Mr. Pinoy

Monday, 03 March 2008

When Mr. Pinoy was in the Philippines, he studied Thai. More than ten years ago before he came to Siam, he learned to say, “Sawadee krap!” which means, “Greetings!”, “Chan Rak Khun.” which means, “I Love You.” And he could say the numbers one to ten in Thai. Wow! I think learning a little Thai language is not enough. And learning a language takes a long time. But starting to learn the Thai language with interest is not easy. This is a challenge. If you can ask a Thai person to translate and say slowly the Thai meaning of, “Who sells chicken’s egg?” Mr. Pinoy tried hard to say this many times, “Krai-khai-guy-kai?” You can hear a Thai person says each syllable and it sounds the same but in different tones. Nowadays, Mr. Pinoy is still unable to say such short Thai tongue-twister correctly. The first challenge to Mr. Pinoy in coming to Thailand was the language. And the second challenge was the spicy chilli food. If ever Mr. Pinoy kept on complaining the language and the food, he became miserable. How did he overcome these challenges? He overcame these challenges by learning with patient, accepting and adjusting the changes of his life. The third challenge was working with Thai Teachers. Whatever a teacher says, represents his/her attitude. And a Filipino Teacher knows how to get along with people, fellow teachers and students. If ever Mr. Pinoy kept on complaining, he was a misfit. How did he overcome this challenge? He overcame it by accepting the condition that without work meaning there was no income, looking for work was no easy and the only way to face the situation was to live like Romans do. Mr. Pinoy is a teacher and one of the Filipino expatriates in Thailand. Written by: F. David This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ajarn_ph