| This area seems to be the last holdout for hydroelectric
telephones. Whenever it is rainy for more than a day
rainwater gets into the ATT pipes and generates
tremendous static in the phones, making it very
difficult to use them for communication.
Tapping out Morse Code on the mouthpiece
seems to work but who knows how to dittybop any more?
|
| |
| Quỳnh Trang mới gửi hình của em bé có tên là Quỳnh Châu lên 6 tháng rồi.
My vicarious niece Quỳnh Châu in Cam Đức, Việt Nam at 6 months with her Mom
and Grandma
|
| |
| I work at night and start at ten o'clock in the evening. It is a long
way to work and I must be on time so I always leave quite early
in order to make sure that a delay because of a traffic accident
or a road closure does not make me late for work. Thus I am
usually thirty minutes or so early and spend that time with a cup
of coffee in a convenience store or, for a few months a couple
of years ago, in the Burger King across the street from my job.
One of the employees there was a young Thai woman
on a 6 month work contract. She had no more than a
dozen words of English and worked in the kitchen and
did not deal with customers. Sometimes when the clerk
up front made an error on the cash register or got
confused and didn't know what to do Sunee would see
what was happening and go up front and in a few seconds
would have it all straightened out and the problem fixed.
The shift manager, a big woman named Shakeela felt
"dissed"- offended when Sunee did that once for her
because it made Shakeela feel stupid.
Alas, Shakeela is, indeed, stupid.
When I started getting coffee in there I would often hear
Shakeela in the back yelling at "you stupid gook bitch!" and
telling Sunee she was an animal because she couldn't speak
English. Sunee did not understand the words But she
knew the tone.
There were also Thai contract workers in Housekeeping where
I worked then and one of them knew some English. I asked
him if he was acquainted with the lass at the Burger King. He
said he was and that she was miserable working for that loud
ugly person.
I went on-line to a Thai language teaching site and learned the
meet-and-greets and a couple of other social phrases and tried
them out when I went into Burger King again. Shakeela was on
a break and Sunee was up front mopping the floor. I caught
her eye, put my hands together and said, "Sawadee." She looked
up with a big smile and returned the greeting. We went back and
forth with "How are you" and "I am fine," then "How is your
family" and "What is your name" et cetera for half a dozen
exchanges. I had also learned to say "That's all the Thai I know."
She seemed pleased with that.
We repeated that performance, except the part about names,
whenever I went in there for a couple of months, much to the
annoyance of Shakeela. Shakeela just gave her hell more and
more for saying things Shakeela didn't understand. Once I put
my hands together in greeting when I entered and saw Sunee in
the back. She hastily put her own fingertips together and almost
dropped the pans she was holding. I didn't surprise her like that
again.
Then one night I heard Shakeela screaming even before I got
to the door. When I went in there were no other customers
there and Shakeela quit yelling when she saw me come through
the door. Sunee also saw me and came quickly out to the front
and this time she greeted me first-"Sawadee." I returned the
greeting and we went through the whole series . When we came
to the end of my Thai, Sunee put her hand in front of her where
Shakeela could not see and made "keep going" motions. I didn't
know any more Thai so I shifted to Vietnamese and she answered
me back in Thai. We made half a dozen more exchanges like that,
neither understanding the other, and then she motioned me to end
it. I put my hands together and bowed slightly and she did the same.
Then I got my coffee and went over to a table while Sunee returned
to the kitchen I could hear Shakeela berating her again for talking
"that ugly noise" and demanding to know why she was talking to
me and what was she saying about Shakeela. I could see them back
there and the blower was off for a moment so I heard Sunee say in
English, with her chin tilted up and a smug smile,"He speak my
language." Then she turned around and went back to work washing
stuff.
After another minute Shakeela bustled out officiously and
confronted me where I sat with my cup of coffee. "What's that
(stuff) she say? You really talk that (stuff), too? "I answered her,
"Well, I went to high school so yes, of course I speak Thai." The
woman got suddenly very tense and her hands shook a little.
She started to say something but her voice just squeaked. She
spun around and stomped back into the kitchen where she
commenced to berating Sunee again.
After that whenever I went in there and Shakeela was being
obnoxious Sunee always looked serene as if the shift manager
were just a noisy radio. She would see me and put her hands
together and bow slightly and I would do the same. If she were
in the front we would repeat the meet-and-greets. Then one
night she wasn't there and Shakeela met me inside the door and
said triumphantly that "that (adjective) gook gone back to Korea!"
I hope Sunee has better memories of her time in America than
that shift manager. And I hope she was able to send enough
money home to make it all worthwhile.
|
| |
