It has been a
challenge to get around these past several days. Spending a week “alone” in
Bangkok was a very enlightening experience. For me it was motivational.
I have spent
the majority of my professional career communicating with a wide variety of
people. Pastoring, counseling, speaking, consulting, teaching, writing; I have
become pretty skilled at being understood. For most of the last two weeks I
have struggled just buying dinner. The majority of my interactions have been
nothing more than a smile, a few gestures, a confused expression, and a half
successful attempt at the few Thai phrases we have picked up.
I understand
and ultimately agree with the notion that we needed to wait until we arrived to
truly begin language learning. I would hate to learn wrong and have to try and
re-learn. And again, for me, this has been a motivating time. I really want to
learn Thai well, for a few reasons.
The first is
practical. I can’t communicate with the world around me. I feel like a toddler;
pointing and grunting and hoping the sales person has some idea of what I am
asking for. Example: I went in last evening to pay the water bill at 7-11 (that’s
where you pay some bills here, how cool is that?). The interaction consisted of
me handing the clerk the bill, her telling me in Thai how much to pay (I
already knew but I still didn’t understand a word she said), handing her a few
Baht, and getting the receipt. I muttered ‘Kap cuhn krap” (“thank you” in Thai)
and left.
The second is
relational. Of course, this piggybacks on the first. I want to be able to have
a conversation with the people, to learn about them and their culture. In
fairness, many of the local Thai people – even in Ubon – speak decent English.
Their English is far better than my Thai. But it’s deeper than that. Part of me
I feels like I need to hide, to just keep my mouth shut. And I don’t want that.
I want this to become a part of who I am.
The third is
deeper still; I want to honor the people whose country I am living in. In those
rare times that I was able to utter my pidgin-Thai and be understood, where I
was able to assimilate a cultural act and not look clumsy; in those times the
people responded very favorably. They responded with a lot of grace. And they
seemed to genuinely appreciate that I had at least tried.
I have said
all along that my goal is to learn the language well enough so that I don’t embarrass
my kids. They have assured me that’s an impossibility. So that’s not my goal anymore.
Now… my goal has become to learn the language well enough that I can truly
honor our host country, well enough so that I can make the people feel like I
feel their language and their customs are important. I want to learn well enough
to make them feel like I feel they are important.
