EDUCATION WITH MONDLY
Mastering Thai in Just One Month: My 155-Hour Journey
Learning the Thai language with Mondly for going from A2 to B1 with fun by earning exactly 55555 points during the challenge
The challenge has ended, and it’s time to recap the results and discuss the ups and downs that I encountered along the road. I called it “Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha Challenge.” This challenge has a very strange name, but there is a certain subtext to it.
The thing is that 5 in Thai sounds like “Ha,” and since I set myself the goal to score exactly 55555 points for a month, it turns out: ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. I thought it was a bit funny and a little creative at the same time.
This article has three main sections. The first part is about Mondly and why I chose to learn Thai with the app. The second part is more enjoyable than the first one because it focuses on the process of completing the challenge. Finally, In the third section of the article, you might read my conclusions. Are you ready?
Let’s fly then!
1. About Mondly
I’m quite familiar with many educational apps. I tried Duolingo and Puzzle English, but they were both for learning English and were from a long time ago. However, the first software I used to learn Thai was L-Lingo. I can’t recall the precise fee, but it was for life. That is, you pay once and can use it whenever you like.
I had already gone through the app at least twice — I needed to move on. But how? The issue is that Thai is not English or German, for which a thousand instructional programs have been developed.
The Thai language is an extremely rare language, and I couldn’t locate a suitable app. I had tried a couple of times, but all the apps were just out of another league.
Yet, all of a sudden, I saw a Mondly ad in my feed for learning Thai.
I was skeptical at first but eventually decided to give it a try. I’d been using Mondly’s free version for about two months. I took a free daily class and understood that one day I’d have to take Thai more seriously and pay for a subscription but later.
Why did I like it in the first place?
I love its approach.
As a teacher, I realize that it is crucial not to demotivate learners, and this app is made in such a way that encourages you and motivates you as much as possible. The app accepts typos and minor errors, with your answer highlighted in yellow and the correct answer suggested. This enables you to compare and remember the correct answer in the future.
Plus, I was impressed with the simplicity and the variety of exercises. They are balanced and done in such a way that very different types of questions during the weekly challenge or any other always come up in the perfect order. Besides, there are different hints for you to help.
For example, sometimes you need to write the name of something in Thai using suggested letters, as in the example above. However, if you can’t remember, you can always click on the underlined word, and it will show you the spelling. How wonderful is that?
I used the prompts whenever I needed to, but I tried to memorize and write from memory at least two characters, or better — three. If a word is underlined with two lines, it means you can click on the word and see some grammar, and you can also listen to the voice to learn pronunciation.
Frequently, to write a whole sentence, I didn’t hesitate to use Google Translate — I used it as often as needed.
If you copy letters consciously, you learn word spelling anyway.
There are many different types of tasks during each lesson. The themed sections contain the most difficult lessons, but they are also where I learned the most. Sometimes you have to write a whole word in Thai, sometimes a whole sentence, and I struggled the most with these two types of exercises.
The thing is, I’d never typed on a Thai keyboard layout before, and while I could spend a few minutes on one word at first, my skills improved over time, and by the end of the challenge, I knew where to look for letters and symbols: left, right, or center.
As I progressed through the lessons, I attempted to repeat the sentences until I could say the entire sentence without peeking at least once. Each section also includes an exercise in which you must record your voice, which is the funniest exercise for me.
I had a lot of fun imitating the female and low male voices during the dialogue; at those times, I couldn’t stop smiling.
It’s worth noting that Mondly allows you to skip the voice task and instead see a list of sentence construction words. I always did this in the office, and I practiced voice at home. To assist with this, in each exercise, you can change the Thai language to transliterated English letters with the tone symbol. I should say that it was very beneficial that I understood Thai tones.
Disadvantages of Mondly
Now, let me make a few observations that Mondli still needs to work on. First, the cell phone application does not work properly. I’m not sure how it works with other languages, but the mobile app isn’t very friendly to Thai yet.
After the app closed itself five times during the lessons, I decided to use only the desktop version instead of the mobile app. On my MacBook, the app never crashed during the entire challenge, but there is another issue.
