Living In Thailand Blog
Wednesday 18th June 2008
The other point I wanted to make from yesterday's story was a language one. The charming Malaysian who took a shine to my little sister and then tried to rent her for sex for a short time, spoke to her in Thai. This surprised her and she reported back that he spoke Thai very well.
However, when I went through with her exactly what happened, he asked her two exceedingly easy questions consisting of five words only.
This kind of thing has happened a lot in the past. For example, the receptionist at my apartment building might tell me that another farang speaks Thai very well (poot geng) but when I hear him, I realise he only knows a couple of stock phrases and probably only has about a 50 word vocabulary, if that.
The Thais are a very modest race and, to use a couple of idioms, they are much happier singing the praises of other people than blowing their own trumpets. This is in stark contrast to Western culture where farangs in Thailand spend half their time trying to get the better of and outdo other farangs in every possible area.
Clever Thais rarely tell you about their own ability but are much happier talking about the ability of other people, and it's the same with beautiful girls who will much rather tell you how beautiful other girls are than say anything about themselves.
I was speaking to one of my students about this yesterday and what she told me was quite surprising. This modesty, apparently, is not just for the sake of being modest. There is a far more pragmatic reason.
When she was young, she told me, her parents advised her that if she boasted to other people she had more than them, or was better than them, or knew more than them, she couldn't then ask them for anything. However, if she remained modest and humble towards other people, she could then ask them.
I found that little statement very interesting and it certainly fits in with other Thai thinking. On the outside, the Thais seem the most modest, humble, unassuming race of people that you could ever meet, but there is a lot of guile; they are perceptive, clever and quite crafty.
The other reason you often hear Thais saying that foreigners can speak Thai well, when they can't, has to do with expectation levels. Thais begin with a zero expectation level that foreigners can speak or read any Thai.
Therefore, five words exceeds that expectation by a very long way and the compliments start to come gushing out. Their expectation level, however, is in many cases a binary switch. They either expect foreigners to speak no Thai at all, or to speak it like they do.
When you start to speak quite a lot of Thai, but it is still a long way from being fluent, that is when you start to hear negative comments because then your ability doesn't meet their expectations. You start to hear comments that you don't speak well (poot mai geng), but the guy who knows five words speaks very well (poot geng).
Tuesday 17th June 2008
Iss, my ex-girlfriend and now my combined best friend and little sister, was back for a few days at the weekend. She used to have a problem with overcrowded teeth (more teeth than a horse, I used to tell her) and decided to get it fixed about four years ago.
The dentist removed about four teeth and applied braces to distribute her remaining teeth more evenly. Many Thai girls like to wear dental braces as some kind of a fashion accessory but hers actually perform a useful function.
Ever since this started, she has had to make monthly visits to see the dentist and, since she went back home to live, she stays with me for a few days when her appointments are due because it is more convenient.
I enjoy her visits immensely. It's all very platonic but we just get along very well and share the same sense of humour. We joke and tease each other constantly and generally enjoy each other's company.
She went to the dentist on her own on Saturday and when she came back she told me she had been harassed by a Chinese Malaysian. The guy had first asked her, in Thai, where she was going (bpai nai?).
I wouldn't recommend asking a stranger on the street in London or New York (or even in Bangkok) where they are going, but in provincial Thailand it's not that uncommon. To be polite, she just told him bpai tiaew which is an evasive answer you can give without really saying anything.
She continued on her way, but only to find the guy had followed her. He then asked her, "bpai hong mai?" - will you go to my (hotel) room?
Iss is small in frame but quite feisty. With this, she let rip at the guy in English asking why he was talking crazy with her. I wasn't there to witness any of this but I hope she made a scene and I hope he felt very small. What happened didn't actually shock or surprise me.
When she used to work in a salon, Chinese and Indian Malaysians coming in for foot massages, haircuts, or whatever else would freely ask the girls in the shop if they were available for prostitution and I've spoken to lots of salon girls elsewhere who have told me that these guys just walk up to them and ask, "How much?"
They seem to be under the impression that once they cross the border, every single Thai female is available for paid sex. It's not only salon girls. I know very respectable, highly educated women and girls from very good families who have been approached in the same way.
And it's not just Chinese and Indian Malaysians. A Hong Kong Chinese woman I knew told me about some problems she had experienced at Patong beach in Phuket. She owned a golfing business in Hong Kong and had made a small fortune.
