Chiang Mai: Charades

Buying something as simple as a bike chain can be quite difficult when both parties don’t share a common language. Anticipating this, I leafed through the appendix of my lonely planet guide to find out how to say bicycle in Thai (rót jàk-kà-yaan if anybody is interested). The problem is the language is tonal. Simply repeating the syllables results in nothing but gibberish (or possibly something offensive).

Anyway, I decided to try out my newfound vocabulary at a mom ‘n pop mini-mart close to the Chiang Mai night bazaar. It didn’t work out so well – the shopkeeper, unable to decipher my broken Thai, kept steering me towards the cigarettes and whiskey (staples for many a backpacker).

That was when I resorted to the next best thing. I grabbed a pair of imaginary bicycle handles and started pedaling furiously at the ground. I then stopped, reached out my right hand and turned an imaginary key. The process was repeated three times before things started to make sense. The thing only cost me 60 baht and what little of my dignity I had left.

It was only then did I that I realized how frequently I’ve been subconsciously overcompensating for my lack of the language by miming things out. For example, let’s say I go to a food stall - I point at the item I want, point at my mouth (which, come to think of it, seems a little condescending – it’s obvious where the food goes), then hold up my hands to negotiate a price (though I try not to anymore as I have picking up on the numbers). I worry a little that all these gestures may become a permanent fixture in my day to day interactions, even when I get home.