The
world is full of ex-pats, short for ex-patriots, meaning people who
take up residence in countries other than their native land. I, for
example, am an ex-pat. I live in South East Asia, and it's been so
long now that babies that were born the year that I left America are
now in high school. I have achieved some facility with the language
of my adopted country, but you wouldn't call it fluency. In fact, “my
Thai, she's a broke.” I talk to natives all the time, and it
usually goes okay. Sometimes not great, but usually okay. It takes a
native that is willing to grace me with some patience and speak
slowly so that I have any hope of keeping up. Luckily, my country of
residence is full of such people, and I deeply appreciate their
kindness and their hospitality.
America
could learn a lot from my adopted country.
When
I sit down for coffee at the local Dunkin Donuts with an American
friend, we speak English. We are surrounded by natives, and no one
seems to care, or even notice. It's not uncommon, after all, for
people here to speak to each other in English. This is in Bangkok, so
you might think that no one notices because Bangkok is a big,
cosmopolitan city. It's true, there are so many foreigners here that
hearing other languages is very common. Even in the countryside,
though, it's not a problem. More people would notice, but they would
notice out of a sense of interest. Just for entertainment, they might
come over and ask a simple question in Thai. Not to test us so much
as looking for an exciting opportunity to talk to a foreigner. Even
in Bangkok, I get this from Taxi drivers all the time. When I explain
where I'm going, in Thai and hitting most of the tones correctly, the
drivers will often ask me a simple question to check my hearing
comprehension. If I answer, they might smile and start a
conversation. At the end of these rides, I sometimes wai (the Thai
bow) and say, “thank you, teacher.” That gets a laugh. It's all
very casual. Diversity is a fact of life here. Thailand has been a
crossroads country for three thousand years.
Diversity
is a fact of life in America, too, but somehow the message has not
sunk in.
I
saw a video very recently about someone yelling at two young women in
a mall cafeteria because they were not speaking “American.” We've
all seen these videos, “this is America! We speak American!” One
of the women told the language police in perfect, native English that
she was an American, and that she could speak English perfectly well,
but she was Korean-American and her cousin was visiting the family
from Korea. That's not enough for people anymore. The harangue went
on. “We speak American here!” It's gotten so bad that many
Americans are hostile to any fellow American who speaks more than one
language. Like they must be spies or something.
More
recently, my wife and I were having lunch in a small restaurant in
our very diverse Bangkok neighborhood. (It's predominantly Thai
Buddhist, but there are many mosques and many, many Thai and ex-pat
Muslims in my neighborhood. It's been a Muslim neighborhood for over
one hundred years.) We speak together in a combination of Thai and
English, mostly English, to be fair. We go to this shop all the time,
and no one has ever said anything, or seemed to notice. Certainly the
owners and the staff don't care, because we always smile and say,
“thank you!” and I always put a nice tip in the jar. The other
day three men came in after us and they were speaking together in
Korean. After glancing at the menu, which was in Thai, one of the men
leaned over and very politely asked us about what we were having,
because it looked delicious, and he also had a couple of questions
about the menu. Koreans speak loudly, so there's no doubt that it's
not Thai. Plus, one fellow was speaking to me in English. Still, no
one even looks up.
I
see videos from time to time that end with, “go back to your own
country!” or, “go back where you came from!” I've seen and read
about incidents where some “American patriot” will randomly
demand to see proof that someone who appears foreign “belongs
here.” In fifteen years in Thailand I've never heard anything
remotely like that sentiment.
There
is an ill will towards foreigners growing in America, and it is
nurtured by political groups and religious organizations who wish to
drive wedges between Americans who may have slight variations in
their backgrounds. This ill will is directed not only towards actual
foreigners, aliens with or without visas, but also towards American
citizens who may speak more than one language, who may be recent
arrivals or the children of recent arrivals, or it may be directed at
established groups of American citizens like black Americans, Asian
Americans, Latino Americans, or, through some bizarre
misapprehension, Indian Americans (not to be confused with American
Indians, who are also still persecuted). The guilty political groups
want votes, which they will trade for money. The guilty religious
groups want money and political power. In the meantime, gullible
Americans are making total assholes of themselves, usually while
someone is filming them with a cell phone. It's sickening.
America
really does have a lot to learn from Thailand on this subject. Thais
are a very diverse people who live comfortably under the umbrella of
Thai language and culture. The same could be said of America, except
for the comfortable part. The coastal states, and the Blue states in
general, make a good show of accepting diversity. But the great
heartland of America can't even get along with their racial and
religious equivalents in the Blue states. Those Red state people,
and, to be fair, many people in Blue states, seem to hate everybody!
This
is a terrible situation, and there's no quick fix for it. Maybe we
should consider electing politicians who will try to make things
better, not worse.
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