The Life in Thailand - Essay Example

The Life in Thailand I was born in Thailand, in a city called Bangkok. Immediately after I was born my family moved to Trad (a province in Thailand) and my first language was Thai language. This language was not exactly Thai but a Trad dialect. Most of my interests in language and culture are inclined to my childhood. When I was young, I could not read so my mother read me stories, which I really enjoyed. I loved the national Thai legends, and I dreamt of being like ancient heroes from the stories. An example of that story is one called Mae Nak Phra Khanong, which talks about a lady called Nak. After learning how to read I practically fell in love with the language and at five years, my family and I moved to Bangkok where I was able to learn a new dialect. At the age of nine, my parents sent me to Singapore for education and I was able to learn British English. People in Singapore have a unique accent called “Sing-lish”. There are many people of diverse races and cultures in Singapore. These different cultures made me get a culture shock, as I was not used to such diversity. Most of the people were Chinese, Malay, and Indian. I even studied the Chinese language, and it influenced my speech. Now I have the knowledge of the Thai, British English, and Chinese. After that, I moved to Los Angeles in the US for middle school. When I began living in USA, I adopted an American accent, which gave me a hard time in communicating with others. It felt like all the languages and dialects were mixed up in my head. It was hard for them to understand what I was trying to say. Some words were different in British English and in American English. An example is jumper and sweater. Sometimes I still feel that it is difficult for people to understand my speech .This is because there is a difference in sentence construction and use of prepositions in the two forms of English, unfortunately I cannot do anything about that issue. My native country is Thailand, which means “freedom”, and we call our country “Prathet Thai”. Buddhism and other religions and beliefs have a great influence on Thai art and way of life. In Thailand, the two main cultures are the ‘court one’ and ‘Ramvong.’ The court one culture is based on Buddhist values with the elements of Hinduism. Ramvong on the other hand, is a folk culture with traditional songs and dances about the belief in spirits, tales, ceremonies of the agricultural cycle and the cycle of human life. This type of culture also includes crafts like manufacture of household goods, wood processing, home silk weaving, wickerwork, rattan, and many others. The court culture is represented by Thai classical theater also known as "Khon". The performance is accompanied by traditional Thai music orchestra called "Phi Phat”. Typical Thai architecture is represented by Buddhist monasteries, frescoes in the temples and statues of the Buddha. The culture in Singapore resembles a mixture of primarily British, Chinese, Indian, and Malay cultures. For a long time Singapore was a colony of Britain, because of this the European culture got a great prevalence within this land. 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. Food is the main topic that people discuss during small talks. A lot of festivals, exhibitions, and excursions are devoted to the food. When I came to America, I realized that the people’s culture is different with that of Thai, but is quite similar to the Singapore one. American culture is largely 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 and songs blues, jazz, rap and rock now serve as the base of the world of mass culture. Despite the fact that in my early life I was a Buddhist, later I went to the Christian High School and had no problems with the new teachings of God. I now think that Christianity is a better faith for me than Buddhism. The way of life in America is different from that in Thailand. Sometimes I get confused because of the language-mixture in my mind and I cannot fully enjoy the American life, which is always fast and bright. I never wanted to become a writer and hated it from when I was young. It is extremely difficult for me to write something down on paper. As I grew up, I still hated writing but after taking writing classes and gained more experience, it made me reconsider. When I was a child, my mother taught me to understand the deeper meaning of a book not only by reading it, but also by understanding the content. All the legends that she read to me had a hidden meaning, and had lessons for adults written in childish stories. When you read a book and try to find a deeper, it is like looking into a bouquet of flowers, and trying to see each flower separately. The beauty of the whole bouquet is in each flower. The same can apply to the language because it seems interesting for me, to read books in English, Thai, and Chinese. Sometimes I read the same book in all three languages for better understanding of the main idea in the book. One may lack words to express themselves because in their native language the word or feeling does not exist. With knowledge of these three languages, I can understand what the writer was trying to say. Language is the most strange, fascinating and wonderful thing ever, and to know several languages helps me to better my understanding on these cultures. 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 am always interested in literature studies and sometimes after reading a book, I try to find information about the author and the time when the book was written as it helps me to understand the context in which the writer wrote. I am very thankful to my parents who accustomed me to reading books and I hope once I write a book, even though I hate writing, I will be able to translate it into those three languages . This will help me share my love for reading with the whole world. The main purpose of writing this is to allow others to see that knowing different languages is more of an advantage than a disadvantage. It helps in understanding these different cultures. Part 2: Revision Strategies Theoretical questions used as a lens to reconstruct the first draft. Theoretical questions used as a lens to reconstruct the first draft Are the main ideas flowing from one to the other? Short sentences are a sign that one is a learner. Therefore, I tried to connect the sentences making sure that the main ideas were smoothly flowing. With ideas that smoothly flow one can easily understand what the writer was trying to say Have I given relevant examples to support the main ideas in my text? In any given text or situation, examples are very important so that the reader can easily relate to what I was saying. In my review, I was able to give an example of a Thai legend and a character that fascinated me. This helps in connecting with the readers as they can also get to read the story and understand what I am talking about. Who are the intended readers of my work? Having the intended reader in mind is very important as it helps the writer know what level of English to use. I made my English to be as simple as possible so that the non-native English speakers can easily understand. These questions are very important because they give a guideline on how the revision should be The Focus on my revision During the revision, my focus was one relevant examples and giving detailed explanations. This was so that my audience would easily understand. Therefore, I made it reader based. Reviewing helps a writer give structure to whatever they had written. This was through giving relevant examples or at times controversial setting, which makes the reader want to read more I gave an example of a Thai Legend and why this particular character fascinated me. In the case of them moving to Singapore, they should tell the audience exactly how it felt to finally learn English and maybe some of the challenges they faced and how they were able to deal with them. A good example would be on culture shock because of the different people in Singapore. I also gave examples of words in American English and British English that had two different meanings. I also wrote examples of how the languages helped me understand what was written in native language. How the original arguments were reshaped One of the original arguments was the issue on the Thai legends. After the revision, I was able to give an example of a character in a legend that fascinated and I wanted to be like them. The other main one was inclusion of my main reason of writing. These intentions are able to shape my arguments. In the original document, there was no reason or intention for my writing. The other original argument was on British English and American English. I was able to give relevant examples of how some words were different. References Brayant, John. The Fluid Text; A theory of Revision and Editing for Book and Screen. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2002. Murray, Donald. The Craft of Revision. Boston: cengage learning, 2012. Read More