Communicating with Thais
During our travel in Thailand, the biggest opportunity to communicate with foreigners was taking a taxi or a car called by “Grab” (an App similar to “Didi” in China and popular in Southeast Asia).
In the beginning, things were quite simple, since our Bed and Breakfast owner in Chiang Mai, a beautiful young woman, helped us to book all the taxis in advance and got a reasonable price for each trip. So we didn’t need to speak to local people often.
Then, on day after visiting the Sunday Market near Tha Phae Gate, we need to call a taxi by ourselves. There were a lot of red local taxis nearby. The taxis were like pick-up trucks with shelters and their real names were Songthaew which could hold eight or nine persons. We seven people took a Songthaew with other two strangers.
During the bargaining time, I talked with the driver in English. It was more difficult than I thought. I could show him the location on map but the bargain was tough. When we came here in the morning the taxi fee was 100฿ totally, but this driver ask for 300฿ in the beginning. It was too expensive, then after a discussion with everybody talking at once, we thought we got a deal at 120 ฿. However, after reach the destination, the driver said it is 140 ฿—20 for each person. I was too tired to figure out who misheard so I gave him 20 ฿ more. The conflict in communication was big since we both use unfamiliar language and bargaining itself made people upset.
Then we came to Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. This city’s traffic was heavier and we need to call a car more often. The app “Grab” was easy to use since it had a translation function in text message and we could also talk directly by telephone. These two ways were suitable in different situation.
When the traffic was not heavy and the nearby buildings were not too many, we use text massage. By text message, the drivers could tell us when they will come, where we should wait or some other information in advance, and he can speak in Thai and the system helped to change into English or Chinese words.
When in downtown area, we usually encountered traffic jams, and the Grad had a problem of inaccurate locations. When the Thailand driver telephoned me to find out where we exactly were, my English seemed so poor, so they usually took a long time to find us or even gave up the orders.
Later we came up with a new method: when we called a car on Grab, we first chose a place that was easy to be located. A hotel was the best since it had a parking lot in front or a shop was also a good choice such as a massage shop. The receptionists there often spoke English well, so I talked with the receptionists in English to ask for help and let them to talk with the drivers in Thai. Then the drivers could pick us up in the right position.
There was another interesting experience that I want to mention in the end. Once we booked a car by Grab and located at a hotel. The person that I asked for help was actually not the staff there. He was a police officer. But his English was quite good and showed us a warm heart. After talking with our driver, he still stood there and chatted with us. He wanted to practice his Chinese and share with us his four trips to China. If he didn’t know how to say something in Chinese he would use an e-dictionary on his phone to show us the Chinese characters. We helped each other and had a good time. And his pride to be a policeman and the enthusiasm to learn a foreign language gave us a deep impression.
在泰国旅行期间，用英语交流最多的时候就是坐车的时候，或者打出租或者用“Grab”软件叫车的时候。（Grab是泰国使用很多的类似滴滴打车的软件，新加坡公司出品，在东南亚打车市场份额最大）
最初一切都好，我们在清迈住的民宿的老板，一位漂亮的小姐姐帮我们在每次出发前都定好车，并且谈好价格。所以我们并不用怎么和当地人说话。
之后有一天，逛完塔佩门的周日夜市，回来的时候需要打车，路边停了很多当地红色的出租车，那种出租车很像带棚的皮卡，名字叫做双条车，一辆车能乘八九个人。我们有七个人，跟另两个人去拼的车。和车主谈的时候，位置好说，给他看地图就行了，麻烦一点的是询价，早上我们来的时候是100泰铢，回去的时候他要价是300，我们说太贵了，就七嘴八舌地一通谈，最后以为谈到的价格是120泰铢，但下车的时候他说是140，因为说的每人20泰铢，我懒得去解释到底谁听错了，就又给了20。感觉都用自己不熟悉的语言交流还是挺困难，而且讨价还价本身就是有冲突，让人很不爽了。
等到了曼谷，泰国的首都，这里的交通压力很大，经常堵车，我们出门需要打车的时候也更多了。APP“Grab”挺好用的，自带信息的翻译功能，也可以直接给司机打电话。这两个方法适用的情况不同。
当路况比较好，周围的建筑物比较少的时候，适合短信。司机会提前告诉我们他们什么时候到、我们在那里等或者其他一些信息。他可以直接说或者用泰语打字，翻译过来给我们看的就是英语或者中文，很方便。
但当在繁华路段，本身堵车多，而且楼之间间隔很近，“Grab”定位不准的问题还是很明显的，当司机给我们打电话让我们说具体在哪的时候，那个时候相当词穷，很容易让他们找不到，甚至放弃这一单。
后来想到了一个好办法，找附近的店面，宾馆是最好，或者按摩店之类的，前台的英语一般比较好，我用英语跟他们讲，让他们跟司机说明白我们在的位置，这样呢他们就用泰语沟通好，司机来接就会顺利很多。
最后，我想分享另一个有趣的经历。有一次我们在Grab上叫车，定位在一个宾馆。我去求助的人其实并不是宾馆的工作人员，我们后来才知道，他是泰国警察。英语相当不错，人也很热心。在帮我们跟司机沟通好之后，他还站在这跟我们聊了会天。其实他是想练中文，并且跟我们说他去中国旅行过四回了。当他不知道一个中文词该怎么说时，他会用手机上的电子词典，把中文字打出来给我们看，这样就明白了。我们互相帮助，算是度过了一段愉快的时光。他对于警察这个职业的骄傲还有学外语的热忱，给我们印象特别深。