Living In Thailand Blog
Saturday 14th November 2009
Here's a quick update on the girl I wrote about a few days ago.
I called her on Friday evening after the blood transfusion and she sounded very weak. There was no strength in her voice. How she was expecting to work that evening, I don't know.
However, by Saturday there had already been a remarkable improvement. I think this was due to a combination of the oil change and being able to rest for a while. I kept to my word and gave her more money to cover her rent and food for this month.
One of my concerns is that she will return to bar work as soon as she feels better, and that she will then have more problems. I've told her she isn't allowed to do this and I've been calling at times she would normally be asleep if she was working, just to make sure.
I also wrote recently about a Thai shop owner who had been having problems with her staff stealing stock. Those staff have gone and she needs replacements. I have been able to put Mook in touch with her about a job.
Retail workers in Thailand also work long hours but I think working in a shop will be better for her than overnight bar work.
I don't know how everything will turn out, but for the moment I have taken responsibility for getting her through this bad patch and I am keeping an eye on her.
The photo above was taken about a year ago when she was still doing massage work. Her health was a little better then but she's had general health problems for several years. I can't remember how long I've known her for, but I think for around five years.
Saturday 14th November 2009
Transliteration from English into Thai is just as bad as transliteration from Thai into English.
It's always going to be a compromise if you try to write words from one language using a completely different set of letters, but there is no reason why it couldn't be done in such a way so as to be more phonetically accurate.
I saw a pot of hand washing liquid today and attempted to read what it said. The first word was:
เจล
The first consonant makes a 'j' sound as an initial consonant, and the second one makes an 'n' sound as a final consonant. Most Thai consonants change sound depending on whether they begin or end a word or syllable.
The vowel used can make an 'e' or 'ay' sound, so I guessed 'jen' or 'jane'. I wasn't sure so I asked. It was then that I found out it was an English word that had been transliterated into Thai - 'gel'.
The letter 'g' can make two sounds in English, but Thai tends to be better in this respect with (mostly) one sound per letter. However, there are other things that aren't so clever.
With transliteration, Thais try to stick to the original spelling.
Because 'gel' ends with an 'l', whoever transliterated this word decided it would be best to use the Thai letter that has an 'l' sound as an initial consonant, but not as a final consonant.
This immediately breaks all the rules and leads to confusion. I wouldn't mind if there wasn't a better way, but there is.
แจว
Written this way, the sound might sound a little like 'jail' instead of 'gel' but it would be better than the previous transliteration.
There's a symbol in Thai used for shortening vowels that can be written above the initial consonant, and maybe that would be better?
แจ็ว
I'm not an expert but all I know is that the current methods of transliterating Thai into English, and English into Thai, are extremely unsatisfactory, and that it could be done a lot better.
Thursday 12th November 2009
I've mentioned before that no matter how sorry you feel for them, it's impossible to help all of Thailand's unwanted cats and dogs. There are just too many of them. But what about helping people, which is an entirely different matter?
The first point to note is that Thailand isn't a poor country. I have never seen a hungry person and I only know of one guy sleeping rough in my neighbourhood, but he looks like the type of person who prefers that way of life.
In Thailand it is possible to eat very well for Bt50 a day, and if someone is really desperate they can get that amount by begging. Thais seem to know if someone is genuinely desperate or whether they are involved in some kind of a scam and they will give a little money to someone who is genuinely in need.
But there is a lot of poverty just above that level. There are many Thais who have somewhere to live, and who have enough to eat, but beyond that they just don't have the means.
An awkward situation has developed recently with one of my ex-massage girls. Over the years, I have tried to reward the girls who give good service with regular custom and good tips. However, that kind of relationship can turn into something of a dependency, and it can then go beyond simply tipping them after a massage.
Mook was one of my regular massage girls for about four years. In many ways she is typical of most of the other girls doing the job, apart from the fact she has never had children.
Most of the girls tell exactly the same story: they married young, had a child (or children), the father of the children ran off, the girls went off to work in another part of the country, and now they send money back to whoever is looking after their child - normally their parents.
She comes from a poor rice-farming family in Sukothai. Her aunt did massage so Mook followed and ended up working at the same place. She was always a cheerful girl but she always had money problems.
Whenever she had any kind of additional expense she would always ask me for money. I didn't mind too much, and I felt sorry for her if, for example, she had toothache but couldn't afford to see the dentist.
After a few years she started to become very tired doing massage so she left to work in a bar. Girls from her type of background have very few career options in Thailand.
I didn't see her for a long time but she contacted me a little while ago sounding very sorry for herself. She said she was ill and couldn't afford to see the doctor. We met and I gave her Bt1,000.
A few weeks later she called again to say she had run out of medicine and couldn't afford any more. I gave her another Bt500. Then another Bt1,000.
Today she called and told me she needs a blood transfusion. She went to see the doctor who tested her blood and told her she has a problem with her red cell count. She didn't call purely to give me the latest update.
This will cost Bt2,500, and of course she doesn't have the money. We had a long chat on the phone. She will need one transfusion a month for about five months, otherwise the doctor reckons she will be dead within five years. She's about 23.
Even when she was healthy there wasn't a spare once of fat on her but now she is quite seriously underweight. This new job doesn't help. She starts work at 5pm and gets home at 6am the next morning.
She sleeps and wakes around 2pm, eats and starts to get ready to go back to work. She works every day like this for about Bt4,500 a month with whatever tips she manages to pick up.