It was enough for her to be able to retire early and she loved Thailand. She spent a large part of each year in Thailand and was looking to buy a property. While in Phuket, however, she had been physically molested by some farang tourists who, I assume, mistook her for being Thai.
The other complaint from Thai women who travel abroad is the grief they get at immigration, especially if they travel alone, because they are suspected of entering countries just to engage in prostitution.
It's not pleasant but the Thais are not exactly blameless. It seems that they want to be able to have their cake and eat it. The official image is of a very conservative society where prostitution is illegal, and therefore doesn't officially exist, but everyone knows it is rampant and probably no other country is better known in this respect than Thailand.
When, in 1993, Longman's dictionary referred to Bangkok as being a place where there are a lot of prostitutes, the Thais were furious. But, at the same time, it generates an enormous amount of money and the industry has made a lot of Thais (not the actual girls directly involved) very rich.
If the country genuinely wanted to eradicate the reputation it has, it could. However, that will cost a lot of livelihoods and I can't see it happening any time soon, especially when there are so many poor, downtrodden girls from the northeast only too willing to enter the oldest profession.
When I lived in England, my neighbours on one side were a mixed English/Thai couple. I am still friends with them and she is a very high class girl but every time I spoke to the old lady who lived on the other side, I had to endure the most small-minded, racist opinions about mail-order brides, etc.
What can you do if someone asks your Thai friend/girlfriend/wife on the street if she is available for paid sex, or if she gets grilled by an immigration official on suspicion of being a prostitute, or if people imply she is a mail-order bride?
Unfortunately, not a lot. I just try to rise above it and accept that there are a lot of ignorant people in the world who do not have a single clue about the real Thailand.
Saturday 14th June 2008
I felt obliged to assist a couple of British backpackers today who were having problems with a Thai trying to rip them off. I don't usually do this sort of thing but what was happening was way out of order and I felt extremely sorry for them.
I was in a travel agency with Iss getting prices for tours to the Genting Highlands in Malaysia. The backpackers were trying to go somewhere (I didn't know where at the time) but were obviously unhappy with the Bt13,000 fare they had been quoted.
I couldn't think of a destination that might cost Bt13,000 to get to. From southern Thailand, you can get up to Bangkok or down to Singapore for about Bt800 by bus and if they were going back to the UK, it would be a lot more than Bt13,000. Where was the mystery destination?
Intrigued by this, I asked them and found out they only wanted to go to Kuala Lumpur.
With thousands of Malaysians arriving in town every single week of the year, KL is an extremely popular destination, there are loads of buses that ply that route, and I knew for a fact that the bus fare should only be about Bt600.
I told them where they needed to go, flagged down a tuk-tuk, and told the driver where to take them. About an hour later, I went to the place I had sent them to see how they were getting on. They hadn't been able to get on a bus straight away but had at least managed to book seats later in the evening. The fare was Bt600 each, as I had predicted; slightly better than Bt6,500 each.
The previous place had tried to get them to charter one of their minivans in a private charter arrangement, hence that was why the price was so high. But they didn't want a private minivan; they just wanted to get to KL as cheap - and as soon - as possible.
The guy who was trying to rip them off knew about the other options but wasn't prepared to tell them. It was a case of them taking his expensive minivan or nothing.
They at least had the sense to say no but at that point, they didn't know where to go next. Therefore, it was probably quite fortunate for them that I had overheard what was going on. I know they would have sorted themselves out eventually but they would probably have wasted a lot of time.
They had just arrived in a strange place and, like many tourists, didn't speak a single word of Thai. Neither did they have any local knowledge.
After living in Thailand for a while, picking up local knowledge and language ability, it's easy to forget what it can be like in their position but seeing the looks on their faces reminded me of similar situations I have experienced in Thailand in the past.
I remember similar things happening to me in Thailand a few years ago. On one occasion, I wanted to go to Krabi and was told the only way to get there was by minivan. They managed to get about 17 people in the van - along with all the luggage - and it was one of the most unpleasant journeys I have ever experienced.
I had asked about big buses going to Krabi but the travel agents wouldn't answer my question. Thais are very good at turning a deaf ear when they don't want to tell you something. Going on a big bus might have taken a bit longer but it would have been far more comfortable (and safer). However, the travel agents' first priority was to fill seats in their minivans so they wouldn't tell me about buses.
