Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand August / September 2015 - Art & Education Issue | Page 33

Education
spend hours working out codes and
puzzles, using memory techniques and
recognizing patterns. He taught me how
languages work—and not just spoken
ones but also computer languages.”
What do you love about
languages?
“Number one is
finding patterns
within a language
and comparing
them to similar
languages.
Number two
is being able
to speak and
interact with
many more
people.”

“Thai writing is based on a map of the
human mouth. It’s a beautiful system,
and you can see the patterns and
logic behind it. It is possible to tweak
and adapt your knowledge of Thai to
speak and understand many other
southeast Asian languages
and dialects as well.”

Thai writing is
based on a map of
the human mouth. It’s
a beautiful system, and
you can see the patterns
and logic behind it.

What advice do
you have to
new expats in
Thailand?

“Try to limit
some of your
time with
other expats
and build
bridges with
Thai friends as
well.
Don’t be
What are the
—Stuart Jay Raj
afraid
to
say, “Yes,”
benefits of speaking
if
you
are
invited
for
multiple languages?
lunch or to meet a Thai
“Being multilingual opens you
friend’s family. When you’re around
up to a whole new universe of
Thai people, don’t be offended
possibilities. If you don’t know
when they speak Thai to each
the language, you will just stay
other in front of you. You won’t
in your expat bubble. I wouldn’t
be pandered to