whole new set of friends each year – from production crew to event organizers and contestants. After all these years we’re still close and I have had the opportunity to meet up with them again on my travels.

 When I saw your new TV show, Nuea Chan Phan Plaek’ เหนือชั้น1000 แปลก, I couldn’t think of any other theme that would be as tailor-made for your linguistic talents. How did it come about? Did you put forward a proposal, or did they come to you?

A couple of years back I was asked to be a guest on the Thai talk-show ‘เจาะใจ’ (Joh Jai) to speak about languages. I had a blast doing the show and when the clips hit youtube, they ended up getting 100’s of 1,000’s of hits. I started to receive emails everyday from people all over the world who said that it inspired them to learn languages and aspire to become a polyglot.

In 2009 one of the producers from JSL called me in and asked me to do a short test-shoot for a new programme that they were looking at producing.

Things went well and I landed one of the best jobs I’ve ever had in my life. I was paid to fly around the world and hunt down stories on the most amazing, extraordinary and bizarre people, places and things on the planet.

On a Thai language note, the title of the show is interesting. It was originally going to be called เหนือชั้น ขั้นเทพ ‘Neua Chan Khan Thep’ – ขั้นเทพ is a popular idiom that’s been in my opinion overused over the past couple of years in Thailand especially by the younger generation meaning ‘ guru’ or ‘master’. I think they were worried that using that word set the expectations bar too high for the show, so changed it to a play on words – ‘เหนือชั้น 1000 แปลก’. Here’s a breakdown of what it means:

เหนือ – ‘above’
ชั้น – ‘standard’ ‘class’ ‘level’
เหนือชั้น – ‘Above par’ or ‘extraordinary’

1000 แปลก is a play on words in that the number ‘1000’ is pronounced พัน ‘phan’. This is the same pronunciation as the Sanskrit based word for ‘species’ – พันธ์. So when you hear the words 1000 แปลก, it could be interpreted as ‘1000’s of weird / strange things’ OR ‘strange species’.

The season finished at the end of the year, but I’m looking forward to doing more production work in 2010 hopefully targeted at the English speaking world this time.

Are you still performing with the ROL Jazz Trio in Bangkok?

Sadly not anymore. Since our bassist Kenro Oshidari was posted to Sudan a couple of years back, the ROL trio had to go on hiatus. Kenro is back in Bangkok now and all of us are keen to play, but now I have just moved my family to Australia. I fly back and forth, but aren’t in town enough to commit to playing.

Playing jazz is an amazing outlet to maintain one’s sanity. You really notice the difference not playing each week. One thing I loved about our trio was that we would rehearse every week at Kenro’s place and in the 8 or so years that we played together, never had one fight or serious disagreement. For musicians, this is an amazing feat! We would record most weeks we played and listen to what we did in each gig to try and work out what we could build on and what needed to improve. I think this is a great principle to take through life.

What are you up to these days?

Just a couple of weeks ago, I moved my family over to Australia so that my kids could learn English and have a chance at a ‘non-Thai’ education over there.

I still travel back and forth in the region, but at the moment I’m trying to give some time back to the kids after having traveled up to 20 days out of each month for most of last year.

I am looking at partnering with an outfit working in the region in a few months and continue to provide solutions to the Oil and Gas industry. I’m also working on several production projects that will be airing in Asia and beyond.

What can we expect from you in the future?

I want to be the person that helped make ‘language’ and ‘using your brain’ sexy. Doing what I do combining multiple languages and cross cultural communication / training is a terrible business model in that you can’t cookie cut it that easily.

Leveraging through being in the media is one solution that I want to invest more time in over the next year. I’ll continue to build on my brand and continue to affiliate myself with organizations and people that support the same vision.

Stuart (Stu) Jay Raj
Behind the Curtain | stujaystujay’s YouTube Channel

Stay tuned for Stuart (Stu) Jay Raj: Interview Part Two.

Enjoy…

Stuart Jay Raj TV Show เหนือชั้น 1000แปลก Taiwan 臺灣 Sexy Betel Nut Girls 檳榔西施 English Subs

2009-09-19T15:39:00.004+07:00

Languages: Thai ไทย, Mandarin Chinese中文 (漢語)

เหนือชั้น1000แปลก - สาวสวยขายหมาก

เหนือชั้นรอบโลก ที่ประเทศไต้หวัน สจวท เจ ราช พาไปพบ สาวๆ แต่งตัวเซ็กซี่แต่ขายหมาก??

Subtitles: English – available via the Youtube desktop player. If subtitles don’t appear straight away, click in the far bottom right hand corner subtitle box and select ‘English’.

In this episode we go and meet the sexily clad ladies in Taipei and Taizhong that tout customers on the side of the road. For those in Thailand, such images might lead you to think of another trade, but these girls aren’t selling sexual services. At first when we went into try and get some footage of some of the Betel Nut stalls, none of the girls we approached would let us film in fear of what the repercussions would be from their ‘bosses’. It’s a cut throat business there.

Trying to take another tack, I asked one of the girls where her boss lived. She pointed his house out and I went and knocked on the door and introduced myself to him in Chinese and explained a little about what we were doing. He was very hospitable and went out of his way to take care of us. His wife was suffering from cancer, so along with the Betel Nuts, he also produced some of the freshest organic Watermelon Juice you could find in the city.

The main girl in the clip – Yaya – is 19 years old and had been working there for around 2 years now. From speaking to her candidly, she seemed to earnestly be happy with her job and only had nice words to say about her boss.

Perhaps a new face to an old trade in Thailand?

If you have any amazing, extraordinary people, places, animals or things that you think would be fitting for our show 'Neua Chan Phan Plaek', drop me a line on stujay@hotmail.com. You can follow along with the show and other language and mind-skills related stories on my blog - 'Behind the Curtain' at http://stujay.blogspot.com

Stuart Jay Raj - เหนือชั้น 1000 แปลก -Australian Outback Underground City - Coober Pedy

2009-09-18T21:39:00.004+07:00

Languages: English, Strine, Kiwi, Thai

พบกับเมืองประหลาด Coober Pedy ความแปลกของเมืองนี้คือเป็นเมืองใต้ดินเพราะต้องหนีปัญหาอุณหภูมิที่สูง

Don't Miss เหนือชั้น 1000 แปลก - Neua Chan Phan Plaek - 'The Extraordinary, Amazing and Bizzare' each Tuesday night on Thai Channel 5 22:30 - 23:30

This is the first of two stories covered in the Australian outback town of Coober Pedy. The amazing thing about this city other than the fact that it’s the number one opal mining city in the world, is that a good portion of this city’s action happens underground. Not just the mines! Houses, churches, restaurants, hotels, you name it!

Part 1

Part 2

Subtitles are loaded in the Youtube player in English. If you liked this, or are into languages, culture and communication, be sure to swing by Stuart Jay Raj’s language, mindskills… and now Amazing World Stories Blog at http://stujay.blogspot.com

Stuart Jay Raj - เหนือชั้น 1000 แปลก - Episode - Bali Trunyan Corpses - Full English Subs Completed

2009-09-18T17:14:00.003+07:00

Just a quick note to let you all know that the 2nd clip (2 of 2) now has English subtitles. I've just prepared another four episodes that have gone to air over the past couple of months for subtitles. You should see them in the next few days. Here's are both clips now with full English subs for the Un-Smelly corpses of the Terunyan village in Bali.

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2

Youtube Subtitles in English for Stuart Jay Raj's TV Show เหนือชั้น 1000 แปลก

2009-09-16T22:51:00.002+07:00

I've just realised how easy it is to drop SRT subtitle files into youtube videos. I just did a trial one here. If you can't see the English subtitles straight away, you might have to click the square in the far bottom right corner of the player and choose 'English'. I've only done it for this one video - more to follow (time permitting!)

Stuart Jay Raj เหนือชั้น 1000 Plaek - Thai TV Show - Ep 3 - Taiwan - Theme Restaurants - Sexy Nurses, Flight Attendants to Hello Kitty

2009-09-15T21:57:00.006+07:00

Languages: Thai, Mandarin Chinese

พาไปชมร้านอาหารแปลกๆ อาทิเช่น ร้านอาหารที่นำเนื้องูมาทำเป็นอาหาร ร้านสไตล์เครื่องบิน ร้านสไตล์โรงพยาบาล ร้านสไตล์ Hello Kitty

Direct Link: http://www.manytv.com/videos/10464-_1000_.php

In this episode, we're back in Taiwan! Theme restaurants are popping up like mushrooms across the country.

Here we take a look at 4 places to dine. The first is Snake Alley - look at snakes and other crawly goodies.

The second is the A380 restaurant. This is a theme restaurant where the whole experience - from the check-in, flight attendant hosts / hostesses, food and decor is all done up to make you feel like you're really on board an aeroplane.

The next is the DS Hospital restaurant. Here, all the wait staff are dressed up as sexy doctors and nurses. The drinks are served via an intravenous drip like rig and the floor show is ... well, there's no way the Thai cultural ministry would allow it to go to air. Let's just say that the nurses perform a strip show - but they don't strip themselves! That is left to an unwitting couple of members of the crowd. The show finishes up with a bucket of ice tipped down into the patrons underwear cum G-string. Glad I wasn't in the firing line!

The final restaurant is the Hello Kitty restaurant. A little to 'pink' for my liking - the franchise concept was great though. Everything... and I mean EVERYTHING was Hello Kitty themed. The burger bread, fries, cakes, frosting on top of drinks, glasses, wait staff, seats, tables, wall hangings, bathrooms ... The food was ... well, it was presented very well. I can imagine such a restaurant doing well in Bangkok in a place like Siam Paragon or Siam Square.

Stuart Jay Raj เหนือชั้น 1000 Plaek - Thai TV Show - Ep 2 Bali Indonesia - Trunyan Dead Bodies - No Smell

2009-09-15T21:35:00.005+07:00

Languages: Thai, Balinese, Bahasa Indonesia

สจวท เจ ราชพาไป บาหลี ประเทศอินโดนีเซีย ไปพบกับต้นไม้ประหลาดและความเชื่อแปลกๆของคนบนเกาะบาหลี

Direct link: http://www.manytv.com/videos/10461-_1000_.php

This is the first in a series of clips from Bali, Indonesia. Bali is different to the rest of Indonesia in that it is predominantly Hindu. The Trunyan village (from Taruh - Place / Menyan - Corpse) is renowned for the strange practice of placing dead bodies to decompose next to a special tree that is said to absorb the smell of the rotting corpses into the tree! While I was there, there were 11 corpses decomposing, but no smell! ... believe it? .. take a look at the clip and judge for yourself :) (Shame there's no such thing as smellovision!)

The trip there was interesting. At first, our guide refused to - there are rumours of people being robbed and even murdered going out there. In the end, it was an issue of $$$MONEY$$$. We paid 'security' money to the right people and the hospitality there was fantastic. If you're planning a trip there, make sure you have a few rupiah spare for 'extra costs' that suddenly appear once you arrive ... and again when you try to leave!.

The Trunyan village is deep up into the lake between the volcanoes Gunung Batur / Gunung Agung.

Stuart Jay Raj เหนือชั้น 1000 Plaek - Thai TV Show - Ep 1 Taiwan Sexy Betel Nut Girls

2009-09-15T21:20:00.005+07:00

Languages: Thai, Mandarin Chinese

Direct URL: http://www.manytv.com/videos/10446-_1000_.php

We shot this story between Taipei and Tai Chung in Taiwan. There are a few reasons why we chose this story:

The women in many of the stalls were HOT ... always a good thing for TV
Many Thais when seeing the picture (ok - maybe not just Thais) when they see skimpily clad young maidens touting cars to stop and buy something, something other than Betel Nuts comes to mind
In Thailand, the practice of chewing on Betel nuts is relegated to the old grannies and granpas up country - conjures up pictures of old black / toothless ladies and men. In Taiwan, even young people still chew the nuts.

There are more stories coming from Taiwan - Stay Tuned!

Stuart Jay Raj's New TV Show - เหนือชั้น 1000 แปลก 'Neua Chan Phan Plaek' - 'The Amazing, The Extraordinary and the Downright Weird!' Thai Ch.5

2009-09-15T19:54:00.024+07:00

You might have noticed that I've been pretty slack in updating my blog recently. I wish I've could have updated more - but I have evidence here to prove that I haven't been sitting idle doing nothing! Since shooting my new TV show 'Nuea Chan Phan Plaek' เหนือชั้น 1000 แปลก (Extraordinary / Amazing (Things / People / Places)), I've been blessed to have been able to travel to so many different places around the world to cover some of the most amazing and extraordinary people, places and things on this planet. The team is made up of myself (Stuart Jay Raj - สจวท เจ ราช), Tin Chokmolkij (ทิน โชคกมลกิจ) and Apple (Ple.. pronounced /pɘn/ with a falling tone) Jariyadee Thammavit - เปิ้ล -จริยดี ธรรมวิทย์. Tin and Ple spend most of the time in the studio, while I have the burden of tripping around the countryside covering stories outside of Thailand. Ple has done a series of stories in Cambodia recently thought, and hopefully all three of us will be able to travel together for stories in the future. Over the past couple of months, the programme and other things have taken me between Thailand, Taiwan, China, Korea, USA, The Bahamas, Indonesia and Australia and covered stories including the sexy betel nut girls in Taiwan, the dead bodies of Trunyan village in Bali Indonesia and the mystical tree that sucks the smell of the corpses away, sand-dune surfing in Australia, out with Hump Back Whales, swimming with the dolphins, up in helicopters over crystal blue waters and shipwrecks, eating at theme restaurants - A380, Hello Kitty (seriously!), DS 'Hospital' restaurant where all the waitresses are dressed up as sexy doctors and nurses and serve drinks via a Drip! We had an epic adventure making it to the underground outback Aussie opal mining of Coober Pedy - where even a 5-star Sheraton hotel and a Serbian Orthodox church is build underground in the stone... not to mention the home of 'Crocodile Harry' - the nymphomaniac crocodile Hunter that the hit 80's movie Crocodile Dundee was based on. Some of Harry's claim to fame was to have a goal of sleeping with 1000 virgins and having them contribute to his mural in his 'dugout' with an artistic representation of their name and where they're from. A funny anecdote from Harry's longtime friend / roommate - Friend - "Harry - I suspect that many of these women weren't 'real' virgins'. Harry - "Hmmm.. that's ok, 'Almost virgin' is good enough for me! Harry also had Tina Turner's bra, left over from the shooting of Mad Max - Beyond Thunderdome, but it was stolen a couple of years ago. His house is a maze of fascinating art, womens underclothes hanging from the ceiling and a spectacular 'Shitatorium' in true Coober Pedy fashion.

The stories will be rolling out over the next few months every Tuesday evening - 22:30-23:30 on Thailand's Channel 5. This is available overseas via satellite on Ch 5's international service, or it can be streamed over the internet either live here, or you can click on the separate episodes via ManyTV here: I'll be posting more on our adventures soon. In the meantime, in the next couple of posts, I'll link through to the online versions of the stories I've done ... I would much prefer to have these streaming from youtube, but I 'personally' wouldn't know how to do it (nudge nudge wink wink). If anyone out there has any amazing stories / people / places / animals / things anywhere on the planet, let me know! I'll discuss it with the producers, and if it's deemed to be something to make Thai audiences go 'WOW', chances are I'll be over soon to cover it. For those people that were looking to have me run some of my workshops in their cities / countries, this might be a good way to kill two birds with one stone ^_^.

How to Be a Beauty Queen and Influence People ... Stuart Jay Raj on the Language of Miss Universe

2009-09-12T10:56:00.054+07:00

Somebody's Gotta Do It …

The Miss Universe 2009 pageant has just wrapped up (not without controversy) at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. Another amazing year where I was fortunate to spend a lot of time meeting some wonderful people and rub shoulders with the gorgeous, the glamorous, the influential … and the not so influential (though many in this final category would probably have liked to have thought otherwise), surrounded by egos, hairspray, horrible overpriced American greasy food and two giant manta-rays, not to mention more languages than you could poke a stick at… all the ingredients for the perfect 'gig'!

My life started to be fatefully influenced by the Miss Universe pageant back in 2005 as a result of a series of seemingly random events stringing from the Tsunami in Thailand leading up to a chance encounter interviewing Miss Indonesia 2005 (Artika Sari Dewi) in Bangkok for an Indonesian television network. Since then, I've had the honour of working with one of the most amazing bunch of linguistically endowed people on the planet who wait all year for dinner conversations where sex, politics, syntax and the subjunctive can (and more often than not DO) all get rolled up into one sentence!

Putting the Odds in Your Favour at Miss Universe

Having been a qualified Dale Carnegie facilitator in a former life, I realized that the first 9 Dale Carnegie Human Relations principles could well be the key to success at Miss Universe. I see mistakes being made time and time again by contestants and their managers. If you're going to be competing in Miss Universe in the future, it mightn't hurt trying to implement some of the following suggestions.

Principle #1 – Don't criticize, condemn or complain.

IT'S ALL ABOUT BRANDING!

In my eyes, the Miss Universe Competition is not a beauty contest. It's a branding exercise where the right character / image for the Miss Universe brand is selected to represent the organisation for the next year.

Think of some of the top brands out there –

Google
GE
Microsoft
Apple
Coca Cola
Pepsi
MacDonald's

Whether you love them or hate them, the statistics (and bottom lines) show that strong brand names help generate higher returns, stability and growth for the organisations that they represent. In May of 2008, Coca-Cola's brand was valued at US$58.2 billion. This four-syllable piece of intellectual property is THE MOST VALUABLE asset that the company owns.


Miss Universe	Dayana Mendoza – Miss Universe 2008	Donald Trump

Miss Universe is a powerful brand that is associated with another powerful brand-name – Donald Trump. The person who is crowned 'Miss Universe' for the next year takes that mast-head position for the organization and will be just as important to the success of the Miss Universe Organization as the name, font, design and colours of the Coca Cola logo are for the Coca Cola organization.

In saying that, the process of coming down to that one person who is going to represent the brand and ensure that the organization has a future is more than just skin-deep.

Girls … You're on Stage 24/7! The Miss Universe Competition is a Psychological Game of Stamina

There are many physically beautiful women on this planet. I am blessed by living in Bangkok, Thailand where in my humble opinion I think that there is an inordinate ratio of stunningly gorgeous women mixed into the general population. The Miss Universe organisation needs something more than just a pretty face. If I were running the organisation and were to write a list of 6 of the most desirable traits that I would be looking for in Miss Universe, it might look something like this:

Physically Attractive - May not be so politically correct in this day and age – but hey, it's a beauty pageant… right?

