This picture is one the tour guide took while I was at the Sukhothai ruins -- I did take a lot of pictures that day.I don't know if I wrote them down before but I got the words for Post Office (Praisanee) and police officer (thumnuat) in the past couple of days. Like I said -- I get new words back every day. I love that.
At breakfast (in the Grand China Princess) I realized that part of my disorientation that first couple of days was the Chinese-ness of this part of Bangkok. Up country it was more like what I knew and remembered -- it felt right. Also the trip out to Kanchanaburi was odd because they were planting rice all over and it is the wrong time of year for that -- it is harvest time now. Up north, they didn't try for the 3rd crop of the year and hadn't planted again. Again, it felt more "right".
The other day the tour guide talked about Kao Pansa -- an equivalent to Ramadan. I didn't remember that part of it (did recognize the name though) but then he talked about guys going into the priesthood for those three months because the fields are planted but aren't ready for harvest. When the time comes to harvest they come out of the priesthood and help back at the farm. I knew the part about the temporariness of priesthood. I didn't know the whys of the timing. Makes sense though.
More language stuff -- I don't talk very well. My sentences have terrible grammar and I think in English (and it is painfully obvious when I talk, even to me) so they sound terribly off. I don't understand a lot of words, and do have a hard time when people talk quickly. People have been saying that my accent/pronunciation is good, but if I say more than a short phrase, my lack of language is very obvious. I am sad and embarrassed about that. I noticed with numbers that if I try to translate as I think, I lose stuff and have a harder time. If I don't try so hard, I just know what people are talking but and it feels a bit like ESP -- but probably because it goes straight to the language center of my brain. I really wonder about the neuro-biology of my language. I wonder if it is the same part of my brain or if one place is for English and one is for Thai? I wonder if the left brain translates and the right brain just knows? I wonder if it is different for oriental languages or if for example Spanish-speakers use near to the same part of the brain? I had to pretty much give up on reading. Too hard and too sad/disappointing.