The thing is, each type of exercise has a set number of points that a learner can earn. For example, in a daily lesson, you can earn up to 13 points but not less than 10 points. If you make five mistakes, you can start over because you will not receive any points.
This number of mistakes is applicable to any exercise.
You can earn up to 43 points in the weekly challenge and 153 points in the monthly challenge. However, when I had completed the same monthly challenge multiple times in a row, sometimes I was only given one or two points.
Yes, +1 or +2 points only.
I’m not sure why it happened, but I didn’t get nervous; instead, I continued to study and performed a new exercise with a poker face expression. I just changed the exercise and learned something different or started a new month from the past years on Mondly.
I won’t go into detail about each type of exercise and assignment because it would make the article too long, but you can see the GIF below, where I’ve compiled the various types of questions and assignments.
2. Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha Challenge
Even though I’d lived in Thailand for years, I didn’t really learn the language because my social group consisted of Thais who spoke English. As a result, I didn’t see much reason to enhance my Thai skills. Thus, I’d rate my Thai level before the Challenge as a weak A2.
That example, I could ask basic survival questions and give youngsters a lesson using simple terms and body language. I knew the main rules for reading Thai, and I remembered the majority of Thai letters and symbols (74 in Total). So I was able to read and write Thai a little bit.
Why did I start learning Thai a bit hard this time?
Well, there are many reasons for that, but I would like to tell you a few. First of all, I decided to find a new job, and I logically assumed that speaking Thai in Thailand would be beneficial for me, right?
“I think so,” the reader nodded.
Secondly, I realized that one of the prerequisites for obtaining a Thai residence was the ability to speak and understand Thai.
“Is there the prospect of forgetting the headache of visas forever? Hmm, great motivation, then,” I thought.
Now, let me walk you through my Challenge day by day.
February 1–5
Derani — Invincible feat. Niklas Wagner (epic orchestral music)
The first stage was an adrenaline rush with epic music from the ‘Epic Music for Studying’ playlist on Spotify and a competitive spirit in me. In the beginning, I could feel the competition, and that energy drove me forward. As a result, over the first five days, I easily accumulated points and training hours, which is a more meaningful indicator of my engagement.
How could I spend so many hours learning while working?
Well, I’d just come home from work, lock myself in my room, put on something epic like that, and begin learning Thai. It was interesting and engaging but also a bit tedious.
I’d get up early before work to learn Thai. Sometimes, I got up at 4 a.m., sometimes at half past five, but mostly around 5 a.m. I’d get up, shower, drink coffee, and begin learning the language. I had a starry garland burning in my room, which added to the coziness and fairytale atmosphere every morning.
Then, as dawn broke and it was time to leave for school. The motorcycle ride to school takes about 5–7 minutes, so I didn’t spend much time on the road. Yet, I learned Thai at work between classes and over lunch. When I got home, I also learned Thai. I spent all weekend learning Thai, and I learned it even sometimes in the bathroom.
The point is that I learned Thai almost everywhere I had the opportunity.
My noise-canceling earphones were extremely helpful because they allowed me to ignore background noise both at school and at home. Of course, some people distracted me sometimes anyway, but I tried to explain that I had things to do and kept learning.
While learning the language, I adjusted the sound so that the music in the background and the narrator’s voice overlapped harmoniously. However, on the fifth day, I experienced my first mental breakdown when I realized I would be competing against myself. Yes, I noticed that the second place was not able to catch up with me — my competitive spirit faded away.
I felt devasted and with no energy; however, I knew why I started this challenge — I pushed myself forward with a smile and focused expression on my face.
February 6–12
I had a slight upswing on the sixth, followed by another downswing on the seventh. I realized that 6 pure hours of learning is around 8–10 hours, in fact. Why? Because I needed to drink coffee sometimes, sometimes walk, sometimes dance, sometimes meditate or just sleep for a while to recharge my physical and mental resources.
My job as a teacher at school was taking its toll, and the changes in my life were also putting pressure on my back as I was changing jobs. One day, I was totally exhausted in the evening, and I was unable to read Thai. Can you imagine that? I simply was not able to retrieve information from my memory, and I called that evening a day.
