Life in Thailand and Language Difficulties - Essay Example

 I was born in Thailand, in a city called Bangkok but immediately after I was born my family moved to Trad (a province in Thailand). So first, I learnt how to speak Thai language, frankly speaking it wasn’t exactly Thai, but a dialect as I lived in Trad. People speak differently in Trad and in Bangkok. As I was a child and at that time wasn’t able to read myself my mother read a lot of books to me and I really enjoyed it. Especially I loved the national Thai legends and I dreamed about being alike that ancient heroes from that stories. When I learnt to read myself I, practically, fell in love with reading. Since that time I wanted to write a book myself. When I turned five years old, Iand my family moved back to Bangkok. So I know two dialects of Thai language. At the age of nine, my parents sent me to Singapore for my education. There Singpore, I was tought English that followed the British System. I didn’t get that British accent, but got used to it. People in Singapore have a unique accent called “Sing-lish”. There are many people of different races and cultures in the city of Singapore. Most of them are Chinese, Malay, and Indian. So I even studied the Chinese language when I was in Singapore and that also influenced my speech. So now have something like English-British-Singlish-Thai accent and a mix of languages in my mind. After that I moved to Los Angeles for studying in Junior High. When I began living in USA I also heard and adopted American accent and because of that I have had a hard time speaking and understanding. It felt like all the languages and dialects were mixed up in my head. It was difficult time not only for me, but also for my new friends and teachers, it was hard for them to understand what I was trying to say. And even now I still have an echo of this problem in my life. Sometimes I still feel that it is difficult for the people to understand my speech. But, unfortunately I cannot do anything with that. The name of my native country is the word, which sounds like “Thai” in our language, means “freedom” and we call our country “Prathet Thai” while the name that all the people got used to Thailand appeared only in 1930th. Speaking about the culture of Thailand I should mention that Buddhism and other religions and beliefs greatly influenced Thai art and way of life. In Thailand there were two main cultures: the court one, based on Buddhist values with the elements of Hinduism, another culture is folk one with its traditional songs and dances (for example - ramvong), the belief in spirits, tales, ceremonies of the agricultural cycle and the cycle of human life. This type of culture also includes crafts - manufacture of household goods, wood processing, home silk weaving, wickerwork, rattan, and many other. The court culture is represented by Thai classical theater "Khon", where the performance is accompanied by traditional Thai music orchestra "Phi Phat", singing and recitation. The best specimens of typical Thai architecture are the Buddhist monasteries, frescoes in the temples, and statues of the Buddha. As I already mentioned, after living in Thailand I moved to Singapore. The culture of this city-state resembles a mixture of primarily British, Chinese, Indian and Malay cultures. For a long time Singapore was a colony of the Britain, so the European culture got a great prevalence within this land. Also the situation connected with languages is very interesting; there are four state languages in Singapore: English, Malay, Chinese (Mandarin) and Tamil. The most interesting and unusual thing about Singaporeans is their obsession with food. The food is the main topic that people discuss during small talks, a lot of festivals, exhibitions and excursions are devoted to the food. Food is everywhere in Singapore. When I came to America, I realized that the culture of the United States is differs from Thai but is quite similar to the Singapore one. American culture, to a great extent, was formed under the influence of the mixing of different cultures and religions. Most notable was the impact of cultures of Ireland, Germany, Poland, Italy, as well as African and Native American Indians and residents of Hawaii. American films, television, blues, jazz, rap and rock now serve as the base of the world of mass culture. People in America are very religious. Despite the fact that in the beginning of my life I was a Buddhist later I went to the Christian High School, and had no problems with the new understanding of the God. So I think now the Christianity is much closer for me then Buddhism. The way of life here is also different from that one I got used to in my native land. Sometimes I feel myself in the big sea of people and because of the language-mixture in my mind I can’t fully enjoy the American life which is always fast and bright. I’m keen on reading since I was a little boy. I always wanted to become a writer, but didn’t fulfill my dream yet. When I was a child and lived with my parents my mother taught me to understand the deep meaning of the book but not only read them. All the legends that she read to me had the hidden meaning, the lesson for the people which was scrambled between the lines of the sometimes even a bit childish stories. When you read the book and try to deepen into its sense it is like when you see the bouquet of flowers, and then try to see each flower separately, the beauty of the whole bouquet is in each flower and together they make the whole beauty. The same I can say about the languages. It seems very interesting to me, to read books in English, Thai and Chinese. Sometimes I read one and the same book in all three languages to better understand both the language and the main idea, to see the main idea of the book better. You know, there is sometimes the feeling that you lack words, not like you’re nervous but in your native language there is no word to describe some of your feelings or something like that. So I can say that the melting pot of three different languages isn’t always a good thing, but sometimes I can fill the gaps in one language with the words from another one. The language is the most strange, fascinating and wonderful thing ever. To know several languages helps my better understanding the cultures of these languages bearers. When I read or write in some of these languages I come closer to the history and culture of the society for which this language is native. My friends also like reading and sometimes we get together and discuss the books we have read. I always was interested in literature studies and sometimes after reading a book I try to find the information about the author and that time when the book was written. It helps me to feel the spirit of the age and get closer to the foreign culture and way of life. I’m very thankful to my parents who accustomed me to reading books and I hope once I will write a book, as I always desired, and also will be able to translate it into those three languages I know. So I wish to share my understanding of and love for reading with the whole world. Works cited Davis Wade. Book of Peoples of the World: A Guide to Cultures. NationalGeographic; 2nd edition. 2008 Read More