lost in traslation

Trying to explain something about my country to people that come from other counties is totally difficult. Since I moved to the United States, many people have asked me “ How is Thailand?” and “ What is the most interesting thing in Thailand?” But when I try to explain to them, nobody understands me. At first I thought it was my communication. Nowadays, my English has been approving a little bit, but the situation is still the same. Sometimes I feel so tired when I have to explain repeatedly the customs and traditional of my country so many times.

Language is one common thing that people always misunderstand. Every time I go to work at McDonald’s as a cashier, I meet many people that have come from different countries. Many times when Asian people come to the store and try to order some food that my co-worker’s whomever takes his or her order cannot understand, they will call me because they think that all the Asian countries speak the same language. Although I have told them so many times, they still do not get it. It does not matter for me to take the order, but I just want to tell everyone that “ Thai language” is only one of many Asian languages in the world. It is not the same as Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. Although people think that we kind of look similar because we are Asian. We speak in different language. I cannot understand them, and they cannot understand me either.

Asking about Thailand festivals is the most popular question when other people meet me. In Thailand, we celebrate many different festivals. Every festival has a origin. We have Song Khan Festival, Loy Krathongs Festival, and many others. One of my friends, once asked me how we have to celebrate in Loy Krathoungs day. I told her that Loy Krathoungs is an annual festival of Thailand, and we celebrate it on the full-moon night in November. People float krathoungs on a small vessel that is made from banana leaves. It is decorated with beautiful flowers, joss-stick and candles in the rivers and canals. We do this every year to show respect and thanks to the goddess of the river for giving us using the water from the river. Also, many Thai people think if we celebrate Loy Krathoungs every year and keep the rivers clean, we will have water to use as long as we need because the goddess is happy.

Respect is probably the most important thing for Thai people. Last week, I was working with one of my managers, and her daughter came to the store. She is about fifteen years old. I noticed that many times when her daughter talked with her, she did not show any respect that she should have with the person in front of her “ her mother “ Many times when my boss told her not to do it, she said something in the bad way and gave her mom a bad attitude. After I looked at her, she made me think back to my country. If this girl was born in Thailand, she would not able to act this way to her mother. In my culture, the children have to show their respect. It is not only with their parent but it includes everybody that is older than them. They have to listen and not say anything back because when someone else has seen whatever the children have done, they will not complain only with the children, but they will complain to their parents about how their admonish their children too. That is so different from this culture. I asked my manager why she let her daughter act like that to her in front of everybody, She said she does not want her daughter hate her, so she does not care what other people think. Also, she said is the way people in Mexico admonish children. This is a strange way to make the children love the parent for me, and it exemplifies the differences in our two cultures.

For many foreign people, explaining something about one’s hometown is very important. When I have to answer my friends questions about my country, I have to be careful with whatever I tell them. If I cannot communicate well, or clearly make them exactly understand in me, it can cause negative result. One time I asked my co-worker about what should I buy for my friend in her twenty-first birthday. She told me that I should buy perfume because it is the popular gift in America, I told her I cannot because in my country some of the people think that if you buy perfume for you friends, in the future you and your friends will break up the relationship. My co-worker laughed at me because she thought that is so silly. I had to explain to her about the meaning of the gift when she want to but for different person. Nowadays, I do not ask her anymore, but she asks me instead. Foe me, I will try as hard as I can to explain to other people because as long as they understand What I have told them, the translation will go in the correct way. I will feel content and fit in this country more than before.


language....


Japanese Thai Chinese korea


Asian people.....

Korea Japanese Chinese Thai

Respect the older people.....

Thailand festival " Loy Krathong "..........