This kind of follows on from what I wrote yesterday about trusting salespeople, but it is not to say that Thais can never be trusted. There are certain Thais I could trust with anything. Also, it is far more common these days for Thais to go out of their way to help me than for Thais to try to rip me off.
Mulder describes the world, as seen by Thais, as being divided into two distinct parts. Relationships around the home with parents, relatives, friends, classmates are close, intimate and based on lots of trust. Outside of that, relationships with people who Mulder refers to as non-intimate distant others are very different.
With such people, relationships are unpredictable and, 'The world outside the trusted home is presented as fearsome, threatening, and unreliable.'
After staying in one place for several years, I now have a circle of friends I can trust and their concern is quite genuine. On the other hand, whenever I meet people I don't know - whether it's as a result of travelling around or just going into a shop to buy something - that close relationship is no longer there.
I go back to being a non-intimate distant other who is there to be cheated and ripped off and the other person need feel no guilt. When tourists travel around in Thailand, they are only ever perceived as non-intimate distant others and, for some travellers, Thailand can seem like a country of never-ending rip offs.
Thais will rip off other Thais too but it is a lot rarer because, obviously, Thais understand how other Thais think and they understand Thailand. Not only are foreigners perceived as being richer, but when they don't understand anything and are obviously disorientated and completely lost in their surroundings, they make for far easier victims.
Thais also use other strategies to avoid potential problems if they want a service, and they don't want to be ripped off, but the provider of that service isn't a relative or in their circle of friends.
Word of mouth is extremely powerful in Thailand. Once I had starting teaching a few people, my phone started to ring quite a lot because I had been recommended by word of mouth.
I have noticed that if Thais need to buy insurance or something, they will often do it through a friend - provided they have a friend in the business - or through a friend of a friend. This way, a close relationship is maintained and they have faith they can trust the person, rather than going to a complete stranger who they cannot trust.
Unfortunately for foreign travellers in Thailand, it is nearly always impossible not to deal with complete strangers and, as the young backpackers found out today, there are Thais around only too willing to take advantage of a situation if they can.
The first travel agent didn't do himself any favours today. He could have just told the young backpackers where to go to get a bus (the same thing I told them) and sent them on their way. Instead, he tried to make a big profit for himself.
Not only didn't he get their business, but he won't be getting any of my business in future, and I will warn other people not to use his services.
Friday 13th June 2008
Can you ever trust a salesperson? In my experience, sometimes. Can you ever trust a Thai salesperson? In my experience, never.
There was the case last year when I bought a pair of shoes to attend a wedding. Everything sold in Thailand always has an imaginary discount of anything between 30% to 80%, but it is completely imaginary because the product was never sold at the supposedly original price.
I asked for a real discount, not an imaginary one, but the salesman insisted he couldn't possibly give me any more discount, otherwise he would be making a loss. However, when the cashier scanned the barcode, he had got the price wrong by Bt1,000.
The actual price I paid was far lower than the price he "couldn't possibly sell me the shoes at otherwise he would make a loss." Liar.
When I bought new glasses recently, the price started off at "a very special discount, just for you," but the longer I hesitated, the more the price kept dropping. It would therefore appear that the fantastic deal I had been given at first wasn't such a fantastic deal after all.
When I bought my digital SLR camera in Bangkok four years ago, it was at a time when the shop was clearing its stock of that model to make way for a new model that was just about to be announced but there was no way the salesman was going to tell me that.
I mentioned in my blog on 10th May that I had been tempted to buy an 8G Asus EEE sub-notebook computer after seeing them on 'special offer' in a local shop. They are great little machines for travel but I had some doubts concerning the small 800 pixel display of this particular model.
Seeing as Asus has already announced an updated model with a 1024 pixel wide screen and more memory, I thought it would be better to wait.
The sales technique this shop always uses is to set a limited period for their 'special offers'. 'Only four days' or 'only one week', they write on their price tickets. This, presumably, is to frighten people into thinking that if they wait too long they will miss out on the deal.
Well, one month after the machines were on 'special offer for one week only' for Bt14,990, the price has fallen another Bt4,000. They are now just Bt10,990. Again, this 'special offer' is limited to five days, which means that next month there will be a deal for Bt5,990. I'm glad I resisted the temptation to buy one four weeks ago.
