Listen carefully

When I went to school to learn Thai, our Thai teacher had three guiding principles for learning Thai.  They were:
Listen carefully.
Watch carefully.
Talk carefully. 

This Monday, I went to a meeting of the Bangkok Church on the issue of helping refugees.  I went with a full list of agenda items.  I did wonder how to approach these issues in the group.  One was a bit sensitive and so I spoke with the priest concerned before the meeting.  This encounter gave me a sense of how to proceed. 

Then in the meeting, we were given a written summary of operations for the Bangkok Church efforts.  It is a strange experience but I can read and understand Thai better than I can speak it.  Speaking remains my greatest challenge and it is a barrier I remain determined to break.  So I work away with my dictionary to understand what is before me. 

I see that I am named as a consultant to this group.  This confirms me in my way to go.  I will focus on listening and this I do.  I scrap my list of items to be shared and keep two that I judge as high priority and speaking to the overall efforts of the group.  It was a fascinating experience to sit and listen.  I heard not just all that is being done but also observed how they share and how they operate as a group.   

I live in a country where they are always playing the Thai card.  They see their being Thai as making them different and better.  We hear about American exceptionalism but there is definitiely Thai exceptionalism.  As I observed the meeting, I could name that this was not so much a Thai church meeting as just a church meeting.  I could have been at a church meeting in Brisbane as people were sharing in the same way with the same dynamics of power at play.  It just was that they were speaking Thai and doing it in a Thai way.  No matter our nationality or culture, we are all human and have so much in common. 

I did listen and so I learnt but I was there as a consultant and I needed to speak as well.  I judged that it was best to speak Thai no matter how difficult that may be for me or how poor (or different) my Thai may be.  I gathered my courage and towards the end of the meeting shared my two points.  I made sure I spoke in Thai.  By focusing on only two points and speaking in Thai my message was simple.  This was all a good and different experience for me. 

At the end of my contribution to the meeting, I got a round of applause, not for what I said but that I spoke in Thai.  From a conversation afterwards, I know for sure on one of my two points that, while they may have understood my words, they would not have understood the sense of what I was sharing as the concept of social participation that I sahred is not part of their lived experience.  I am too western. 

Still the best way to be a consultant is to become a part of the group and speak with them.  Listening is the most important of  my teacher's three principles.