Linguistics

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A good way of getting away from the ordinary life, from all the trouble on the home front, from all the pressure, is to go away. Far away. Thailand is pretty far away from Europe. It strikes me as a good place to escape the western world; on a decent distance from all the worries at home, but yet with the comforts and safety of the civilized world we’re used to, and with an attractive level of prices and a beautiful climate.
Koh Chang is surprisingly unexploited by westerners.

The second largest island of Thailand meets most of the requirements for a dream vacation, but is sparingly visited. A few families, a few young couples, some groups of friends, and some lonely travelers looking for some peace and quiet. The guy in the reggae bar on the beach next to me ordering beer is one of the lonely travelers searching for peace. Babbling on in rapid English won’t do the trick of communicating with Bernard. Bernard is from Switzerland, just arrived, and is planning on staying for several months. Despite Switzerland being a country of many languages, English is not one of Bernard’s strongest assets.

After having slowed down my English several levels, we’re starting to communicate. I seriously think that the trick of successful verbal communication is to mirror the language of the involved parties, listen, adapt, improvise. It works. Despite a very reduced English vocabulary, and with a few words in German and French, Bernard manages to tell basically his life story. He escaped Switzerland, away from parents, girlfriend, work, and if I understood correctly, the law. In other words, away from a whole lot of pressure. After only a couple of beers of conversation, it is clear that Bernard is certainly not a bad person. Now he’s in Thailand to find himself, figure out what he wants to do, meet new people, improve his language skills. Fascinating. Beers are finished, time to go, he thanks me for listening to his story. The pleasure was all mine. Good luck, Bernard.

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