Andy Chatman’s Thailand Adventure

As I’ve alluded to in some of my posts, I’ve run into some barriers due to my inability to speak or understand Thai. I wrongly made an assumption before I came here, one that probably many less-traveled Americans would make: that more people than not speak English as a second language no matter where they are in the world. Well while that might be the case in some Western locations, it’s certainly not true here.

The people who work in tourist locations do speak some serviceable English, such as hotel workers and the guides at Flight of the Gibbon. But that’s where it ends. It’s very likely (or so I’ve experienced) that your personal guide, your driver, anyone selling at a market — you name it, they won’t speak English. While I fortunately don’t suffer from the expectation that if I repeat my English words louder and more slowly it will instantly become clear to someone who can’t understand me, I still struggle to get my message across in other ways. I’ve become pretty good at hand gestures to represent my needs. What I have noticed is that a huge smile and a laugh goes a very long way toward reaching whoever I’m talking with.

The Thais who do speak English obviously do so with quite an accent, and sometimes it can be difficult to understand the words. The easiest way is to remember the context of the discussion, so if I’m stuggling to understand a comment from a Thai in the weapon museum at the Palace, I should probably think of words associated with weaponry and compare them to what I’m hearing. That process has worked pretty well. A funny note — it seems like Thais have an easier time understanding my English than that of some others — I saw a conversation between a Thai waiter and a Scott with a very thick accent and that went absolutely nowhere!

There have been times, especially with Mr. Tee, when I had no idea what he was saying no matter what we tried. Those situations invariably ended with a good laugh, a shrug of the shoulders, and we just moved on.

Today I thought it would be a good idea to learn one Thai word, as it has become my mantra on this trip. Kráp is the Thai word for Yes. I made a decision before I came to Thailand that whatever I came across, whether an activity, a food, or anything, I would always say “yes.” And I have. I’ve eaten everything offered to me, I’ve gone everywhere that has been suggested to me, I’ve had conversations with anyone who has wanted to connect with me, I’ve tried to help anyone who has asked. It’s been a very happy week saying “yes” so much, and I hope it’s a lesson I bring home with me.

This one word, Kráp, has broken through more barriers (language and others) than anything else I could learn to say.