Go South, Young Man!

South...or east. Far East, perhaps.

About a month ago I had an epiphany: I could sell everything and move to Mexico or Thailand.

Or anywhere, really, but I already know I love Mexico with it's slower pace of life, vast stretches of beautiful rural mountains and plains, wonderful people and inexpensive cost of living. I always feel more relaxed within minutes of crossing the border. I could even live in my car and keep heading south to Costa Rica or even Panama, stopping wherever I felt like it and staying until deciding to leave.

And Thailand looks at least as good, maybe better with it's incredible beaches, fascinating jungles, Eastern culture plus all the unknowns since I've never been south of Hong Kong in Asia.

Well, it turns out that now may not be the best time to leave. With the housing market downturn, this is a terrible time to sell real estate, and I'll be teaching at Utah Valley University in the fall and am looking forward to that. I've never made it past about 65% decided to pick up and go, but in the mean time, while waiting, just in case, I've begun studying Thai.

I dropped by B&N but they didn't have the kind of language book I wanted (after studying so many languages, I have clear preferences), so I've turned to the internet and found a few good resources.

Just in case you've been thinking the exact same thing as me, I'll post my favorite sites so far:

• Wikipedia gives a nice, quick background and the main concepts of how the language fits together. Read this first and everything you study afterward will make more sense. If some of that linguistic stuff goes over your head, just skip it.
• If you plan to learn Thai, you'll definitely want to learn the Thai alphabet. It's phonetic and includes a few sounds that are allophones for English speakers (we consider them to be variations of the same sound and don't recognize the difference).
  
• This Wikitravel Thai phrase list is NOT the greatest way to learn a language but does supply a useful list of phrases to memorize.
• I haven't watched any of the videos yet, but this Thai podcast site has me anticipating good things. After all, you can't really learn Thai without hearing the five tones and learning to speak them correctly. Many other sites let you click on one word at a time to listen to the pronunciation, but this is both tedious and less effective because you don't get to listen to the words in context of a full sentence.

Be sure to keep in touch so you'll have my address in southern Thailand and can come visit!

Just think: white sand beaches, clear water, world-famous rock climbing, great food, nice people, great prices, unforgettable adventures...if you weren't already thinking the exact same thing as me, maybe you should start!