Kevin Brazell: Lost in Translation

I’ve always been a shy person and usually try to stay away from social situations when I don’t absolutely have to be in them. However, I wanted to break out of my shell when I went to Thailand. This was a “breakaway”, after all. What better time to try and enhance my interpersonal skills than now? About two weeks into the program, I finally felt settled into the city and I decided that it was time to meet people, hang out, and explore all that Chiang Mai had to offer.

A few others and I didn’t have classes on Wednesdays, so on one Wednesday in January, we all decided that it was the perfect day to go out and explore the city. The sky was a bright blue and it was very hot outside. We all were eager to see something new and for me personally, going out and exploring was a great way to connect with others and make friends.

Some others in the program had found this place called Huay Tung Tao lake. It wasn’t too far from our apartments and a nice swim in the water sounded perfect on a hot day. We all gathered in the lobby of the apartments and we flagged down a red truck to take us to the lake. Luckily, our driver agreed to take us there and come back later to take us home. It sounded like the perfect deal! We loaded up onto the truck and began to chat about ourselves, our majors, hobbies, all the typical college student talk. I was a little hesitant in introducing myself and participating in the conversation. That really wasn’t my thing, however I wanted to change that about myself. In no time, the driver tapped on the back window alerting us that we were at our destination. We all hopped out the red truck and were immediately surrounded by plenty of straw huts lining the edge of the lake. The mountains of Chiang Mai were in the distance and the sun reflected off the water making the area bright and sunny.

The entrance of Huay Tung Tao lake

We were told beforehand that the lake was known mostly by locals only and that many of the servers at the restaurants by the lake didn’t know English, only Thai. That wasn’t a big deal and getting to go somewhere off the beaten path from tourists seemed great. We also were advised that in order to sit by the lake in one of the straw huts, we needed to buy food from a restaurant. Again, no big deal. We hadn’t eaten, so it worked out perfectly. We would get some food, chill by the lake, and enjoy our day off from school.

We wandered around for a few minutes until we found a vacant hut. It was in between two other huts and was a perfect location to do some swimming. As we sat our things down, the lady from the restaurant brought over some menus for us to look at. This is where things get a little complicated. As I said before, the restaurant owners and servers weren’t too familiar with English, so their menus had really poor translations of what the dishes were. As we skimmed the menu, we were only able to comprehend some traditional Thai dishes whose translations were hard to mess up like pad Thai, khao soi, and pad seew. However, when it came to the rest, we were clueless. The menu had dishes such as the delicious sounding “yum”, “crispy crispy” which must have been something fried, and a dish that could have been anything called “cheat”. We couldn’t help but laugh at the translations and ponder what these crazy sounding dishes could be. We figured that in order to appreciate our experience fully, we should order all the things that were funny sounding. One of the people I was with ordered the crispy crispy, I ordered the yum, and another person ordered the cheat. Our server wrote everything down that we wanted, but when we said cheat, she laughed. What could cheat be? Why was it funny that some American kids were ordering it? That made us hesitant but piqued our curiosity. We soon would find the answers to our questions. 

We sat and waited on our food. A few of us went into the water while others laid in the sun. Finally, the lady brought over the first of our food. She placed a small and colorful ceramic bowl on our table and did a courteous bow known as a wai. “Khop kuhn kap,” we said thanking her. We weren’t too sure what was in the bowl, but typically, rice is served as a side dish to every meal in Thailand. We were almost certain that it was just steamed rice in a pot, so one of the girls carelessly lifted the top off the bowl. Immediately after the top came off, these tiny prawns with long antennas and many little legs started jumping out onto the floor. Some fell in the water and swam off. Everyone screamed, and the girl quickly shoved the top back onto the bowl. We all busted out into laughter. People from other huts were staring with looks of concern and confusion. We noticed the restaurant staff laughing at us and we asked what that was. “Cheat” she said, laughing. Apparently, the live prawns are seasoned, then served and eaten alive. “Okay, so who’s going to try it?” the girl who took the top off asked. I knew that I was too scared. We all laughed and one of the other girls agreed to eat it. She lifted the prawn into her mouth and with it still squirming to escape, she took a bite. She said the flavor was good, however the texture just wasn’t something she could get past. As for me, I was not brave enough.

The prawn like things known as "cheat", meant to be eaten alive

We finished off the evening laughing about what happened. The rest of the dishes we ordered weren’t alive and were actually pretty good. Although this day gave me a funny story to tell, it gave me way more than that. Having a good laugh at yourself, especially with others is a great icebreaker. Humor makes you feel good and for me, it eased the tension I felt in social situations. Being able to connect through humor and experiences gave me a sense of acceptance in Thailand. I felt comfortable around those who I could share humorous experiences with and by the end of the semester, I no longer felt like I needed to be reserved when being around new people. The thought of leaving my home and travelling along for four long months terrified me at first and I was reluctant to do it. However, I would have never guessed that a day at the lake would make me realize that it is okay to break out of your shell and have some fun every once in a while.

Kevin is a mathematics major from Columbia, SC. He studied abroad in Chiang Mai, Thailand at Chiang Mai University in the Spring of 2018. He plans to graduate in the Spring of 2019, where he will pursue a career in data analysis.