First guys let me say this is not a rant just an observation:
Let’s learn the language; first we find the school something that as little as four years ago was almost impossible. Then if we are lucky we get a good teacher and I have been blessed with that, Miss Chuan included. I would say the first year I was just goofing around with it. But Chuan inspired me I spent a year with her as she was trying to learn to teach. Her patience and understanding always amazed me. I was spending two hours in calls four days a week. Six hours of study six days a week. Buddy I was serious. On my way to reading and writing.
Anyone seen the Picture of Chuan she is female and so were my other teachers. I learned to ask for noodles 18 different ways, I don’t like noodles.
Man I can go to the market and buy pineapples all day long. I’m married I don’t go to the market. My wife does, she prepares a meal gives it to me and I eat it. End of story
I can find the bus depot; I’ve never ridden a bus in Thailand.
Now the airport that does come in handy if I need to pick up a friend. But that might happen once a year and that is done in English.
Yes I can say I want to buy a short, even what color I want, I can bargain the price of that shirt. What really happens we go downtown by some cloth the housekeeper takes that to the village and I have tailor made shirt for about the same price as off the rack.
You live In Thailand you should speak Thai, only if you live in Bangkok or you’re going to spend a lot of time speaking to the elite. It’s been over three years since I have been to Bangkok.
You see in this area they don’t really speak Thai they speak Issan an inferior language in the eyes of the elite.
I have a friend who has lived here for twenty years, co owner of the longest existing English school in Udon. Certified translator by the Thai and US governments. He has really very little problem here or in Bangkok. But get him in the villages around here and even he has problems having a general conversation, in the villages.
What is my hobby Bike touring, that would get pretty boring if I stayed in Udon all the time.
Anyone remember the government complaining that students couldn’t speak Thai properly. Why slang every society has it.
So after two years I’m really prepared to be a tourist. But generally those things that are in my real life are not offered in class. So I’m really not prepared to live in Issan.
I think Chuan I offering a class in Issan seem like I read that somewhere. Ok I go and learn how to buy pineapple in Issan... Am I any further ahead?
No I need to know how to buy nuts bolts, hardware. I need to able to tell a guy I want a ground wire on an outlet. I need to tell a mechanic to adjust my brakes, change the brake pads. Change the oil, I want new tires.
Don’t get me wrong learning something is darn site better then nothing. The problem I see I’m not learning the local language, nor the things that I will use. You don’t use it, you lose it.
A year of hard studying and not being able to advance beyond basic Thai to an intermediate class. The end result of this is I want to speak to the locals, simply because they are my neighbors and for the most part very nice people.
I’m now at a point where I am very hesitant of returning to school, because I don’t think I can accomplish what I need to live here. I may become a very good tourist but