Congrats Christy!

Professor Steven B. Young was the other westerner awarded.

PS: Thanks for the heads-up Hugh.

Another great interview in this series.

Nice to see I am not the only one who practices Thai looking at road signs, number plates and any Thai script when on the move.
.-= Jon´s last blog ..Google Friend Disconnect =-.

Jonas and Christy’s explanations were not only helpful for the interview, but their replies via email were extremely gracious. Especially as during our back and forth’s they were recording a new album, and then went on to the time-consuming, energy draining push of promotion. I am very grateful that they both took the time to contribute. And as you have read, they did not stint.

I too would love to have their basic fluency! One day… But until then, I will work towards the goal. One teensy sliver at a time :-)

I loved both of the interviews with Jonas and Christy. Having had the opportunity on a few of my trips in Thailand to see them live in concert as well as on TV in various game and talk shows, variety programs, etc., I think your choice of the word “modesty” is definitely applicable in regards to the way they have answered the questions here. They were both extremely fluent and comfortable both in their professional “in depth” Thai on stage and so on, and also in the way they conversed with people backstage; lukthoong fans, workers, dancers, producers, etc. My Thai friends who went to the concert with me spoke with Jonas and Christy in Thai for quite some time and all came away absolutely impressed with their speaking abilities, accent, vocabulary, etc.

You said, and I quote, “Those being interviewed have gone out of their way to explain that even though they have attained a level of proficiency, they too had/have struggles.”–right on!

Maybe because I’ve seen them in action in a few situations and thus have at least a little bit of an idea of their general fluency to some degree, I came away from reading the interview feeling good about the future. I’m working to improve my Thai language skills and it is by no means an easy task, and Jonas and Christy and many of your other interviewees obviously agree and have found that to be the case as well themselves, but have persevered and succeeded.

I’m sure they feel–and they said as much in the interview above–that they still have a long ways to go. Me? I’ll take their “basic fluency” any day! And I hope, one fine day:) to get there.

There is a saying going around (rightly) attributed to Catherine Wentworth ;-) ….
“It is the struggles that I learn from more than anything else. Because if I only know the end result, I have a belief that they never went through tough times like I do. And reading about their tough times makes learning a decent amount of Thai seem even more attainable.”

Thanks, Catherine, for putting that into words for me.

This one was acquired during a very busy time, so getting it sorted was sidelined. I went back once but the gal who handled the sale was gone and the other shop gals just gave me a blank look. Sigh…

Everyone so often I see that white box sitting there, calling to me. So it is on my list of things I must do… eventually. But even small chores in Thailand take triple the time so I just might have it sorted by this time next year.