Interesting – There is some degree of depth to their character that makes other people want to be around them. Some of the more interesting people there this year included:
1. Miss Honduras (Bélgica Suárez) – a real life 'CSI' forensic scientist who was passionate about her work and had some amazing stories to tell about cadavers and other related things.
2. Miss China (Wang Jingyao) was always in a good mood, and always appeared to be really interested in everyone she spoke to – and could tie something of herself into each person she met. Enthusiasm won out over any language barrier.
3. Miss Egypt (Elham Wagdi) is a psychologist / marriage counsellor – extremely fascinating person.
4. Miss Indonesia 'Zizi' (Zivana Letisha Siregar) was an amazing ambassador for Indonesia this year and captured the hearts of many.
5. Miss Israel (Yulia Liubianitzki) is a soldier, and had some fascinating perspectives on world politics.
Awareness and Empathy – have a keen understanding of the current social talking points and can take a stand on one side or the other, though understanding all sides of an issue – e.g. War, politics, economy, health issues, minority issues, environment etc. Even if they don't agree with something, they should be able to as we say in Dale Carnegie "Disagree in an Agreeable Manner"… and not just make groundless claims or use cliché garble statements (most infamous point in case – Miss South Carolina)
Understands the Business – she should realise that Miss Universe is a business and understand her own role and her impact on both the longevity of the organisation and the bottom line.

Has Style – needs to be a good cutting-edge image for the organisation whether attending a cocktail-party, or just woken up and called out for an urgent shoot. The right person needs to be able to compose themselves and broadcast a consistent image with consistent sound-bites. Luckily, she will have people like Lou during the pageant and Roston to help take care of this.
Presentation Skills - Whether speaking one on one, doing a photo-shoot, attending an orphanage, Guantanamo Bay or addressing a crowd of thousands at a sports meet, Miss Universe's entire life for the next year will involve presenting themselves and the organisation. More importantly, they need to be able to successfully and positively present their values and the values of the organisation based on solid arguments – not just claims. The non-physical side of presenting (owning your message, enthusiasm, knowing your audience, structuring your message) are just as important as the physical aspects (posture, voice, body language, grooming etc).

During the 3-4 weeks that the girls are living together running up to the final pageant, they are being assessed on how they measure up to the criteria for a successful 'Miss Universe'. The above criteria are my own assumptions – I'm sure Mr. Trump, Paula, Roston and the gang have their own personal wish-lists.

Back to The 3 C's …

Getting back to the 3 C's, 'Don't Criticize, Condemn or Complain' - Understand that if you do Criticize, Condemn or Complain, it will eventually more likely than not come back to bite you. It's not just a matter of trying to put on your happy face when you're on stage or out in public being watched. The fact is that eyes are on you the whole time. Who's eyes? Your minders, any of the hundreds of MU employees roaming the corridors of the event facility / hotel, hotel staff (house-keeping, restaurant staff, security etc), managers of other contestants that are chomping at the bit to find some mud to sling on the competition (NOTE: some of these people can be very influential in the blogosphere, social networks, print / broadcast media and beyond!), people viewing the video feeds from the TV cameras constantly rolling in the venue. There are literally thousands of eyes on you ALL THE TIME. All it takes is one nose to be put out of joint, one smart remark that was taken the wrong way to blow it for you. Speaking on your mobile phone or checking your Facebook page or email when you're supposed to be paying attention to someone 'important' and you could well have just cost you your position in the top 15 and subsequently any chance of winning the crown.

Blogs and Forums could Make You or Break You

Blogs, mobile phones and the organic communication channels that develop as a result of having so many people living in close quarters during the lead-up to the pageant can either work for you or against you. Communication is swift and rumors traverse at lightning speed.

What does this mean for you as a contestant?

Always be painfully aware of what effect you are having on your environment. It's always better to have a mentor that can be your eyes on yourself rather than assuming (filtering) through your own eyes that everything is rosy.

I have seen on many occasions where contestants have finished the pageant and gone back home in a delusional state that they were the bees knees, that they had done everything right and that there was some how some kind of conspiracy against them in the end to keep the crown away from them. Many of these people have been the ones that I've noticed during rehearsals to have been constantly not paying attention, talking on their mobile phones past the breaks and showing other anti-social behavior.

Principle #2 – Give honest, sincere appreciation.

Spend every day there with a confident attitude, but never let this turn to arrogance. Understand that when it all comes down to it, it's a privilege that you're even there – not your God given right.

Look Out for Other People's Strengths

As a contestant, look for the strengths in all of your peers and other people you come across in the organisation and try and be something that edifies them, builds them up and brings value to who they are. Each time you do this, by default you're bringing value to who you are.

Principle #3 – Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Everyone has their own agenda. Whether you're a salesperson, CEO, or a housewife, one important key to being successful on this planet is to be able to build a passion in other people about things that you're passionate about. To do this, you need to understand what's important to THEM first! …that means going back to Principle #1 and Principle#2.

One example where this can really come in handy is during the interview session. You might have a burning passion to let the world know your views on a certain topic. Before you go doing this though, make sure that you put things into perspective first. Ask yourself:

Is there a chance in hell that the judges will be interested in this?
Why do I want them to hear about this?
Is telling them about this going to help the Miss Universe Organisation achieve its goals over the next year?
Is this topic going to demonstrate a personal value / virtue that the judges would be looking at in a successful candidate?
Is this something that is going to be important / interesting to the world at large, or might it only be interesting to my own countrymen?
Can I deliver this message concisely and effectively in the restricted time that I have? (If they tell you you have 3 minutes – then you have 3 minutes!)

If you hesitate in answering 'yes' to any of these, I strongly suggest that you suspend your need to share and find something more middle of the road to talk about.

Principle #4 – Become genuinely interested in other people.

The time you spend there is going to be one of the most amazing networking experiences in your life with people for every inch of the globe and every walk of life imaginable. I highly recommend going in there with the attitude that you are a sponge that's going to absorb as much of every person you meet and every moment that you experience that you can. These people and experiences can't help but have an influence on your life and make you a richer person.

While you're there, spend more time learning about other people than you do telling them about yourself!

The questions that you pose and interest that you take in other people will already be telling the world a lot about who you are.

Principle #5 – SMILE

This is my favourite Dale Carnegie principle.

In Bangkok, there is an elevated walkway that spans between Siam BTS Skytrain station and Chidlom Station (with Central World linking in the middle). One of my favourite stress relieving exercises is to walk from one station to the other with my iPhone headphones in my ears – (people think you're listening to music or a funny podcast, but really, you don't need to have anything playing) and smile all the way along your journey. You will be amazed at how many people smile back at you and even go out of their way to say 'hi'. I have met many seemingly 'random' people via this exercise alone.

Thailand is often referred to as the 'Land of Smiles' … but I'll let you in on a secret. Out of 12 of the main 'smile' categories in Thai, only a handful of them are positive!

People can feel a genuine smile from the heart when they feel it. As a contestant, find something inside of you that will generate a genuine smile and keep that burning all the while you are there. You'll be amazed at what it might reap for you.

I understand that as the times and fashions go, it might not be 'hip' to smile when you're walking down the catwalk. I'll leave that to the experts – but as much as my two cents are worth, people with a sour look on their face (off the catwalk) day in day out don't tend to get too far.

Principle #6 – Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

Learn people's names and USE THEM.

There are normally over 80 contestants in each pageant. It's tough for most people to remember everyone's names, and so you just end up calling each of the girls by her 'country' rather than her name(e.g. "Hey Thailand!", "Can you pass the ketchup please Czech Republic?", "You're standing on my train Venezuela!") . While this is understandable, may I suggest that best practice would probably be to learn people's names and try and avoid calling them by their country. It will help build warmer relationships between all of you and once again, could reap benefits that you never imagined.

Knowing Who's WHO

On the topic of knowing names and who people are, I can't stress how important it is to know who exactly the key people are in the organisation. I was once speaking to a contestant one year that didn't know who Donald Trump was! Fatal.

Learn about all the key people in the organisation, influential people in the movement, the history of other pageants, relationships between people … basically any intel that you can get. All of this can help you achieve your goal … and avoid sticking your foot in your mouth (or being caught with your pants down!)

There are some very key (and cool) people that have made it a fine art of being inconspicuous during everything.

Principle #7 – Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.

This goes back to Principle# 1, Principle #2 and Principle#3.

Let me emphasize once more how important listening is during events and ESPECIALLY DURING THE REHEARSALS. This is the time where people's tempers reach boiling point, voices are raised, egos are shattered and relationships break down.

Michael, Lou, Ken and all the gang choreographing and coaching you are some of THE BEST money can buy. Pay attention to every word that comes out of their mouths and more importantly, observe everything that they do. Sometimes, some cultural / language issues might get in the way of everyone comprehending what's being communicated. Nevertheless, resist the urge to get distracted or even worse, start complaining. Getting negative during these times has no upside. Stay attentive, stay positive!

Principle #8 – Talk in terms of the other person's interests.

I've touched on this throughout this article, but touching on it once more won't hurt!

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Whether it's a one on one conversation, a press conference, an interview with a panel of judges, or the final 'big' top-5 question, your goal is to understand what drives them and let them be certain that who you are will fit into their agenda. If what comes out of your mouth brings no value to the people you're speaking to, you'd probably be better off putting your soap-box into storage for a while and wait for a more suitable opportunity to come along once the pageant is over.

Principle #9 – Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.

Don't be fake.

When I was training to be a Dale Carnegie instructor, we would have to coach people and make comments about people's performance with the goal of telling them something constructive about themselves that they didn't already know – every time. That means you really have to look into each individual person, observe them, notice their strengths and bring value to them according to what you observe. Just saying "That was good" or "Great!" would result in us being asked to start again and find something meaningful to say. Just making a comment like "Great" without feeling or thought could backfire and leave the person thinking that you're fake and insincere.

I've been able to take this skill that was developed in Dale Carnegie and use it in every facet of my life. It's good, it works and you continuously grow as a result of doing it as you're always looking to learn from other people.

Building a Sustainable Brand for Yourself

Whether you win the crown or not, the experience of going through something like this shouldn't go to waste. In fact, I can think of many instances where people who didn't get the crown ended up better off in the long run than those that did. Just because you were Miss Universe for a year doesn't mean that you're going to be rich and famous for the rest of your life. People get older and good looks fade. You've had the opportunity to be coached by some of the most successful and amazing people in the business. Work out a strategy that will hone yourself into a successful, sustainable 'brand'. When you get back home, continue to build your brand and bring value to other people. For me personally, this mindset has been what has allowed me to live out my dreams every single day – and not have to wait until I'm retired at 60 years old to start 'enjoying' life.

As my grandfather used to tell me – "Do what you love doing, and people will pay you to do it". Ain't that the truth!

Cracking Thai Fundamentals Video Clips - Stuart Jay Raj’s Thai Vowel Hand-signs

2009-06-18T21:20:00.003+07:00

I’m happy to announce the birth of my newly sprouted home video studio here in Bangkok. To take it for a test ride, I have just posted a 2 episode series covering the core Thai vowels.

Video Clips

About 10 years ago, as part of my Cracking Thai Fundamentals workshop, I developed a series of handsigns that I felt really aided learners of Thai understand the concepts of the Thai vowels, remember their shapes and link them in with the sounds of the vowels themselves.

Over the coming weeks, along with the new logo and branding that you can see in the clips, I will be giving my blog and www.kogneit.com website a facelift. At the moment I’m tossing up between Drupal and Joomla possibilities. The end result will be a portal where all the programmes and topics that I cover – from languages – Thai, Chinese, Indonesian, Spanish, Hindi, Sanskrit, Burmese and any other one I can think of, to mind skills – memory techniques, speed reading, thought decoupling and other topics that come under the heading of my Mnidcraft Programme.

I will have video clips, articles, books and forums about all these topics with the goal of really harnessing the energy of all of you out there who have supported me over the past couple of years, to see if we can start to break new ground in language learning and general usage of our grey matter.

As clips go up – even if they’re covering topics or languages that you haven’t previously been interested in, give them ago. You might tap into something new that will take your life on an entirely new path.

Please send any ideas for clips and articles to me at stujay@hotmail.com. I’ll try as best as I can to deliver!

Enjoy 

Stuart Jay Raj.

Mnidcraft Workshop This Sat 21-Sun 22 Feb 2009 @ Bangkok

2009-02-16T20:10:00.004+07:00

I've just arrived home from traversing the back-alleys of Bangkok stocking up on abacuses, Rubik's cubes and other goodies. I've also been recording new songs, grooves and other funky tunes that we'll be using in this weekend's Mnidcraft workshop. If you're in Bangkok - or you're looking for a good excuse to be in Bangkok this weekend, drop me a line! The venue is beautiful, though has limited seating. I've included the information below. If you think you can attend, drop me an email - stujay@hotmail.com to confirm your spot.

So far, I have people flying in from China, Hong Kong, Japan, as well as a whole bunch of fascinating people that live here in the Kingdom.

If there is enough demand, I might look at running another 2-day workshop the following week.

Look forward to seeing you all there.

Stu.

Mnidcraft by Stuart Jay Raj An Operating System for Your Mind It's time to invest in something that they can't take away from you! No – the spelling is no mistake! – The fact that your brain recognizes the word even though it isn’t spelled the traditional way is testament to what is at the heart of this programme. Duration: 2 days Dates: Sat 21st and Sun 22nd Feb Time: 08:30 – 17:00 each day Location: Fraser Suites – Sukhumvit Soi 11 Contact: stujay@hotmail.com URL: http://stujay.blogspot.com Have you ever wanted to master another language?

Fluent in over 15 languages and having a solid grounding in over 30, polyglot Stuart Jay Raj has delved into what makes him ‘him’ and from his findings has put together his ‘Mnidcraft – The Art of Language’ series. View Clip - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNlNhBGROQI

Mnidcraft empowers anyone with a will to succeed to develop the same aptitude for languages and communication as what Stuart Jay Raj possesses based on powerful NLP modeling principles.

NLP Modeling

NLP modeling is the practice of isolating essential patterns that makes someone successful and duplicating them into others in a way that they are practiced unconsciously. Stuart has carefully designed activities where you will not only learn the secrets that have crafted his aptitude for language, but will also have these skills, habits and knowledge embedded within you, breathing new life into your relationship with language!

More than just the ability to learn languages

Developing an aptitude for language is actually just a side effect of the Mnidcraft series. You will also tap into new abilities:

• Learn techniques to learn and develop native-like fluency in Thai, Chinese, English, Hindi, Arabic, Spanish and other languages • Super Memory • Perfect Pitch • Touch-type in multiple languages including Thai, Sanskrit and Korean • Be ‘funny’ across cultures • Increase self-esteem in yourself and others • Mimic sounds, body language and mannerisms • Build instant rapport with people you’ve just met • Master tones in Tonal Languages including Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese • Solve the Rubik’s Cube through muscle memory • Use an Abacus • Circular Breathing • Learn Morse Code / Sign Language alphabets Simultaneously • Speed Reading • Simultaneous Interpreting • XML and programming fundamentals

Getting Yourself Prepared

To prepare your mind for the workshop, I highly recommend taking a stroll through my blog:

http://stujay.blogspot.com And few several of the video clips available on the side-bar. In particular, the Mnidcraft preview and the Morse / Sign Language ABC clip.

Stuart Jay Raj. stujay@hotmail.com http://stujay.blogspot.com

Those iPhone Developers Might be the Funkiest, Schwaginist Geeks in Cupertino, but they Sure Ain’t No Linguists!

2009-01-11T19:53:00.009+07:00

Dear gods of the cyberverse, please direct this blog-entry through the right routers,feed aggregators, RSS readers … anything it takes so that those great apple developers in the sky can start to get a taste of the multilingual HUMAN world outside of that apparently monoglot paradise of Cupertino.

I've had my iPhone for almost a year now. Someone actually gave me a 3G version, but I was so attached to my original phone that I sold the 3G version and kept the old one. You see apart from liking the metallic feel of it – something that you just can't find with handheld appliances these days, mine has a huge crack across the screen that I've grown rather fond of. (The crack happened when running to escape the Bangkok rain in mid 2008 – when the device slipped out of the slip-proof iPhone belt-holster that I'd purchased a few days earlier).

Why a Polyglot / linguaphile SHOULD own an iPhone

As we learned in Dale Carnegie Instructor training, when delivering bad news, START WITH THE POSITIVE AS A BUFFER! So here goes.

The first week I had my iPhone I wanted to throw the thing out the window. I'm a tinkerer – and not being an Apple person, I found the iPhone not really tinkerer friendly. Luckily within a few days I was lucky to find a team of enthusiastic iPhone hackers that whetted my palate with the possibilities that the iPhone holds for tinkerers. From that moment on, I started to take to the thing.

Podcasts, Language MP3's, Youtube and more

I quickly found many uses for it – it's actually changed my life. From ChinesePod.com to Japanesepod101.com to news podcasts in different languages to morse simulators to Youtube clips, the iPhone is a language learners dream! If you want to know someone, take a look at their iTunes library. I have MP3's and streams in over 40 languages in my iTunes that I sync with my phone which facilitates my learning every waking moment (that I'm not with clients of course … well, even then some)

Now with AV cables, I don't even have to take my computer to many events that I have to speak at / teach at. I can play the Audio / Video files straight out of my iPhone through the sound system / LCD of the seminar venue – and even record Presentations as video files and then use my iPhone as the presentation device rather than PowerPoint.

There are also some great apps out there that developers are creating for learning languages - one that I particularly like is JapaneseFlip (日本語フリップ) by Andre Khromov. Very simple but good looking App that helps you get through your JLPT levels.

3 Steps to Drive a Polyglot to go Insane and Throw their Freaking iPhone off a Cliff!

I can imagine what the project management meetings in the development process were like:

Project Manager: "Now guys, there are gonna be some folks out there that don't speak 'Merican, so we might have to have some way they can talk to each other in their own gobbledygook"

Development Team Underling: "Ahh… yes boss, I'll get on it. Those Chinese folks down on the corner at the restaurant seem nice, maybe they'll be able to help me get some of their lingo into this thing."

Project Manager: "Great idea! Just make sure you don't make it too easy for 'em. We don't wanna encourage too much of 'their language'… in the long run, better to have 'em speaking 'Merican like the rest of the world! We have those great 'Merican language modules that we use in our Mac OS's … just throw one of those under the hood and it should do the trick"

Development Team Underling: "Umm .. boss… what about people who want to communicate in more than one language at once?"

Project Manager: "Yeah right!" (sarcastically)

Development Team Underling: "Okie Dokie boss – consider it done!"

And so the iPhone language development team was born.

