The Bangkok Podcast

Cultural Takeaways With Educator Frank Smith [Season 2, Episode 64]


Listen Later

To help us ring in 2018, we're bringing back a prior guest on his annual pilgrimage to Bangkok. Frank Smith from UC Berkeley teaches Khmer to children of Cambodian refugees. We caught up with him in person at Bangkok's Central World mall… before we got kicked out by security. Yes, again. Not just because one of us made a foot faux pas. What's it like for a Thai speaker who doesn't live in Thailand to plop back into Bangkok, suddenly surrounded by other Thai speakers? There are actually lot of ways to keep up with the evolving language, thanks to the pervasive nature of the internet. Or what's it like when your a young person, with parents speaking their native tongue and all your friends and the world around you speaking English? Frank faces that every day in the classroom, and shares some interesting tidbits from his students. Also, Frank reports the Bay area of California has a sizeable and well-knit Thai population, so we press him for some impressions (from the outside, obviously) on how that contingent live their lives abroad, which makes for a nice parallel for those expats like us living in Thailand. You'll also hear Frank bust some myths we've heard (and may be following) as we both struggle our way through learning Thai. And on Love, Loath, or Leave, we talk about not having easy access to clean drinking water. And by "easy", we mean getting it straight out of the tap. It's pretty obvious where we fall on this question, but your mileage may vary depending on where you are from. Thanks for listening. Hit us up on Facebook, Twitter, or LINE.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Bangkok PodcastBy Greg Jorgensen & Ed Knuth

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

131 ratings


More shows like The Bangkok Podcast

View all
TED Talks Daily by TED

TED Talks Daily

11,165 Listeners

Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,870 Listeners

Fareed Zakaria GPS by CNN Podcasts

Fareed Zakaria GPS

3,483 Listeners

More or Less by BBC Radio 4

More or Less

854 Listeners

Odd Lots by Bloomberg

Odd Lots

1,994 Listeners

Bloomberg Businessweek by Bloomberg

Bloomberg Businessweek

437 Listeners

The Documentary Podcast by BBC World Service

The Documentary Podcast

1,805 Listeners

Tokyo Podcast by Anthony Joh

Tokyo Podcast

53 Listeners

GaijinPot by GaijinPot

GaijinPot

15 Listeners

Dan Snow's History Hit by History Hit

Dan Snow's History Hit

4,802 Listeners

Behind the Money by Financial Times

Behind the Money

237 Listeners

The Ancients by History Hit

The Ancients

3,365 Listeners

Hard Fork by The New York Times

Hard Fork

5,597 Listeners

The Rest Is History by Goalhanger

The Rest Is History

15,570 Listeners

Good Morning Thailand by The Thaiger

Good Morning Thailand

14 Listeners

Empire: World History by Goalhanger

Empire: World History

2,521 Listeners

One Night in Bangkok by One Night in Bangkok

One Night in Bangkok

12 Listeners