Thailand Four - Text
Subject is a female graduate student, born in Bangkok and raised in Chiang Mai, Thailand. She learned written English in school but did not start speaking English until arriving in Minnesota to attend college as an undergraduate. At the time of the interview in 2004, she had lived in the United States for five years. The interview was recorded by Julia Guichard in Oxford, OH, in 2004. Running time 00:05:02
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
OK, um, I was born in Bangkok. My family is actually from Bangkok, but, um, because of the pollution and Bangkok is was very crowded so we moved to Chiang Mai, which is the second biggest city from Bangkok, but at that time it was not as crowded or as polluted. So I grew up in Chiang Mai but I’ve been, you know, travelling back and forth from Chiang Mai to Bangkok because most of my relatives are there. So, um, well, Chiang Mai people has have accent, but you know like a northern accent but I don’t because, um, because my family’s from Bangkok so we never use the…not-not the accent, like accent and dialects together but I-I can’t speak the dialect, and I don’t have the accent, so…yeah. And, um, well, I-I grew up in Chiang Mai and I was there for twenty years, and I came to the U.S. to school and it was a big change because I went to Minnesota and it’s very warm and humid in Thailand and I had never seen snow before and it was a…it was a surprise but it was nice and I really enjoyed it. And, um, after I was done with my undergrad I stayed in Minnesota for a year and worked, um. I worked as a administrative assistant in a big company and then I went back home and I moved from Chiang Mai to Bangkok because it’s easier to find a job. And most of my friends moved to Bangkok, too, so I have some friends there. And I was working in a…in a high school; I was an English teacher in a high school. And it was really fun, and then, um, after a semester I came here because, you know, I got assistantships. I came here and I really enjoy it here. Um, I’m applying for a Ph.D. program right now. I want to study Asian theater, or, you know, Asian/W-, you know, Eastern-Western and comparison and I’m interested in interculturalism, intercultural theater, and that’s what I want to do.
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY LYNN BAKER, 10 MARCH, 2008