On a Good at Thai Day you can’t stop me. My meh might
make something aloi for breakfast. I ask her about it and we have a nice
little exchange. I get on my bike and wave to everyone in my community on my
way to work. I may have useful conversation about Thai Welfare and the problems
facing youth in Sukhothai. I tell a joke to my coworkers and we all crack up.
My ego swells, there’s nothing I can’t understand. But…if I don’t understand
the old “smile and nod” fools everybody.
On a Bad at Thai Day the “smile and nod” isn’t fooling
anybody. A lousy conversation in the morning sets the tone for the days when I
can barely speak at all. On these days I worry I may not even be able to order
my ice coffee- which is such a frightening prospect I’m stricken by paralysis.
I assumed the learning curve for language acquisition was
mostly linear. I didn’t expect a curve that yielded days when I feel almost
fluent and days when I can’t get my own coffee order. It's a whole new kind of tedious.
Last Monday- when I wrote most of this post- was a Bad at
Thai Day. Last Tuesday was a Good at Thai Day. The week overall was a mixed
bag. With no way to predict what kind of day I'll have, I just hope the Bad Days become fewer and the Good Days become frequent.
