Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Thai vs. English

The usual morning ritual - get up at 7am (well.. 7.15 this morning), crawl to the shower (thats where I start opening my eyes) and spend the next 10 minutes under water "reincarnating". Anyhow, the mornings are very much alike. I must be downstairs at 7.55 on a lookout for The Black Vehicle. Nevertheless, this morning there was a small surprise inside the 'black box'. The driver guy (oops, cannot recall his name) had put one of those "Let's-learn-English" DVD's in the player. First, I nearly banged my head on the 'TV' screen while getting in; second, the minute I realized what was being played, I knew that the "circus" had arrived to town :) The result - I think I can recall how to say "I'm pleased to meet you" in Thai. Oh no, wait a sec... nope, in through one ear, out through the other :) My long term memory is not activated before 9am.
The meaning, though, is for my colleagues to practice English - not that much for me to learn Thai. But they're getting a kick out of listening to my lame attempts to pronounce sentences in Thai, so I guess that's not that bad of a trade-off after all :)

What else is new - the Danish guy Jens that works here is throwing a 50 years birthday party this weekend. Don't know why, but I also got an invitation. Have sent a positive rsvp and now the challenge - what about a gift? Any ideas, let me know. I have no idea how formal or informal the event will be, but will have to adapt; also, one can't put a price on networking possibilities, right? :)


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