“Hello!”
I hear this word often. Daily. Hourly. I’m called to as I walk the ten meters to the store. As I bike the two kilometers to school. As I bike the three kilometers to the market. As I walk through the market. As I sit at my desk trying to lesson plan. As I ride up to the school. As I walk to lunch. As I return from lunch. As the students leave to go home.
“Hello!”
I’ve realized that I almost never say “hello” in the States. I use it when answering the phone for an unknown number. I use it when calling out when arriving home. I use it when I’m trying to get the attention of someone. I use in job interviews. To me, the word is reserved. Stuffy. Stodgy. It’s uncomfortable on my lips. I do not feel a connection with this word.
“Hello!”
I make a point to respond to every “hello” that I hear. I call back to them. “Hi!” “Hey there!” “What’s up?” Sometimes just a simple wave and a toothy grin. Sometimes I reach back to them with a “Sa wat dee ka! These responses are always met with smiles. Almost always they are responded in kind with giggles. Laughter. Turning away from me and whispers to friends, family surrounding them.
“Hello!”
It feels really frustrating. To reach back and feel like you are the punchline to a joke. That your language is a joke. That what people tell you they want from you is actually something they just told you so they can have their own private form of entertainment. “Look! Here comes that farang lady again. She’s so strange always riding a bike. And she has a helmet on, just for a bicycle! So weird. I bet I can make her say something in English. Look! I did! Oh, how funny she sounds!.” It causes even more disconnect with this word that was already unfamiliar on my native English tongue.
“Hello!”
But I see the hesitation in their eyes when I ask them more in English. This language that is being touted as extremely important and a must learn for everyone. Because ASEAN. Because economics. Because 2015. Because falling behind. I see that they don’t have any more words. I see their smiles and efforts to speak clearly and slowly with me when I speak with them in Thai. Their excitement that I speak Thai. Their excitement for me to be around their students. Teaching their children. The children’s excitement for my arrival at school. And hearing about their disappointment when I am not. It’s not that I’m their entertainment. It’s that they want to make that connection with me and only feel they have one word to do that with.
“Hello!”
I did not feel a connection with this word. I do feel connections I have made with it.