Another Hospital Visit
Posted by Stuart at 06:07 PM on January 18, 2003I haven't written much in this space for the last week or so, partly because nothing interesting has been happening. Yesterday I finished my second full week of teaching classes. Finally (after two weeks) I am starting to get caught up and starting to get used to working a full 40 hour work-week again.
One of the requirements for getting a work permit (in addition to signing my name to about 10 documents) was to get a rigorous physical. So this afternoon I went to a nearby hospital and was subjected to several tests. I guess everything turned out ok, since they let me go after the test results came back. As was the case with my past visits, a trip to the hosptial is always interesting mainly because hardly anyone ever speaks very much English. I'm not sure why that is. I am also not sure why I have been to the doctor more times in the last six months than I have in the past several years. Oh well, at least its cheap and relatively hassle-free.
AND at least you know you are healthy!! :-)
Interesting story, Charles --- so often please do lead on that they know very little English, when in fact they are fluent. I wonder why that is. Social snobbery?? Or a non-desire to communicate in English in their native country.
The snow is almost melted away. :-( BUT, my little two foot snowman is still standing ---- hanging in there like a trooper!
Love you!!
Yes Charles, just a stomach bug every now and again, plus immunizations and now the physical for work. Thankfully nothing serious.
I agree that the hand signal for "Come Here" in Thailand can look a lot like "Go Away". It has taken me a while to get used to that one. I believe I read somewhere that people use the same signal with palm UP (like we do in the US) for animals and the palm (or towards you, as you described) for people.
P.S. "tuk-tuk took" hehe.
Beth, I think that it is often a case of shyness. Speaking another language is hard, especially when you don't do it all the time. So people might know more words than they let on, because they don't want to look bad getting the words wrong. Same thing in a classroom -- sometimes the students won't answer a question posed by the teacher because they don't want to get it wrong in front of everyone -- but they know the right answer!
Well, not much different than everyday speech. There are times when I do not speak, because I may be unfamiliar with terminology, or afraid of saying something incorrectly. I can imagine that is intensified speaking another language.
I NEED ANOTHER JOB!!!! That thought just hit me again this morning, as I sit at work, and wanted to share - relieve some frustration. :-)
Love you!!!
Hi Stuart,
Hope your doctor's visits were nothing more than the occasional gastric bug.
I had an interesting (well to me at least) experience with a medical clinic while I was there.
I was trying to open a bottle of water in the morning and it slipped and fell on to the counter and shattered. A shard went into my wrist and blood started spurting. My travel companion came into see what all the comotion was and then called the front desk, who then called me a tuk-tuk. The tuk-tuk took (sorry bad word arrangement) me to an open air clinic. When (would have been comical if not for the trauma) I was called in, the doctor first motioned to me by waving his hand with his palm towards me and moving it from up to down. Now in the west, that means go away from him. So I was looking behind me to see where I was supposed to go and looking back at him, he motioned more vigorously.
The wound required stitches and he simply sat back while the nurse did all the work (and a fine job she did). When it was all done, I was scheduling a followup. What was interesting is that they new more English than they were letting on because just before leaving, the doctor struck up a conversation and I discovered he had been trained in the west.