Since that moment, I realized that 6 pure hours of learning a day was a bit tough, and I changed my plan — I started spending 5 hours or so. Yet, I was able to overcome myself, and as if as a reward, the 7th and 12th passed in quick succession. I added some soft music and mantras to slow down a bit.
Those days were much easier because, by this point, I had memorized a large number of words and understood how to manage the balance between earning points and spending hours learning. I realized that mere points don’t add up to knowledge, and it was very important for me not just to complete this challenge but to develop myself as much as possible.
As an English teacher, I clearly realize that if you want to read better — you should read; if you want to speak better — you should speak. So, in order to improve my speaking skills, I repeated words after the app voices aloud, which took a lot of energy.
In my humble opinion, speaking and listening are the most difficult skills in any language.
Yet, when it became easy for me to speak some sentences, I began to complicate the challenge for myself. How? I started honing my handwriting skills and learning Thai hymns because I didn’t see any sense in repeating the phrases that I had memorized.
February 13–22
Music: Two Steps From Hell — United We Stand, Divided We Fall (Archangel)
Hours turned into days. Whether it was the cumulative effect or simply a bad day, yet, the 13th day was the most difficult point during the challenge. I realized that many of the exercises had already become routine, in the sense that I had memorized the words and had to tap the correct answer occasionally without much effort.
By this point, I had changed my musical preferences and began listening to both regular and Buddhist mantras. I was also listening to calm music for meditation. It helped me focus on the present moment and avoid being distracted by external factors.
As a reward for this, February 14th was the best day of the year thus far. And, no, we’re not talking about romantic moments or something like that, but I did give gifts to wonderful people before leaving school and was overjoyed to see their smiles.
I chose this day so that they could easily recall when I gave the gift. That day, when I got home, there was a strong temptation to do nothing. It had been a wonderful day, and my Ego wanted to spend the evening relaxing and savoring the positives, but I couldn’t.
Being a bit of a Buddhist, I told myself, “I was hard and sad — I was moving toward my goal. Now I’m happy and light— I’m still moving toward my goal.”
I was determined, regardless of emotions and external factors.
On February 15, when I was halfway through, I began making my assignments more difficult for myself. I began mentally writing the words on the screen as if with an invisible hand because they were very simple, and I already knew them backward and forward. In this way, I attempted not only to memorize the spelling but also to stimulate the areas of the brain responsible for writing.
On the other hand, I stopped learning the Thai hymn, so I couldn’t fit everything together. I didn’t know how to document the time I spent learning the Thai hymn and other Thai sentences. I guess I will continue learning the hymn in March. Instead, I started writing some words and sentences from the app while it was open, so the app counted the time I spent on writing.
Throughout the challenge, I had many ideas for how to improve the app, and I even wrote a little about it on Mondly. The bottom line is that I was severely lacking a Favorites tab or something like that.
Why?
The thing is, in almost every exercise or section, I felt compelled to repeat certain phrases and sentences separately. However, I couldn’t find such a function in Mondly that would give me the opportunity to learn some phrases separately and get points for that.
As a result, the efficiency of language learning had decreased by this stage. It turned out that I had memorized a large number of words, but it was impossible to choose the words and sentences that I wanted to study further.
At this stage, earning points turned into a chore. Having said that, I was still very interested in the themed sections. In these sections, points were earned slowly, but the study time was spent to maximum advantage.
Yet, this demonstrates that the method is extremely effective; on the other hand — it could be improved.
February 23–29
Music: Ride to Glory (No Vocals)
My schedule had been set up like a Swiss watch over the last week. I spent an hour and a half scoring points before dawn. I listened to music and pressed buttons automatically in those minutes, making little progress, but I needed the points for the challenge.
During my breaks at work, I took more complex lessons divided into sections. I wrote out words and sentences, and during those times, I really developed, but I didn’t earn enough points as new words and constructions appeared — I made mistake after mistake.
