UK envoy tackles the local lingo
New UK Ambassador Mark Kent doesn't look like your usual reserved diplomat. He carries a black backpack almost everywhere, and it's heavy. So what's in there?
“Lots of books, actually too many. My iPad, and some bits and pieces. I’m a little bit messy. I should take some out and also to balance my shoulder,” he says.
One of the many books he’s reading now is the Thai version of the biography of Sir John Bowring, the British envoy to Thailand who sponsored the Bowring Treaty between the two countries 157 years ago.
He also carries around notebooks to practice writing Thai in his car or sometimes on the Skytrain.
Born in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, Kent has been in office for two months, but he has spent more than a year studying Thai at Khon Kaen University, Chiang Mai University and in Bangkok.
Thai is his sixth foreign language, after Vietnamese, Spanish, Dutch, French and Portuguese. And despite his busy schedule, he still finds time for Thai lessons twice a week. “A language is like an onion, as the more layers you peel off, the more layers you still need to peel off,” Kent said in an interview with Nation Channel about the challenges in learning the local lingo. It was his first time to talk on TV in Thai.
“My teacher says I speak like a book, very official. I need to learn the spoken language, and I’m working on it”.
He listens to Thai news on the radio while jogging in Lumpini Park, watches news and the Premier League football matches in Thai on TV, and even tweets in Thai on his iPad. He is using twitter @KentBKK to converse with Thai Arsenal fans. He says followers have to get used to some of his misspellings, but he’s trying to get better.
Kent attended a political science course at Chulalongkorn University for a month before he was appointed, which helps him understand how history and politics are taught here.
He also has a better comprehension of this country’s foreign policy. His four-year term will focus on trade and investment and tourism, making sure that 850,000 British travellers to Thailand each year are looked after properly.
“Trade and investment are a traditional element of the Thai-UK relationship and this year marks 400 years of official contact between the two countries and the first contact at that time was based on trade. My job is to ensure that people are aware of the opportunities available in Thailand.”
Thailand remains an attractive investment destination despite all the troubles in recent years. But with the Asean Economic Community fast approaching, Thailand has to strategically plan how to take the economy forward, how much of the workforce needs to speak fluent English and how to secure enough energy to ensure the upward development part.
“But you cannot be complacent. Nobody in this globalised economy can be complacent.”
So next time you’re riding the Skytrain or going somewhere in Bangkok and see a man with a black rucksack, it could be Kent. Go and say “Sawasdee Krub” to him, and you’ll be amazed with his Thai!
