Integrating into the Community

Location:
Rangsit University
Latitude/Longitude:
13.965347400000, 100.587763900000
Journal Entry:

Thai people are very welcoming, especially when confronted with people who are different from themselves and speak different languages and/or can’t speak English. If you can’t speak Thai, they make an effort to understand you.

I was raised in a Mexican household, so both my parents had to learn English as adults. Learning a new language is a challenge by itself, but learning it as an adult while working to feed four children is even harder. When my parents ran errands, the business had to be done in English, and it was often very hard for them to do so without help. My father knew a few words in English, but his accent made it hard for people to understand him. My mother struggled with English because it is such a different language compared to Spanish. People were often rude to them and did not take the time to help understand them. I learned early on what it meant to live in a place that was somewhat hostile to those who did not speak English.

At first, I was nervous when I traveled to Thailand because I thought people would treat me the same way people had treated my parents. But I was wrong. Thailand is a country surrounded by other countries who speak different languages, and the variety of ethnicities makes for a combination of languages.

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