What do you contribute to your school’s community? Art? Friendship? Food?
I would love to contribute more to this community, but one thing gets in the way of that, and that is my inability to speak the Thai language. In other words, not knowing Thai is the thing that makes me feel most like an outsider. I find it hard to make friends here when they don’t speak English and I don’t speak Thai. I want to contribute my friendship to the community, but I’m struggling to do that without a common tongue, or shared language. This inability to communicate is called a "language barrier."
I’m doing my best to learn Thai both through Thai lessons and by picking it up from strangers. It is fun when people teach me Thai words. A few weeks ago, I bought food from a cook who spoke a little bit of English. I asked him to teach me the word for “food.” “A-han,” he said. He then pointed to himself, and said “tam a-han.” Then he pointed his finger at me and said, “gin a-han.” Can you guess what these phrases mean?
Just by using his gestures, he was able to teach me the words for “cook food” and “eat food.” This was a simple but effective way to break the language barrier. What’s more is that I now consider this cook a friend! When I see him elsewhere in my college, I greet him, saying, “Sawatdee krupp!”
Even though my kitchen in my Khon Kaen home looks nothing like the kitchen in my apartment in Seattle, I’m still able to make this city feel like home by making friends like this. Sometimes, it makes me think that the word “home” might not mean “living place,” but rather “the place where I have good friends.”
Until next time! Sawatdee krupp!
