A Strange Skytrain Encounter

[Guest fountainhall]

Yesterday afternoon I had a very strange encounter. At one of the platforms at Siam BTS station, I was approached by a middle-aged African-American lady seeking my help. She explained she was trying to get to Paragon. She had asked several station staff who kept on giving her wrong directions. She was now back on platform level after exiting just moments earlier. All this was accompanied by quite strong language about how hopeless the Thais were, how they refused to understand English and were the most unhelpful people in the world. She could not wait for the next couple of weeks to pass when she would be delighted to be flying off to India where people would be gracious and reply in English!

 

I was quite staggered by this little tirade. Siam may not be the easiest of stations to navigate first-time around, but the exit to Paragon is extremely well sign-posted, even if you don’t bother to look at any of the area maps or somehow fail to see the building itself. Did the lady not look? I have also found BTS station staff usually try to be helpful, however little command of English they might have.

 

But then, one reason why they probably did not understand much of what she was asking was the fact that her accent clearly showed she was from the deep south of the United States. Even I had a little difficulty in adjusting to the accent and working out exactly what she was saying.

 

My surprise turned to amazement when she got quite heated about how the Thai government had paid for her to come to Thailand to teach English; yet, she said, no Thais had even the slightest interest in learning English, her students never learned anything and were the laziest she had ever come across!

 

After she had left, I thought: what on earth is the Thai Education Ministry doing bringing someone from the other side of the world to educate their children with an accent so strong that even a native English speaker can not understand all she says? And a person who, despite having lived in Bangkok for more several weeks – if not months, could not even find her way around a Skytrain station?

 

I have absolutely nothing against ladies from the South of the USA who come here to teach. My concern is directed towards the government. To spend a great deal of money bringing over teachers with a very broad and very pronounced accent ­– from whichever country (a strong Glaswegian or Australian accent would be just as bad) – is utter stupidity. I am pretty certain that in this case the Education Ministry had asked the US Embassy to help, the Embassy had contacted some government department which had contacted some agency which had contacted . . . and so on. End result? With no proper guidelines, any general teacher interested in travelling overseas is accepted, even though they might be totally unsuited for Thailand due to extreme difficulty students will have in understanding their speech.

 

Nuts!

 

[Guest thaiworthy]

I suspect this little lady is not telling you the whole story, stretching the truth, and everything else in between about how to she really came to be in Thailand. Something smells here. Ladies(?) with strong language and eager to condemn everything in their path are signs of liars using profound expressions of contempt to deal with the situation. Unfortunately, you were an innocent bystander.

[Guest fountainhall]

Whilst your scenario could be possible, absolutely nothing in the encounter indicated it could be fact. She came across as totally genuine. If she was just a frustrated tourist, how on earth would she know that the Thai government has a programme to bring teachers from the USA to teach English? She might just have known about individual schools doing this. But knowledge of the specific government recruitment programme is something 99.999% of tourists would know nothing about.

 

Besides, the conversation was in two distinct parts. First the general 'rant' about not being able to find Paragon and about Thais and Thailand. Then, after I had pointed out Paragon and how to get there, the second specific and quite detailed complaint about education. Since her goal was clearly to find Paragon and she had by that stage already vented her frustration, why stay behind for a few minutes and make detailed complaints about the education system? That makes no sense to me unless it was true.

[Guest]

Someone who can neither navigate themselves to a well known location in Bangkok nor be impressed by the friendliness of the Thais really shouldn't be in a teaching role. Such jobs should be filled by educated people.

[Guest snapshot]

I am speculating but it could be just another American who's never been out of her home country, can't fathom that the rest of the world is different and refuses to make an effort to understand and adapt to different culture, different environment etc. 

 

Don't mean to put down Americans in general... But that's a common stereotype that's arisen for good reason. 

 

Really ironic that the saying "seek first to understand, then to be understood" came out of a brilliant American!

[Guest Jovianmoon]

Sorry, Fountainhall and everyone, I hadn't noticed this thread earlier, so I apologise for resurrecting it...

 

But I've got some input, and as much as it pains me, I must agree with snapshot here.

 

I was on the JET Programme in Japan for three years and although I may not have been the most suitable participant (I drank a little too much and spent perhaps too much time in the fleshpots of Tokyo and Osaka), I did at least make some effort to learn the language and culture for a few years before I went, and was constantly amazed at the 'quality' of many of the other participants while I was there.

 

This was crystalised for me at an early JET conference in Kobe when I overheard a US citizen exclaim: "I just wish someone in my goddamn town would speak English!". It was one of those situations where I wish I had responded immediately, but only thought of a suitable response later, like: "Hey, how about doing your job and helping people in your town to do that. And before that, how about learning a little of the language of the country you now live in - as a courtesy (not to mention a convenience to yourself)".

 

I can't lay the blame on Americans alone for this attitude. Over the ensuing years on JET I heard not dissimilar comments from other nationalities and quite frankly the attitudes and behaviour of many of my fellow Australians left a lot to be desired (I myself sometimes enjoy perhaps a drink too many but why must us Australians strive to attain a reputation for being the worst drunken a-holes the world over?)

 

Anyway, point being that I think the Thai government has made the same mistake the Japanese government has made - in presuming that a native speaker of English with a bachelor degree is automatically qualified to travel to a foreign country, live there, rapidly adapt to the culture of that country, and successfully pass on their knowledge and skills with the English language to children and/or adults (which a bachelor degree certainly does not guarantee in the first place). 

 

There is just so much wrong with that presumption and I think that explains to a large degree Fountainhall's encounter with that lady at Siam...

 

Cheers.

[Guest timmberty]

i had a strange occurance on my last ride on the skytrain also .

i was standing in a pretty sparse carriage when 2 young monks got on .. one of them stood right next to me and made a point of leaning on me for no reason .. i may well have done the same back, but he was rather ugly and im not allowed to touch monks.. am i ?

when it came to me having to get off i said excuse me ... he gave me a big smile moved aside and said thank you ...

charming young man im sure.

[KhorTose]

What are you trying to tell us Tim?    A man can touch a Monk, only a women is forbidden to touch them.

[Guest timmberty]

really .. i didnt think i could ... but as i said he was a tad to ugly for my tastes anyways ...i prefer men with hair as opposed to with out.