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The House of Oojah Learn to Speak Russian Audio Books
  • Dr Paul Pimsleur
    Paul Pimsleur (1928 – 1972) was an authority in the field of applied linguistics. He taught French phonetics and phonemics at the University of California, Los Angeles after obtaining his Ph.D. in French and a master's degree in psychological statistics from Columbia University. After leaving UCLA, Pimsleur went on to faculty positions at Ohio State University, where he taught French and foreign language education. At the time, the foreign language education program at OSU was the major doctoral program in that field in the US. While at Ohio State he created and directed the Listening Center, one of the largest language laboratories in the United States. Pimsleur was later a Professor of Education and Romance Languages at The State University of New York at Albany, where he held dual professorships in Education and French. He was also a Fulbright lecturer at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, and a founding member of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. He did research on the psychology of language learning and in 1969 was Section Head of Psychology of Second Languages Learning at the International Congress of Applied Linguistics. His research focused on understanding the language acquisition process, especially the organic learning of children who speak a language without knowing its formal structure. For this, he studied the learning process of groups made of children, adults, and multilingual adults. The result of this research was the Pimsleur language learning system. His many books and articles had an impact on theories of language learning and teaching. In the period from 1958 to 1966, Pimsleur reviewed previously published studies regarding linguistic and psychological factors involved in language learning. He also conducted several studies himself. This led to the publication in 1963 of a coauthored monograph, Underachievement in Foreign Language Learning, which was published by the Modern Language Association of America. Through this research, he identified three factors that could be measured to calculate language aptitude: verbal intelligence, auditory ability and motivation. Pimsleur and his associates developed the Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery (PLAB) based on these three factors to assess language aptitude. He was one of the first foreign language educators to show an interest in students who have difficulty in learning a foreign language, while doing well in other subjects. Today, the PLAB is used to determine the language learning aptitude or even a language learning disability among secondary school students. Dr. Pimsleur died unexpectedly of pneumonia during a visit to France in 1972.
  • About the Thai Language
    Thai is the national and official language of Thailand and the mother tongue of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai-Kadai language family. The Tai-Kadai languages are thought to have originated in what is now southern China, and some linguists have proposed links to the Austroasiatic, Austronesian, or Sino-Tibetan language families. It is a tonal and analytic language. The combination of tonality, a complex orthography, relational markers and a distinctive phonology can make Thai difficult to learn for those who do not already speak a related language. Standard Thai, also known as Central Thai or Siamese, is the official language of Thailand, spoken by about 65 million people including speakers of Bangkok Thai . Khorat Thai is spoken by about 400,000 (1984) in Nakhon Ratchasima; it occupies a linguistic position somewhere between Central Thai and Isan on a dialect continuum, and may be considered a variant or dialect of either. In addition to Standard Thai, Thailand is home to other related Tai languages, including: * Isan (Northeastern Thai), the language of the Isan region of Thailand, considered by some to be a dialect of the Lao language, which it very closely resembles (although it is written in the Thai alphabet). It is spoken by about 15 million people (1983). * Nyaw language, spoken mostly in Nakhon Phanom Province, Sakhon Nakhon Province, Udon Thani Province of Northeast Thailand. * Galung language, spoken in Nakhon Phanom Province of Northeast Thailand. * Lü (Tai Lue, Dai), spoken by about 78,000 (1993) in northern Thailand. * Northern Thai (Lanna, Kam Meuang, or Thai Yuan), spoken by about 6 million (1983) in the formerly independent kingdom of Lanna (Chiang Mai). * Phuan, spoken by an unknown number of people in central Thailand and Isan. * Phu Thai, spoken by about 156,000 around Nakhon Phanom Province (1993). * Shan (Thai Luang, Tai Long, Thai Yai), spoken by about 56,000 in north-west Thailand along the border with the Shan States of Burma (1993). * Song, spoken by about 20,000 to 30,000 in central and northern Thailand (1982). * Southern Thai (Pak Dtai), spoken about 5 million (1990). * Thai Dam, spoken by about 20,000 (1991) in Isan and Saraburi Province. Many of these languages are spoken by larger numbers outside of Thailand. Most speakers of dialects and minority languages speak Central Thai as well, since it is the language used in schools and universities all across the kingdom. Numerous languages not related to Thai are spoken within Thailand by ethnic minority hill tribespeople. These languages include Hmong-Mien (Yao), Karen, Lisu, and others. Standard Thai is composed of several distinct registers, forms for different social contexts: * Street Thai : informal, without polite terms of address, as used between close relatives and friends. * Elegant Thai : official and written version, includes respectful terms of address; used in simplified form in newspapers. * Rhetorical Thai: used for public speaking. * Religious Thai: (heavily influenced by Sanskrit and P?li) used when discussing Buddhism or addressing monks. * Royal Thai : (influenced by Khmer) used when addressing members of the royal family or describing their activities. Many Thais can speak at only the first and second levels, though they will understand the others.