3 Areas of iPhone Linguistic Insanity

Language Input
Predictive Text
Fonts

Language Input

Well, I have to hand it to the team. For the first models, there was only a handful of roman scripted languages that were catered for. Later firmware versions introduced more languages. I wish these US developers would realise that even in the US, you will have people using their devices who speak a whole array of languages. You don't need to release a phone in Thailand, Japan or China to warrant having Thai and Japanese input options. Give the options on installation / updating of the firmware as to what languages should be included – that way you don't eat up memory with unnecessary stuff and everyone is happy.

The way you switch languages is really cumbersome too! In a typical message sent out of my phone, I could have any combination of Thai, Chinese, Japanese, English, Indonesian, Spanish and Nordic languages being used. I just had a look through some of my SMS's and some of them use up to 4 languages in a given message.

Could I suggest a language selection button that will iterate if tapped normally through the input language list similar to the buttons that already open up to display additional characters when held. Rather than a straight tab of letters though, if held it would open up something like a daisy-wheel so you can slide your finger directly to the target language selection – when you release your finger, it's in that language input mode.

That way, if there are only 2 input keyboards running, you can do 1-tap iteration, otherwise people with more than 2 keyboards can also quickly switch between them without iterating through ALL OF THEM … often resulting in the thing hanging and then crashing. At the moment I have 8 keyboards active. So if I change to a language and back to English, a minimum of 9 clicks is needed. Not only that, because you're typing as fast as you can, you often get 'click happy' and iterate past the English keyboard and have to go through them all again. It's a bit 'Ground hog day'ish' guys!

Input Keyboard Layout

I understand that screen real-estate is scarce, but some of the excuses I've seen for Thai keyboards are appalling. Given, I don't think that most of the ones that I've been using have been developed by Apple themselves – most of them 3^rd party apps from Eastern Europe, the developers were probably just concerned about getting so many letters into such a small space and knew nothing about typing habits of native speakers of those languages, common letters vs. uncommon letters etc.

Predictive Text

With the original firmware, there was a function in there that allowed you to turn the predictive text off. Since version 2.0, I'll be darned if I can find it anymore!??

Even for monoglots of English, people don't communicate in standard English. There have been papers after papers on the language of messaging, sms language, email English etc.

Here's an example in English:

Desired text:

Ud bttr c if ur gf's up to it, coz ur gona get it otherwise.

If I type that into my iPhone without going back each time and correcting it here's the result:

I'd byte CID ye FFA up to it, cox HR Bina get it otherwise

The funny thing… each time I tried to backspace and fix things up, things progressively changed and got worse (even more changes to what you see above!)

I don't know what these guys could have been thinking. We don't send text messages to be grammatically correct! We send them for efficiency. Not only that, the shorthand used communicates a multitude of emotions, relationships and other 'meta meanings'.

Indonesian Texting

I think Indonesians would have to be right up there with the Filipinos as the number one texters on the planet! Someone could be driving down the freeway at 130kmh, swerving between the cars and still get out an epic text message in a few seconds flat.

As with many other languages, SMS language in Indonesia is a language of its own.

As a linguist, it's fascinating to analyse what's going on. Normal language takes on almost semitic language principles – where words retract into fundamental vowel deprived roots, then inflated with different amended affixes as needed.

Here's another call out to the developers…

INDONESIANS USE THE ROMAN ALPHABET TO TYPE BAHASA INDONESIA…. So there's no need to change a keyboard. The English keyboard would do just fine if there wasn't any freakin' predictive text there to botch it all up!

Not only do Indonesian's use the Roman alphabet, many of them can speak languages other than Indonesian!... so in a given message, you might have Bahasa Indonesia, Sundanese, Javanese, Mandarin, Hakka and English!

But let's get back to Indonesian SMS'ing. Here's a sample sentence:

SMS Bahasa Indonesia	Luh !... lg ngapain skrg? Skr aq lg ngopi2 ama tmn. Mo bareng2 ama kt gak?
SMS on iPhone after Predictive Text interferes	Lun ! of ngapain sir ? sir aa of NGO 2 AMA Tbk . Mo naren 2 AMA it Tak?
Colloquial Bahasa Indonesia (of original message)	Elu! Lagi ngapain sekarang? Sekarang aku lagi ngopi-ngopi sama teman. Mau bareng-bareng sama kita enggak?
Standard Bahasa Indonesia (of original message)	Hai! Sedang apa sekarang? Sekarang saya sedang duduk-duduk minum kopi dengan teman saya. Apakah anda ingin berjalan-jalan dengan kami?
English (with poetic license)	Hey dog! What'cha up to? I'm sitting here chillin' (over coffee) with a couple of friends. You wanna come out with us?

Thai and other languages

This applies to ALL languages. Sometimes depending on someone's phone and language upbringing, Thais might send a message in Thai – or write their version of Thai using the Roman alphabet. There is no standard to the spelling used, so developing a dictionary would be useless. Each person has their own 'flavour'.

It gets worse, the predictive text started to think it would be smart by 'learning' Thai letter order patterns. Well it thought it did… it applied 'English' logic to Thai and the results were terrible. Vowels and consonants were all swapped around to make the language look totally alien.

Other notes on Input Languages

The technology is out there guys… so how bout it…add a few languages into the iPhone official 'flock' – Arabic, Thai, Hindi / Devanagari, Tamil and other scripts that although they might be a little foreign to Cupertino, there are still billions of people outside of that 'hood' that use the languages.

Fonts

My last note is on Fonts.

On my Window's system, I love the MS Arial Unicode font – although it lacks some scripts like Burmese, Khmer, Tibeten and several others, it is fantastic in that the point size for Thai, Chinese, Arabic and Latin are all the same. I can even call a whole range of IPA characters up and they'll display on any page.

The iPhone's font mapping is bizarre with languages like Arabic. Arabic is a complex class script where the letters' forms will change depending on where they are in the word, with diacritics above and below the letters. For some reason, when reading pages on the web in Arabic / Urdu / Farsi etc, only the initial position letter forms are used. This again, makes the language look extremely bizarre. While it's possible to make out what the words are (kinda) it's very cumbersome and not in line with that slick 'Apple' image that I could imagine that you guys would be trying to shoot for.

APPLE EXECUTIVES TAKE NOTE

You are about to launch the iPhone here in Thailand legally. I'm not sure what you're doing in the way of your 'official' Thai input option, but if I were you, I'd seriously consider giving the Thai language issues an overhaul.

I'm happy to hire my consulting services out to you to make sure you don't piss the SE Asian texting community off any more than they already are.

Actually – I've changed my mind … hire me and we can sit down over a coffee in Cupertino and give the WHOLE FREAKIN' LANGUAGE thing an overhaul.

I've walked into Apple stores all over the world over the past couple of years and challenged the salespeople to convert me to a Mac user. I need a system that will allow me to use all the languages I use with ease – Microsoft actually got the whole predictive text thing right with Mandarin and Windows leaves Mac's OS in the dust when it comes to speed of typing up a Chinese document.

Both Apple and Windows do a dismal job in allowing us to type in Cantonese and other Chinese languages / dialects. I'm honestly surprised that one of the over a BILLION speakers of non-Mandarin Chinese languages hasn't mentioned it to you before.

CONVERT ME! MAKE ME A DISCIPLE! No one has been able to do it yet - and I still sit here with my PC - Linux and Windows.

Jazz Lessons on Language - Improvisation 101 - Stuart Jay Raj’s Indic Script Compass

2009-01-02T11:44:00.033+07:00

Find Your Way Around Indic Based Writing Systems (Devanagari, Tamil, Panjabi (Gurmukhi), Burmese, Bahasa Bali (Balinese), Bahasa Jawa (Javanese), Thai and Khmer (Cambodian) Without a GPS

Download Full A3 Size Chart Here

Theme and Variation

The reason I love playing and listening to jazz so much is because you're able to get into the soul of the players by hearing how they improvise on a theme. Language is not that much different.

I've noticed what could be described as almost an unquestioning deific reverence and fear paid to the writing systems of Indic language systems by their users (and learners of them). Whether it's the Devanagari script used to write amongst other languages, Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi and Nepali, or the scripts of other languages in India and surrounding countries like Panjabi, Tamil, Telugu or as far down as Southeast Asia including Thai, Lao, Burmese, Khmer (Cambodian), Balinese orJavanese, when you start to scratch the surface of the origins, grammar or even just the reasoning of certain things that would seem strange to outsiders, the eyes of your average Joe who's spoken one of those languages since birth will tend to glaze over. (Now THAT was a long sentence!)

That's the Problem with Turtles… It really shouldn't be that way!

Those Indians were pretty cluey back in the day. They developed an alphabet thousands of years ago that was a virtual GPS for the human mouth!

Just like the theme and variation in Jazz, all the languages that I've mentioned above (and many more) have used this basic map as their base - a reference guide and then coloured it with the sound filters of their own respective languages.

To draw an analogy from English, take a common sentence that we use every day like:

'That's the problem with turtles'

This is the 'base' or 'theme'. A variation might have those same letters read as:

'Dat's da pwoblem wif toitles' …

For many, the whole concept that 'Dat's' had come from 'That's' was never explained, leaving not only learners, but also native speakers of the language in a haze as to 'why' certain things are about the language and just accepting that it's something beyond the comprehension of mere mortals.

Part of my Mnidcraft course is to get a good grounding in the principles of Indic based scripts and develop some level of proficiency in identifying several the scripts including Devanagari, Thai, Khmer and Burmese.

I developed my 'Indic Consonant Glyphs' and the 'Stuart Jay Raj's Indic Script Consonant Compass' as a tool to accelerate the acquisition / learning of scripts based on the Indic sound system themes and variations.

Don't Count The Letters!

I'll often hear people measuring the complexity of a language by the number of letters in its alphabet. This to me is absurd as the practice of judging a presentation's quality by its PowerPoint slide count! (Another pet hate of mine… which led me to designing my 'Present!' presentations workshop who's subtitle is 'Bringing Presentations Back to The Presenter').

It's this body count (or in this case consonants + vowel count) that has turned many a learner off from learning languages like Thai, Sanskrit, Khmer and Burmese.

What Language Would You Prefer to Learn?

Here's the blurb….

Wadafrackizet

Soowizy

Welcome to your first day of learning Wadafrackizet!

Our language only has 18 letters in its alphabet, but they're used to write a total of 90 different sounds give or take a few.

The order of the alphabet has no specific logic to it, nor do the shapes of the letters really mean anything.

Not only that!... Wadafrackizet has an extremely comprehensive set of rules that you must follow.

Well, the general rule of thumb is that you follow those rules with the exception of the times that you don't follow them – which happens quite often.

The joy of learning Wadafrackizet is finding out just when those times are that the rules aren't applied by yourself.

Welcome to your first day of learning Soowizy!

Soowizy's writing system follows an ingeniously simple line of logic that plots each letter in a systematic fashion to key points of the mouth, one syllable at a time.

This way, you don't even really need to remember an 'alphabetical order' so to speak. Where the letter comes from in your mouth is where it lies in the alphabet.

Not only that, many of the letters actually 'look' the way they 'sound'!

The good news is that once you've learned this very simple system based on only 5 points of the mouth , you can tweak it here and there enabling you to learn over 50 other languages that work on the same operating system!

I don't know about you, but I don't think I'd be lining up to learn Wadafrackizet! (Ok, I admit it – I probably would)… but honestly, Soowizy sounds just so … EASY!

The Cardinal Points of the Mouth

As you read through the brief explanation to each of the following glyphs, place your tongue / mouth in the position and hold it there. Once you can do it for each glyph, move your gaze from one glyph to another at random and practice locking your mouth into the correct position according to the glyph that you're looking at.

Drilling yourself for about 2 minutes like this should be enough to start to develop some long lasting muscle memory.


Gutteral	Palatal	Cerebral	Dental	Labial
Back of the throat	Flattened Tongue on the Roof of the Mouth (Palate)	Rolled Back (Retroflex) Tongue on the Roof of the Mouth	Tongue on Teeth	Lips

대한민국! (Dae Han Min Kuk!)

Now, I know the Korean speakers out there must be thinking "Hmmm… some these symbols seem eerily familiar!".

Koreans are very proud of their writing system 'Han Geul' – 한 글 .. . and so they should be. Developed by King Sejong the Great (1418-1450) in 1444, it is one of the easiest scripts to learn on the planet! (I learned it on a bus ride across Seoul one sunny afternoon in 1996J ).

To add value to learning the Korean alphabet, I suggest spending an extra 10 minutes to learn how to touch type in Korean also. The keys are very logically set out between:

Left hand: Consonants
Right hand: Vowels

Each syllable in Han Geul is broken into a beginning (initial) sound, vowel and final sound component (if necessary). The symbols used to represent each of the sounds were based on the various parts of the mouth from which they were produced.

Korea Meets India

I have combined this principle with the basic principle of the Indic Scripts 'Map of the Mouth' logic to develop my own symbols.

It's interesting to note that the sound for 'r' / 'l' in Korean is uncannily similar to many of the symbols used to represent these same sounds in Indic (Brahmi) based scripts that display a 'rolling tongue' in one rendering or another. When I'm learning a new Indic script, this is actually one of the first memory points I will look for – I will peg the similarity or difference of its 'r' sound to the ones that I already know. I can't include all the samples in this text based medium as the fonts probably won't render properly on your computer. You can see them on the main 'Indic Consonant Compass' chart though.

Another shape that is very similar include the 'base voice' symbol which in many scripts is a circular shape of some sort.

The 'y' symbol which in Korean is normally 'two prongs' heading in the vowel direction. In the Indic scripts, the 'y' sound is usual a 2 or 3 pronged shape which I imagine is a representation of the way the tongue interacts with the palate.

Here is a sample:

Comparison of Similar Sound Shapes in Korean, Devanagari, Thai, Tamil and Gurmukhi (Panjabi)

Sound	Korean	Devanagari	Thai	Tamil	Gurmukhi
r	ㄹ	र	ร	ர	ਰ
ya	야	य	ย	ய	ਯ

The Key Actions of the Mouth


Stopped Throat	Aspirated	Voiced	Voiced Aspirated	Nasal
Consonant Starts with the Throat Closed	Throat opens and puffs air or a 'h' sound over the consonant. In some languages, the 'h' isn't as accented as others	Voice Resonates Over the Consonant	Voice Resonates Over the Consonant AND puffs air over the consonant (which opens the throat)	Sound is Directed Through the Nose

Semi Vowel	Sibilant	'H' Aspirate	Voice Base
Not Quite a Consonant Not Quite a Vowel – Letters in this category are 'fluid' versions where 'full contanct' isn't really made with the 'cardinal point'. Think of it in English – is 'y' REALLY a consonant? (despite what your teachers told you)... or is it a vowel?	'S' Hissing Sound	'H' Sound Open Throat	Root Symbol that Signifies the Voicebox

Colour Coding

I have also colour coded each category within the sound system to give a colourful representation of the textual glyph. There are 5 base colours that correspond to each of the 5 cardinal points of the mouth (see above).

When comparing the sound shifts from the original base letter to the target language letter, you can either follow the 'glyph' transliterations in the octagon adjacent the target letter, or just look at the colour changes. Getting a visual and emotional representation of these sound shifts through colour is another device that I find really useful in 'embedding' the language within me.

Ready to Go!

"Stuart Jay Raj's Indic Script Consonant Compass v1.0 – Southeast Asian Version"

There were so many languages to choose from. I broke this chart down to 8 scripts that I think would cover a good portion of the globe. The languages / scripts with my reasoning for choosing them are:

Language	Reason
Devanagari	Devanagari is used to write a slew of Indic languages including Hindi, Marathi, Nepali and has also become the standard that Sanskrit is rendered in – although Sanskrit writings can commonly be found in local scripts like Tamil, Sinhalese, Burmese, Thai, Khmer, Balinese etc. Given Devanagari's popularity and the fact that it has letters to represent each of the base sounds, I chose it as the base script.
Tamil	Tamil is not only popular in India, Sri Lanka and other surrounding countries, but it is also very widely spoken in Singapore and Malaysia (even reaching official language status in Singapore) Given that I am in Southeast Asia, I wanted to develop this chart in particular to help as bigger cross section of the SE Asian community as possible. I think it would be great if this chart could spur people living in countries where Tamil is prevalent to have a go at learning the script. It will open up a whole new world around them. Another reason that I chose Tamil is that it is from the Dravdian stream of languages – and is indeed a very ancient script. You will notice that it's different from the other scripts in the chart in that there are very few base letters. The natural rules that govern how sounds change when preceding / followed by another letter will 'colour' the letter to give it different sounds – Sandhi. – E.g. in English – 'What did you do' is pronounced 'wo dije du' (very rough transliteration without IPA fonts!) Tamil is the 'What did you do' version where the others are more the 'wo dije du' versions.
Panjabi	This is the Gurmukhi script used to write Panjabi. There are many Panjabi speakers all over Southeast Asia, so I thought it would be nice to include this script. In Thailand, there are many Thai born Indians that speak Panjabi at home, but cannot read the Gurmukhi script. Now with this comparison chart, I hope that the links to Thai can be made and again, spur some people that otherwise wouldn't onto learning the script … which will in turn open a new world up in the area of literature, religion, culture and getting in the good-books with Grandma and Grandpa!
Burmese	Another SE Asian Language. There are fascinating things that happen phonetically with Burmese. I have really been getting into learning Burmese lately and am loving every minute of it. The script is very easy to learn once you have one of the other scripts down – and understanding what's going on phonetically vs. script will go a long way to help you start to get the language 'into your body'. There are also many Burmese in Thailand that cannot read or write Thai. Given the right guidance, it shouldn't take more than a few hours for Burmese who have lived in Thailand for any amount of time to start to link the Burmese and Thai Scripts together and open their eyes up to even more of the world around them.
Balinese	Balinese is a beautiful script… not that the others aren't! Sadly, it's a dying art in Indonesia. While 'Bahasa Daerah' – regional languages are taught in Primary school, I have found very small percentage of people that are really proficient at reading and writing Balinese. Hopefully this will help a resurgence J Another reason that I've included both Balinese and Javanese is so that Balinese and Javanese speakers can see the similarities in the scripts! In my humble opinion, the two scripts are basically different fonts of the same script. While Balinese is very fluid and has more of an 'ancient free' feel, Javanese is more 'boxy' and looks more suitable for machine printed media.
Javanese	I love Javanese – and part of the language of course is the script. Apart from that, I have pretty much the same reasoning for including Javanese as I did Balinese.
Thai	After having taught Thai for many years, the Script still takes the number one position for learners' 'obstacles in learning Thai'. I have put this together as one more aid for demystifying the script and in doing so, helping learners of Thai get over a big hurdle. I wrote a post a couple of years ago that was a Fast-track guide for Indians to Learn Thai. This chart could be thought of as an upgrade to that to Indians living, working or looking at coming to Thailand. Once you get this structure down in you subconscious, tone rules will become second nature!... it's built into the system!
Khmer	Being a neighbour to Thailand, much of Thailand's language, culture and customs have flowed from similar streams as Cambodia. Just take a look at any temple in Thailand, or on the roof of most Taxis driving around Bangkok, you'll often see Sanskrit and Pali writings in the Mon / Khmer script. Despite this, very few Thais can read the script. Just like the tone rules for Thai are part and parcel of this 5x5 structure, so too are the 'consonant classes' of Cambodian. Where the Mid and High classes for Thai are the first and second rows + the 'h', sibilants and base throat, the Cambodian 'oo' and 'oa' classes are broken down almost identically. This is my little effort in 'bridging the gap' :)

Download "Stuart Jay Raj's Indic Script Consonant Compass v1.0 – Southeast Asian Version"

As my New Years gift to you for 2009, rather than giving you a cruddy jpg or bmp version (like you see above) and waiting for you to come to my Mnidcraft workshop to receive a full high resolution version, I have included a PDF version of my "Indic Script Consonant Compass – v1.0 – Southeast Asian Version". I have created it using vector graphics, embedding the fonts where possible and expanding any other fonts that could not be embedded. What this means is that you are free to print out the chart to enormous sizes and stick it all over your home, office, toilet and any other place you see fit. Getting one or more of these scripts under your belt is an investment that you won't regret.