I know the bar and asked if she went home with male customers (which would be an obvious way to increase her income). I know she will get offers because she's quite a good-looking girl, but she insists that she doesn't.
I agreed I would give her the money for the blood transfusion and then asked what plans she had for work. Her plan was to work tonight, finish at 6am tomorrow morning, go to hospital at 8am, and then return to work tomorrow evening straight after her blood transfusion.
I think she is crazy. However, her thinking is that if she doesn't work, she won't have money to buy food and rent her room. Foreigners and Thais tend to look at things from a different perspective.
I agreed to help her, provided she doesn't work for a month. It was a real struggle getting her to agree to this part of the deal, but if she carries on the same will she will kill herself.
I told her I would pay her rent and buy her food for a month. She is to rest completely and try to give her body a chance to recover because she looks so ill. If she doesn't do this, I fear that the consequences could be dire.
After a month, we will need to assess whether she is well enough to return to work. I expect she will come to me when she needs money for further transfusions. Her parents have no money and she has no one in the world to help her apart from me.
I asked what she would do if she didn't know me. She said she would just continue taking medicine and forego the blood transfusions, in which case she would probably die within a few years. What can you do?
I think Thailand has a wonderful health system. The doctors and nurses are totally dedicated and do a fantastic job. I believe doctors get a decent salary but nurses don't earn much. They do the job because they love doing it.
Most treatments aren't expensive for foreigners, but even a few thousand Baht is beyond the reach of many Thais. They live day-to-day, hand-to-mouth, and never have enough for any unexpected expenses.
I don't get anything out of this. Today was the fourth occasion recently that she has come to me for money, and after collecting it she goes straight home. Tonight, at least, I bought her something to eat, and made sure she ate it because she looks extremely undernourished.
Financially, I've been doing very well this year and things will only get better next year. In the grand scheme of things, the amount of money needed to help her is insignificant. I would only spend it on things I don't need to keep me amused.
I've told her that this help won't continue indefinitely, and that if I find out she has returned to work it will stop straight away. I will be really angry if she starts working again before her body has had a chance to recover.
She's underweight, her skin isn't looking good, she has a permanent cough, and she has a problem with her red-blood-cell count (which has probably been the underlying problem all along). She needs to rest. She will never get better working as she does, but without anyone to help her financially she has no choice.
This is by no means an unusual situation in Thailand. There are lots of people who aren't starving, but who are just a level up on the poverty scale.
As a foreigner, what can you do? You can't help everyone in Thailand who is down on their luck but there are some things that you can't ignore. Unless you are a sociopath, then most people will have a conscience.
I am under no obligation to help Mook and I could easily have told her no, but how would that have rested on my conscience? Not easily.
I will probably spend Bt100,000 on camera equipment in the next 12 months, and I have also been looking at cars around Bt700,000. The amount of money she needs probably won't be more than Bt20,000 all told and, without wishing to sound overly dramatic, this could be a matter of life and death.
There are some things that I'm just not prepared to have on my conscience.
Thai girls have a bit of a reputation concerning lies and deception, so could this be a variation of the 'sick buffalo' scam? Quite simply, the answer is no. I've known her for a long time. She has never lied to me, and she has only ever asked for money when she needs it.
Just by looking at her, it is obvious that her health isn't good at all, and the symptoms can't be faked. I'm not sure what will happen next but today all I could do was what I thought needed doing now.
If you move to Thailand from the West, it is likely that the people you encounter will face all kinds of problems that you probably aren't used to dealing with at home. As you get to know more people and become more integrated, it is then quite probable that some of their problems will become your problems.
My life is by no means problem-free in Thailand but I probably spend more money, time, and effort on other people's problems than I do my own.
I don't begrudge it one little bit.
My life was very isolated in England. No one troubled me, but in many ways it was a lonely and unsatisfying life. Sometimes in Thailand I feel that I could do without being bothered with other people's problems.
However, there is probably nothing else more satisfying in life than being in a position where you can help people who are less fortunate.
Wednesday 11th November 2009
I've always enjoyed language and amateur etymology. Some knowledge of a language can give you insights into how the people who speak that language think. If a concept exists, then a word will exist. If a word needs to be 'borrowed' from another language, it is probably because the concept didn't originally exist (free, corruption).
With new inventions, words are sometime borrowed (computer), but Thais have their own words for telephone, television and radio. Sometimes, they use borrowed English words when in fact they have a word in their own language (office).
While learning German many years ago, I thought it was odd that there was no word for 'saucer'; the German word translates to 'under-cup'. Also, that gloves were referred to as 'hand shoes'.
It's similar in Thai. Saucer becomes 'plate under cup'. Socks and gloves are referred to as bags - 'foot bags' and 'hand bags'. The Thai for 'with bag' can have different meanings. If you buy food and request 'with bag' it means you want a takeaway. The phrase 'with bag' also refers to condom usage.
While in the skin clinic recently, I was looking at a sign displaying various skin ailments that can be treated there. One condition translated as 'fly shit'. I didn't know what this was but my dictionary tells me it is a mole, or beauty spot. The word for excrement (or shit) is used a lot in Thai to describe various things.
Flies, incidentally, are called 'day insects' in Thai (well, have you ever seen one at night?), while cockroaches are 'musky smelling insects'. Thais tell me that cockroaches smell bad but I have never got close enough to one to find out.
Some words are not words, as such, but descriptions. A fringe (as in hair, known to Americans as bangs) is 'horse hair' in Thai. If you visualise a horse, you will see that this is a fair description.