I hate this. All it does is give me the impression that Thai salespeople are being sneaky and dishonest so I find myself reluctant to buy any major purchases. All the big purchases I have made in recent years, I have done so on my trips down to Singapore.
When I first went to Singapore in 1990, it was a similar situation there. It was impossible to find an honest Chinese salesman and they were into bait-and-switch tactics in a big way. In recent years, however, Singapore has cleaned up its act and, with the exception of a few dodgy places, it is possible to buy with a fair degree of confidence.
Being sneaky with customers and losing their trust is a very short term approach which doesn't pay in the long run. Unfortunately with many Thais, the ability to think more than about a week ahead is not one of their strengths.
I think it's safe to say that the Jatukham Ramathep craze is finally over.
At the peak of the craze last year, it was madness. Wherever I went, there was a new shop that had just opened purely to sell Jatukham amulets. Other businesses too had tried to jump on the bandwagon by selling amulets alongside their regular goods.
In my local pharmacy, alongside the condoms and pile cream, was a display case containing Jatukham amulets. They cost a few baht to make yet were selling for hundreds of times that. With such huge profit margins it was understandable that everyone wanted a piece of the action.
There were Jatukham newspapers and magazines being published, and everyone had a story about the miraculous powers of these special amulets. One story going around told of how wearing a Jatukham amulet could actually deflect a bullet in the event someone tried to shoot you.
Nakhon Sri Thammarat was where the phenomenon began and it was there that one poor woman got trampled to death as a crowd stampeded to get their hands on newly issued amulets.
I have noticed recently that several downtown Jatukham shops have closed down and they are either doing other business or are up for rent. Earlier this week, another Jatukham shop near to my apartment building reopened as a restaurant.
There is no doubt that the Thais love a craze. I am just wondering what the next one will be ...
Thursday 12th June 2008
The hard contact lens I need to wear in one eye to correct irregular astigmatism tends to get quite uncomfortable by evening time if it has been in all day. However, a couple of days ago it became extremely uncomfortable while I was working with a student.
I couldn't wait to get home to take it out, and when I did I noticed a small stye. I can't remember the last time I had a stye. It must have been when I was a small kid eons ago.
I have medical insurance so could have gone to see a doctor at the local private hospital, but I decided just to make a visit to a nearby pharmacy. There are pharmacies everywhere in Thailand. I'm not sure why this is but it could be because there is no GP system.
They're actually very good. The pharmacists seem well trained and they sell a lot of medication over the counter that would need to be prescribed by a doctor in other countries.
He gave me a short course of antibiotics and some topical ointment. The cost was Bt150. I took one of the capsules, applied the ointment inside my lower eyelid before I went to bed, and everything was fine again in the morning. I was even able to wear my lens again the next day which I didn't think I would be able to do.
I had to look up the Thai word for stye and my dictionary gave two versions. As I pointed out yesterday, it is often the case when looking up words in English to Thai or Thai to English dictionaries that many alternative words are given and this can be confusing.
I found out subsequently that one of the words given confused Thais but they were very familiar with the other one. The generally accepted Thai word for stye seems to be dtaa-goong-ying.
ตากุ้งยิง
What I also found out, after telling a few people about my latest malady, is that having a stye is apparently hilarious in Thailand. Everyone I told fell about laughing. There is a saying in Thailand that styes are caused by looking at too many pretty girls, so this is the reason why. It's true, it's true; I cannot tell a lie!
In the same way, Brits would probably find it funny if a Thai man told them he had been to the doctor because hair had started growing on his palms. I expect we would laugh too.
Wednesday 11th June 2008
The only thing I ever get requests for when writing this stuff is Thai language tutorials. I haven't done one for a while so will put that right today.
There was a little incident today that reminded me why I hate the transliteration of Thai words and names into words that use the English alphabet with so much passion. If you've followed this blog at all, you will already know this is something I like to rant about.
Thailand is very keen these days to attract so-called 'health tourists' and; with great service, fantastic aftercare from scrumptious Thai nurses, and cheap prices; lots of foreigners are quite happy to come to Thailand for various operations and procedures.