Just the Consonants Ma'am

Remember, these are only the consonsants... and admittedly, there are a couple of rare consonants in each script that I haven't included on the chart as it would in my opinion add unnecessary complexity to learning the scripts. There is also some funky stuff happening with the Tamil that I'm working at ironing out in future versions. If there are any Tamil experts out there, drop me a line!

You will also notice that I haven't touched on vowels. … stay tuned… that will come in a later installment.

I also have some surprises planned for this whole 'Indic' kick that I'm on. If time permits, I'm sure that you will see the bizarre fruits that my brain has borne in the near future.

Good Luck!

Stuart Jay Raj – Subconsciously Embedding Morse Code, Sign Language Alphabet and most Importantly … how to GROOVE!

2008-12-11T10:54:00.005+07:00

It's a fantastic day in Siam today … why? I'm not quite sure yet, but I'm really enjoying it so far for some reason!!

Before you read any further, check out my latest clip that I've just thrown together. It will form the base of this blog entry.

Where Jazz, Language and Ciphers Meet

Playing for years in my Jazz Trio – "The ROL Trio" with Dale Lee and Kenro Oshidari, we would often experiment with new ideas for soloing and communication when we played together. Kenro is a master of telling a story on his double bass, and Dale likewise. I used to try and take that 'communication' concept to a new level. I would often incorporate into my piano solos, messages in Morse code.

This must have been rumbling in my subconscious a few weeks ago when I dreamed of teaching perfect pitch, relative pitch, how to swing, Morse Code and Sign Language in one big strategic globule!

Words were running through my head. I wrote down several versions and after a little thought decided on what you see in the clips for various reasons.

Lyrics

Mnemonic	Letter	Morse Code
Apple	A	.-
Bees in a Hive	B	-...
Cotton Candy	C	-.-.
Dog's Behind?!	D	-..
Egg!	E	.

Fifty Fat Frogs	F	..-.
Go Go Girl	G	--.
Helicopter	H	....
Ice Cream	I	..

Japan in June	J	.---
Kangaroo	K	-.-
LaBOrat'ry	L	.-..
Mermaid	M	--
Navy	N	-.

Oreos	O	---
Potato Chips	P	.--.
Queue in a Line!	Q	--.-

Revival	R	.-.
Sausages	S	...
Tea	T	-

Unity	U	..-

Victory 'V'	V	...-
Wasabe	W	.--
X-Ray Machine	X	-..-
Yankee Doodle	Y	-.--
Zebra Crossing	Z	--..

Here are some of the concepts that went into the mix when putting this together:

Language / Learning / Mind / NLP
- Simultaneous Language Acquisition
- Using Humour and Emotion in Learning
- Guiding the Eyes / Utilising Peripheral Vision
- Subconscious / Unconscious Programming
- Hearing a new language or 'Morse' as 'Sound Blocks' – not text strings
- Use of Colour in Learning and Memory
- Learning Things Without Even Knowing We've Learned Them
Music
- Perfect Pitch
- Relative Pitch
- Rhythm – the power of 120 beats per minute
- Pedal Notes – makes the note easier to recall through repetition
- Pedal Notes – Help change the brainwave state

Language / Learning / Mind / NLP

Simultaneous Language Acquisition

I'm a strong advocate of Simultaneous Language Acquisition. I've found that any time I learn more than one language at the same time, there are synergies that happen that wouldn't have otherwise occurred.

In this clip, I chose two 'candidates' for our lab rats – Morse Code and the American Sign Language (ASL) Finger Spelling Alphabet. They are easy because they have a common link – the Alphabet. I admit that in other languages there are other letters and some of the images that I have used (e.g. Oreos) may not be relevant in some countries / cultures. I always have a problem when trying to make something 'universally applicable', as when you start to get broader with mnemonics, links etc, the 'emotional' potency is sometimes lost that would normally be there from things that have strong emotional value in one's own culture. I would recommend to people who find that some of the words might not sit well with them, to change them.

Some examples of this might be the word 'Laboratory' for 'L'. Some people say 'LABratry', some say 'LaBOratory' and then some say (as I've used in the clip) LaBOratry.

Some people might have an aversion to embedding 'Yankee Doodle' into your psyche too. That's just personal choice I guess J … I fully understand if you'd like to change it to something else.

Humour, Emotion and Learning

I've tried to tap into the 'emotional' realm of things on a number of levels here.

120 bpm

The first thing that I did intentionally was to choose 120 beats per minute. This rhythm sets our brainwaves into a state ideal for 'learning'.

Imagery

I've chosen to use a sparse plain white background. This enhances the images and colours used. I put several filters on myself to try and make the picture look a little more surreal. I didn't want to appear as a 'human teacher' in the video. Just a memory aid that dueled with the pictures opposite.

You can see a similar intentional use of 'space' in training programmes like the Landmark Forum. Many people either love or hate the forum. I will reserve the right to not express my opinions on their philosophies, but they definitely understand how to use space, colour and repetition to have a subconscious impact.

I have tried to choose images that evoke emotions. In some cases I have also tried to choose words that look like the hand-signs. Often these emotions are reinforced by my facial expressions. Some examples are:

A Apple Looks like an Apple

D Dog's Behind – humourous picture / concept. My facial expression reinforces it and the index finger in the sign is reinforced by the dog's tail caught by peripheral vision in the image of the 'dog's behind'

E EGG! – The beat that the word 'egg' comes in on is an off-beat – chosen to represent a 'splatting egg'. The image chosen reinforces it.

K Kangaroo – the Sign already looks like a 'K' and I bounce my fingers slightly to trigger the thought of a Kangaroo

V Victory 'V' – This is a very powerful image the world over. I've abused THREE meanings of this sign. First – the letter 'V' which is the learning target. I've chosen the words 'Victory V' as the Morse peg, and to reinforce the meaning of 'Peace' to keep re-occurring each time the 'Peace' riff comes up.

Y Yankee Doodle – This image is filled with different meanings for different people – depending on what part of the world you're from and what era you're from. I've tried to have a similar expression on my face as Uncle Sam.

Z Zebra Crossing. Rather than using a shot of an actually Zebra Crossing, I finally decided on stark graphic black and white stripes as a cue in peripheral vision.

Subconscious / Unconscious Programming

My kids were singing the song this morning in the car on the way to school. They were sitting in there when I was knocking the tune out on the piano from the beginning, and so now know all the rhythms and melodies.

This morning, I was listening to my daily morse code bulletin and my 4 year old daughter could pick out many of the letters that she heard and referenced the melody and letter that the different letters appeared in my clip. I was very happy – as this was one of my intentions! – To help people to learn without realizing that they're learning.

There are many other devices that I use to do this too. From the Spinning Peace Sign with a riff that is actually 'Peace' in Morse code, to flashing text 'Groove' and strong command words with black text on a white screen –

"Sing the Words to the Tune" (note use of capitals to stress key words)

"Copy my Hand" (not hands plural – subconsciously want to look again to make sure it's right)

"And GROOVE" – (Groove in capitals and flashing)

These all help access the subconscious and the unconscious.

Flicker Rates

There has been extensive research into flicker rates – and how TV actually flashes at a rate that can put us into an altered state. This can be (and no doubt has been)abused by people who manage the medium. It is a fascinating subject though. If you are interested, you might want to start your research here.

Not a Word is Heard

You will notice that you don't HEAR me say a word. I mouth the words, but my voice is essentially the music. I want listeners to be able to hear their own voice in their heads… or even better, to be able to link the concepts together with the rhythm etc without hearing ANY voice. This is a great skill to prepare people for simultaneous interpreting.

Hearing Sound Blocks rather than Text Strings

I've done this in many places. Actually – the whole song! One thing that I hear from experienced teachers of Morse Code is that they struggle to get students to not think of the textual dots and dashes and rather have them starting to hear 'sound blocks'. I would say the same for learning a new language – rather than learning just grammatical structures and spelling, we need to learn to hear the way the meanings are locked into different sound blocks – not just individual words.

Some examples of this in the clip are:

"Prepare for Transmission" – The international Morse is QRV : --.- .-. ...-

"PEACE" :.--. . .- -.-. . (I've intentionally rotated the Peace sign – with the intention that the eyes will follow the bottom 'stokes' in the circle as it spins and take the viewers attention of the text that comes up on the left. It still enters the subconscious, but the main focus is to think of 'Peace' via the symbol accompanied by the organ riff – which is spelling 'Peace'.

"LOVE": .-.. --- ...- .

"End of Message" -The international Morse is AR: .- .-.

Music

To briefly touch on the music specific aspects of the clip.

120 bpm

I already mentioned the use of 120bpm. It's a great thing for a musician to know how to play at a certain bpm on call. 120 is a good standard.

Pedal Note (Holding / repetition of one note)

Even from the 'Mnidcraft' intro before the main clip, you can hear that I have a 'C' pedal note in the background going. 'C' is a good central note to peg oneself when learning to develop perfect pitch. The whole song is in the Key of C, and I utilize certain intervals at different points within the Ionian and blues scales based on C.

The pedal note also helps change brainwave patterns

I've also used this concept on certain key letters like 'Queue in a Line' and 'Zebra Crossing'. These work as anchors. The 'Q' also words as a great point for people looking to develop perfect pitch – you know that that is a 'G' – and it's also a 5^th interval from the root note C – which to resolve would be a perfect cadence.

Beethoven's 5^th

Two great techniques for learning to recognize a minor 3^rd interval is to hum the first 4 notes of Beethoven's 5^th Symphony "DAH DAH DAH DAH!!!!!"…. Beethoven's 5^th is actually in Cmin. It just so happens that 'V' – is the same rhythm… which is very dramatic and so can easily link in with the concept of "Victory V".

It just so happens of course that 'V' is '5' in Roman Numerals... so linking it into Beethoven's Vth is also another reinforcement.

Another tune to get this interval is to hum the first 3 notes of the Lullaby song 'LullaBY' – that is also a minor 3^rd.

What's Next?

This clip is actually part of my Mnidcraft programme. In just a couple of minutes, the clip is able to touch on many of the topics that are close to my heart – and really want to be able to share with other people. These are the things that I believe have led me to have such a good relationship with languages.

If you'd like to run a programme in your neck of the woods, drop me a line / email. I'd love to see how I can adapt it all to work across different languages and cultures.

If you haven't done so already, I've created a Mnidcraft group in Facebook. Go on in and join the group. I will keep you up to date with latest news, materials and events. It also serves as a great meeting point for people who love languages, communication and using their minds!

Mnidcraft - The Art of Language Video ... "Change Your Mind!"

2008-11-24T19:44:00.007+07:00

It's both a very happy and sad day here in Bangkok. Sad, because not in a long time have people been so politically polarized ... to the point that today people are baying for blood from both sides of the spectrum.

Now the GOOD news.... I've just finished my latest video edition and posted it up to Youtube. This is the first covering my 'Mnidcraft' series. The first series will be starting on the 2nd of Dec, 2008 in Bangkok. If you're in town, come along!

Facebook Mnidcraft Group Up and Running!

The response to the 'Mnidcraft' Facebook group that I've created is fantastic. Within the first day or so there were over 120 members and counting.

If You Would Like To Attend An Event ...

As sessions get scheduled, I will mark them on there as 'Events' so people can register. Once you click 'accept', you will be contacted to let you know what / how you need to prepare and answer any questions you might have.

RadioBangkok.Net - Sponsorship and Podcasts

Thanks to Bill Hammerton and RadioBangkok.Net, I've been able to increase the audience that the message is getting out to. An added bonus is that thanks to Bill's great networking skills, we have great sponsors like Fraser Suites (Thanks Jacqui) Suk. 11 to help with the Training Facility... though if numbers start to go North, I think we might even have to look at up-sizing future venues.

I've set up an email with RadioBangkok.net that you can make enquiries on - language@radiobangkok.net. Otherwise, my usual 'public' email address still works - stujay@hotmail.com.

Show me the Video Already!

So here it is! ... btw.. if you are a facebook member, I have uploaded a copy of this to the Mnidcraft Group and the resolution looks a whole lot better! Here's the Youtube version.

Taking it On The Road

As I mentioned in the Video, I'm looking forward to taking this programme on the road. I'm excited to see the chemistry that a programme like this has with all different profiles in the community - Adults, Business-people, University Students, Children, Migrants and anyone else willing to "Change Their Mind"!.

Mnidcraft by Stuart Jay Raj - The Art of Language

2008-11-18T17:13:00.011+07:00

The Art of Language

“We are wired to learn languages! …- That’s what I was told from childhood, that’s what I believed and that’s what I’ve become.”

This is an exciting week for me! ... and NO I didn't make a spelling mistake... and NO your eyes aren't playing tricks on you :) ...well... maybe they are. The word 'Mindcraft' has been used and registered by many other companies before, but I felt it best sums up what I'm doing. Writing it like 'Mnidcraft' both gets people's attention and in its essence, sums up what this new programme is all about - Who you are, what you see etc. is only what your mind makes of it!... interested? Then read on!...

Over the past few months, I've been doing quite a lot of introspection. I often refer to the emails that I receive in my blog-posts. People are wanting to know 'what's the best way to learn a language?', 'how should I start learning a language?', 'how do I get motivated to learn???'.

But it's the comments like 'Well, it's easy and natural for you to learn languages, but how should your average Joe Blow go about it?' that really got me thinking.

I have worked as a trainer / facilitator for the past ten years or so. When I train, I incorporate many principles of NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) into what I do. Many of the techniques that my grandfather had used with me in retrospect really resemble many of the popular techniques employed by NLP practitioners today.

Based on NLP modelling principles, I have put together a programme that has me really pumped. Instead of just suggesting to people the best ways to learn languages, get motivated about languages, prepare themselves for learning languages, techniques for memorizing vocab, kanji, grammar etc. I have put together a programme that embeds all the fundamental HABITS and KNOWLEDGE that make up STUART JAY RAJ through face to face contact and activities that range from learning to recalibrate your hands and touch-type in foreign scripts to identifying languages and accents - even of languages that you don't speak. We'll be decoupling our mind from our bodies through exercises with Rubik's Cubes, the Abacus, musical instruments, learning speed reading techniques, developing cognitive fluency without using words based on exercises taken from simultaneous interpreting training, learn now to be 'funny' in different languages / cultures, how to gain acceptance and render 'who we are' in palatable forms in our target language's culture, hone subconscious assessment skills that allow us to analyse people based on the way they talk, how they dress, how they sit, who they talk to, learn fundamental principles of language including phonetics, IPA, tonal languages, Indic languages and even a touch of computer languages!.

I will be running the workshops in conjunction with RadioBangkok.Net - there will be podcasts available via Radiobangkok (and of course fed through this blogsite as well (http://stujay.blogspot.com) that support what's learned in the sessions.

Facebook Mnidcraft Group

I have also started a group in Facebook for participants / anyone else interested in the programme wanting to network with like-minded people. We can use it as a place to exchange ideas, experiences, files etc.

Should everything go well with the first few runs of the series here in Thailand, I will look at taking it on the road in the second quarter of 2009.

So without any further ado, for my blog viewers, here's the official 'blurb' that will be going out about the programme. It might well change a little between now and when I run the first series in Bangkok in December - but you will get the general idea!

Mnidcraft - The Art of Language

“We are wired to learn languages! …- That’s what I was told from childhood, that’s what I believed and that’s what I’ve become.”

Now having fluency in over 15 languages and a solid grounding in over 30, polyglot Stuart Jay Raj has delved into what makes him ‘him’ and from his findings has put together his ‘Mnidcraft – The Art of Language’ series.

Mnidcraft empowers anyone with a will to succeed to develop the same aptitude for languages and communication as what Stuart Jay Raj possesses based on powerful NLP modeling principles.

NLP Modeling

NLP modeling is the practice of isolating essential patterns that makes someone successful and duplicating them into others in a way that they are practiced unconsciously.

Stuart has carefully designed activities where you will not only learn the secrets that have crafted his aptitude for language, but will also have these skills, habits and knowledge embedded within you, breathing new life into your relationship with language.

7 Drivers of Mnidcraft

The 7 Drivers of Mnidcraft are:

Memory / Mind Capacity Building
Social Awareness
Relationships / Rapport
Motivation / Attitude
Language Fundamentals
Hard Skills
Hard Knowledge

More than just the ability to learn languages

Developing an aptitude for language is actually just a side effect of the Mnidcraft series. You will also develop new skills including:

Super Memory
Perfect Pitch
Touch-type in multiple languages including Thai, Sanskrit and Korean
Be ‘funny’ across cultures
Increase self-esteem in yourself and others
Mimic sounds, body language and mannerisms
Build instant rapport with people you’ve just met
Master tones in Tonal Languages including Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese
Solve the Rubik’s Cube
Use an Abacus
Circular Breathing
Morse Code / Sign Language alphabets
Speed Reading
Simultaneous Interpreting
XML and programming fundamentals

Schedule

The initial series will be run as 4 x half day sessions. Each session can be attended as a stand alone session, but of course the full impact will come as a result of following the whole programme and becoming part of the online community

Coming to a city near you

Like I mentioned above, I'm really excited about this programme. I can see how it's going to help people regardless of their linguistic or academic background. Not only will it get participants motivated about language, but also music, math, I.T., problem solving, networking, business, public speaking and possibly even stand-up comedy!

If you're not in Thailand and you'd like this run in your city / school / university etc., drop me a line and I'll see what we can do :)

That's all for now - no doubt I'll keep you posted as to the results of the series in the coming months.

