A Lesson in Tinglish

I gotta admit, I've always been amused by the way non-English speakers speak English. I grew up hearing Chinglish from family members and Spanglish all around me in New York City, and now I hear Tinglish every day. I just love how people blend their native languages with English.

One of the idiosyncrasies of Tinglish that I've come to expect and gotten used to hearing is the use of tones when none is required. As you may know, Thai is a tonal language, like Chinese. So when the Thai people speak English, they tend to put in tones like they do in Thai. The way they do this is by elongating a word and emphasizing the last syllable. Even a one-syllable word becomes two syllables with an emphasis at the end. "No" becomes "noo-OOO!" "Coming" becomes "com-EENG!" After about two months of being here, my son began talking like this. He loves accents and picks them up pretty quickly, so he would say all his words with this accent -- "I don't like ii-EET!" "I am go-EENG ho-OME!" He doesn't do it as much with us anymore, but I hear him talk like this when he's with his Thai friends at school. Sometimes even my husband and I unconsciously slip into this pattern of speech!

The Thai people also have trouble with the "l" sound and tend to say it as the "r" sound. My son's name has an "l" in it and that always comes out as the "r" sound when his Thai teachers and some of his Thai friends say it. He used to get upset about it, thinking they were doing it on purpose or teasing him about his name!

The Thai people also can't say the "l" sound at the end of English words; instead, it comes out as the "n" sound. So "noodle" becomes "nooden" and "basketball" becomes "basketban." But they still spell words ending with the "n" sound with an "l"! It can get pretty confusing when it's a Thai word. For example, there's a boy at school whose nickname is Pol. I would pronounce it as it's spelled, like "pole," and he would never respond to me. Finally, my son told me that it's actually pronounced as "Pon"! What? Then, the other day, a parent who's pretty fluent in English was telling me that her son doesn't like apples and said "appen" instead. Took me a second to figure out she was talking about apples.

I've also noticed they tend to leave off the "-s" ending sounds with plurals and other words. My son's name also has an "s" at the end, which tends to be left off. So you can imagine how mangled his name sounds with the "l" changed to "r" and the ending "s" sound left off.

Speaking of change, something the Thai people also have a lot of trouble with is the difference between the "ch" and "sh" sounds. They tend to mix up the two. This seems to be very common; I hear it from almost everyone, even students who speak English fluently. Instead of "shower," they say "chower," and they pronounce words like "change" as "shange." My son's teacher started teaching her students the difference between these two sounds last semester and still continues to this day!

Also, I assume that, like Chinese, Thai doesn't have tenses or conjugation of verbs, so they don't tend to use tenses or conjugate the verbs when speaking English. I'm totally used to this as I, too, grew up hearing English this way from my family, though it does lead to some confusion as to when something actually happened.

Like all variations of -nglish, Tinglish is fun and funny with all its quirks. 555! That means "hahaha" here. The Thai word for "five" is "ha," so 555 = hahaha! I love ii-EET!

Taking Up Juggling Again

Back in the U.S., my life involved constantly balancing the many parts of it -- working a full-time job; scheduling drop-offs, pick-ups, and carpools; getting the kid to his extracurricular activities and overseeing his homework; getting household chores and errands done, etc. And, on top of all that, trying to find time for myself, for my husband and me, and for all three of us as a family. Luckily, I was able to work from home most days of the week, which was a godsend and saved me from many, many hours of commuting time.

After arriving here in July, I had more free time than I knew what to do with, though that was short-lived as I was called in by the school to substitute-teach soon after the school year began and much of my free time was replaced by getting us settled and completing household chores, which always take a lot longer and more effort to do here. We got into a nice routine in the months after. My husband handled most of the school drop-offs and pick-ups since both of them now are at the same school, except Wednesdays, when my son had his swim classes and my husband had weekly school/faculty meetings.

