The first time I ever “got” a Thai inside joke was a pretty big deal for me. Most foreigners live here with a more-or-less vague understanding of the behind the scenes to-and-fro that goes on, but when it comes to the double entendres and the wordplay, most of us are in the dark.
It’s no secret that my Thai is embarrassingly bad. I mean, I can get through the day without using English and can usually get my idea across in broken Thai, but after 12 years it should be much better. To put it in perspective, if I met a guy in Canada who had lived there for 12 years and spoke English at the same level I speak Thai, I’d think he was retarded. I could blame it on the fact that every job I’ve had has used English as its operational language, or that every Thai friend I […]
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not really in a position to be writing about the nuance and flourish of the Thai language, but as I continue to slowly force my way through the thick membrane of ภาษาไทย (the Thai language) into its gooey center (sorry for that disturbing metaphor), I keep noticing cool little details and shortcuts that make me appreciate the language even more. Case in point – I was in a meeting at work the other day and happened to look at the tissue box on the table and noticed that the Thai […]
Living in Bangkok is such a dichotomous existence. On one hand, your street smarts, social acumen, and moral judgement get tested and honed to such a razor's edge that any existence you had back home seems soft and closeted in comparison. But on the other hand, parts of your life become black holes as certain skills get pushed so far into the background that you wake up one day and realize that you don't know how to do simple tasks anymore. I was thinking of this the other day as I sat in the back of a taxi when the realization hit me: "I have no idea where I am."
Dealing with condo management is an ongoing ordeal in any country, and Thailand is no different. Throw in the language differences and you have a recipe for either disaster or hilarity – thankfully, I was faced with the latter choice a few years ago. I could have sworn I put this up on my blog a long time ago but can’t find it anymore; at any rate, as I’m moving out of my apartment and into a new place at the end of the month, I thought I’d post this again as a send-off to the wacky management of my old condo, and an example of how awesome it can be when frustration gets channeled through a language barrier.
Google's a pretty neat tool, and it's fascinating to see how it's evolved over the past ten years. When I first came to Thailand in 2001, I did all my searches using either Lycos, HotBot, or Excite, but now I - indeed, most of the world - simply uses Google. It's pretty amazing how far their shadow stretches, touching pretty much every corner of the internet, no matter how insignificant. For non-insansely smart computer geeks, it's a bit hard to wrap your mind around exactly how access to all this seemingly minor information can congeal into a useful whole, but a new Google tool called Ngram consolidates an incredible amount of information - 200 years' worth, to be precise - and lets you search. Just for fun, I did some popular searches for Thai terms.
Every place has rules - from your school to your job to your girlfriend's apartment, there are just certain tenets you need to follow if you don't want to get a boot to the curb. Countries work the same way. Some rules are legal, some are moral, and some belong to that long and growing list of unwritten rules that govern different parts of our life (such as the one saying that male friends can't touch knees in a movie theater). Below are some of the rules that you need to live by if you plan on staying in Thailand for any length of time. Of course, my list is by no means comprehensive, but it's a start.
The longer you live in a place, the finer the details you begin to notice. My first year in Bangkok was all about learning how the street food system worked, tuk-tuks, social etiquette and the language - things that you notice every day. But after a while, I started noticing the smaller details, the things that you only pick up on if the bigger stuff has become second nature. One of those things is the Thai immodesty when using the word 'shit' and the way in which it's utilized in everyday language.
I've lost count of how many times I've left Thailand for a vacation back home, only to have someone ask me, "So how much Taiwanese do you speak?" When I tell them that I don't speak a single word, the quizzical look I get is almost worth the explanation I have to give. Thais, of course, speak Thai, of which the spoken part is a branch of the Tai-Kadai language, which originated in Southern China. The written part of Thai is based on Khmer, which is based on Indic, which is based on ancient Sanskrit. So, as you can see, it's quite confusing - and we haven't even talked about writing or speaking yet.