Turning a Love for Language into a Career - Stuart Jay Raj's Response to a Letter from a Frustrated Polyglot

2008-10-24T15:18:00.005+07:00

I just received a letter from another Polyglot that I had come into contact by a fantastic language learning site out there - how-to-learn-any-language.com . After asking his permission, I've pasted the letter and my response here in the hope that it might be of assistance to other frustrated language lovers. Original Email:

Dear Stuart,

I take the liberty of dropping you a line for a piece of advice as a younger fellow-polyglot. What I really find terrific about your professional profile, besides your impressive linguistic achievements, is your ability to connect with people and situations, to be the right man in the right place, and basically to make a living out of a passion we all share. I lack this spontaneous talent, so I thought that perhaps you’d spare me a couple of tips to get me started in some way. I love languages more than anything else, and I feel that they love me back, so to speak. I have been working on and off as a freelance translator for publishing houses, but I’m currently facing unexpected challenges, and I would like to find new ways to draw on my gift to fight back. Pursuing my career in humanities as a university researcher in Europe is getting harder and harder every day due to a severe lack of funding, no matter how qualified you are. I feel I’m wasting my time and my skills queuing in front of doors that won’t open, and if by chance I could manage to merge my passion for languages with a real job with real wages I wouldn’t even think twice…

Can you give me a general idea how you started out, what kind of business needs you were the answer for, what kind of service a language expert may offer, and drop me a hint? University life kind of atrophied my practical 6th sense, but I’m sick of this game and I’m ready to get back on the track.

You can’t imagine what a difference a few expedient suggestions could make…

I thank you heartily in advance!

Keep up the good work,

, Ph. D. (<-- as if it mattered these days)

Stu's Response

Hi Francesco,

Thank you for your email. I've mentioned a few times through various interviews or clips that my grandfather used to teach me that if you do something you love doing, people will pay you good money to do it. ... Well.. that's kinda true, but there's a catch! You have to do it in a way that it brings value to other people.

No matter what way you cut it, there are very real limitations to the extent that your average polyglot can go. If they're not working as a teacher, translator, interpreter, most are gobbled up as spooks, never to see the light of day on the corporate side of the rainbow.

There IS money however in finding ways for companies human resources to work more effectively for them, or in improving the relationship that they have with their customers, or in giving them market insights that they or their normal marketing teams might be overlooking. This is where language, the ability to communicate with people - from grass roots levels to CEO / Presidential comes in.

Don't sell yourself as a 'language expert'. That means nothing to the corporate world. They would much rather hire a 'cross-regional corporate communications agent', or a 'Business Development Specialist' that can go in on the ground and find out what's really going on 'on the ground' and translate it into a workable solution that can be quantified. Quantifying a financial value for the work you do is very important.

My advice to you would be to find out what business networks are running in your area - Chambers of Commerce, Rotary, HR Associations etc. Try and start building a network of decision makers - CEO / Director level and listen to the issues that they're facing. As they're speaking, try and figure out whether you have anything that could be of value to them. Go home and sit and work out how you could 'package' your skill-set and your network of people in a way that could help them.

It might be working with the management team in helping them understand the cultures of the people they're working with, or it might be to get on the ground and build communication networks or just understanding of how to get the most out of working with the 'foreign' management.

If you're in a market where this isn't relevant, maybe you might think of moving somewhere where your value is appreciated more.

It comes down to one thing - you need to bring a Return On Investment to any relationship you have - whether it be with family, friends, students or clients. I've found that if I can do this by digging into my own experience, networks, knowledge or skills and sharing it when appropriate, it is very Karmic. Eventually it comes back to benefit me in one shape or other.

Stu

Polyglot Stuart Jay Raj “Language Secrets From a Linguistic Junkie" Multilingual Video Post Episode 1 (2 Parts)

2008-09-30T12:58:00.007+07:00

Episode 1

Part 1

Part 2

About a week ago, I was fortunate to have been invited to attend a Second Language Acquisition seminar by Language Acquisition guru Dr. Stephen Krashen (http://www.sdkrashen.com) , hosted by the Concordian International School here in Bangkok. Stephen was a real inspiration and after speaking with him that day, I was inspired to do something new.

A couple of days later I went out and bought a new video camera and tried my hand at starting to put some video responses to emails that I’ve received over the past year or so. Last Friday I swung over to the home of http://RadioBangkok.Net Director Bill Hammerton’s place and we shot what will hopefully be the first in many video episodes on language learning, linguistics, culture, language and culture based business and anything else that viewers find interesting.

I've tried to answer some of the many questions that have been sent to me in emails and messages since I posted my first clip on Youtube in 2007. I thought to make it interesting, I've tried to choose several different languages to respond to (subtitled in English).

Questions include:

“What separates languages - politic or linguistic differences?”

“What's the history behind some of your languages?”

“What's the most difficult language?”

“What are some secrets to learning new languages?”

“How do I get motivated to learn languages?”

One thing that I wanted to get across in the videos is that I am just a human being like everyone else, and my brain faces the same challenges as everyone else. The thing that lets me take the languages that I have been able to take to an advanced level is motivation / attitude. I've chosen languages that I'm at different competency levels in. They range from:

‘very fluent’ – Mandarin, Indonesian, Thai

‘let’s dust the cobwebs off’ – Italian, Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Hindi, Javanese

‘shockingly elementary’ – Japanese, Vietnamese, Norwegian

Just putting this clip together was great to get the linguistic juices flowing again in some of my dormant languages.

You might remember a post from last year about Vietnamese. I hadn’t really used Vietnamese much after that post. It wasn’t until I travelled to Nha Trang for Miss Universe that I had a real environment to incubate my Vietnamese. I was able for the first time to start interacting in Vietnamese with native speakers. I used the taping of this episode as a personal challenge to air for the record my current (low) level of Vietnamese. This post has set a bar for myself - so hopefully in a few months time, my Vietnamese will be much more fluent than what you see in this clip. I'll keep you updated on my progress!

Just for fun in the end, I’ve also thrown in a little sign-language finger-spelling (American and Autralian) as well as some very low-tech Morse-code.

If you have any suggestions for topics for future episodes, email me at the email you see in the clip, or you can post a comment on this blog – or on the Youtube clip if you like.

The Language of Perfect Pitch

2008-09-17T11:31:00.006+07:00

I received an email in my Youtube box this morning that touched on a topic that I had always meant to post about. I figured this is a better time than ever to write about it. Here's the letter:

Perfect Pitch

Hey Stuart, I want to learn a language, but this language is not a common one. It's the language of "perfect pitch." Could you please give me some advice as to how to obtain perfect pitch? Thanks

Perfect Pitch

I touched lightly in one of the interviews that I posted on the Thai TV Show 'Joh Jai' on the idea of perfect pitch. For me, every sound – whether it's a musical note, a sound in speech or just a 'bang' of a gun, has not only a colour, but also texture, shape and emotion. I don't know where these things came from. I just remember them always being there. Perhaps it's thanks to my grandfather's advice that I've mentioned in other posts of never allowing "words to limit my thoughts – always think LOUD". That 'LOUD' for me wasn't just loud colours, but it was anything that would stand out in my mind and have an emotional effect on me.

A Musical Family

I come from a very musical family. My mother sings and plays the guitar, my brother the same, my sister sings and plays the piano a bit, I play piano. I have musician cousins, aunts, uncles and extended family too. When I was very young, we would be driving and my mum would make each of us in the car take different parts singing acapella.

Feeling harmony – intervals such as major and minor 3rds, 5ths, 4ths, flat 5ths, flat 7ths was something that when I was younger, I assumed everyone could do it naturally. Hearing 'notes' in my mind was another thing that I thought everyone 'just did'. It was only when I was a bit older that I realized that most people had had this ability 'muffled'.

'But I'm Tone Deaf!'

When talking about 'perfect pitch' or even teaching people to learn tonal languages, I am frequently confronted with the excuse 'I'm tone deaf'. Although I read in the Wikipedia page on tone deafness that some believe that it could be genetically influenced, I find it very hard to swallow that argument.

Tonal Languages and Tone Deafness

On the language front, of the billions of people who speak tonal languages such as Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese etc., I am yet to come across a native speaker that doesn't speak with the correct tones (according to standards of whatever dialect that they speak / grew up with). Could it be that only non-tonal language speakers could be genetically tone deaf? I don't think so. I think it comes down more to exposure and active use rather than a genetic displacement.

Exposure to Pitch, Tones and a Buffet of 'Sound Stuff'

I mentioned earlier that when I was young, because of the musical 'tone' of my family (no pun intended... well maybe a little one), I was fortunate to be exposed to many different concepts in sound. One of the earliest 'songs' that I can remember is the tuning of a guitar:

Notes of a guitar's standard open tuning. One of the first 'songs' I can remember.

It was the first 'song' that was played before any other song – e e e e BBBBbbbbbBBBBB e e e e BBBBBB… my mum would be tuning the guitar working from the top down. The 4^th interval of the top string 'E' and the next string 'B' would go from good to a dissonance that was like an earthquake in my eardrum, then back to a nice 'buzz'. When the notes 'buzzed' together nicely, I knew that they were in tune. She would then work back down the strings in the same fashion. If there was any suspicion that the notes weren't in tune, she would 'ping' the harmonics to make sure that they were indeed in 'sync'. When there's dissonance between harmonics on a guitar, I think even the least trained ear could notice that something is askew as you can physically feel the air 'wobbling' out of sync ... you can feel the air going 'woob woob woob wooooooobbbbb' in your ear.

There were other 'songs' that were added to my vocabulary as time went on. 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' in C, 'Kumbaya' in D and the hits went on. Even before I could play the songs on the guitar or piano, I knew what keys they were in, because I would always here my mum and brother talk about the keys that they preferred to play various songs in.

This picture is just for aesthetic pleasure - I don't think this was the Mary that had a little lamb in the version I envisaged when I was a kid - but in hindsight it would have been a nice notion! :)

Songs are 'Pegs' to Represent 'Notes' or Frequencies

Here's an exercise if you're interested in developing perfect pitch.

Go to your CD collection or grab your iPod and go to a song that you like and have listened to many times. Don't play the song yet.
Make sure that your surroundings are quiet – sit in silence for a minute or so.
Think of the song that you chose. Important – DON'T HUM OR SING IT YET. Just think of it. In your mind and in your mind only, think of the introduction to the song, think of any 'key moments' in the song. Think of the chorus, think of any lead breaks. Think of how the song ends. Think of the emotions that the song makes you feel.
Do you feel that the song is any specific 'colour'? If so, paint that song in the colour and emotion that you're thinking of. Splash the paint all over it, fly around inside the song if you like and smatter the paint throughout it.
Now pretend that your mind has a 'volume control'. With your eyes closed, turn the volume right up so that the song is blasting in your mind's ears. Even if someone came into the room now, you couldn't hear them because the song in your mind is playing so loudly now.
Ok – wake up!
Now play the song on your iPod or CD player.
Does the song sound the same as what you imagined it to sound like? I find in most cases, even people who are tone deaf – when they start humming a 'golden oldie' like 'Dock of the Bay' or the intro to Michael Jackson's 'Beat It', or even the 'dah dah dah dahhhhhh' of Beethoven's 5^th, they are more than often spot on when it comes to starting on the right note.

Over the years, I've built up a menu of songs that to me are the epitome of 'keys' or 'notes'. Some of them include (I've also included the colours that these notes make me feel):

'Groovy Kind of Love' = A (Yellow)
'All the Things you Are' – Ab (and Fm) (Greyish yellow)
'Rhythmning' – Bb (Dark Greyish Blue)
'A-Train' = C (Green)
'Love Lifts Us Up Where We Belong' = D (Woody Brown)
'Guitar Tune' = E (Darkish Red)
'Round Midnight' = Eb (Even darker red with black splotches)
'Bye Bye Blackbird' = F (Orange flame)
'All Blues' = G (Brown – lighter than D)

If you are a musician and you know how to play the songs, think of the intervals that make up the song. For example in the song "Bye Bye Blackbird", for me that's a very distinct Yellow down to Orange Major Third start of the melody (A -> F). I actually see in my mind a swirling sandwich of yellow and orange as those first two notes play.

In this sense, you get both perfect pitch and relative pitch through the same exercise.

It gets to the point that you don't know what came first – the chicken or the egg… or in this case, the song or the key. If I hear a note, I will normally see a colour with it, my hands will know where on the keyboard it would be and other songs that are in the same key start to congregate in my mind around that song like ants to a pile of sugar.

You may be wondering why during the above exercise I mentioned not to 'sing the song out loud' yet. That's because I've found that sometimes people hear the song in the right pitch in their imagination, but the ability of actually producing that sound with their vocal chords 1^st time needs a bit of work. That's why it's good to just compare your mind's song with the actual song first – check if you are indeed close to the real pitch.

When you think of it, it's a miracle that we can actually normally without thinking produce out of thin air a predetermined frequency with our voice. How do we 'know' that a particular tension on our vocal chords will produce a particular frequency. Just thinking about it blows me away. I just accept that there are some things that I can't explain and that we can do it.

As you get better, you'll be able sing 'notes to order'. And even microtones – notes between notes. I have a cousin – Kerri Ayling (speaking of musical / business genius, take a look at their site and history at The WAM Communications Group ) that is notorious for her uncanny ability to pick out notes / frequencies with her perfect pitch and tell how many 'cents' they are out from the standard frequencies. Kerry was a great device to have lying around the studio when the recording engineer was trying to fix up pitchy vocals on tracks that had been recorded.

The Disadvantage of Perfect Pitch

This sometimes causes a little havoc. I was playing in a jam session a few months back where we had to play a standard in some obscure key because of the singer's vocal range. This was one of those songs that I had played a million times before, and although I could have transposed it in my head straight down from Eb to Bb, I was lazy. I used the 'transpose' button and knocked the calibration of the electric piano down a 4^th. Something very strange happened. It was like 'Culture Shock' of a musical kind! My mind was telling me of the colours that had to come next because that song was a part of me now (the song was Stellar by Starlight by the way). All of a sudden, I was hearing deep blue where I was supposed to be hearing RED. I was hearing yellow and green flat 5ths where I was supposed to be hearing browny orange ones! My fingers on about 4 occasions during the song tried to recalibrate themselves to play the colours that they were expecting to hear.

Can Anyone Develop Perfect Pitch?

I believe YES, they can. Just like I've never heard a native speaker of Chinese or Thai speak with incorrect tones, I believe that everyone has an inherent ability to define pitches. For some however, they have had it hidden away from them since childhood. It's something that needs to be fostered back into action. Try the above exercise a few times a day until your strike rate starts to get better. Slowly build up a vocabulary of 'songs' that you can use as reference points for notes, chords and intervals.

How Does This Relate to Learning Tonal Languages?

I think some of the same principles can be applied. As with being able to pin point specific musical notes, I think that the amount of 'noise' that is crowding out the important variables of sound when we're learning language needs to be filtered out. In language, that 'noise' could be actual ambient 'noise' that distracts us from really listening to what the native speakers of the language are saying. It could be the 'noise' created by the filters of our mother tongues' sound system, subconscious sound and rhythm rules etc. It could also be the 'noise' of our own psyche telling ourselves that 'I'm tone deaf - I can't hear this - I can't do this'. Those sort of negative affirmation can be very destructive to our language learning aspirations. The first thing is to realise what forms of 'NOISE' we have influencing / impeding and interpreting what we here and find a way to at least for the moment, put those noises aside.

Work in Progress

I've never sat down like this and tried to work a method out for developing perfect pitch.

If this does work for you, please do let me know!

Stuart Jay Raj - Facilitates Presentation and Facilitation Skills with Indian, Pakistani and Chinese Transport and Urban Planning Experts in Beijing

2008-09-14T19:42:00.004+07:00

GTZ-SUTP, partner of the Sustainable Urban Mobility in Asia (SUMA) project, successfully concluded its initial course of the “Train-the-Trainer” program which was an initiative of the the SUMA project in partnership with CAI-Asia and other organizations. The participants, “Future Trainers”, were preselected professionals on urban transport from India and China. The course was held for two weeks from the 5th to the 16th of November, 2007 at Hotel Xi Jiao in Beijing, China.

During the first week, the future trainers had the opportunity to improve their presentation and communication skills. Mr. Stuart Jay Raj conducted the training course on presentation and communication skills, while Mr. Carlosfelipe Pardo and Prof. Paul Barter assisted the participants.

During the second week the participants were exposed to sustainable transport issues from both India and China under the guidance of Prof. Jason Chang and Mr. Carlos Felipe Pardo.

In the second step of the program (a specialized course on a pre-selected topic, to be conducted next year) the participants will be trained on specialized issues of sustainable urban transport, being Transport Demand Management, Non Motorized Transport or Mass Transit. For more information on the SUMA project and/or the Train-the-Trainer program please email to sutp@sutp.org or visit the SUMA section here.

New Features on Stu Jay Raj's 'Behind the Curtain' Language Blog

2008-09-13T16:33:00.007+07:00

Before you go any further - for people who like to follow this blog, before you read any further, go over to the left hand side of this page and click 'Follow This Blog' under the 'Followers' tab!

I've recently been playing around with different ways of manipulating RSS data-feeds - blogs, news-feeds, facebook feeds, picasa and other image feeds and more. There are some great tools out there that let you maniupulate this data.

Personal Benefits

Through using tools such as Google Reader, I can receive live feeds from all the news sites that I like to receive news from, combined with blog updates, facebook updates from friends, forum topics, photo updates and anything else that has an RSS or Atom feed. The interface on both my iPhone and in my regular browser is easy to use, and saves me opening up 20 tabs in my browser when I open it.

You can also easily share information with friends by either sending them feed links, or posting other people's feeds to your own blog or personal feed.

Benefits for Information 'Creators' and 'Manipulators'

For people who create data - which nowadays is almost anyone on the net, RSS feeds are a great way to 'spread the word' a lot faster. For general users, you can make it easy for people to bounce your articles / feeds across their networks, creating a bigger viewer base.

Yahoo Pipes

Programmers can now create very powerful dynamic sites with relative ease - especially with tools like Yahoo's Pipes. Pipes allows you to manipulate data in amazing ways from all over the web, tailor it to your needs and feed it into your own website. Here's the blurb from Yahoo Pipes' homepage:

"Like Unix pipes, simple commands can be combined together to create output that meets your needs:

combine many feeds into one, then sort, filter and translate it.
geocode your favorite feeds and browse the items on an interactive map.
power widgets/badges on your web site.
grab the output of any Pipes as RSS, JSON, KML, and other formats. "

Pretty cool huh?