Names of diseases can be borrowed (Alzheimer's), or they can be a description of the condition - 'afraid of water disease' (rabies), fat disease (obesity). A term that is described in my dictionary as being colloquial sounds extremely sexist - 'girl disease' for VD. 'Rat urine disease' (leptospirosis), and so on. One of my favourites is the term 'broken stomach' for diarrhea.
Perhaps because there are so many dogs in Thailand, the Thais have a special word to describe the sound of fighting dogs (ngairng), whereas in English we don't have a specific word. There are many Thai words that don't have a direct equivalent in English, and vice-versa.
Not all that long ago, it was fashionable in Thailand to have black teeth. White teeth were seen as the sign of the devil or a wild animal. The chewing of betel was common, and along with deliberately blackening teeth, this effect was easily achieved.
Times - and fashions - have changed and nowadays Thais like having straight, white teeth, although they aren't quite as obsessive about this as Americans (not many people are). The Thai for toothpaste is yaa-see-fun (medicine paint teeth).
Saturday 7th November 2009
The Canon 7D has arrived in remotest southern Thailand, and the body by itself is priced at just under Bt58,000. At today's exchange rate (using XE.com) that works out at about £1,046.
Bristol Cameras in the UK is selling the same camera for £1,399, a difference of over 350 quid above the Thai price. Adorama in the US is selling it for $1,699, which works out at £1,022 - even cheaper than Thailand.
I can't understand why anyone would ever buy anything in the UK (apart from a used car). If you have a camera purchase in mind, you could take a trip to New York or Thailand to buy it and the money you save would allow you to have a cheap vacation at the same time.
If you wanted to buy some photo gear and also needed some dental work done (especially something expensive such as titanium implants), you could actually have a great vacation in Thailand and the money you save would make the vacation absolutely free.
In fact, you could have a great free vacation and still save money.
I have put together a new page about shopping in Thailand in order to try to capture some of my thoughts about how to spend wisely in Thailand; and how not to throw money away like a stupid tourist.
It needs some more work but at the moment I have very little free time.
A colleague was telling me his friend's Thai wife runs some small businesses in a department store, and that she has just had a problem with employees stealing stock.
Theft is a very common problem in Thailand, and I have heard several similar stories.
When I met my first girlfriend here, she was living above the shop where she worked and sharing a room with some of the other girls. She was always having stuff stolen, including some things I had bought for her. The culprit was one of the other staff but it was difficult to prove.
Although violence isn't unheard of, I don't worry about acts of indiscriminate violence in Thailand as I would do in the UK, but theft is a different story.
Many Thai men like to drink but they don't seem to have the same mentality as some foreign men, believing that their night out isn't complete without a fight.
There is a notable exception though among some young Thai males. Rivalries between technical colleges and schools are well-known in Thailand. Occasionally you hear about running street battles between rival colleges.
These fights get really nasty. It seems surprising because Thais generally are so relaxed and easy-going, but it is yet again one of the many contradictions that exist in Thailand.
Apparently, violence within schools isn't unheard of either. This story suggests that some students run protection rackets at their schools.
1 seventh grader stabbed dead, another severely injured
An update on the employee theft story is that the owner of the shops now fears there could be repercussions as a result of the guilty parties (who were arrested) seeking revenge.
Vengefulness and vindictiveness are, unfortunately, common traits in Thailand. Just this week I was speaking to another farang, who has lived in Thailand for a long time, about exactly the same thing.
He has experienced incidents where he has caused a Thai to lose face (because of something wrong that the Thai did), but he has then discovered damage to his property.
The conclusion to our conversation was that while living in Thailand it is best to try to keep a low profile, and to try not to upset anyone. This isn't always easy, but it's advisable.
Friday 6th November 2009
I've been looking into the dispute between Thailand and Cambodia a little deeper. I don't believe the current problems have anything to do with ancient temples or border issues. What I believe is happening is that certain people are using those issues trying to drum up feelings of nationalism in order to support their own causes.
I believe the problems are a lot more recent, and to understand the issues a little better I've been re-reading parts of Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker's book 'Thaksin - The business of politics in Thailand'.
Quotes from this book below are included with a page number. Additional comments in parentheses within the quotes are mine to add information. Additional comments elsewhere are mine.
The issue isn't that difficult to understand but you need to be aware of certain things:
- That not so long ago, huge telecommunications deals were being done between Thailand and its neighbouring countries.
- That those deals were worth a vast amount of money.
- That the main beneficiaries were the people who controlled the companies involved.
- Who those people were.
- That Thaksin ordered the Foreign Ministry to give Burma an additional Bt1 billion loan from Exim Bank.
- That the lucrative deals stopped when Thaksin went.
- That there are people who currently wield a lot of power in the region who would very much like to see Thaksin return to a position of power in Thailand so that the good times (for them) return.
The following are purely facts from the book mentioned above. The final link is an explanation as to the possible motives of Hun Sen's recent actions.
Long before he became Prime Minister, Thaksin was keen on regional expansion.
(From page 49) "He (Thaksin) ventured out into the region by extending the cable TV service into Laos and Cambodia, and winning mobile phone concessions in Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines and Gujarat (India)."
As Prime Minister, Thaksin was very keen to promote trade agreements between Thailand and neighbouring countries.
(From page 124) "He strongly supported the development of a free trade agreement within Asean, and new projects for agreements linking ASEAN to South Asia (BMIST) and East Asia (ASEAN+3)."
(From page 124) "... the neighbouring countries of Laos, Cambodia and Burma had great potential as markets and sources of labour and raw materials, but also great risks because of histories of conflict."