When this semester started, our schedule changed a bit as my son's swim class changed to Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, but I continued to pick him up after school on Wednesday afternoons. In February, I began tutoring four high-school girls (from a British international school near us) in English for two hours after school on Thursdays. So on those days, my husband would drop me off (after picking me up at home if I wasn't subbing that day) to tutor after our son's swim class and pick me up two hours later. Shortly after I began tutoring, my husband also began tutoring a student at our school in IB Biology for two hours after school on Tuesdays. So now I was picking up my son after school, taking him to swimming, and bringing him home on Tuesdays, as well as picking him up on Wednesdays, and my husband was doing the same on Thursdays. Things were getting a bit tricky! This kind of schedule was a bit hard to manage even back at home, when we had a car and could get from one place to another fairly quickly, but here, with no car and just one scooter and one bike, it seemed impossible at times and could be downright exhausting, especially with climbing temperatures again.

But being the professionals that we are, this proved to be so easy that we decided to take on even more! At the beginning of this month, I accepted another tutoring job on Wednesdays after school -- an elementary student at our school. So now when I pick up my son on Wednesdays, I bring his homework, which he works on while I'm tutoring (it's a pretty good idea because my third-grade tutee sees that my first-grader reads and does math at higher levels than he does, which motivates him...a little).  Luckily, this arrangement will end soon and Wednesdays will be back to being simple again in a couple of weeks.

But then -- are you ready for this? -- I got a call last week to sub again for the same special-education teacher that I did at the beginning of the school year. And as the week went on, I was approached with the possibility of subbing for him for the rest of the school year! It's really a pretty sad story -- this particular teacher has been at this school for almost a decade, but was asked to leave at the end of this school year, in part due to his deteriorating health, which had been declining rapidly the past two months. He had been looking extremely frail and unhealthy, and went to the hospital this past week (which I'm surprised he did because he doesn't believe in modern medicine and had been trying to "cure" himself with alternative medicine for most of this school year, even though he has no idea what's ailing him).

As if all this wasn't enough already, another twist was added to the week when the elementary school decided to close on Thursday and Friday, while the middle and high schools remained open, after pollution from an abandoned landfill (where illegal dumping continued to occur) fire in another province reached our area, causing the air to be so smoky and oppressive at times that it was difficult to breathe while outside. The fire began on Sunday, and as it polluted the air in our area on Monday, the Parent Association arranged for the air to be tested, after which this decision was made. However, I'm not sure why the middle and high schools remained open as the air quality was deemed acceptable for healthy adults only.

So just as I began my sub position at the school and was still trying to figure out a fairly crazy schedule, we were forced to look for childcare for my son for two days. This was a new situation for us -- between my husband and my son always having been on the same school calendar and my being able to work from home, we had actually never had to worry much about childcare coverage until now. Luckily, one of our friends generously offered to watch him both days. My son completely lucked out too, because his first day with our friend was her oldest son's birthday, so they all got to spend the day having a ton of fun at a play area at one of the malls, lunching at the mall, and getting treated to ice cream.

But it's not all fun and games with school cancellations here. Unlike in the U.S., when school is canceled here, the students still have to complete, on their own, all the schoolwork they would've done had they been in school. The first-grade teachers sent home a thick packet of work for the students to complete, while some upper elementary teachers posted the work online for the students.

Needless to say, I was completely exhausted after last week. And there's yet another routine to learn this week as all swim classes and practices are canceled until further notice while the pool water is being tested for toxins. Hopefully, everything will return to normal before the school year ends!

An American Summer

This past week began the last quarter of the school year for us! This semester is flying by. We have only nine weeks of school left! And with half of April taken up by "spring" break, May is the only full month of school left (but not for the seniors with all the AP and IB exams taking place). Before we know it, we'll be getting ready to go home for the summer (well, June and a little bit of July, anyway)! I am definitely counting down the days until we leave for home. Our departure date is June 10 with a 6:50 a.m. flight and getting into the D.C. area around 4 p.m. on the same day. Who says you can't make time stand still or go back in time...or whatever it is we're doing?