Networks = Synergy

For Polyglots, Linguists and other assorted Language Lovers I receive hundreds of emails each week from people reading my blog or watching the videos on Youtube through either my blog, youtube directly or through facebook. I find that the majority of these people are much more fascinating than I could ever hope to be, and I would really like to keep regular contact with them to exchange thoughts and learn from their learnings.

Blogger Followers Widget

I found a great widget the other week that links my blogger blog into google reader that allows me to keep in contact with people who are following my blog - and allows them to feed posts through to me automatically if they think it would be of interest to me. I can also do the same for them if they choose that option. ... so if you haven't done it yet, what are you waiting for!?? Go over and click the 'Follow This Blog' link on the left hand side already so that we can keep in touch!

Spread the Word Via Facebook

You will see this icon - at the end of each of my posts. If you have a facebook account, you can just click on a post from this blog and cross post it straight across to your own facebook profile - where in turn your friends and other people subscribed to you will be able to read it. When I come across great articles, I have started to use this tool personally and have had great feedback.

Since starting this blog, I've been fortunate to meet linguists, polyglots, trainers and everyday people wanting to learn another language from all over the world. I hope that with the use of some of these improvements in the technology available at our fingertips, the speed of learning and the depth of of what we learn will be able to be taken to a new level.

Thanks!

Mandarin to Cantonese and Back Again (Part 1 - Tones) – Setting a Foundation for Learning Tonal Languages in Asia

2008-09-05T16:55:00.023+07:00

粵

日

漢

한

?

傣

ไทย

佬

Tiếng Việt

Who Should Read This

Anyone interested in languages J
Chinese speakers of one Chinese Language (方言) that would like to learn another
- (E.g. Cantonese speaker wants to learn Mandarin, Mandarin Speaker wants to learn Cantonese, Hokkien Speaker wants to learn Mandarin etc.)
Learners of Chinese that want a better understanding of what's under the hood of the language that they're learning
Learners / Speakers of Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Burmese etc that would like to understand why things the way they are – e.g. tones, consonant classes, vowel changes etc. Cambodian isn't a tonal language, but some of the principles do still apply.

Why Cantonese?

I wrote a blog entry about a year ago now about how I approached learning Vietnamese. There have been many comments and emails that have come in since that posting asking for me to go into further detail (as promised in the article) about how I went about memorizing the vocab and getting on top of the grammar and tones. I thought about how I would approach that 'follow up' article, and realized how much my ability to grow and affinity with Vietnamese depend on my understanding of the link between Middle Chinese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Thai and other regional languages from China. I love Cantonese for a lot of reasons. It's a very funky and modern language when it has to be, but at the same time, it preserves many ancient traits from the Tang Dynasty – consonants, vowels, lexicon, tone rules, idioms from the past that are a little more difficult to grasp when using Mandarin as a base. I personally like to think of Cantonese as a dinosaur wearing an Armani suit, shades and a lot'a 'bling'.

So before I go into how I went about getting on top of Vietnamese vocab, grammar, tones etc, I thought I'd share some of my learnings over the years about the engine that is running beneath the hood in Mandarin, Cantonese, Thai and other 方言 /fang1 yan2/ - regional languages.

Understanding the Tones

Very often when I hear people comparing 'difficulty levels' of learning tonal languages like Thai, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese etc, I hear lines like:

"Cantonese has nine tones where Mandarin only has five – that means Cantonese is more difficult". …. In my humble opinion… that's just RUBBISH.

The number of tones in a language doesn't make it any more difficult than another if you learn it in a natural way where you can experience the rhythms and pitches of the language. Tones just become a natural part of using the language.

Moreover, whether it's Mandarin, Vietnamese or Thai, I will always try and map the tones where possible in reference to the base tone system of the 9 tones in Cantonese.

Writing the Tones in Text

From now on when I refer to tones and pitch changes, I'll use the standard of 1 to 5.

1 is the lowest note you can possibly make in your vocal range
5 is the highest note you can make in your vocal range

So if I was to write a pitch change that went from very high to very low, I would write 51.

If I was to write a pitch change that started very high, went very low, then came back up to around the mid range of my voice, I would write 513.

Yin and Yang 陰陽

When people first start learning Mandarin, along with spending the first few weeks or so getting their Pin Yin consonant and vowel sounds right, a lot of time is usually spent on getting the 5 tones down (4 tones + neutral tone).

You'll probably learn the names of the tones around that time too.

Tone Number	Tone Name (Chinese)	Tone Name (English)	Pitch Contour
1	陰平 (阴平) yin1 ping2	High Tone	55
2	陽平 (阳平) yang2 ping2	High Rising	35
3	上聲 (上声) shang4 sheng1	Low Dipping	214
4	去聲 (去声) qu4 sheng1	High Falling	51
5	輕聲 (轻声) qing1 sheng1	Neutral (light)	Varies depending on preceding tone

People might be curious as to where the Yin and the Yang come from? This curiosity is quickly surpassed by the student's need to master what they sound like rather than pontificate on where the origin of the tone's name came from.

I find the whole Yin and Yang element of it fascinating though, and it is very useful in understanding the tonal and sound structures in other related languages.

To start with, stare at the following picture for a few minutes and turn it into a Mind Map in your own mind.

Glossary

Chinese	PinYin	Meaning
陰	yin1	'Yin' – feminine side
陽	yang2	'Yang' – masculine side
中	zhong1	Centre /Middle
上	shang4	Ascend
平	ping2	Level
去	qu4	Depart
入	ru4	Enter

Explanation

I'll explain this in relation to Cantonese.

The tones are separated into Yin tones and Yang tones.
The Yin tones (female) are higher in pitch – memory point – 'Woman is on top – voice is higher pitched than the guy's'.
The Yang tones (male) are in the lower register of the voice. Memory point – guy has the deeper voice.
The Entering tone is sometimes called 'clipped' – it's the tone for syllables that end in p' t' or k', where the vowel is killed by the final consonant. In Thai we call these คำตาย 'kham tai' – dead words. There are no 'clipped' syllables in Mandarin.

You're going to see in a minute that the 'Level' and 'Departing' tones in Cantonese sometimes don't actually just stay level or fall as the departing tone does in Mandarin. Don't let this confuse you. If you trace these back over the centuries, they morph all over the place from time to time and region to region. The system remains the same though. The main point I would like to get across here is the SYSTEM rather than its rendering in just one language. The reason I'm using Cantonese as a base is because it still preserves all the tones. I'm sure that there are going to be many Cantonese speakers reading this too, so this will help understand how to map Cantonese tones across to Mandarin too.

When I learn words in Chinese, I try to subconsciously (initially consciously) file it away based on the picture above. I'll tag in my mind whether it's a 上平去 or 入 type tone, and I'll also shade it in my mind with the Yin or the Yang sign. This is unbelievably helpful later on if you're looking at learning more Chinese languages .... and consequently Vietnamese too. Even if the new languages have words that have changed their tone categories, I find making a point that certain words have changed tone categories serves as an extra memory enforcer.

Cantonese Rendering of the Yin Yang Tone System

Note that the 陰平 (Yin Ping) tone in Cantonese can be a level high tone, or could be a high falling tone. In Cantonese, these two in most cases are interchangeable - some words would be more commonly heard with one rather than the other. This is one thing that can sometimes help tell whether a Cantonese speaker is from the Mainland or from Hong Kong.

What about the Entering Tones? (入聲)

In Cantonese you can see that they fit nicely into the existing tone pitch contours. Note that in Cantonese, all the entering tones 入聲 are constant pitch tones - High, Middle and Low. In other words, whenever there is a word that ends in a clipped p, t or k in Cantonese, the tone will only ever be a steady High, Middle or Low tone.

Mapping the tones to Mandarin

So you're probably wondering now whether there is a correlation with the tones of words in Cantonese and Mandarin. The answer is YES. There's a bit of fuzzy logic sometimes. Over time and geography, the tone category has shifted for many words and many words fall into 2 and sometimes more categories. What this does mean however is that for Mandarin speaking learners of Cantonese, or Cantonese speaking learners of Mandarin, the following relationships will help you turn your Canto-Mandarin into more standard Mandarin, or your flat Cantonese turn into more natural sounding Cantonese.

From Cantonese to Mandarin

Please note that this table isn't 100% accurate, but it's a great framework to start with.

	Traditional Tone Category	Cantonese Pitch Contour	Mandarin Tone Category	Mandarin Tone Number	Mandarin Pitch Contour
平	陰平	55 / 53	陰平 Sometimes 去聲	1 Sometimes 4	55 Sometimes 51
平	陽平	11	陽平	2	35
上	陰上	35	上聲	3	214
上	陽上	13	上聲	3	214
去	陰去	33	去聲	4	51
去	陽去	22	去聲	4	51
入	陰入	55	As there are no entering tones in Mandarin, the tone category may vary. For Mandarin speakers, a hit for reverse engineering the tones – very often syllables with 'tight throat' vowels like 'e' for example 得 are often clipped syllables (entering tones) in Cantonese – so 得 'de' à 'dak'. On another interesting note, characters that have an entering tone in Cantonese are often realized in Japanese 音読み(onyomi) with two or more syllables, and in Korean as clipped syllables.
	中入	33
	陽入	11

How can this table be used?

Admittedly, this table is probably a lot more useful to Cantonese speakers that are learning Mandarin than Mandarin speakers that are learning Cantonese. The reason being is that you are going from a manyà one relationship from Cantonese to Mandarin, where as Mandarin à Cantonese is a One à Many, compounded by the fact that there are also entering tones. As you start going through the dictionary though, you start seeing patterns emerge.

花 – flower

In Cantonese, this is a 陰平 tone pronounced 'fa'. This converts to a 1^st tone in Mandarin 'hua'. (Note f -> hu. The changes from 'f' between Cantonese and Mandarin are normally – f -> f (e.g. 飯), f -> hu (e.g. 花) or f ->'ku' (e.g. 快) )

人 – person.
- In Cantonese, it's 'yan' – yang ping 陽平 tone. You could make a pretty confident bet that it would be a 2^nd tone in Mandarin. Note the y -> r change. There are many
好 – good.
- I know that it's a 上 (ascending) category tone, so it is probably going to be the same in Mandarin – i.e. 3^rd tone in Mandarin.
是 - is
- In Cantonese, this isn't the common word for is – but a Cantonese speaker would still know the word. In Cantonese, it is a 去 tone, so that means that it would be a 4^th tone in Mandarin.

I am the first to admit that there are many many many more variables than what's shown in the above tables that we need to take into consideration before we can start to feel confident with applying rules to morph Cantonese into Mandarin or Vice Versa. What I've provided here is a fundamental first building block.

Other variables include:

Consonant Changes

Some of these have been mentioned above. Some of the common ones are:

Cantonese	Mandarin
f	f ku hu
s	s sh
dz	j z zh
h	s h

Vowel Changes

Some common vowel changes are:

Cantonese

Mandarin

(e.g.

好 ='hou')

好='hao'

都= 'dou' or 'du'

(e.g.

識 = 'sik',

知 = 'dzi')

i (after s, z, zhi etc

識 = 'shi'

知 = 'zhi')

dz (see above ' 知')

香 = 'heuang'

好 - 'hou'

香 = 'xiang'

好 - 'hao'

你 = 'n/lei'

你 = 'ni'

愛 = (ng)oi

爱 = 'ai'

係 - 'hai'

係 = 'xi'

Note, when doing these kinds of conversions, it's often not enough just to separate initial consonants, vowels and finals. It's a combination of them all. For example - I mentioned that sometimes 'h' in Cantonese could turn into an 'x' or remain as an 'h' - 香 vs. 好. Because 'heuang' 香 in Cantonese has a palatalised kind of vowel, it's not that much of a jump to 'x' in Mandarin, so my guess would be that it would be an 'x'. Something like 好 'hou' however has the vowel set far back - I also know that 'ou' often turns to 'ao' and in Mandarin there's no such syllable as 'xao', so I would take a pretty good guess that 好 would be pronounced something like 'hu', 'hou' or 'hao' in Mandarin. It sounds very hit and miss, but what I've found when learning different regional dialects / languages, is that after a while, you start to build your guestimate accuracy up. In any case, it's a great exercise for your brain!

Bysyllabic versus Monosyllabic

In Mandarin, a word feels kind of 'naked' if it's said with just one syllable. In Classical Chinese and Cantonese, it's very common just to use one syllable words.

Examples would be (Taken From Zeng ZiFan's book)

Cantonese	Mandarin
裤	裤子
同	相同
易	容易
盘	盘子
知	知道
面	面条
眼	眼睛

Different Characters for Same Common Meanings in Standard Spoken Language

Cantonese	Mandarin
識 (to know)	知道
食 (to eat)	吃
乜野 (what?)	什么
咁 (how / then / so ..)	那么, 怎么, 这么
講 (to speak)	说
都 (also)	也
係 (is)	是
唔 (no, not)	不

Reversed Word Order

In Mandarin, you would say

我给你钱

Wo3 gei3(2) ni3 qian2

or more commonly

我把钱给你.

I - (particle denoting object) - give - you

In Cantonese, you would say

(updated 5 Oct 2008 - Thanks to Cantonese Guru Cecilie Gamst Berg!)

我俾錢你

(ng)oh bei chin (n)lei

I – give - money - you

Actually, in Mandarin, you could make a structure similar to the Cantonese structure, but you'd need to through a 把 in before the 錢 'money' - 我把钱给你.

Loan Words / Transliterations

Cantonese has many more transliterations that we find in Mandarin from the mainland. In Mandarin, it's usually standard practice to invent a brand new word rather than use a transliteration based on the pronunciation of the original word in English or other source language. The following examples are a mixture of both types. There's also a difference between many terms used in Taiwan and the mainland.

English	Cantonese	Mandarin
Taxi	的士	出租车
Sofa	梳花	沙發
Guitar	結他	吉他
Brandy	拔蘭地	白蘭地
Sydney	雪梨	悉尼

Even more variables include idioms, standard grammatical structures – e.g. the use of the verbs 'to be' , 'to have', 'to be able to' etc, words that exist in Cantonese but not at all in Mandarin, use of measure words, repetition of words, adverbs, suffixes and more. For a great rundown on all of these, I can't recommend enough the book by Zeng Zifan "Colloquial Cantonese and Putonghua Equivalents". I've had my copy for around 13 years now – the pages are torn, yellowing and crumbling, but it still serves as a great reference between the languages. The examples used from both Cantonese and Mandarin are second to none also, as it's focusing on colloquial language – not book language.

In future posts, I'll show how this foundation serves me well in my endeavor to learn Vietnamese and understand other regional languages / dialects.

Cantonese Lessons on Youtube by Cecilie Gamst Berg

I thought that I would include a link here to Cecile's latest production efforts. For those of you who haven't heard her Naked Cantonese podcasts - downloadable free from iTunes, Cecilie is now producing learn cantonese video clips currently available on Youtube. You can link to them here.

Cecilie is a Norwegian lady who has lived in Hong Kong for many many moons and speaks (and teaches) fantastic Cantonese. Her sense of humour is amazing and after meeting her in person on a few occasions, I can confirm that she is the real deal!

反切 Fan3 Qie4 and 切韵 Qie4 Yun4

This topic also leads into the wonderful and fascinating world of 'Qie4 yun4' - 切韵 and 'Fan3 Qie4' - 反切. Back around 601 A.D. Lu FaYan and a bunch of his scholarly mates were having a little get together and heated discussions broke out as to how certain words should be pronounced. Each had his own regional accent. This set Lu FaYan on a labour of love to map out the sound structure of his language at that time through Rhyme. Words were split up into 'initials' and 'finals' that incorporated the tone. The formula is (Initial + Tone 1) + (Rhyme + Tone 2) = Pronunciation of the Target Character. The following is taken from the Wikipedia page on Fanqie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanqie

In Middle Chinese, the tone was represented by the rhyme character. However, owing to sound changes that have occurred since then, a more complicated rule is used today (see tone name for background information):

The yin-yang (陰陽) classification, which arose in some tones due to voicing distinctions in the onset, is determined by the onset character.
The ping-shang-qu-ru (平上去入) classification, which is kept from Middle Chinese, is determined by the rhyme character.

Thus

(Onset & Tone-1) + (Rhyme & Tone-2) = (Pronunciation of Character)

For example, the character 東 is represented by 德紅切. The third character 切 indicates that this is a fanqie spelling, while the first two characters indicate the onset and rhyme respectively. Thus the pronunciation of 東 is given as the onset of 德 dé (d) with the rhyme of 紅 hóng (ong), yielding dong. Also, 德 has a yin ru tone and 紅 has a yang ping tone. (In Modern Mandarin, 德 has a yang ping tone, but tonal developments in Mandarin are somewhat complex and therefore yield irregular results.) So the tone of 東 is yin ping.

Gari Ledyard has given this informative example of how an English equivalent to fanqie might look:

To show the pronunciation of an unknown character, one "cut" the initial consonant from a second character and the rhyme from a third, and combined them to show the reading of the first. To use an English example, one could indicate the pronunciation of the word sough by "cutting" sun and now (= sow), or "cut" sun and cuff (= suff) to show the alternate pronunciation. This method was a bit circular in that it required knowledge of the pronunciations of the characters that were "cut," but it proved to be a workable system and lasted well into the twentieth century.

This was the system used for hundreds of years before HanYu PinYin or any of the other modern systems like Wade Giles or 注音 to denote pronunciation of Chinese Characters.

Language is More Than Just Mechanical Buttons and Dials!

This blog entry looks a lot at just the 'mechanical' details of language change. Once this is mastered, it doesn't mean that you can speak the target language in an intelligible manner. The culture, history, psychology or 'software' behind the speakers of the language is a whole new world in itself. Getting the 'sound' of the language right is the first step that I take to let me get a peek into the hearts of the people that speak it.

Books Books Books

I try to paint my understanding of the languages in this part of the world based on learnings from all over the region. While I've found that trying to find books that that go into detail about the history and linguistics of Thai in Thailand is a futile mission, finding research texts on the topic by Chinese linguists bears much more fruit. The following are a few texts that have helped me pad out my understanding:

Bibliography

Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development - Kam-Tai Institute Central University. (1996). Language and Cultures of the Kam-Tai (Zhuang Dong) Group: A Word List (English Thai Version). Bangkok: Mahidol University.

Ramsey, S. (1987). The Languages of China. New Jersey: Princeton.

ZiFan)(Zeng曾子凡. (2002). 广州话普通话语词对比研究. Hong Kong: 香港普通话研习社出版.

ZiFan, Z. (1993). Colloquial Cantonese and Putonghua Equivalents. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing (H.K.) Co., Ltd.

主國藩何文匯. (2005). 粵音正讀字彙 (_jyt 'jam ~dzing _duk _dzi _wai). Hong Kong: 香港教育圖書公司.