Indeed, establishing good relationships with the governing powers of these countries was at the top of Thaksin's agenda once he took office.
(From page 213) "After becoming Prime Minister, Thaksin travelled to neighbouring countries more often than any predecessor. Burma was the first country visited, just one month after taking office."
Were these visits purely for the benefit of the Thai people who had elected Thaksin to represent them, or were there ulterior motives?
(From page 213) "In May 2002 (after Thaksin was PM), Shin Satellite (Thaksin's company) signed a contract with Bagan Cybertech to extend and upgrade the usage of Shin satellites for broadcasting inside Burma, and to install IPStar (the Shin Corp satellite) terminals for use in upcountry phone and education networks."
(From page 213) "The managing director of Bagan Cybertech was Dr. Ye Naing We, the younger son of Khin Nyunt (one of Burma's ruling military triumvirate)."
What about Cambodia and the Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen?
(From page 212) "CamShin (Shin Corp's mobile phone network in Cambodia started in 1998) had begun to encroach on the market leader known to belong largely to Cambodia's Prime Minister, Hun Sen."
From being a competitor, Thaksin became Hun Sen's best friend, golf partner, an economic advisor to his government, and his biggest supporter. How did that happen, do you think, bearing in mind that Thaksin is an enormously wealthy man?
And regarding conflicts of interest.
(From page 199) "Although Shin executives protested again and again that Thaksin played no part in selling the (IPStar satellite) project, it is very hard to believe that no words were passed during the Prime Minister's many meetings with his regional counterparts."
(From page 199) "When the Shin group belonging to the family of the Thai Prime Minister works in Burma with a company belonging to a son of the ruling triumvirate, and competes in Cambodia against a company belonging to the Prime Minister, it is clear that the telecom business, national or regional, is political."
(From page 199) "Thaksin regularly insisted he made no use of his position as Prime Minister to assist the Shinawatra businesses. It may be fair to say that most Thai would view such use of power as one of the privileges of leadership, and be amazed if he were not to make use of such privilege."
Hun Sen's hedging game is ill-advised
Thursday 5th November 2009
The weather has suddenly turned very wet in this neck of the woods. The cooler temperatures at this time of year are most welcome but the almost constant rain is a headache if you need to get around.
The rain is torrential at times and the accompanying strong winds blow it horizontal. Even the sturdiest of umbrellas will offer very little protection against rain of this type.
Southern provinces warned of flash floods
I'm not sure what is going on between Cambodia and Thailand. About six years ago, a Thai actress claimed that Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand. This didn't go down too well with Cambodians, so Cambodian protesters set light to the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh ... as you do.
There has also been a long-running dispute concerning another temple on the border called Preah Vihear. Long ago, a French team surveyed the area and decided where the border ran but this was later disputed by Thailand.
The dispute went to the International Court of Justice in 1962 where it was ruled that the temple was in, and thus belonged to, Cambodia. However, this decision wasn't accepted by Thailand and there were more protests.
As far as I know, everything died down for a long time but the problems flared up again a year or two ago and this has resulted in exchanges of gun fire in the affected area.
The Cambodian Prime Minister (and his wife) appear to be instrumental in stirring up problems with Thailand (no doubt for political reasons) and now Hun Sen has made Thaksin an economic adviser to his government.
Thailand is completely divided over Thaksin and therefore this decision is guaranteed to upset half the country ... as well as the current government. The Thai government has said it will seek Thaksin's extradition but the Cambodian government say they will refuse any such requests.
Historically, Thailand has always fought with its neighbours. For hundreds of years Burma was Thailand's sworn enemy but now the problems seem to have moved from West to East.
Cambodia gives job to Thai (fugitive) ex-PM
You can be sure that The Nation will be covering this story in depth.
Perhaps I'm just getting old and grumpy, but the binge-drinking culture and abhorrent behaviour of young (and sometimes not so young) British citizens both abroad and at home makes me feel ashamed to be British.
Take a look at the photos in this article:
Anger of WWI veteran's family after binge-drinking student is pictured urinating on war memorial
The behaviour of young, drunken British girls is particularly repugnant. You just wouldn't see this type of thing with Thai girls.
At the Loy Gratong festival, the group of girls I met asked where I came from. When I told them, they remarked that Britain is a developed nation, whereas Thailand is a developing one.
Really? I wonder what they would make of these photos?
Wednesday 4th November 2009
Thais are adamant that they are good Buddhists and indeed, being Buddhist is part of the national identity for the vast majority of Thais.
As I have pointed out previously though, the rituals Thais perform have a lot more to do with Animism rather than Buddhism.
When you read about the true meaning of Buddhism as written, for example, by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, it bears no relationship to how most Thais live their lives.
Just as Christianity has a moral code, so does Buddhism have its precepts. The number of Buddhist precepts varies from five, up to 227 for some monks.
One precept that applies to all Buddhists, regardless of how many precepts they adhere to, is:
"To refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness."
From The Nation:
"Damages (from alcohol consumption) cost (the) country more than money earned from taxes. Bt200 billion (is spent) on alcohol each year, while damages caused by alcohol cost Thailand nearly Bt350 billion every year, NGOs revealed yesterday, adding that alcohol consumption per head here surpassed many Asian countries and young drinkers were on the rise."
Full story: Each Thai consumes 6-7 litres per year
For their part, however, what I will say for the Thais is that even though a lot of alcohol is consumed, you don't tend to see the same disgusting drunken behaviour that you would see from drunken Brits.
