Fooled Em'!! (Bangkok, Thailand)
Just a quick update on my language learning status. I managed to complete all 10 lessons of Indonesian. For Thai I managed to complete 9/10. I got lazy speaking English in Thailand so I didn't finish the last one. But, I learned enough in each of those countries to fool some of the locals into thinking I was from those countries! Of course, once the conversation got a little deeper it quickly became obvious I wasn't a local. Overall it is easier than I thought to learn languages on the road as long as I have a relatively quiet and comfortable room to learn in.
The funny thing...especially in Indonesia, most people there didn't believe I am American. They kept thinking I was Japanese. Especially in light of the fact that I tended to speak much slower and somewhat broken English. Both as a courtesy and to help them understand me. This speaks volumes about what perceptions people have of America. A future article I would like to write and research. My first thought is that people in many parts of the world think everyone in America looks like the folks on Baywatch. Oh how wrong they must be....
I can now speak a VERY modest amount of words with decent intonation in Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, German, and
a bit more of Spanish and Portugese, and with my French a bit rusty from high school. I find it difficult to believe
how far I've come in so short of time...all I gotta say is learn how to learn first!! I'm not really on an extended
vacation / journey, I'm just going to school! hahaha
Seriously, knowing a modest amount of the language is SO helpful. People really appreciate the effort I feel. More
respect too. It is like meeting people halfway instead of expecting everyone to speak English. Let alone what one learns
from understanding and speaking the language itself too.
Now somewhere in Palau and India I'm going to start learning Arabic, and I have 30+ lessons of that!! Let's see if my 1 month beard (To be started after Palau) and Arabic will fool some more people.
Who do I want to be today? ...got to go and catch my flight to Colombo now!!
The funny thing...especially in Indonesia, most people there didn't believe I am American. They kept thinking I was Japanese. Especially in light of the fact that I tended to speak much slower and somewhat broken English. Both as a courtesy and to help them understand me. This speaks volumes about what perceptions people have of America. A future article I would like to write and research. My first thought is that people in many parts of the world think everyone in America looks like the folks on Baywatch. Oh how wrong they must be....
I can now speak a VERY modest amount of words with decent intonation in Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, German, and
a bit more of Spanish and Portugese, and with my French a bit rusty from high school. I find it difficult to believe
how far I've come in so short of time...all I gotta say is learn how to learn first!! I'm not really on an extended
vacation / journey, I'm just going to school! hahaha
Seriously, knowing a modest amount of the language is SO helpful. People really appreciate the effort I feel. More
respect too. It is like meeting people halfway instead of expecting everyone to speak English. Let alone what one learns
from understanding and speaking the language itself too.
Now somewhere in Palau and India I'm going to start learning Arabic, and I have 30+ lessons of that!! Let's see if my 1 month beard (To be started after Palau) and Arabic will fool some more people.
Who do I want to be today? ...got to go and catch my flight to Colombo now!!
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