刘叔新. (2006). 粤语壮傣语问题 (Yueyu ZhuangDaiYu WenTi). Beijing: 商务印书馆.

吴伟雄陈伯辉. (2004). 生活粤语本子趣谈. Hong Kong: 中华书局.

庄初升. (2004). 粤北图话音韵研究 (Yuebei Tuhua Yinyun Yanjiu). Beijing: 中国社会科学.

曾晓渝. (2004). 汉语水域关系论. 北京: 商务印书馆.

李如龙. (2001). 汉语方言的比较研究. Beijing: 商务印书馆.

欧阳觉亚. (1993). 普通话广州话的比较与学习. Beijing: 中国社会科学出版社.

The Cunning Mind of an Artful Linguist – Episode 1: Miss Universe 2008 – A Polyglot’s Paradise

2008-08-21T21:40:00.045+07:00

Over the past 3 months, I think I've been at home in Bangkok for a total of about 6 days. The rest of the time I've been travelling to some of the most fascinating places on the planet plying my trade – i.e. packaging language, linguistics, facilitation, entertainment and culture into a product that smoothes out wrinkles (and makes money) for transnational organizations working in the region. This is the first in a series of blog-entries that I will be posting here to show how language can form the base to a business that's not only rewarding, but also downright FUN!

Stuart Jay Raj, Marija Grgurevic and Hande Buyuklinimani in front of the giant LED backdrop

The calm before the storm... the sashes in waiting for their owners before they go in for the first interview session

The hottest gig to date this year would have to be Miss Universe 2008 in Nha Trang Vietnam. With language as my guise, I was once again treated to the privilege of chilling out around the clock for almost 2 weeks with some of the most gorgeous women on the planet in a place that comes pretty close to paradise.

Arrival in Nha Trang – With Nothing Better to do, Miss Universe Herself Swung by to Pick us Up

The crystal clear waters of Vin Pear Island - Nha Trang Vietnam (just watch out for the jellyfish!)

I flew into Ho-Chi Minh on an Air France flight. Despite some of what I would call the worst excuse for food that I've ever seen served on a plane, the flight landed safely and I met up with fellow Chiangmai based polyglot Adam Dedman (interpreter for Miss Japan – Harvard graduate and fluent in English, Thai, Japanese and Spanish) for our Vietnam Airlines domestic flight to Nha Trang.

Pointing over to a prop-jet with a flat tyre being dragged across the tarmac in the distance of an airport that I imagine hadn't changed much since the war, Adam commented "Well I'm glad we're not travelling on that thing!". Adam was sadly mistaken. We boarded the plane and bumped through the air for another 50 minutes until we landed again safely in Nha Trang.

Stuart Jay Raj and Riyo Mori (Miss Universe 2007-8 at Vin Pearl rehearsing Riyo's final speech)

It was around 9pm. After a short flight from Bangkok and a very long transit in Ho Chi Minh,de -hydrated from lack of water and one too many Pepsi-Max's I was ready to crash. That all changed though when we arrived at the baggage carousel to be greeted by Miss Universe 2007-08 herself Riyo Mori. Dressed in a humble beach dress and flip-flops, Riyo took us in her limo back to our resort – 'Vin Pearl' with her bodyguard. Having been there for a week or so already, she was pretty pressed for interesting things to do. Luckily, she and Adam were already like brother and sister from the previous year and meeting us at the airport probably made for some of the best comic relief she'd had in days J

That set the scene for the rest of the trip. Gorgeous women, amazing beaches, celebrities, security zealots and the largest pool you've ever seen in your life – 10,000sqm!!!

Riyo Mori (Miss Universe) and Adam Dedman (Japanese Interpreter). I don't think Riyo is on stilts in this shot.

The First Interview - Your Interpreter is Your Best Friend

One thing that I've learned from working with Miss Universe since 2005 is that the relationship between the girls and their interpreter can sometimes make or break their chances in the competition. The level of experience for each of the contestants varies. Some of them had never been exposed to anything like this before, and others from countries like Venezuela, Colombia, USA, Japan and Korea have been in almost military-like training under the elegant whip of the likes of Ines Ligron for months before the event. Some of the girls overestimate their ability in English and opt to answer the questions during their first interview in English, thinking that they will come across as more 'international'. For a few, this works, but for many others it can signal certain death.

The first group of contestants waiting for their first interview. In this shot we have in green - Taliana Vargas (Colombia), Rebecca Parchment (Caymen Islands), Laura Dundovic (Australia), Jenyfeer Mercelina (Curaçao), Wei Ziya (China) and many more.

Simran Kaur Mundi (India), Elisa Nájera (Mexico) and Stuart Jay Raj

As interpreters, we spend more time with the girls than most other people there. We're with them from early in the morning each day, through all the breaks, rehearsals into the night and then on the phone when need be in the remaining hours. I've learned from veteran interpreters like Gregory Rayner and April Cedillo that the better the interpreters get to know the girls, the better their answers can be 'interpreted' / rendered faithfully before the judges.

How an Interpretation can Make or Break a Contestant's Chance at the Miss Universe Crown - It's all in the Semantics!

Stuart Jay Raj and Putri Raemawasti (Indonesia): Putri caused a little controversy this year back home. At first she had agreed to wear a one-piece, but on arriving and seeing the competition, thought "If you're in a war and everyone's carrying machine guns, how could you hope to win carrying a pocket-knife?", so without telling anyone, switched to a 2-piece bikini. The result was outrage back home leaving her having to apologise to many people including the President himself. I guess it's never easy for pioneers - just like Artika Sari Dewi from 2005 - first Miss Indonesia that caused controversy with her one-piece swimsuit. It hurts to be a pioneer!

The girls that I was taking care of were Miss Thailand (Gavintra Photijak – Nickname: Kaem (means 'cheek')) and Miss Indonesia (Putri Raemawasti). The first real assignment for the interpreters and the girls to work together is during their first panel interview.

Anya Ayoung-Chee - Miss Trinidad and Tobago and Stuart Jay Raj. Anya was in my opinion one of the most amazing people I met that week. She lives in NYC - fashion designer / model. She was another person that was always ready to be seen - on-stage or in the downtime. Anya's directors were also pretty cool people - must be something there in the water in Trinidad!

What the Miss Universe judges are looking for

Taliana Vargas (Colombia) and Stuart Jay Raj. Taliana was tipped by many to take the crown. The great thing about Taliana is that she's a polyglot / linguist herself - very well educated and very well travelled. I got the impression that she could hold her own on almost any topic of conversation, academic or otherwise.

I'm not a miss universe judge, so I don't own the right to say I know exactly what the judges are looking for – though from being in the bowels of the pageant, being part of numerous interviews and participating in discussions with people at all different levels involved in the pageant, I can say that the judges are looking for someone that can carry the MU brand well, someone who is 'interesting', someone with a little bit more to them than just their face and body, a degree of spunk / sex appeal and someone with a decent level of humility / human relations skills.

This pic taken at the coronation ball after the main event. Starting from me, you have Sanae Takeda - MU Japan, Tina Lutter - MU Japan (Australian), Ines Ligron, Hiroko Mima (Miss Japan), Adam Dedman (Japanese Interpreter), Ho Young (Korean TV), Gary Kam (Korean Movie / TV Producer)

One common theme that came up during the interviews were questions to see whether they really WERE the person they were portrayed to be in their bio's – did they really have the hobbies that they said they had? The passions etc. In the past some people have been caught out. On that note – if you say you are passionate about museums, make sure you know what museums exist in your home city!

Another theme that came out was trying to find out how 'vindictive' or competitive they might be. Questions like 'who would you most like see to lose out of all the girls?' or 'who would you most like to step into the ring with in a Thai Boxing match?'

Stuart Jay Raj and Riyo Mori - this time a little less casual

Anatomy of the Interview Session

Stuart Jay Raj on stage with Jerry Springer, Mel B (Scary Spice from the Spice Girls) and Nong Kaem (Miss Thailand)

There is a total of around 80 contestants. They are broken down into three groups. Each group is brought into the ballroom of the hotel (Diamond Bay Resort) where they are seated together at one end of the room. There are partitions up at the other end with two panels of around 5-6 judges seated – one group on the left and one group on the right. The girls are then broken into smaller groups in alphabetical order of country and taken up to the entry of the partitioned section and seated until it's their turn. Two girls go in at a time. They have 3 minutes to be questioned by each of the two panels of judges.

The Difference an Interpretation Can Make

An example of how the interpreter can make or break the chances of one of the contestants is highlighted by Nong Kaem's (Miss Thailand) question and answer.

The question was:

"How do you feel about girls how have had plastic surgery done to make their faces look more beautiful?"

Kaem's response was something like:

Stuart Jay Raj and Miss Thailand - Gavintra Photijak (Kaem)

"ถ้าเสริมหน้าเสร็จแล้ว และดูดีขึ้น ก็คงไม่มีปัญหา แต่ว่าถ้าเสริมหน้าเสร็จแล้ว แล้วก็ดูแย่กว่าเดิม หนู คิดว่าเป็นเรื่องที่น่าเป็นห่วง แต่ถ้าพูดถึงหนูเองนะ หนูก็โชคดีที่เกิดมาได้หน้าตาแบบนี้ หนูก็มีความพอใจกับสิ่งที่ธรรมชาติ ให้มา"

Direct Translation:

"If you've had your face operated on and it looks better than it originally looked, I don't have any problem with that. On the other hand, if you've had plastic surgery and look uglier than you did before the operation, it's a bit scary. As for me, I'm lucky to have been born with a face like this. I'm happy with what I was given by nature".

Idiomatic Translation

"If you've had a face-job and it's made you look better than before, great! On the other hand, you'd have to be a little bit worried if you went through an operation like that only to come out on the other side worse for wear. As for me, I'm happy with the cards that God has dealt me."

Are the two answers different?

In the second answer, I interpreted the facial expressions, idioms used, pauses in conversation etc. to try and evoke the same sort of mood that her Thai response would have evoked in a native speaker of Thai.

The Verdict

Kaem's response seemed to have gone down well with the judges.

Stuart Jay Raj, April Cedillo and Andrea Pate-Cazal

The Interpreter's 6'th Sense

Vicente De la Vega – CEO of Precision translation based in Miami Florida has been the official interpreting company for the Miss Universe pageants for around 24 years now. Each year he puts a team of some of the most talented linguists / polyglots that you'd ever want to meet. Some of them have done the pageants for many many years – and in doing that, and being so close to both the management and the girls, they get a pretty good idea of how things run – what the judges are thinking and who's likely to take the prize. Each day in our group, we'd have lists drawn up of who we thought would get into the top 15, top 10, top 5 and the ultimate winner. Depending on how we saw the girls perform each day, our lists would chop and change. The scary thing is, that from the many lists that we had going round, many of them were very accurate when compared to the final results.

The Precision Translation Interpreter group under Vicente De La Vega. Interpreters are in no particular order: Marija Grgurevic - Croatian, Mo de la Vega - Precision Translation, April Cedillo - Spanish, Younghee Kim - Korean, Wendy Manav - Portuguese / French, Maria Karounos-Shaun - Greek, Gregory Raynor - Russian, German, Polish and many others, Andrea Pate-Cazal - Czech / Italian, Adam Dedman - Japanese, Hande Buyuklimanli - Turkish, Shirley Chen - Chinese, Mark Pisoni - Italian, Vicente de la Vega - Spanish.

A Message to All Miss Universe Contestants - You're on Stage 24hrs a day!

Jennifer Chiong - Guatemala Centre Stage during the Swimsuit Show to Lady Gaga's song 'Let's Dance'

'Lady Gaga' - said to be named after the 80's song 'Radio Gaga', gave her retro, high energy performance of 'Let's Dance' for the swimsuit show. Had a funny experience where after hearing her song all day in the rehearsals, I was singing it to myself walking down the hallway to my room in the hotel. As I got to the chorus in my head, all of a sudden backup vocals came in right at the correct point! ... No, I was not going crazy - Lady Gaga was rehearsing in the room just 2 doors down preparing for the show the next day :) What are the odds of that happening??

One of the points that needs to be hammered home to all the Miss Universe contestants is that from the time you're selected in your home country until the time that the final pageant ends, you are on stage 24 hours a day no matter whether you're actually on the stage, taking a break, eating your meal, waking up in the morning, going to the bathroom, speaking on your mobile phone, meeting with friends / visitors – NO MATTER WHAT YOU'RE DOING, YOU'RE BEING JUDGED / SEEN BY SOMEONE. In light of that, when they say that you CAN dress casually, they want to see how you will interpret that? Are you still going to look elegant during grueling rehearsals, or will you look like something the cat dragged in? A bit harsh, but true. Some people like Miss Japan, Korea, Venezuela, Columbia, Mexico etc looked amazing around the clock, others looked like they were taking little Johnny to a Saturday football match.

Sun Lee (Korea), Korean Interpreter Younghee Kim and Hiroko Mima (Japan) - 2 of Ines' products for this year.

An Enigma – Ines Ligron

Ines Ligron is the Director for MU Japan and has trained and honed winners such as Riyo Mori, Hiroko Mima and others that have become house-hold names in both Japan and around the world. Some people love her and some hate her. You can't deny how powerful her opinions can be though – when she clicks 'send' on a posting to her blog (http://www.inesligron.com/), she will have hundreds of thousands of hits within a few hours. The directors of MU read her blog and I suspect this trickles down to the judges too. In Vietnam, there was even one girl and her entourage (that I think might have been one sandwich short of a full picnic basket) following her, Hiroko and Riyo in almost stalker fashion with a flag / blanket that they had toured around Japan with to get over 10,000 signatures). Very Japanese, very weird, but is testament to Ines' fame of late. Two of her girls this year – Japan and Korea were noticeably polished compared to many others there, and from what I hear, many other countries are knocking on her door to have her take their girls under her wing in 2009.

The business opportunities that this movement presents are amazing, and I believe are ripe for the picking for any linguistically / culturally in-tune mind with good human relations and facilitation skills. Watch this space!

Ines Ligron reunites with Riyo Mori (Miss Universe) after many months apart while Riyo was in New York City

Opportunity after Opportunity

Stuart Jay Raj and Jerry Springer. Jerry helped break the monotony a lot during the rehearsals with his jokes, songs and dances. I think some of the production crew were a bit over it, but hey - what'cha gonna do!? Jerry was blamed by some for Miss USA's fall this year, as he called her name twice - she was startled and tripped... or so the story goes. For full footage of it, you can check it out on Youtube here http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=_vJURP0XuQ0

Every day brought with it new fascinating people and new networking opportunities. From Jerry Springer to Mel B (Scary Spice from the Spice Girls), to TV producers, film makers, media moguls, blue-chip company CEO's, government leaders, fashion designers, photographers and people from every other back-ground imaginable – and of course one of the ladies that I think is the backbone to a lot of the event is Annette Cammer from the MU Organization. It was a networker's paradise.

As I mentioned in the beginning, my feet haven't touched the ground since leaving Vietnam. No sooner was I off the plane after having spent a couple of weeks with some of the most gorgeous women on the planet, than I found myself making my way to a fabrication plant to work with over 2,000 grease covered workers assembling an off-shore LPG gas installation.

Stuart Jay Raj and Nong Kaem (Thailand): Just after the main dress rehearsal, reminding Kaem to SMILE

From bikini-clad babes to grease-covered riggers, being a linguist and a polyglot has brought with it some of the most amazing experiences, an education money can't buy, and when combined with hard-skills from other sectors, has developed a product that is extremely rare and making / saving a lot of $$$ for companies around the globe.

I really hope that this story and future stories will inspire other people with a passion for people and languages, to ply it into a business that can be packaged, marketed and sold to the world.

I love this shot - taken by April Cedillo of two of the coreographers preparing before the dress rehearsal in sillhouette

Response to my “How I Would Learn Arabic” Letter

2008-08-17T08:05:00.002+07:00

I've just received permission from the author to publish his response to my previous post. Note that the response came several months after the original response to his letter was sent. I hope it's helpful to people studying Arabic out there. After reading it, I ran to my bookshelf and started dusting off my learn Arabic collection and began to learn some of the tri-literal root patterns.

___________________ Letter from Arabic Learning Student _____________________

Dear Stuart! Since you were so kind to take the time out to write and give me such valuable advice I thought I'd give you the update on how my immersion went. What helped from the onset was the fact that I also spoke Somali. The Somali language due to the influence of Islam borrowed many Arabic words, which meant I had many loan words at my disposal from the onset as well as the fact that pronouncing Arabic was not an Issue either. I stayed with a family of mine who lived out there and spoke nothing but Arabic around the household. This was half of my immersion. The second half and what I found the most beneficial of was the centre I enrolled in for studying Arabic (Al Diwan, Cairo), I was taught Arabic...in Arabic! All the classes were conducted in Arabic and there was an air of taboo for anyone who even thought about speaking English. All these factors combined on top of my almost obsessive desire to hear nothing and speak nothing but Arabic helped. Everything was geared to getting my tongue used to it, if I learnt how to say ''What is the time'' in Arabic I would walk around for half an hour and ask ten to fifteen different people what the time was until my tongue was used to it. I dreamt in Arabic and my English deteriorated a lot for it! However I found after spending two grueling months out there I could converse freely and easily on many topics, watch TV without a problem and lastly and most beneficial of all I began to understand the mindset of the people, it was as if a whole new world had opened up to me through being able to speak to them, something I believe that would of been absolutely impossible if I had spent my time abroad speaking nothing but English.

Arabic is supposedly very difficult however I found it to be a language that was set up very very mathematically in terms of grammar...(unlike good old English which I am glad I got for free! learning it would be a nightmare).

In terms of Vocabulary as well there are many easier aspects with comparison to other languagesdue to its tri-literal roots. Knowing the root words for example of Ka-Ta-Ba and you get four or five words of vocabulary for free, such as Kaatib(writer), Maktaba(library) etc. Coming back to London I will be continuing with my Arabic but I have now taken up studying French as well. French because I speak English natively I believe should be relatively less foreign compared to Arabic but finding a French environment will be a lot more difficult

One last concluding point: I believe I made such a tremendous amount of progress for my avoidance of English and its speakers, there were people who studied at the institute I did and were in Cairo....some longer than I had been, however they had made one problem which was to make friends at the institute who were themselves fellow English speakers...they organised outings together...went out together, you name it. That I believe had quite a negative effect in terms of their spoken Arabic.

In my opinion in a foreign country native speakers of one's language are to be avoided like the plague. I thank you once again for your advice as it was very useful. Yours (Arabic Learner)

How I would go about Learning Arabic

2008-08-13T08:54:00.005+07:00

I was just reading through a letter that I had sent someone a few months back in response to the question 'How would you go about learning Arabic'. After looking through the response I gave, I thought that it might be useful to post it on my blog as well.

