Languages are interesting

summer is here, or at least it was for a while. I've gotten lucky with the weather as this year Thailand is experiencing something called the "mango rains." so it's been cool and rainy and I am very happy. The heat is coming, but right now we have seattle weather.

Payap is just about on summer vacation. The main campus is pretty dead and the first and second year nursing students have gone home. The nursing students have a different schedule and only get a couple of weeks vacation. Once again I find myself without all that much to do. We were supposed to go on a villagestay/work camp to do a building project a la Habitat for Humanity this week, but it was with students from Japan and was cancelled due to the earthquake. so instead I am learning how to write in Thai. It's so nice of Payap to pay me to study Thai. (We have actually worked out a decent job description and list of responsibilities for future volunteers and if nothing else I am pleased to have been a part of that process.) I'm also somewhat hopeful regarding the remainder of my time here as I think I am at last making progress with programs in the nursing dorm, but check back with me after March 28th... It's been a struggle and I could regale you with the joys of working and communicating in a cross-cultural setting, but I think I'll save those stories until I come home.

I am about at the halfway point. Due to the new CV schedule, it looks as though I may finish my time here at the end of september, which will give me a month to travel or perhaps just come home early depending on my finances. I am trying to think ahead about what's next. Limited success in that arena. If anything, I'm even more confused about my future career path now than I was when I came here, and that is saying something. However, living in Thailand has taught me the art of taking things one day at a time. Or at least of living in a state of Resignation Peace. And praying. A lot.

And so I hang out and study Thai and try to capitalize on this opportunity as much as possible. I actually feel a bit guilty about continuing to study in Payap's intensive Thai program. It feels a bit unnecessary and rather unpractical. And yet the prospect of learning to write in another alphabet is too tempting to pass up. We have a new ajaan who's teaching style is a little less... aggressive but also not quite as practical. There is a lot of learning by rote, which means I tend to do my own thing a lot of the time. I sit in class, pouring over a chart of the Thai alphabet, trying to figure out the logic. I am such a nerd, but I love it. It's the same thrill that I got learning to decipher jazz chords while studying improv. somewhere in that collection of squiggles and shapes is a system that, once understood, can be used to create and communicate. All I have to do is crack the code. It's too bad "professional student" is not a viable career option.

It's so interesting though to see how other languages work. Learning a new language changes the way you think about things a little bit. You notice how other languages express certain ideas or weird things about English that you'd never noticed before. Back in high school, my English teacher (who was and is pretty much my hero) used to say that the quality of your speech determines the quality of your thought. This, I'm sure he'd be pleased to know, had my overachieving teenage self scrambling to improve my vocabulary. Who knew how many words I needed to learn before becoming brilliant? ;-) Now I prefer to communicate with smiley faces. But I think there is some truth to that statement, and it's interesting to think about in relation to language teaching.