Tuesday 3rd November 2009
Click on any thumbnail image and a larger photo will pop up.
For those not familiar with Thai festivals, there are two major events each year, plus a number of smaller ones.
Songkran (in April) is the Thai New Year, featuring a water theme. Apparently, it used to be a very gentle celebration, and it still is if respectable people are involved.
However, these days it tends to be one day (longer in some parts of Thailand) of aquatic anarchy. Based on experience, it has become a day I dread. Earlier this year I spent Songkran in Singapore, and if I can't get out of the country I stay indoors.
On the other hand, Loy Gratong is probably my favourite day of the year. The Loy Gratong date is based on the lunar calendar so it varies from year to year. I normally think of it as coming a bit later in November but this year it came early.
There is a parade at the local university in the afternoon; people float their gratongs in the evening; and there are various events including a beauty competition (to see who will be crowned naang noppamas).
If you appreciate Thai female beauty, but can only spend one day a year in Thailand, make sure that day is Loy Gratong day. The best looking girls are selected to lead the parade, and dressed up in their traditional costumes they look amazing.
Some of the boys also enjoy dressing up as girls on Loy Gratong day.
After getting dressed up, everyone enjoys having their photo taken and you don't even need to ask if you can take a photo. As soon as they see a raised camera, they automatically smile.
I had a fabulous day. I met up with a group of about eight girls in the afternoon, five of whom were ex-students at my school. That group grew throughout the day and there were about a dozen girls by the end of the day. They looked after me - as good Thais do - and I even got a lift home. I think I may even have made some new friends.
I also met lots of my old students and seemed to spend the whole day talking to old friends.
The university campus is isolated from the outside world. As you can imagine, it is full of well-mannered, educated Thais. Everyone is very polite and considerate.
I know quite a few people who were students, and who now work at the university. They are provided with free accommodation on campus and therefore never have to leave the safety of their closeted environment.
The pay is low but good Thai people don't like many of the same things that I complain about in Thailand. Working and livng on campus isolates them from a lot of the bad stuff that goes on outside, and is an easy way to escape.
Loy Gratong is about worshipping the goddess of the river and there is also a belief that any bad luck you are suffering from will float away with your gratong. You should also make a wish for the coming year.
At one time, a few years ago, there were lots of Styrofoam gratongs but these weren't good for the environment. It is better nowadays. They can be made from bread (thus, they become fish food), or natural materials such as banana leaves.
Thais are very artistic and creative and the detail in some of the gratongs is incredible. Some of the larger ones I saw took several people three days to make.
It is customary to put a nail clipping, some of your hair, and a small coin into the gratong. Later on you will see young kids in the water retrieving the coins! The gratongs contain a candle and three incense sticks.
Looking out on the water at all the beautiful gratongs as they float away (taking away everyone's bad luck with them) is easily one of the best experiences you can have in Thailand.
When I was learning European languages at school, the first thing we did when we met exchange students was to find out all the bad words they didn't teach you at school.
As far as I know, there are no such equivalent words in Thai. If there were, I'm sure I would have heard a few by now from the gangs of motorbike street racers that terrorise good citizens in the evenings.
This doesn't mean that offensive language doesn't exist in Thai; it's just that when Thais wish to be offensive they use their own methods, rather than using vulgar verbs and nouns.
Most of the curse words used aren't offensive in themselves, but they are only offensive when used in context. For example, the word for a particular kind of curry would be perfectly acceptable in polite company when used in a restaurant, but it is also the word for whore.
The word for buffalo is perfectly acceptable, but calling someone a buffalo doesn't go down too well in Thailand.
Thai is also extremely idiomatic. It surprises me that Thai students have such difficulty understanding the concept of English idioms when their own language uses so many idioms.
Again, meaning is contextual. Literal meanings are perfectly acceptable in polite conversation but the idiomatic meanings can be quite vulgar.
Last week, I was showing my students some photos from my trip to northern Thailand and one photo was of a poor Burmese woman fishing in a storm drain trying to catch her evening meal. One of my very young students made a comment about what the woman was doing but what she said is also the Thai idiom for female masturbation. Her comment made me look up but I don't think she was trying to be funny.
The idiom for male masturbation is 'flying a kite', and for urinating is 'shooting rabbits'. In a literal sense none of these phrases are offensive but the idiomatic meanings aren't for polite company.
Another way Thais can be offensive is by using impolite personal pronouns. If you are learning Thai and was hoping for simple versions of you and I, think again. Nothing is ever that simple in Thai.
One of the young students at the school is the daughter of someone I know and she approached me to introduce herself. She referred to herself as noo, which means mouse (or rat). This is a cute pronoun for young people and can be used, for example, with young restaurant staff.
The girl I was seeing earlier this year objected to me using the personal pronoun pom because it's not very personal. In an intimate relationship, Thais use pee for the male and nong for the girl.
As a formal first-person personal pronoun pom is used by males, dee chun by females, and chun can be used by anyone but more so by females.
Pee and nong are very commonly used, and are polite pronouns for older and younger people respectively. You will know straight away if someone believes they are older or younger than you by which pronoun they use to refer to you.
Khun (I've used the standard transliteration) is the standard polite pronoun for you. When Thais see a foreigner they will often say, "You." This doesn't sound very polite but they probably think it is the same as khun.
Thais are extremely status conscious and if they have a title as a result of position or education, then they will want that title used instead of khun. As a teacher, kroo (teacher) or aajarn (professor, instructor, lecturer) will be used.
