Kunming is my second hometown: Sutarat

"I love my home country—Thailand. I also take Kunming as my second
hometown,”says Sutarat Phayakham, a Thai-Chinese from Bangkok. With full support from her parents, she successfully completed her MBA from Yunnan Normal University and now works as a Thai language teacher at the Yunnan University of Finance and Economics.

Sutarat has been studying and teaching in Kunming for seven years. She is a winner in life: she has had academic success, a career she loves, and she has also found love.

"When I first arrived in Kunming, I did not eat spicy food. Now I eat more and more delicious food and I feel no taste without chilli,” she says. After struggling to adjust initially, Sutarat has fallen deeply in love with Kunming. When she goes to Thailand on vacations, she starts to miss Yunnan’s barbecue, smelly tofu and rice noodles.

Sutarat teaches Chinese students the Thai language and is spreading Thai
culture. In her teachings, she often compares Chinese culture with Thai culture.

"Thai people are fond of beauty and their life pace is slow while Chinese people are pragmatic and live at a fast pace. Both languages are difficult. For
example, it is difficult for Thai people to pronounce ‘z, c, s, zhi, chi, shi’ correctly in Chinese. And it’s difficult for Chinese students to pronounce the slurping sound in the Thai language.”

Sutarat recounts that she made a fool of herself several times. For example, she pronounced “Huaiyi [doubt]” as“huaiyun [pregnant]” and “shuji [secretary]” as “siji [driver]”. Because of these experiences, Sutarat has a lot of empathy for Chinese students.

"I love my job. I am very happy when I see my students making progress and I see smiles on their faces.” Sutarat has a special affinity for China because her husband is Chinese.“In Chinese, this is destiny.” “Now I feel that Kunming is my second hometown,”says
Sutarat.

By Cai Meng