TV or not TV? That Is Rarely The Question

Her@Home is always excited when we reach her hometown in Isaan. She’s always anxious to meet up with her family and friends at the earliest possible opportunity. It’s only natural that they all like to catch up on each others’ news – and exchange a little idle gossip too. I’m always pleased to indulge and humour her during these happy homecomings.

But during our recent visit I chose not to accompany her to the family home on the evening of our arrival. I like her family. They’re good people, and they always treat me with kindness, warmth, and respect. But I was very fatigued from our journey and I felt that my sagging eyelids and grey demeanour would do little to add any joy to the family reunion. So I remained at the hotel, comforted by the knowledge that Her@Home would wisely use this opportunity to fascinate her family with tales of my kindness and valour – or maybe they’d all just sit around, eat som-tam (som-tam is a spicy papaya salad), and talk about trivia. One or other of these scenarios would be certain to reflect reality.

I read a book for a short while in the room, and then I switched on the TV. I’m not usually a big fan of television. I used to watch TV a little when I lived in the UK, but since coming to Thailand I barely watch it at all. I find Thai television programmes difficult to understand and their subject matter rarely appeals to my taste. And I hardly ever see any English language TV, although it is available in Thailand. Anyway, I switched on the TV in the hotel room and began surfing through the channels. I soon discovered that the receiver was capable of delivering thirty or more channels to the room, approximately a third of which were Thai language channels. All except four of the remaining non-Thai channels were broadcast in a variety of Asian languages. But there were four channels which were English language channels. And they were all religious channels.

Three of these religious channels were very forthright and evangelical in both content and delivery. They were not at all to my taste. I find it very tiresome to listen to people who claim to know all the answers to everything, and by their attitude imply that they know all things and that I know nothing - although I do accept the possibility that they could be right. But the fourth channel consisted of reasoned, albeit heavily biased, discussion. And I soon became transfixed by it.

I deduced that this fourth channel is a Jehovah’s Witness channel, although that was not made clear. But the attitudes purveyed implied that it was so. Most of the discussion content revolved around promoting tolerance, understanding, and good will to all people. These are principles that I find myself to be very closely in tune with, although I’m painfully aware that they’re not always easy to live by. I know that I don’t always adequately do so. But it was not the content matter of the broadcast that captured my attention. The aspect of the broadcast that enthralled me was its delivery. I listened to these very committed and dedicated folks debating one ethical concern after another, and as I did so I found it amazingly refreshing to hear educated, articulate, well-spoken people using my native language creatively and with grace and majesty. It was a joy to hear.

I hadn’t before realised just how much I miss hearing the English language being used so beautifully. This was a moment of truth for me. I conduct my day to day life predominantly in Thai, and my relatively infrequent English language conversations are mostly confined to chit-chat and simple practical exchanges. So it was nothing short of wonderful for me to hear my mother tongue being eloquently and poetically delivered.


It seemed that hardly any time at all had passed before Her@Home returned to the room. She told me with great gusto and excitement about how she, her family, and friends, and neighbours too had enjoyed a wonderful evening of simply sitting around, eating som-tam, and endlessly chattering about nothing in particular.

“Sounds fun,” I said, and then I reclined, feeling relaxed, revitalized, and more than ready for a good night’s sleep. And I knew that it was important that I should enjoy a good and invigorating night’s sleep on that particular night, because our itinerary for the following day promised to be hectic. We planned to embark on an excursion into deepest Isaan (which I will tell you a little about and show you photos of in the next entry on Doodee’s Thailand). I knew that our proposed trip was going to be interesting and fun, and probably very tiring too. But as I lay there on the bed, waiting for sleep to speed me through the night, I just hoped that somewhere amongst all of the following day’s activity I would be able to find a little time to watch TV again.

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