So far I have covered the polite terms. Now for the impolite ones.
Ai for men and ee for women are impolite pronouns for 'you', but only with strangers. The group of very polite girls I know use ee plus jokey nicknames to refer to each other. If you know people, these terms are funny and not offensive.
Samak, an ex-Prime Minister, upset a lot of Thais by using goo for 'I' and meung for 'you'. These are old terms that aren't used now, apart from when someone wants to be offensive. Like ee and ai they can be used with close people but they aren't terms that a Prime Minister should use.
Goo seems to be a humorous word for Thais. There is a restaurant nearby called 'Goo' and I have seen this word on quite a few T-Shirts.
Mun (it) can be used offensively for a person but - again - with close people this can be used without causing offense. Mun baa ('it's crazy' when referring to a person) can be used between close people and won't upset anyone.
I mentioned royal and polite vocabulary previously, and of course there are different Thai pronouns for these as well. In addition, there are various titles, just as there are in English for people who have had titles conferred on them.
Western culture revolves around laws, rules and regulations. These things aren't important to Thais but people are. The hierarchical structure of Thai society places lots of importance on people.
Because of this, there are lots of different ways to refer to different people. It is the same in families where there are a lot more Thai terms for relatives than there are in English.
It's a tough language to learn but knowledge of the language, and why terms exist that don't exist in English, can give you lots of insights into Thai culture and the Thai value system.
I'm still investigating a car purchase in Thailand but whether or not I buy one next year depends on my long-term plans. If I'm going to travel around the region for a while then it won't make sense to buy a car in Thailand.
I have come to the conclusion that used cars in Thailand are bad news. To get anything that looks half decent means paying almost as much as a new car so there doesn't seem to be much point. A new car seems to make much more sense but which one?
In addition to something that is easy to get repaired and serviced in Thailand, is reliable and will hold its value; I'd also like something that is fun to drive.
I saw that Perodua make a small SUV that looks like fun but there are no Perodua dealers or service providers here. After some more investigation I discovered that it is a badge-engineered car, and that the Toyota Rush and Daihatsu Terios are exactly the same.
Toyota have an extensive network in Thailand so I thought that the Toyota-branded version of this vehicle would make most sense. I headed off to the Toyota dealership to find out more but it was a bad experience from beginning to end.
First, the staff ignored me. When I approached them and asked a question they gave me that puzzled, "What's he talking about?" look. I hate it when Thais do this - and it gets my back up - but they do it a lot.
Despite being Toyota staff, they had never heard of a Toyota Rush. They laughed at me among themselves and were thoroughly unhelpful. It was a bad experience and I won't be going back.
Their cars were totally uninspiring and represented probably the most boring way of getting from A to B. The only decent car they had was the Camry but that model is too big and too expensive for my needs.
I followed this up with a visit to the local Honda dealer and the experience couldn't have been any different. I was met personally by a member of the sales staff and she was really efficient and helpful. Everything impressed me and there was a real air of professionalism about the place.
The quality of the Honda cars seemed very good and sitting in them gave the impression of Honda cars being fun to drive. Indeed, the car I was driving earlier this year was a new Honda Jazz and it was a lot of fun. The Honda service facility also looked very well equipped and professional.
Thais tell me the Honda Jazz car is a girls' car. In the UK apparently most Jazz drivers are over 60, but it's a solid, well-made little car and it will hold its value. After looking at lots of new and used cars recently, and taking all aspects of car ownership into account, my view at the moment is that a new Honda Jazz would probably make the most sense, and best suit my needs.
The girl at the Honda dealer told me that used cars are subject to 7% VAT but that new cars aren't. This partly explains why used cars are so expensive in Thailand, but not fully, because they are a lot more than 7% overpriced.
The girl who cuts my hair is a single mother and I saw her child for the first time last week. The kid looks very Chinese so I asked if his father was Chinese. "Yes," she told me. Some Thai-Chinese don't look all that Chinese. She is very white-skinned and I asked if she was Chinese. "No," she said, "I'm Buddhist." Strange answer.
Thais have a strange sense of identity. The folk down here in the south refer to Thai Muslims as Muslim, Thai-Chinese as Chinese, and Thais from the northeast as Isaan. They don't refer to any of these groups as Thai, but of course they are all Thai.
To be Thai, in their eyes, means not having any foreign blood, being Buddhist, and not coming from the northeast. They seem to regard Thais from the northeast as coming from Laos, and thus being foreign.
The girl I was seeing briefly earlier this year met this criteria for being true Thai and told me I was very lucky to be with her. Really? Earlier this week a Buddhist Thai friend of mine was telling me how she could never marry a Thai Muslim and how her parents would never accept it if she did.
My first Thai girlfriend was Thai Muslim and remains to this day one of my closest friends. A farang I met from Nakorn Sri Thammarat said his best friend (and one of the only people he could trust in Thailand) was Thai Muslim.
Foreigners living in Thailand don't seem to hold the same strong views as Thais, but judge people based on their behaviour and character, not on their ancestry and religion.
Regarding ancestry, Thailand is a major crossroads between India and China, and when you look at Thais this is clear to see. Some look very Chinese and some look very Indian. It is strange then that Thais should believe there is such a thing as being pure Thai.
But it is also strange that British should think there is such a thing as being pure British when our ancestors came from so many places, or that white North Americans and Australians regard themselves as being true North Americans or Australians when they are all descended from immigrants.
It is strange why people even need this sense of identity. Out of insecurity maybe? Perhaps this is why so many farangs in Thailand walk around wearing the football shirts of their national teams?
