For years, I worked at the Royal Thai Embassy in Russia. Looking back, what fascinates me in my reminiscing the most is not the ceremonies, the silk dresses, the gold ornaments or the grand diplomatic receptions. It is something much harder to explain.
I never spoke Thai. And yet, at one point, one of the Thai diplomats (namely, the Consul) became convinced that I did. She was not entirely wrong. I could understand something — just not the words.
I had learned to read the pauses, the expressions, the gestures, the hierarchy, the intonation (I could easily grasp whether the speaker is amused/joking/serious/angry/commanding or upset or comforting, by “reading” – I mean, listening and catching the intonation).
I would be able to do that not visually (receiving and analyzing nonverbal communication: mimics and gestures). I would almost always get the gist of what being said even if the speaker (the Thai diplomat) was in another office room. That was my first real lesson in what I now think of as the Thai way.
Being the host of Thailand Days in St. Petersburg and being taken for a Thai national
One of the most memorable moments of my time at the embassy was designating me as the host Thailand Culture Days in St. Petersburg. As I was the Assistant to the Public Relations Department of the Embassy, my boss chose me, a Russian member of the local staff, to host the concert and conduct the cultural quiz on stage.
I was not simply going to introduce the performers – tradional Thai dancers in the national apparel. I was going to represent Thailand in front of the audience. And there was one small problem. I was Russian with a Slavic appearance.
The solution came as a workaround. For the occasion, I was dressed in traditional Thai clothing: deep royal-blue silk, a golden sabai embroidered with delicate floral patterns, pearls and sequins, and a traditional golden hairpin holding my hair in a sleek bun.
The transformation was astonishing for me. I absolutely loved the look. The only thing I refused was the fake eye lashes. I gently turned down the makeup artist proposal, as I said I would prefer to for a natural look (natural Thai loo for a Russian girl, ahhaha!).
But the clothes were only part of it. I had also learned the Thai gestures on my first days of working at the Embassy. When I greeted diplomats on auscpicious occasions, my hands naturally followed the gestures I had absorbed from watching Thai colleagues. I wouldn’t call it copycatting/monkey see – monkey doing or mimicing. I’d rather refer to it as rescpecting the cultural code and showing this respect to the interlocutiors.
I used the wai greeting sign when it was due and paid attention to the way the hands, posture and movement changed according to the situation. I was not trying to imitate a Thai woman. I was trying to show respect for something that mattered enormously to the people I was representing.
And somehow, it worked at the festival in Sankt-Petersburg. The audience watched a Russian woman speaking Russian, wearing Thai dress and, at the same time? moving with what they perceived as a genuine Thai way (or so I think because of the question I was asked after the show). After the performance, one of the guests came up to me. He looked at me carefully and asked: “Are you Thai?”
I smiled. “No. I’m 100 percent Russian.”
“You should have said you were a half-breed!”
The next morning, the outcome of this mistaken identification of the event guest had a continuation. His Excellency the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Mr. Chalrmpol Thanchitt and his wife, Madame Sutida, invited me to join them for breakfast at the hotel dining hall, the VIP section. It was a surprisingly kind gesture in an environment where protocol and hierarchy mattered as they always do.
During breakfast and the small talk (discussing the yesterday’s festival), I told them about the remarkable question I had been asked after the performance, whether I was Thai. The Ambassador laughed his heart out. Then, with the traditional Thai smile, he told me: “You should have said you were a half-breed.”
I laughed too. But there was something behind the joke. I am indeed a half-breed: half-Russian and half-Belarusian. With the Thainess that people as well as the Thai diplomats acknowledges in me, I guess I am multi-culti, as the Dutch say.
“My heart is in Highlands, my heart is no here!”
I guess, as the posters in Amsterdam say (where I lived and work for about 3 years): Your home is where your heart is.
So… Let me introduce myself: Yulia Martsul, being indentified as a Jason Borne’s partner in…multiple identities 😉
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