Here goes:

……Excerpt from letter ……

… I would love to be able to immerse myself in Arabic... one language I've always had slated to get on top of.

I guess this is how I'd go about trying to become fluent in it:

Within the first week re-map my fingers to be able to touch-type in Arabic. Buy as many learn Arabic books - and linguistic books on Arabic to set a good foundation of words, grammar - and also differences between the different dialects of Arabic. I would focus on one main one, but at the same time, learn what the parallel ways of rendering the same meanings in other regional forms - i.e. Egyptian, Iraq, Saudi, UAE etc. If it were me, I think i'd probably start getting into other languages at the same time like Lebanese, Farsi etc, just to see how common words 'morph' or translate across these languages.

Would get online and build up a good network of Arabic speaking friends - preferably ranging from people who speak both Arabic and English, as well as people who don't speak any English. - Play what they teach you off on each of them - so each time you communicate with one of them, they notice a big improvement from the last time you spoke with them - this is great motivation and great for self confidence :)

Download as many podcasts, news shows, radio programmes and clips on Youtube that I could that would lead me to getting linguistic and cultural insights on the language - culture - and differences between how people from one place use it to another.

I would either with the aid of speech analyzer or not, sit with samples of native arabic speakers' speech, and try to mimic them.

Have a native speaker (preferably someone who has some idea of annunciation and / or linguistics), to try and bring my pronunciation to a point that sounds ver similar in rhythm, vowels, consonants and other voice qualities to a native speaker. I would probably start them off saying sentences that I don't even understand, so that I can just mimic (in my perception) meaningless sound blocks. That way, my mind doesn't get in the way trying to break it all down as I hear it. I just pronounce a whole sentence as I would one word.

I would build up as much vocab as I can in the shortest amount of time. From what I understand, Arabic being a Semitic language works on 3 particle roots. Learning these roots, and how to manipulate them is key to fluency.

Use mnemonics, stacking and any other crazy associations / memory techniques that you can to shove them into your long term memory.

Pick up a Pimsleur Arabic series to get you speaking the basics fast, and getting used to the rhythms of the language. I know that there are a lot of opponents to the Pimsleur method out there. It does take a long time to get just a handful of sentences under your belt, but I don't listen Pimsleur for just the sentences. I don't care too much for many of the standard 'Man on a bus tries to pick up local woman' themes. There are many other things that you can pick up from them though.

Hang out with Arabic speaking people that don't like using English.

Hope these points have helped. I guess the main thing is to make your entire life - everything you do - from eating, to going to the toilet, something that can teach you. My bathroom is a library. I counted books in over 50 languages between two bathrooms in my house this morning. It's a great place to study!

Blog Blackout

2008-06-28T17:52:00.002+07:00

I've just returned back to Bangkok to find that my blog has been blocked?? I would be interested to know if this is just in Thailand or elsewhere too. Drop me a message / mail to let me know whether you can load this blog from http://stujay.blogspot.com - pls include the date / time too. I'm interested to see what's going on. Stu.

Maestro of Many Tongues – 2 Magazine Article on Stuart Jay Raj Dec 07 – Jan 08 Issue by Jim Algie

2007-12-20T08:13:00.001+07:00

Last month, 2-Magazine's Jim Algie followed me around to a few meetings and events with clients and threw this article together. Thanks Jim!

If you haven't read 2-Magazine yet.... why not? Available in Thailand, Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong and more - 2-mag.com

Click here for PDF version of this article

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Page 99 - 102

2feature - 2magazine speaks to a man who is turning his multi-linguistic skills into the ABCs of a successful and multifarious business venture.

Thai is, like, well, it's a tonal language and they're much more difficult to learn than other languages, says the expat, using an alibi (or a drawn-out synonym for slothfulness) that you've doubtless heard many times before. Ask polyglot Stuart Jay Raj what is the major speech impediment for farangs learning Thai and you'll hear something different: "It seems foreign, but 60 to 65 percent of Thai is based on Sanskrit, which is part of the Indo-European group of languages that are cousins to Latin and Greek."

He ought to know. Fluent in more than a dozen languages (including Thai, Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia and Danish), the 32-year-old is on speaking terms with around 15 more tongues. Earlier today, before our interview at the Greyhound restaurant near Soi Aree, he'd just received an email in Thai from a Buddhist monk in Los Angeles who has been using Stuart's podcasts for RadioBangkok. Net to teach foreigners and natives about Thai language and culture at a temple. Stuart shook his head in disbelief and smiled when recounting the email and how the monk had said "it's funny that a foreigner knows more than some of us about our own language, but thank you".

By now, the communications expert should be used to such accolades. Only a few weeks before this rendezvous he'd been giving a presentation at a government office, crammed with the biggest of bigwigs from the Office of the Thai Senate and the National Language Office. Here were the folks you would see whispering in the prime minister's ear during an official overseas visit, or the first to greet visiting dignitaries in the Kingdom. Stuart was there to teach them presentation skills, so they don't say to Dick Cheney, "Do you like Thailand?" he mocks in pitch-perfect Tinglish. "You eat sapicy food?" (In order to loosen their tongues further, he's even planning on taking them along on photo shoots with supermodels.)

But his sense of humor often underlines a more serious sub-text. This was apparent when he asked the assembled throng about a Thai proverb that asks whether you should hit a cobra or an Indian first. Nearly everyone there shouts Ti khaek because the cliché (also used in Singapore and Malaysia and other countries) implies that the Indian will bite you first. From a different angle, it's a backhanded compliment about the hardnosed business techniques of Indian people.

Imagine the crowd's shock when Stuart revealed his father was Indian but that his mother was Australian and that he grew up Down Under. Because of his language skills most locals, upon meeting him, think he's half-Thai. Stuart likes to keep them guessing. "I don't call that lying. I call that an investment." Once the relationship has been solidified, he will tell them he's actually half-Indian. The usual reaction, he said with a laugh, is, "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

But anecdotes like these serve him well as a facilitator, cultural troubleshooter and linguistic bridge in his work throughout Asia with multi-tentacled conglomerates like Tesco, Pepsi and the UN. The parable about the Indian and the snake is one of those slippery stereotypes that will slither away if you try to grasp it. These stereotypes, rooted so deeply in our languages and cultures, cannot be uprooted, Stuart advises his clients, you just have to work around them.

As a boy growing up in Sydney, embedded in a community of Chinese-Indonesians, he quickly came to terms with Mandarin, Javanese, Bahasa Indonesian, and a dialect of West Timor. On a family trip to the United States, he returned with a renewed interest in his father's mother tongue of

(page break)

"60 to 65 percent of Thai is based on Sanskrit, which is part of the Indo-European group of languages that are cousins to Latin and Greek."

Hindi. At their house, his mother entertained her Thai friends. But most of all it was his maternal grandfather, a communications expert in World War II, who fostered in him a love of decoding systems, whether they were linguistic, electronic or a Rubik's cube – to the point where the two of them would communicate with each over by tapping out Morse code on the dinner table.

"On his deathbed, when he had Parkinson's disease, he had to teach himself to write again. Even then he could still draw the schematic diagrams for radio transceivers he used during World War II," said Stuart, the managing director of his own company, Kogneit, whose slogan is "Think, Create, Communicate".

Even though he still enjoys working with Australian companies, his assessment of his homeland is spiked with a few wry asides. "Nice car, nice mortgage, nice divorce, nice psychiatrist bills. A lot of Aussies feel that the government owes them something. But there's an edge to life over here [in Thailand], so if you don't perform you die."

For him, what Aussies call the "tall poppy syndrome" is a double-edged sword. In one way, it's meant to keep people on an even footing. In another, it discourages anyone with lofty ambitions by ensuring they get cut down to size.

But there's no question that his homeland gave him a foot up on the ladder of learning that your average Bulgarian or Cambodian would never have gotten a toehold on.

His academic pursuits on both sides of the lectern – doing a double major in applied linguistics and political science, and later teaching Southeast Asian studies at Griffith University in Brisbane – was the 'seed money' for the windfall he's now reaping. A recent two-week seminar he led in Beijing was business as usual for the linguist. Switching back and forth from Hindi to Mandarin to English, Stuart had to teach a group of urban transport professionals how to make their language, presentations and materials more street level so they're comprehensible to the people on the ground.

In action he's a dynamic performer who comes off as part-businessman (the three-piece pin-striped suit) and part entertainer (the pop star's tendrils of gelled-up hair). During the presentation for high-ranking Thai bureaucrats, he kept the more straitlaced scholars enthralled by throwing them tidbits of knowledge – the rolling r's Thais use do not actually exist in classical Thai; they were an invention of the aristocracy – along with a few Indian-style head wobbles for comic relief; and a high-energy floor plan that saw him rarely sit down or stop moving. His references to "popular culture" (if that isn't an oxymoron), in a slideshow containing images of George Bush, Britney Spears and Chairman Mao, which was intended to show how we judge people by how they speak, kept the presentation from ascending the steps of the Ivory Tower and disappearing into the ether of higher learning.

His entertainer's flair stems partly from his many years as a jazz pianist. With the ROL Trio, he has jazzed up numerous nights at local venues like the FCCT and Tokyo Joe's. The group's name is an acronym of its members' surnames: R for Raj; O for Kenro Oshidari, the group's bassist and main songwriter; and drummer Dale Lee, the owner of Coffee Works in Thailand. Since Kenro is working for the UN now in Africa, coordinating some tens of thousands of people, the group has been on a sabbatical for a while. But expect them to swing back into action with a new bassist in 2008.

Even when speaking about jazz, his obsession with communication remains on the tip of his tongue. He doesn't believe that people are necessarily more predisposed to using either the creative or the analytical sides of their brain. By way of an example, he argued that all music which "is pleasing to the ear is also mathematically perfect".

It's the kind of insight that Stuart specializes in.

And that's the direction he sees his career and company moving in – what he calls the "Stuart Jay Raj brand" – bringing together big business and small enterprises, high-brow scholasticism and middle-brow populism, NGOs and the UN, into an all-over-the-map career that could sport a slogan like "Unite and Conquer."

Now how would you translate that into Mandarin and brand it in Russia?

Check out Stuart's blog at http://stujay.blogspot.com to find out, among other things, how he attempted to learn Vietnamese in just three weeks.

Stu Jay Raj appears on Tom Mintier’s Tonight Show

2007-10-20T00:52:00.001+07:00

In October 2007, I had the honour of appearing on CNN's veteran correspondent's Tom MintiersTonight Show on True Visions television. We recorded an interview over 2 x ½ hour shows that went to air on the first Wednesday and Friday of October.

Here's the direct link to the Youtube playlist if you have problems viewing the embedded object below.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=475EA5F3F02D51EE

During the interviews we cover a lot of ground. I've embedded the playlist link here and have listed the topics from each segment for easy referral below.

Happy viewing!

Show 1 Segment 1

Introduction of Stuart Jay Raj
Is there money in being a linguist?
A corporate buffer - Business to Business, Business to Government, Government to Government
Shortwave radios
How long does it take to learn Thai?
Chinese Tones vs. Thai Tones - Yin Yang tones
Middle Chinese, Ancient Chinese, Southern Chinese Vs. Thai
What are tones?
Thai Tones - There's no word in Thai for Tone
Developing an accent
Touch Typing in a new language - re-mapping your fingers
Vietnamese added to the language list

Show 1 Segment 2

Learning to speak Vietnamese on short notice
"I'll hire you to learn a language and then teach me"
The connections of Vietnamese with Thai, Chinese and more
Sleeping dictionaries?
Internet and language learning - new learning techniques
Creating a virtual foreign world for language learning
The internet shows specimens of spoken language in written form
Google and language learning
Laughing on the Internet - 55555
Blogging and discovering synergies- http://stujay.blogspot.com
Avoiding Linguists
Separating what they say they're doing with what they're really doing
Dale Carnegie
Converting language and culture into dollars

Show 1 Segment 3

Stuart Jay Raj the author
Cracking Thai Fundamentals
Bridging the gap between language, culture and business
How did you learn Bahasa Indonesia / Mandarin?
Floobenflahter analogy
Are languages really that foreign?
Demystifying Chinese
Speaking Thai like a Thai ain't easy
Sweating blood over learning grammar
Learning more than native speakers
Polyglot Children - bilingualism / multilingualism
What language is used at home?
Speaking to the heart
What did you speak growing up?
Italian through pictures
Kanji Cards - Japanese and Chinese Flash Cards

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Expatriates in Thailand / Foreign Land
You've become proficient already? Great, now SHUT UP!
English Mandarin Cantonese in Hong Kong
Language is the Key to Access the people who are otherwise inaccessable
Indians in Thailand
Political Correctness
Profit and Return

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Body Language / Unspoken Versus Spoken Language
Kreng Jai
Working with Thais
Motivation in the Workplace?
Does an Open Door Policy work?
Hardware vs. Software of using Language
Indians in Thailand
Political Correctness
Australians - Expatriates - Tall Poppy Syndrome
Stratified Thai Society
English is a Powerful Buiness language?
Ignorance is bliss
Multilingual Facilitation - Chinese, English, Bahasa Indonesia
Thinking in Meanings
Translation and Negotiation
Australian Joint Ventures in Thailand / Asia
Negotiation / Negotiation Skills

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Moderntrade / Bottlers
Negotiations
Waters is the New Oil
Added value water
ASEAN Free trade area - transcending language and culture
Building strong business, political and local networks
Difference between Indonesian and the Thai?
Who are the best negotiators? Hong Kong? Shanghainese?
Negotiation in Thailand - Bargaining Power
Thai negotiators being conditioned by the west
Sign Language - Deaf children - Auslan - Signed English
Signlanguage programmes language into the body

Morse Code Games

Behind the Curtain - Stuart Jay Raj

Polyglot Tradecraft 101 - Social Engineering and Language Learning - A Case Study in Thailand

Stujay.com – Crazy Indian / Kiwi Video Clip

Learn Braille on Your Way to Work

How to Become ‘Gifted’ at Learning Languages – You’re Never too Old (I'm Spilling my Secrets!)

How to Become ‘Gifted’ at Learning Languages – You’re Never too Old

Stuart Jay Raj's Blog has Moved - Please Update Your Subscription Feed Links

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Interview with Polyglot Stuart Jay Raj - Part 2 for Womenlearnthai.com - Getting over the Mental Barriers of Language Learning

Interview with polyglot Stu Jay Raj…

Interview with Stuart Jay Raj - Part 1 - from 'Womenlearnthai.com' site

Interview with polyglot Stu Jay Raj…

Stuart Jay Raj TV Show เหนือชั้น 1000แปลก Taiwan 臺灣 Sexy Betel Nut Girls 檳榔西施 English Subs

เหนือชั้น1000แปลก - สาวสวยขายหมาก

Stuart Jay Raj - เหนือชั้น 1000 แปลก -Australian Outback Underground City - Coober Pedy

Part 1

Part 2

Stuart Jay Raj - เหนือชั้น 1000 แปลก - Episode - Bali Trunyan Corpses - Full English Subs Completed

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2

More Amazing Stories

Youtube Subtitles in English for Stuart Jay Raj's TV Show เหนือชั้น 1000 แปลก

Stuart Jay Raj เหนือชั้น 1000 Plaek - Thai TV Show - Ep 3 - Taiwan - Theme Restaurants - Sexy Nurses, Flight Attendants to Hello Kitty

Stuart Jay Raj เหนือชั้น 1000 Plaek - Thai TV Show - Ep 2 Bali Indonesia - Trunyan Dead Bodies - No Smell

Stuart Jay Raj เหนือชั้น 1000 Plaek - Thai TV Show - Ep 1 Taiwan Sexy Betel Nut Girls

Stuart Jay Raj's New TV Show - เหนือชั้น 1000 แปลก 'Neua Chan Phan Plaek' - 'The Amazing, The Extraordinary and the Downright Weird!' Thai Ch.5

How to Be a Beauty Queen and Influence People ... Stuart Jay Raj on the Language of Miss Universe

Somebody's Gotta Do It …

Putting the Odds in Your Favour at Miss Universe

Principle #1 – Don't criticize, condemn or complain.

IT'S ALL ABOUT BRANDING!

Girls … You're on Stage 24/7! The Miss Universe Competition is a Psychological Game of Stamina

Back to The 3 C's …

Blogs and Forums could Make You or Break You

Principle #2 – Give honest, sincere appreciation.

Look Out for Other People's Strengths

Principle #3 – Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Principle #4 – Become genuinely interested in other people.

Principle #5 – SMILE

Principle #6 – Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

Knowing Who's WHO

Principle #7 – Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.

Principle #8 – Talk in terms of the other person's interests.

Principle #9 – Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.

Building a Sustainable Brand for Yourself

Cracking Thai Fundamentals Video Clips - Stuart Jay Raj’s Thai Vowel Hand-signs

Video Clips

Mnidcraft Workshop This Sat 21-Sun 22 Feb 2009 @ Bangkok

Those iPhone Developers Might be the Funkiest, Schwaginist Geeks in Cupertino, but they Sure Ain’t No Linguists!

Why a Polyglot / linguaphile SHOULD own an iPhone

Podcasts, Language MP3's, Youtube and more

3 Steps to Drive a Polyglot to go Insane and Throw their Freaking iPhone off a Cliff!

3 Areas of iPhone Linguistic Insanity

Language Input

Input Keyboard Layout

Predictive Text

Indonesian Texting

Thai and other languages

Other notes on Input Languages

Fonts

APPLE EXECUTIVES TAKE NOTE

Jazz Lessons on Language - Improvisation 101 - Stuart Jay Raj’s Indic Script Compass

Find Your Way Around Indic Based Writing Systems (Devanagari, Tamil, Panjabi (Gurmukhi), Burmese, Bahasa Bali (Balinese), Bahasa Jawa (Javanese), Thai and Khmer (Cambodian) Without a GPS

Theme and Variation

That's the Problem with Turtles… It really shouldn't be that way!

Don't Count The Letters!

What Language Would You Prefer to Learn?

The Cardinal Points of the Mouth

대한민국! (Dae Han Min Kuk!)

Korea Meets India

Comparison of Similar Sound Shapes in Korean, Devanagari, Thai, Tamil and Gurmukhi (Panjabi)

The Key Actions of the Mouth

Colour Coding

Ready to Go!

Download "Stuart Jay Raj's Indic Script Consonant Compass v1.0 – Southeast Asian Version"

Just the Consonants Ma'am

Stuart Jay Raj – Subconsciously Embedding Morse Code, Sign Language Alphabet and most Importantly … how to GROOVE!

Where Jazz, Language and Ciphers Meet

Lyrics

Language / Learning / Mind / NLP

Beethoven's 5^th