Being British abroad makes me feel ashamed more often than it makes me proud, but my nationality and religion remain things that Thais want to know.
When I was born - not having any choice in the matter - I was rubber-stamped as Christian, but my thinking is much more aligned to Buddhist philosophy.
I don't like being pigeon-holed as this or that because as soon as someone puts you in a pigeon hole they start to make assumptions. Time-after-time I am told by Thais that Muslims are this, or farangs are that.
I always tell them that generalisations only apply to some people. I generalise too but there are always exceptions.
Sunday 1st November 2009
If you're trying to learn Thai but find that no one understands you, don't lose heart. After six years of trying to learn, this happens to me every single day.
What you need to remember is that 90% of the problems exist before you even open your mouth. The majority of Thais can't communicate in English and they don't expect foreigners to be able to communicate in Thai.
Although they probably could understand if they made an effort, they don't make any effort and they make sure that they won't be able to understand. They could understand if they wanted to, but the fact of the matter is that many just can't be bothered. In fact, most of the time they don't even listen if a foreigner speaks to them.
The next biggest problem is that because Thai is a tonal language, many words sound similar and any slight mispronunciation of a tone will render a word unintelligible to a Thai. Sometimes it really does seem like the impossible language.
Last week while doing a text book exercise with my students there was a vocabulary section, which included the term 'Sugar Daddy'. My students didn't know this term so I explained it to them.
Suddenly, there was a look of recognition and they repeated the Thai word for this term. To my ears, it sounded like the Thai adjective for 'broken' but obviously it wasn't.
I checked my Thai dictionary later and it was as I suspected. The spelling is the same but one of the words has a tone mark.
เสีย - broken, spoiled, euphemism for dead
เสี่ย - prosperous man, tycoon, godfather, Sugar Daddy
For both words, the initial consonant is high class and it is a live syllable. The first word (broken) without a tone mark is therefore spoken with a rising tone.
The second word uses the first tone mark; and when used with a high class initial consonant the tone is low.
If you flick through a Thai dictionary you will see many words that sound similar but which have completely different meanings. You will also find many completely different Thai words for the same verbs and nouns.
This causes Thais to struggle with their own language probably more than other people struggle with their own language.
I showed my students some photos from my trip to Mae Sot and one photo showed the name of a Burmese town written in Thai. They weren't sure how to pronounce it because it wasn't a standard Thai word.
Many Thai students have told me they struggle with Thai and I have heard from university lecturers that their students aren't very good at Thai. How can students not be very good at their own language?
A few weeks ago I sat down with one of my M6 students and went through her Thai language text book. After doing this I started to realise why they struggle.
Thai isn't one language. Normal spoken Thai varies quite a bit from region to region. However, all Thais know the central dialect and this enables them to understand each other.
Southern Thais tend to understand other regional dialects, but not the other way round. The southern dialect is unintelligible to most central and northern Thais.
But this isn't why students struggle. They struggle because they have to learn royal vocabulary, polite vocabulary, epic poems, and ancient Pali and Sanskrit words, etc. A lot of the things they study they will probably never use but these things are part of their curriculum.
Thais - and Thai-speaking foreigners - know some polite vocabulary, but there is far more than is commonly spoken. It is the same with royal vocabulary.
In some respects Thai is very easy. Words from the original language are monosyllabic and basic sentence structure is easy. There is no verb conjugation, no complicated tense structures, no concept of auxiliary verbs, no plural nouns, etc.
In English we might need to ask, "Where are you going?" but in Thai, "Go where?" will suffice. Tense is often implied because we know from the context of the conversation when we are talking about. It is the same with the subject of a sentence and therefore pronouns also get omitted a lot of the time.
Easy in some respects; but very difficult in others.
Instead of being simply a big city within Thailand, Bangkok is like a completely different country compared to the rest of Thailand. This applies in so many respects, good and bad.
With the start of the new school term I was looking for some specific teaching material last week but didn't know how to obtain it.
I called the book publisher in Bangkok and spoke to a Thai woman whose English was excellent. She understood my question first time, knew the answer, and gave me the number of the book chain who handle their distribution.
It was a highly efficient conversation, which isn't something I am used to in Thailand.
I called the distributor and, once more, the conversation was accurate and highly efficient. She understood my question and said she would find out some more information and get back to me. She called back about 20 minutes later to tell me they had one copy of what I wanted in their warehouse.
She gave me a list of options where she could send the material to and asked me which location was most convenient. I told her and she said it might arrive the following day.
Let's contrast this with the kind of service levels I am used to dealing with in the provinces.
For starters, English language skills are generally poor in the provinces. This means needing to speak in Thai a lot of the time; and with any matter a little out of the ordinary I can easily get out of my depth.
The next problem is general attitude and customer service. I have often found that if I am interested in something that the shop doesn't stock, then they aren't interested in ordering anything or helping me. They just want to sell what they have in stock. This has happened many times regarding photographic equipment.
Sometimes they tell me they will check prices and availability for things they don't have in stock and get back to me, but they never do. Whenever I am told by a Thai locally they will get back to me, I never believe it.
Someone e-mailed me a few months ago to get an e-mail address for a guest house I had mentioned elsewhere on this site. I called the guest house by phone and requested this information. As usual, I was told they would send me the address in a message but guess what?
The enquirer tried to reach them through a social networking web site but his requests were also ignored. Even when you try to give some Thais business they will ignore you.
