Did I hear what I thought I heard? … Yes.

The other day I was sitting at the Honda dealer waiting for my motorbike to be serviced.  A non-Thai man came up to the front and was looking at new motorbikes to buy.  The salesperson was trying to help him.  The conversation went like this (everything in italics was spoken in the Thai language):

Customer: What about this one? What kind of warranty does it have?

Salesperson: Ahh.. [I could tell he was thinking really hard], yes…

Customer: Is it a good deal?

Salesperson: (smile)

Customer: Can you speak Thai?

Salesperson: Yes I can.

The customer then proceeded to speak what I could tell was more than just decent Thai and he and the salesperson had a lengthy conversation.

But really?  This made me laugh and shake my head for a few reasons.  1) If you’ve been in Thailand long enough to speak Thai that well, I would THINK you’d know what a Thai person looks like.  2) Even if you couldn’t tell a Thai person from any other Asian (which does get really easy to tell apart once you live here for a little while), if you are buying a motorbike in Thailand, what language besides English do you think you should try to speak, if the English isn’t working?  3) I would also think that one of the requirements for being a Honda salesperson in Thailand would be to speak Thai.

I know everyone has a bad day once in awhile and may ask a stupid question, or have a language brain lapse.  This one though especially cracked me up, and I couldn’t help but wonder what in the world that salesperson was thinking!