I have to say, I'm really, really looking forward to going home. As full of adventure and as exciting as this past year has been, I'm ready for a little bit of easy living again. I hadn't realized how easy daily life is in America. It's hard to see that and so easy to take that life for granted. I can't wait to see everyone and do all the things I've missed doing this past year. But I'm also just a little afraid that I won't want to get on the flight to come back in July!

Some of the things I'm looking forward to this summer (sometimes it really is the little things that matter):

Getting together with friends, of course! Throughout the time we're home, hopefully!
Easy access to ethnic cuisine of all types (Sushi! Indian food! Dumplings!! Pierogi!).
Relatively cheap junk food (yes, I still eat those things).
Good wine. At a reasonable price.
Road trips, camping, and hiking.
Big, fat juicy steaks.
Being able to go anywhere anytime I want without having to take a taxi.
Experiencing bad traffic only during rush hour as opposed to horrible traffic at all hours of the day and night.
Being able to eat and sleep without being eaten alive by mosquitoes, or being woken up by roosters crowing, dogs howling (Thailand, with its many stray dogs and cats, has turned me into a dog-hater!), or motorcycles and scooters roaring by.
Not having to wait an entire day for clothes to dry.
Experiencing less than 100 percent humidity on occasion.
Understanding what others say and being understood.
Going to the museums, parks, festivals, playgrounds, farms, etc.
Riding the metro (never thought I'd say that!).
Shopping at Trader Joe's (I'll be the one running down its aisles like a giddy school girl).
Going to the library! And bookstores!
Being able to order delivery or takeout at a moment's notice and without having to pay a fee.

And hopefully, this trip home will also give us a better idea of what we want to do and where we want to live next. It will be an interesting summer, that's for sure!

Hooray for Gymnastics!

After years of wanting to, my kid finally started a gymnastics class this weekend! He couldn't be more excited. He's always loved tumbling, cartwheels, climbing, and swinging around on the monkey bars, and he's agile, coordinated, strong, and flexible. Also, he generally dislikes team sports -- he's tried basketball, soccer, and t-ball in the past, none of which took -- but prefers sports that are more individual and involve challenging himself, like karate and swimming, so gymnastics seemed like a natural fit.

About a month ago, a friend here went to an informal gymnastics class for adults at a Thai-Canadian sports center in Bangkok. After she told me about it, I did some research and contacted the center. My son was invited to go for a trial class, which we did last weekend.

Of course, getting anywhere here is never easy, so even though our friend had told us that it wasn't hard to get to, our taxi driver still got lost several times and took a while to find the place (though the second time around this weekend was a little easier with us directing the taxi driver). The place itself is pretty awesome. There are tons of classes for all ages, from toddlers to adults, in gymnastics and swimming. Each class is 1 1/2 hours long, during which the kids do a bunch of different activities, from running and jumping to vaulting to working on the balance beam and tumbling. Obviously, my son is in the beginners' group, but he loves that he already is getting to learn some basic gymnastics skills.

My son had a ton of fun and did really well during the trial class, so we signed him up for 14 classes (once a week). After a month of classes, he will be moved up to an all-boys team if the coach sees progress. Even at his first class yesterday, he already showed improvement in a couple of areas and was already trying new things. These classes will give him something new and challenging to look forward to.

A view of the space where the gymnastics classes took place.

Stretching and warming up.

Stretching.

The kids had to hop from one line to the next. No easy feat for some of them.

Racing.

Jumping from one mat to the next.

Running to get a head start to get on the vault...

He jumps onto a little trampoline...

...and propels himself onto the vault.

Trying out the balance beam, forwards and backwards!

Welcome to Party Central

Looking for good time? Come to where we live, 'cuz I swear all the partiers of Thailand live in our corner of the neighborhood. Since we moved in seven months ago, neighbors across the street and in back of us have held at least five different parties. And since January of this year, people who live in a more Thai neighborhood on the other side of a wall by our house have played music/karaoke almost every night! I enjoy a good party myself, but these are nothing like the parties I'm used to. These are parties that last at least eight hours, with ear-shattering, wall-vibrating music. And there's always badly sung karaoke, of course. With these houses built entirely of concrete and no insulation, we might as well be at the parties when the music is playing. Any chance I had of learning to appreciate and enjoy Thai music has been ruined; whenever I hear Thai music now, I just want to scream and turn it off. You could say that I'm Thai-r-ed of these antics. 

