Ira and I have finished another week of language school and are feeling very proud of ourselves. Ira’s class had a test on Tuesday and mine on Wednesday. You will be happy to know that we both passed! (This in spite of the fact that Ira had sworn previously in his life that he would never take another test!) Yesterday (Friday for us) after class, we went with my class group to get some coffee. Since one of the Japanese in our class doesn’t speak English and since we wanted to practice Thai anyway, we all chatted mostly in Thai. It was lots of fun and gratifying. This is not to say that we have suddenly become fluent — FAR from it — but it was fun.
We also learned that the same Japanese young man, khun Yamada, has a photographic memory. I already knew that he is an artist, but was astounded to find out that his visual skills extend to being able to see the Thai words and then retain them with virtually no effort. Before joining our class, he had only studied Thai for 2 months and he did that on his own!! He is in the class to learn to speak and understand the verbal language, but he can read the written language like the wind. Ira thinks that khun Yamada has a Mozart version of language genius — we were in awe.
Last night we went out for dinner and dancing with one of our ex-pat friends and his Thai girlfriend. That was a great evening also. Our friend’s name is D.J. and he is working as head of food and beverage at one of the very nice Thai hotels near where we live. D.J. is retired early from the US hotel business, has been here now for about a year and a half, and is living in Thailand on a permanent basis. As you can imagine, D.J. is lots of fun and has many interesting stories to tell. His girlfriend, whose nickname is Kay, is lovely and also in the hotel/hospitality business. We all had a great evening!
Next week will be our last week of Thai language school. Ira and I both feel that we have made a lot of progress, but are also a bit tired of keeping our retired noses so intensely to the grindstone and are ready for a break. We are actually going to miss a few days of school due to our trip to Myanmar which is coming up on Saturday, October 7.
Tags: Thailand