Today I had a contrast in communicating with Thais. The first was a man who works for Tim's company. I was in Tim's office waiting for her, and he came in. When he saw me, he asked me a question that I didn't understand. I said in Thai that I didn't understand (and it was also plain on my face), so he made a hand gesture like he was drinking. I knew immediately that he was talking about the bottle of Scotch that he had given me a few weeks back. Actually, the Scotch was in a gift basket to Tim and she asked him to get it for me. I told him not yet and that was it.
This seems pretty unremarkable, but it actually is quite out of the ordinary. While I instictively try to use gestures when trying to communicate with someone with whom I don't share a common tongue, there are a lot of Thais who won't. Sometimes even pointing to something or a really simple gesture can facilitate understanding.
My other communication issue today was at McDonalds. Tim and I went to an IT mall to drop off a malfunctioning network storage device. She went to the food court to eat, and I stopped by Wai Ronald's to pick up some food to meet her. After a few minutes of waiting, it was my turn to order. I looked on the rack of the items that were already prepared, as otherwise it can take a long time to get food. As in the U.S., McDonald's here have a large numbered picture menu. As I saw a Big Mac already prepared, I pointed to it on the sign and clearly said "hoke, kab", indicating item six. I then pointed to another large picture sign that showed that you could "upsize" for only 10 baht. Not knowing the phrase for "biggie size it", I settled for "yi" (large) and pointed to the upsize sign. The total should have been 119 baht (about $4.00).
I was confident that this would be smooth, for a few reasons. First, I was pointing to a large sign that had both Thai and English writing, it was kind of hard to miss. Secondly, although I speak Thai with a very heavy accent, I've never had any issues with people understanding something simple like numbers. Thirdly, I've been to this McDonalds a few other times before without any issue.
When I saw that she had only rung up a 29 baht total, I knew that things would not be simple. I managed to get across to her that she did not have my order correct. I tried again, and this time she rang me up for a fish filet dinner. After some more head shaking, pointing and speaking, she finally correctly rang up a number six set. She did not, however, upsize it. I thought about it for a few seconds and decided to quit while I was ahead and just forget upsizing it.
1 comment:
I don't know if Eric told you this, but a customer of his at Marsh just sold an idea for fast food restaurants (which we should see in a couple of years or so). The idea is kiosks in fast food places where you order your own food, etc. It will be available in various languages as well. This obviously will help with language barriers and even speed up the ordering process. It's a good thing for the fast food business because they can cut down on overhead (i.e. number of employees).
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