It all began about a week after we moved in, in early August, on the day of the Queen's birthday/Mother's Day. Our back neighbors had an eight-hour karaoke party. These neighbors pretty much own the street they live on, which is the street over from ours. Their compound of houses (it seems pretty common in our neighborhood to join together two or three huge houses so that generations of a family are able to live together) are the only ones on that street, so whenever they have a party, they take over the street and set up tables and a stage all over it. But at least this particular party was held during the day.

But last night, they had another gigantic party, this time well into the night. It was pretty crazy. The party began around mid-afternoon and went till 1 a.m. or so. There were vans and vans, and a big bus (yes, a bus), parked all over our area of the neighborhood. I'm guessing that was how their guests arrived. The music was so loud that we felt our walls vibrating. Even when we were in the front part of our house, it still felt like we had all the windows and doors open. There was no escape from it. Surprisingly, our neighbors were awake at the break of dawn this morning. I guess when you don't have to do anything all day, every day, you have the energy to party hard and feel no effects from it.

The bus parked next to our house.

Our neighbors across the street are pretty bad too. They like to throw loud, late-night karaoke parties in the middle of the week. And as some of you know, they threw the party of the year in December, complete with closing down our street; a huge, fan-shaped neon light that lit up the night sky and our bedroom; and a live band with giant loudspeakers aimed at our house. Our friends who live in another neighborhood at least five blocks away heard the party going on! For that party, we actually had to escape to a hotel that night.

Then, as if things weren't crazy enough, the people who live on the other side of a wall next to our house have decided to join in the fun. Since we got back from Vietnam in January, someone in that neighborhood has made it his or her mission to provide a party atmosphere almost every night by playing music loudly, well into the night. I'm telling you, people here have way too much time on their hands.

The gigantic neon light from our neighbors across the street.

So yes, we're planning on getting away from it by moving out at the end of our lease this July. We love our current landlady, but she's not worth going through this for another year. The elementary science coach and his wife are going home after this school year ends, so we're going to move into their house. They live in another village that is farther away from the school, but it has more character and lots more stuff within walking and biking distance. Their house also is much nicer, and the rent is lower too. The house is much more nicely furnished, has a bath tub (!), an oven (!!), a full-sized refrigerator (!!!), and an actual, walk-in storage area.

[When you buy a newly built house in Thailand, you're actually buying only a shell of a house, literally; there is nothing inside -- no closets, no cabinets, stoves, toilets, showers...nothing. Once you buy the house, you have to put everything in yourself. So there are no closets like the ones in American houses; they are actually just wardrobes that have been installed.]

There are three bedrooms, all nicely furnished; two of them have their own balcony. The house is across the street from a lake, which we can see from the master bedroom. And another bonus -- there is a mango tree in the front yard! We will get to enjoy fresh mangos just by going outside and picking them (the house comes with a mango picker too!)! I remember eating mangos fresh off the trees as a little girl, and I'm looking forward to doing that again. But the best part about this house? It's in a very quiet neighborhood.

Life's Endless Possibilities

Ever since coming to Thailand, I've been hearing and reading about people and families that travel all over the world full-time. Well, I got to meet one of these families today! Talking with them blew my mind, and helped me to see again that life is full of possibilities.

[Side story: How we came to meet them is a testament to how amazing modern technology can be in bringing the world together. During this family's preparation to travel and homeschool their children, they happened upon my friend's website about homeschooling in Thailand and contacted her, which led to their meeting one another. Then, because they are currently traveling in Bangkok, my friend invited their two children to her son's birthday party, which is where we met! That is a cool "how we met" story, isn't it?]

