Preachers from UK in high demand in Thailand!

[shastarSingh]

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/amritsar/thai-sikhs-invite-uk-preachers-for-teaching-gurbani/articleshow/64197466.cms

[BhForce]

22 minutes ago, shastarSingh said:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/amritsar/thai-sikhs-invite-uk-preachers-for-teaching-gurbani/articleshow/64197466.cms

The article says that preachers from the UK are in high demand in Thailand and SE Asia to be able to speak in English to English-speaking youngsters from those countries.

What is strange is those countries are not English-speaking countries!

The language of Thailand is Thai. If you can learn a language of a country 9000 miles away (England), then why can't you learn the language of a country 2000 miles away (india)?

Just amazing about the gadari of our people. Against all odds, we'll learn English in a non-English country, but not Punjabi in a non-Punjabi country.

[jkvlondon]

2 hours ago, BhForce said:

The article says that preachers from the UK are in high demand in Thailand and SE Asia to be able to speak in English to English-speaking youngsters from those countries.

What is strange is those countries are not English-speaking countries!

The language of Thailand is Thai. If you can learn a language of a country 9000 miles away (England), then why can't you learn the language of a country 2000 miles away (india)?

Just amazing about the gadari of our people. Against all odds, we'll learn English in a non-English country, but not Punjabi in a non-Punjabi country.

maybe they are working out that youth parchaar is the place to concentrate and the youth will respond better to young parchaar which is fresh and delivered slightly differently from the traditional . Any demand is something to be looked at positively as so many families are spiritually bankrupt these days

[Ranjeet01]

If they wanted English speaking preachers, they could have gone to Singapore or Malaysia which is down the road.

[BhForce]

4 hours ago, jkvlondon said:

maybe they are working out that youth parchaar is the place to concentrate and the youth will respond better to young parchaar which is fresh and delivered slightly differently from the traditional . Any demand is something to be looked at positively as so many families are spiritually bankrupt these days

OK, well, that would be find, I guess, but that's not what the article said. 

The article specifically said the young Sikhs of Thailand need someone to talk to them in English. Which is weird that you'd have the high-level English skills to be able to understand someone talking about theology in English, but no more Punjabi skills than to say "more Daal" in langar.

Not all countries in SE Asia are like this. In some of those countries, the Sikhs have preserved Punjabi extremely well, so they don't need any translations. 

I have no idea what's wrong the Sikhs in Thailand.

What is totally strange is the British never even ruled Thailand! Nor any other European power. Another words, it's not even a country with an English background like India with huge numbers of kale Angrez (brown Englishmen).

That is to say, such English as is learned in Thailand is totally people just learning it off of books. So if people learn English that way, then why not Punjabi?

Answer: Gadari.

[jkvlondon]

14 hours ago, BhForce said:

OK, well, that would be find, I guess, but that's not what the article said. 

The article specifically said the young Sikhs of Thailand need someone to talk to them in English. Which is weird that you'd have the high-level English skills to be able to understand someone talking about theology in English, but no more Punjabi skills than to say "more Daal" in langar.

Not all countries in SE Asia are like this. In some of those countries, the Sikhs have preserved Punjabi extremely well, so they don't need any translations. 

I have no idea what's wrong the Sikhs in Thailand.

What is totally strange is the British never even ruled Thailand! Nor any other European power. Another words, it's not even a country with an English background like India with huge numbers of kale Angrez (brown Englishmen).

That is to say, such English as is learned in Thailand is totally people just learning it off of books. So if people learn English that way, then why not Punjabi?

Answer: Gadari.

problem in thailand , is it is hostile to strangers acting differently from the thais , this includes Names  I remember reading that sikhs were renaming themselves to thai names because otherwise they were having strife getting jobs , legal help etc . The law is pretty draconian there so I could understand being worried.  I agree that Punjabi skills should never be ignored it is part of our heritage and the fact that I read they abandoned the name Singh and Kaur  because of the majority made me sick to the stomach ...in fact when stupid unthinking sikhs abandon their kakkars at slightest pressure at schoo/work I feel they don't deserve the title sikh as they can't honour the struggle of predecessors to secure our rights to carry and display kakkars .

[BhForce]

1 hour ago, jkvlondon said:

problem in thailand , is it is hostile to strangers acting differently from the thais , this includes Names  I remember reading that sikhs were renaming themselves to thai names because otherwise they were having strife getting jobs , legal help etc . The law is pretty draconian there so I could understand being worried.  I agree that Punjabi skills should never be ignored it is part of our heritage and the fact that I read they abandoned the name Singh and Kaur  because of the majority made me sick to the stomach ...in fact when stupid unthinking sikhs abandon their kakkars at slightest pressure at schoo/work I feel they don't deserve the title sikh as they can't honour the struggle of predecessors to secure our rights to carry and display kakkars .

Yeah, the article mentioned peoples' "Thai names". Thanks for elucidating on that.

Strangely, the Sikhs of Thailand have made no effort to somewhat match up Sikh/Thai names phonetically. Like Dev/Dave, Hari/Harry, Pal/Paul.

I would say, if they're having such a hard time of it, what's the point of living in Thailand? Just go back to India. I doubt Bangkok is better than Delhi (is it?).

[Ranjeet01]

Thailand being a South East Asian country and being Buddhist means that there would be some level of Sanskrit /Pali relation. 

This means some Sikh names would have some familiarity with the Thais.