Sometimes I’d make a mistake and have to close the lesson to restart it. At that moment, I realized I wasn’t earning points, and the learning time wasn’t counting, but it was critical for me that I learn unfamiliar words rather than skip over them. In addition, I set myself the goal of passing all sections with three stars, which means no mistakes.
During the last week of the challenge, I kept reminding myself that I needed to plan the points for exercises ahead of time in order to earn exactly 55555 points.
55426 Point Milestone
When I was 129 points away from the coveted figure, I devised a concrete strategy for gaining them. Because a maximum of 13 points can be earned in a single day’s exercise, I calculated that I would need to pass 12 exercises without error. However, I had to make one deliberate mistake on the final run.
I held a piece of paper in front of me and systematically wrote it down with a pen to avoid making a mistake, but then something unexpected happened.
When I needed to score the last 12 points, there was a glitch — I only got one — screenshot!
I thought, “Drama! Action! Hollywood!”
Adrenaline hit my head like a hammer of fate, and my heart began pounding.
I felt stuffy — my blood pressure most likely increased. I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked around — my palms were fogged up.
At this point, I felt a little dizzy, realizing that if something like this happened further, I wouldn’t be able to earn the 55,555 points I needed.
The image was blurring, so I started breathing deeply and concentrating as much as possible.
I had lost track of time, and now I had to make two deliberate mistakes — no more, no less.
I felt every beat of my heart as it was in slow motion — Boom, Boom, Boom.
Yet, I pulled myself together!
I started another daily lesson, and I purposefully pressed the second mistake, then completed the day’s exercise and waited in anticipation…
I froze as the app rumbled and showed an animation.
And there they are — 11 points!
However, I needed to ensure that I had scored exactly 55,555 and that Mondly had made no errors.
At this point, intrusive thoughts were pounding in my head like rain beating its wet fingers on the window, but I just took a deep breath and tried not to think at all.
Then I look and see the desired number, and I restart the app to be certain — the same numbers on the screen — adrenaline, euphoria, and joy wash over me like the flow of Niagara Falls.
I exhaled, took about five screenshots, then stood up and, with a wide grin on my exhausted face, started walking — I nailed this one.
I was simply happy…
Music: Monarch Butterfly
When I came home after work, I lay down on the bed and turned on my neon lights, air conditioner, and fan to simulate an outdoor setting with the wind blowing in different directions. I turned on my music, closed my eyes, and gazed at the sky.
Yes, I had my eyes closed, but I imagined myself lying on a hill beneath a tree resembling the one in the film “The Lion King” and gazing up at the stars.
“I did it,” I thought to myself, “how much I’ve learned all this month…”
I was in a state similar to nirvana: happy and peaceful, but still exhausted.
3. Conclusions
So, how do I assess my Thai language proficiency now?
Well, it’s not so easy to evaluate. First of all, I’ve significantly increased my vocabulary and perception of Thai speech, as well as improved my reading skills. Yet, I cannot claim that my speaking ability is B1 due to insufficient practice and the lack of a feature that would allow me to select individual words and phrases for further practice.
I realize that I need to polish what I already have in my brain, and I believe that having a larger vocabulary will help me become fluent faster.
In other words, I haven’t achieved B1 status in speaking, but I do have that level of language in front of me.
Nonetheless, I believe that Mondly is the best app for learning Thai, and 50$ for one year sounds attractive to me. I have not tried other languages, but I believe the approach is the same everywhere: very effective and playful.
I also like the design, though Mondly requires additional work on some content. I found some mistakes, and I always smiled when a female voice said Khrap, which is common among men, but these are minor issues.
I feel that Mondly should try to implement this approach and app in education around the world. I believe that it would be better for children to compete in these points and leaderboards, which provide real knowledge in addition to entertainment, and companies would make millions, right?
I think it’s not hard to set up half booths in the auditorium and give everyone noise-canceling headphones. The entire society would benefit.
Mondly is great but there are issues to work on.
P.S. While writing the article, I noticed that some old lessons still have 2 stars which means that I forgot to redo some exercises. I failed to get three stars everywhere. However, this is due to inattention.
