Insiders

First of all, let me start by wholeheartedly recommending that, if you know any Peace Corps volunteers, you do everything you can to visit them in their countries. Ian and I enjoyed our few days in Thailand before meeting up with Robert & Kate; after all, it’s a charming, safe place with excellent food and friendly people–but that’s nothing. Having fluent guides makes all the difference in the world.
Their fluency is really astounding, but I understand that part of their perceived mastery of the language is our total lack of knowledge. I’d never heard Thai before coming here, and it’s taken the first week just to start to recognize what may or may not be individual words (believe me, this is a step up from just hearing an indeterminate babble). But then we hook up with our friends, and they speak the same babble! And Thai people understand them! It's really amazing. Ian did realize yesterday that some of what we've seen as Robert's fluency is him using lots of words he knows to ask for things he doesn't know the one word for; i.e. instead of asking for matches, he asked for "little sticks that burn and make the machine work that keeps mosquitos away". Clearly this method helps him hone his skills, and is endlessly entertaining to us and any Thais who happen to be within hearing range. His cell phone rang when we were on the train the other day, and his conversation with a Thai counterpart had the teenage girls behind him in stitches.
Kate orders all our food, and writes our orders out in Thai to ease understanding. Written Thai is based on Sanscrit and has 76 letters--76 letters--and not only can Kate immediately decipher what's on the menu, she can reproduce the names of her favorite dishes. We have been awed by her, as well as thrilled to try all these things we would maybe have stumbled upon but probably not. Also, with Kate's help, we've several times eaten at little stands serving basically one thing--usually a noodle soup with tofu, boiled eggs, or meat in it--generally all for 20 Baht, or about 50 cents. We'd looked wistfully at those stands before hooking up with R&K, and we would've eventually ordered from them, but it was nice to know that the insiders could pave the way for us.