Look up College in the dictionary and it'll say Amherst

Today was a nice lazy day. Got up early and hopped on my bike to the morning market- 1.5 kms away. First I went over to my friend who makes Papaya Salad's stall (pictured left). I hung out on the bench behind her stall for about an hour. As soon as I showed up she gave me food, and made sure there was food next to me the whole time, as a good Thai host does. Yummy deep fried battered bananas for breakfast. mmmm.

Part of the time I was there I pulled out the Sudoku puzzles my mom sent me. I am addicted now.

After that I went over to my other friends who sell noodles all day, every day. They have a nice little community of friends. They just sit and cook and chat and eat and sell all day long. They are always there whenever I am around.

It is the American in me that wants to ask them, "What did you do today?" or "Any plans for the weekend?" But I restrain myself from asking because what I see when I am there is what they are always doing. I have trained myself to say the Thai conversation filler equivalent, "Have you eaten yet?"

After hanging out there, doing some more puzzles, and eating lots of food I headed home. I stopped on the way out of the market at a fruit stand and got three juicy mangos for 70 cents.

At home I cleaned up as I was having Jeeda and Wendy over to eat some western food. I made them grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. We had bite size PB&J sandwiches to start.

As I was going through some old magazines to throw away I started reading a speech about one of the founders of my college, a man who thought it would be a good idea to write a book listing every word in the English language along side it's definition and origin, Mr. Noah Webster.

It's hard to say whether the dictionary helped define some values in America, or whether the dictionary was written in response to those existing goals, but either way the dictionary seems so very American to me especially in contrast to Thai culture.

In America the purpose of conversation is often to convey information, and as accurately as possible. In Thailand a conversation is not for relaying information, but for interacting with others. Thais have exceptional abilities in predicting they way conversations will play out.

Noah Webster said he wrote the dictionary as a way to level the fields of all people. He wanted words to create a commonality that would not betray "class or religion." Websters vision was that the dictionary would attack predjudices and be a catalyst for democracy.

America is a non-hierarchical society, especially in contrast to Thailand.

Thais focus a lot of energy on class and social standing. There are certain words to use when addressing those older or socially higher, like the mayor or school Principal. In place of "I" when speaking to elders I say "Noo" which means 'mouse,' a small insignificant creature. Men say "Pom" instead of "I." "Pom" is the same word for hair, and again is a small little thing.

Thais have a whole set of words one uses only with Monks. The monks have their own language to set them apart from the general population. And the King also has his entire own language. Noah Webster wouldn't find this practice very class-blind.

Age is an extremely important factor in respect. Thais don't have a single word to say 'brother' there is only a way to say 'older brother' or 'younger brother.' Likewise with sister. In Thailand everyone is considered a part of your family so everyone calls me 'Pee Rachel' [older sister Rachel] if they are younger than I, or "Nong Rachel" if I am older.

When I come back to visit in 30 years everyone will call me "Khun Maa" which literally means 'you mother.'