What a week it's been. Lessons have been made, but sadly not many Thai ones. I've learnt several other valuable life lessons this week concerning not being such a dimwit at airports. Long and short of it is, it pays to be more alert and awake at airports especially where passport and essential travel documents are concerned. Oh well, live and learn, ended up costing me about 14,000 Baht more than I had anticipated and having to replace what was a brand new passport. But at least I did get to experience another country in SE Asia, and certainly made a change from Laos or Cambodia.
One thing that is reaffirmed, every time I visit a country that shares its borders with Thailand, are the undeniable higher English language skills of Thailand's Asian neighbours. The Cambodians, don't have a problem conversing in English with you, despite them being a much poorer nation and the atrocities of the Pol Pot regime regressing their economic development by at least 10 years. You get Cambodian street kids come up to you and ask where are you from, and no matter what country you say they will have a smart quip in English to come up with, that lets you know they actually know something about your country. I was equally impressed with a lot of Laotians and their English language skills as well. But, perhaps most impressive were the Malay people. I would say KL has a great cross-cultural mix, the majority of its population consist of Malaysian-Chinese constituting roughly about 55%, and roughly a 30-40% Indian population. Many taxi drivers are will not only speak perfect English, but also Tamil, Hindi, Malayalum, and Punjabi amongst others. Although, Thailand has never been colonized by Western powers, this should be no excuse as to why many Thais have a poor level of English. After all, if poorer neighbours can communicate with foreigners to a good standard of English, why can't Thais follow suite? It is slowly getting improving, and I don't mean to be down on Thais at all in this post, this is the only frustration about Thais and Thailand, all be it a very minor one. At the end of the day, I want Thais to boost their confidence when it comes to speaking language and if they can derive a better income from speaking better English, then I'm all the more for it.
Oh, and for those wondering what kind of blog this is without any Thai in the post. Well just for you, I just finished watching a good movie from the early 90s, เสียดาย 2 all about a girl who gets infected with HIV through a blood transfusion. I was impressed with the foreign Mum's Thai (assuming it wasn't dubbed). I'd also recommend doing a google image search for เสียดาย 2 :)
Here's the synopsis and a rough translation:
เป็นเรื่องราวของโรส(มาริสา แอนนิต้า)เด็กสาวลูกครึ่งไทย-ตะวันตกในครอบครัวมีอันจะกินพ่อชาวไทยและแม่ชาวต่างประเทศ ที่เป็นครูสอนดนตรีวันหนึ่งเธอเคราะห์ร้ายติดเชื้อเอชไอวีจากการรับบริจาคเลือดธอรู้สึกสับสนหาทางออกไม่ได้จนคิดฆ่าตัวตาย เพราะทั้งเพื่อนฝูงและครอบครัวเริ่มไม่ไว้ใจและทำตัวถอยห่างจึงหลบหนีออกจากบ้านแต่เคราะห์ยังดีเธอได้อยู่กับเพื่อนรุ่นพี่ที่เป็นผู้ป่วยโรคเอดส์เช่นเดียวกัน.
It's a story of Rose (Marisa Anita) who's is a half-Thai, half-Westerner teenager, belonging to a wealthy family. The father being a Thai and the Mum is from another country who teaches music. One day she picks up HIV from a blood transfusion. She feels confused and contemplates suicide, as friends and family start shunning her away. She runs away from home but finds solace in an older friend/senior patient who has AIDS as well.