A few days after being told my teaching material would be sent to a shop nearby I went to check to see if it had arrived. I explained what had happened, in Thai, and was simply told nothing had arrived. The attitude was one of not being at all interested in me.
I asked when it would arrive and was simply told, "We don't know." Very useful. They didn't ask for any more information so they could find out, and they couldn't be bothered to call the head office. They wanted to get rid of me as quickly as possible so just said no to everything.
I happened to have some additional information on me and I gave it to them. When they plugged it into their computer they saw that the book was due to arrive later that day. However, if not for me persisting, then this information wouldn't have been offered. This is typical.
Language has a lot to do with this problem. Most Thais can't communicate in English; they don't believe foreigners know any Thai; and they convince themselves they can't understand foreigners attempting to speak Thai.
They have two solutions to this problem. The first is just to make any conversation as short as possible by saying no to everything and hoping that the unwanted foreigner will leave. The second is avoidance.
I went to the Toyota showroom in town recently and experienced Thais avoiding me. I was seen but no one felt brave enough to talk so all the staff disappeared into their break room and watched me from there. I had to approach them to find someone to answer my questions.
This isn't unusual. Quite often when I walk into a shop, the staff will look around, but - seeing it is a farang - they will ignore me and carry on with what they are doing.
When you insist on speaking to someone they treat it as a joke. They don't listen because they are convinced they won't understand, but keep looking at their friends and laughing.
As I said, this kind of thing is common in the provinces but better in Bangkok. And there are other benefits to being in Bangkok. Last week, while having dinner, I was browsing through one of the restaurant's books that listed the best restaurants in Thailand. They were all in Bangkok.
If you are thinking of going to live in Thailand, then you need to decide where to live. Depending on where you go will mean experiencing vastly different ways of life.
Bangkok is just a little too chaotic for me but there is a wealth of things to do there, you can buy anything, you can eat at great restaurants, Thais understand you, and they are efficient.
The big tourist resorts have nothing to do with Thailand really. They are just an approximation of Western life in Thailand, along with bars, bar girls, massage shops, Indian tailor shops, etc.
Provincial Thailand away from the tourist resorts offers the most realistic, and in many respects the most rewarding, experience - in my humble opinion - but life can be very frustrating at times.
You also need to remember that I am writing this from the perspective of living in provincial Thailand, and that many things I observe here will not be relevant to Bangkok or the well-known tourist areas.
The BBC is commercial-free for UK TV licence holders, but if you access the BBC web site from outside the UK you will be presented with advertisements.
At the moment, they are showing advertisements for 'Incredible India' and 'Amazing Thailand'.
I've never been to 'Incredible India' but the only place you will find the type of scenes shown in the ads for 'Amazing Thailand' is inside the heads of the advertising agency bods who dream up these things.
A new month; a new school term; and a(nother) fresh start.
I'm not sure why I bother with this blog because it keeps going round in circles. I get to a point where I feel guilty about writing negatively, so I stop and try to find positive things to write about ... but then it reverts again.
Thailand is a very difficult country for foreigners to understand because so much is hidden and so much of what you see on the surface doesn't reflect reality. At all.
Even foreigners who have lived in the country for up a year or more still walk around with the 'Everything is wonderful in Thailand' look on their faces. I used to be like that but things changed.
It took a long time for me to really start to see what goes on. About four years, in fact, and during that time I observed lots, attempted to study the language, and read everything I could about Thailand (real information, not the usual rubbish on the Internet).
I have never said that Thailand is worse than anywhere else (quite the contrary in most cases), but it isn't exactly the wonderful place that everyone first imagines.
I always thought that people would want a more accurate picture of Thailand than the fairy tales that are endlessly pumped out by the travel industry. But now I'm not so sure that they do. The world is in a mess and we all need to believe there is somewhere remaining on this earth that is almost perfect.
A short vacation in Thailand can give that impression and people want to hang on to the dream that not everywhere in the world is bad. Good luck.
This blog has never had much of a readership (which doesn't worry me), but the regional guide I wrote some time ago continues to get lots of visitors. It therefore doesn't make sense to spend time and energy here when really I should be putting my efforts into something that attracts visitors.
One of the quotes from Mulder that I used recently attributed mental health problems in Thailand to 'conflicting values'. I wasn't sure if readers would understand what these conflicting values are.
I was going to write another piece explaining more about how values in Thailand nowadays are at complete odds with the true message contained in Buddhism, but it would only be an attack on the values of contemporary Thai society, and thus another negative opinion.
Is it worth it?
This month I will hit 49 and the countdown to 50 will officially begin. Next year is really significant for me in terms of income, and also the fact that - if I want it - a Thai retirement visa becomes an option.
I'm not sure at the moment if I will go down that route. I may continue working, in which case my visa will be handled by my employer, or if I stop working I will probably spend a year or two travelling around the region. I won't be staying in any one place long enough to need any more than tourist visas.
When I arrived here I would never have believed that six years later my future would be so uncertain, but life is impossible to predict or plan.
I'm not unhappy about the situation. Certain areas of my life haven't quite worked out as I hoped they would, but others have exceeded expectations. I don't have much to complain about.
I have a lot to look forward to next year but in the meantime I'm looking forward to working with my students. I have lots of ideas and there's nothing quite as rewarding in life than honing young brains. It's something I regard more of a challenge than work.
It's a bit of an old chestnut - and I can't remember who the quote is by - but, "Find a job you love, and you will never have to work again." Or something like that.
I'll post here occasionally and update the RSS feed to keep both of you informed of any changes.