How do I know I flunked? I still don’t speak Thai. Yes, they give you an evaluation at the end, but you don’t understand Thai people. You can’t rely on what they tell you. They wouldn’t be so unkind as to tell you your Thai is horrible. That and they hope you’ll pony up another $4,200 baht to keep taking the classes.
Let’s be fair about this. The Thai teachers have a tough job. They have to take some old white guys
on the verge of Alzheimer’s, with questionable motivation and hard of hearing (this is a tonal language). Let’s see ...what were some of the reasons those white guys were studying Thai? Oh, yeah, they were bored, wanted to be able to talk to the bar maids and tired of eating the only dish they could order in Thai. Those were the good reasons. So I theoretically finished book 2 and now can order two dishes. My Thai language skills are not much better, but I have increased my pantomiming skills considerably. Jean wrote a nice scholarly article on Language training but I thought you should know the truth. She is doing well but I’m lagging a little. Ok, quite a ways behind. I like to think of it as off to the side. See, I’m learning a lot of valuable things: patience, humility, how to order Thai food. Do you know how hard it is to have a second grader give you the “look” when you try to say something in Thai? Right now I would be happy to be in the second grade. Each day, language class is 2 hours of, “What did she say?” The first time I was in the second grade I could understand everything the teacher said but couldn’t figure out the homework. This time it was two hours of blank stares and then she tells us what our homework is, in English. Nobody knows for sure if you’re on track, hopeless or somewhere in between. I like to think of it as a learning process. It helps to handle the rejections and ridicule. Do I think I will ever learn Thai? Yes, I do. I hope it’s sometime before we leave to go back to the states.
Gary
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