All private hospitals in Thailand are very happy to have foreign patients but one particular hospital in Bangkok has made a name for itself internationally and is probably the most well known. Up until today, I had only ever seen the English version of its name.
There have been several occasions when I have tried to talk to Thais about health tourism, but on mentioning this famous hospital, they just look at me totally confused. Why don't they understand? Everyone knows this hospital. Don't they?
The hospital is known in English as Bumrungrad.
Today, while waiting at the university Faculty of Medicine for a student I have been assisting with her PhD defence, I saw a mobile unit from this hospital - actually just a fancy ambulance. The pleasant people working for the hospital gave me a free mouse mat and note pad.
What I was more interested in though, was the Thai spelling of the hospital and that was easy to get because it was on the side of the ambulance. After seeing it written in Thai, it was obviously why my attempts to pronounce the name of the hospital when written in English had failed miserably.
This is only one example but the same failing apply to so many Thai place names. Foreigners who follow transliterated versions of Thai place names will invariably get them wrong. Not just a little wrong but so wrong that a Thai won't have a clue what they are talking about.
How many foreigners can pronounce Kanchanaburi in such a way that a Thai will understand? Not many.
So, back to the hospital name in English, and the English pronunciation. Well, it obviously has three syllables. The only confusion, maybe, is whether the second and third syllables are run-grad or rung-rad.
It's actually irrelevant bacause both are completely wrong.
บำรุงราษฎร์
When reading the name in Thai, there is no confusion where the syllables start and finish. The only confusion is with the third syllable which has obviously come from a language other than Thai - Sanskrit or Pali, I would guess.
Amazingly, I agree with the transliteration of the first syllable - bum. I am surprised because the vowel sound in this syllable is normally transliterated as -am, instead of -um.
The first letter is a consonant บ
This is a 'b' sound as the start of a word or syllable and a 'p' sound at the end.
The vowel that comes after the 'b' sound is written in two parts above, and after, the consonant.
บำ
A า on its own is a long 'aa' sound.
However, when you see a า you need to look for other characters before or above the preceding consonant.
When you see it used in conjunction with a small circle above the preceding consonant, it is 'um'.
The second syllable is where the transliteration starts to go wrong.
The first letter, a consonant, makes an 'r' sound ร
The second letter, a vowel, is written underneath the preceding consonant. It's a short 'oo' sound, as in 'put', 'foot' or 'look' but not a long 'oo' sound as in 'boot' or 'food'. Thai has a different vowel for those long 'oo' sounds.
The final letter of the second syllable is an 'ng' sound ง
You can breathe a sigh of relief when this letter is at the end of a syllable and not at the beginning because the pronunciation is easy. The second syllable is therefore 'roong' but with a short vowel sound.
The last syllable is tricky ราษฎร์
It starts and ends with the same consonant but the character above the final consonant (called gaa-run) indicates it isn't voiced. English has this kind of unvoiced thing too, 'thumb' for instance, but Thai has a symbol to tell you a letter isn't voiced (sometimes).
The only problem is that this symbol isn't always used above unvoiced characters and, in this final syllable, that is the case with the penultimate consonant. How do you know? Well, Thais just know instinctively and the rest of us need to learn.
The first two letters, I have already described above - the 'r' sound and long 'aa' vowel.
The third letter, which is actually the final letter in this syllable if we ignore the unvoiced letters, is fairly unusual.
ษ
This is an 's' sound at the beginning of a syllable but a 't' sound at the end of a syllable. It's one of four consonants in Thai that sound the same. Two are fairly common but this is one of the two lesser seen versions. This is another clue that the word has come from another language.
The last syllable is therefore 'raat'. A better translation would therefore be 'Bum-roong-raat' instead of 'Bumrungrad' but nothing is ever likely to change.
I realise this is trivial or irrelevant to many people but I get annoyed when Thais can't understand me because of bad transliteration. In the case of this hospital's name, the name appears frequently in English but not that often in Thai.
If I can see a word written in Thai, I can work out the pronunciation but when I only ever get to see the word written in English, I am misled along with everyone else.
With regard to the meaning, 'bum-roong' has many definitions according to my dictionary - all with a similar meaning. To maintain, to nurture, to nourish, to keep up, to care for, to invigorate, to tone up, to take care of, to support, to improve, to promote, to better.
The last syllable 'raat' means territory, kingdom or country.