Deciphering Glyphs and my Journey Locating Conditioner.

Posted by Multilingual Mama

I should probably start by acknowledging that Thai characters are not glyphs. Thai has forty-four consonants (Thai: พยัญชนะ, phayanchaná), fifteen vowel symbols (Thai: สระ, sàrà) that combine into at least twenty-eight vowel forms, and four tone marks. (Pilfered from Wikipedia)

It turns out it isn’t exactly an alphabet but an abugida or a system in which ‘a consonant-vowel sequence are written as a unit.’ And I am not entirely sure what that means.

Now back to the point of this post.

Desperate not to use too much of my kids’ extortionate fragrance-free shampoo, and in desperate need of conditioner, I thought picking up a couple of bottles at our local Tesco Lotus would be relatively easy. Silly me.

I get to the hair care aisle only to face hundreds of bottles of different products, all in Thai. Had there only been two options, I could have just grabbed a bottle of each and figured it out through trial and error; sadly a variety of different hair treatments were added into the mix.

Twenty minutes later, after carefully studying a large section of bottles -and wandering through a few alternative aisles in the hopes of finding an expat-friendly section with things in English- I found pieces of my Rosetta Stone and I was able to figure out that the bottle on the left with the shorter text and letter resembling a ‘W’ at the end is the shampoo while the one on the right is the conditioner.

This is the hardest I’ve ever had to work for clean hair and apart from an immense sense of satisfaction at locating what I needed, it dawned on me that there are different types of reading. Of course, if you take it out of context such as letters printed on a white piece of paper, I probably could not pick out ‘shampoo’ or ‘conditioner’. Well maybe after the time spent tweaking the pictures I could make an educated guess but that is neither here nor there. However, if I had to run into a shop and quickly grab a bottle of one or the other, I’d have no trouble now that I have a block image of what each word looks like.

How ever tenuous the strand (pun intended), I am going to believe that I’m one step closer to reading Thai.

P.S. I am going to ignore the fact that if I plug both shampoo and conditioner into google translate, it gives me an entirely different set of characters… Boo.

Top This: Cutest Coffee Ever!

Posted by Multilingual Mama

My midmorning mochaccino at Wawee Coffee. I challenge you to send me a cuter cuppa. (And yes I don’t know how to center when I shoot. I haven’t had my coffee yet after all!

Getting Frisky with the Chicken: What the Big Mango Does with Poultry and other Meats

Posted by Multilingual Mama

Five days and a chest cold into our new life in Bangkok, I finally made it out for my first foray into one of our local markets. It took me a few seconds to register that something was different when I came across the meat and seafood section.

It was a central display just behind where I stood when I took this picture – the sort you typically see for fruits – where different chicken cuts and slabs of bacon were laid out that snapped me out of my semi-engaged mosey down the aisles. A woman was handling various chunks of bacon back the same way I might handle cantaloupes or avocados to check for ripeness. She was picking up and tossing back different pieces until she had filled a bag; I’d say she had at least 20 pounds of bacon in there.

Now I am not generally too squeamish. I love the southern european markets where all of the animal is available for view. I believe if you are going to eat meat, you should know what it is and where it comes from. I don’t even think I mind people handling the meat -or at least I can see myself getting over that- unless of course I plan on making steak tartare.

What gets to me is what is she doing with her hands after she finishes bagging that quarter pig? Is she off to rummage through vegetables? Check some fruits for ripeness? Or in my worst case scenario, reach out and ruffle my child’s hair or touch her cheek as EVERYONE seems to do here in Asia? I did not spot the use of a wet wipe or see a packet of tissues come out of her handbag let alone a bottle of Purell. Is she just going to move on her ‘meaty’ way.

I do want to say that the market, including the meat area, was impeccable and everything smelled incredibly fresh. I may have opted for some chicken under cellophane today but I don’t plan on being so coy on my next visit. I will however have some hand sanitizer and I’ll be leaving the children at home.

We Are Not So Different: Why China’s Recent Hit and Run Tragedy Shouldn’t Shock You

Posted by Multilingual Mama

Disclaimer: Viewers beware. Link to article also features graphic video of incident. You can stop the video in order to read article if needed.

A few days ago, a toddler was struck by two vehicles on a road in China and eventually died because no one stopped to help.

My initial reaction? Total shock followed by immediate outrage coupled with an attitude of “this would never happen where I come from.” It would seem from at least one article in the Washington Post that I wasn’t the only one thinking this was a cultural issue. A case where an American woman jumped to rescue a drowning Chinese woman was cited as proof that Westerners aren’t so selfish and interested only in their own success. (Unless of course they are part of the 1%. Viva OccupyWallStreet!)

Not only could this happen at “home”, it has. I am using “home” here to denote my cultural background in a broad sense. I am a Westerner albeit living in South East Asia. I can’t help but spend time comparing East vs. West: why do they keep their kids up so late? How can they treat their helpers that way? Why can’t kids in the West respect their elders? Why is the East so much more welcoming of children?

This post was written for In Culture Parent. To continue reading please click here.