Growing up as a child of immigrant parents, the goals in life were always: get a good education, get a good job that brings in good income, get married, and buy a house and settle down. And even then, I couldn't just go into any field I wanted. So even though I was quite skilled and talented at playing the violin as a kid (winning competitions, getting written about in the papers a couple of times, and being told by my violin teacher that I could become a professional violin player if I continued to play the way I did), doing that as a living was never an option. When I switched my major from engineering to something else in college, my parents had a huge fit and nearly disowned me.

I think, once upon a time, I did believe that life was full of potential and promise. But over time, as I got a job, settled down, and became bogged down by the details of daily life, I lost the ability to see the possibilities and to think outside the box. Then I went to law school, bought a house, had a baby, and life seemed to become all about working, parenting, making money, and saving money. We work, raise children, and send them to school, hoping they'll do well in school, go to college, and get a good job (whatever that is)...and the cycle starts all over again with the next generation.

Then I came to Thailand and learned about people that pretty much travel for a living. But it still seemed like such a pipe dream. Meeting and talking with this traveling family today made it concrete and real. It showed me that life really is what you make of it and made me see how narrowly we had come to define our own lives. 

The couple, originally from the U.K., started traveling full-time with their two children, ages 9 and 6, only a few months ago. The man is our age, and the woman is a bit older, in her mid-40s. They had been living and working in Spain the last five years. For the last three years, they worked to build an online business that can be done from anywhere in the world and generate enough income to live on. They sold everything they owned, took their children out of school, and got on the road. They're currently working their way through Asia and eventually will end up in Australia, where they have a cousin they will visit.

I was amazed by their mindset and how different their views and ideas about life are from those I grew up with and our way of life. For one, I really admire their outside-the-box type of thinking about the concept of working. Between the two of them, they don't have one college degree, but through hard work, perseverance, and creativity, they have owned several businesses, make a good living, have survived and bounced back from the recession in Spain (which caused most of their income to dry up completely), and live a full and rich life on their terms.

They had originally planned to begin traveling full-time when their kids were older. But then, one of their parents was diagnosed with dementia at age 66, and made them realize that they need to live the life they want while they can. I really commend them for actually working to make their dreams come true, instead of just sitting around and talking about it for years and years before doing something about it, like some people (Us! Haha!). I also find it admirable that they don't let their fears of the unknown stop them from taking risks and living out their dreams.
 
It also was reassuring to see someone our age (and older) doing what they're doing. There have been so many times when my husband and I worried about saving enough money for the future, or wondered whether we made the right decision coming here -- because doing what we're doing now means having to re-establish many aspects of our lives once we return to the U.S. While I'm sure the retirement system in the U.K. is very different from the American one, talking to this couple today made me realize that there is much, much more to life than saving money and retirement, that what we are getting to do right now is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we should enjoy ourselves more and worry less, and that things will work out. We are both educated professionals with many skills to offer, and we can always find a way to make a living and support our family (given how many careers I've gone through, I should've realized this sooner!).

Talking with this couple also made me realize that there are many, many different ways to get an education. Although the kids in this family excelled in a formal school setting while in Spain, their parents still chose to take them out of this setting to embark on this journey and homeschool them instead. The parents don't seem too worried about the kids falling behind and seem confident in their abilities to provide a good education. And the education these kids are getting is hands-on and priceless; they're learning about life and the world in ways that they will never get to do in a classroom. These parents are teaching their children how to take risks and achieve their dreams. While I still, and always will, want my son to receive a more formal education, seeing this family's way of educating their children made me realize that my son will do fine educationally and academically, no matter where we are.

Meeting this family also made me realize that, by doing what we're doing, we're teaching our little boy that life is full of possibilities, that he is in charge of his life, and that he has the power to dictate the direction of his life and to change it. I'm especially glad his views on how life is to be lived won't be as limiting as mine were growing up.

I'm generally not a risk-taker and tend to worry excessively about everything, but this family really allowed me to see firsthand that life can be lived out in so many different ways. I know that sounds crazy given what we're doing ourselves, but we've adapted to this life over time and it no longer feels so out-of-the-ordinary. Meeting this family today was such a freeing experience.