【老外说】和英国人谈天气

【老外说】是一档以“采访”老外为主的节目，帮助大家更好的了解中西文化差异，一窥英国人、美国人日常生活。每周一更新。本栏目适合精听/泛听。可做听写练习。

英国的天变幻莫测恐怕全世界都知道，那久居英国的人去到泰国生活，是否能适应那里炎热的天气呢？让我们一起来听听今天的老外说吧！

Gwen

So you've been living in the UK for your early years. You move to different countries and experiencing different weather. How do you feel about the differences?

In what sense?

Gwen

The weather in the UK is notoriously fickle (易变的，无常的). People around the world know it. Now that you're in Thailand, and Thailand is hot. It's quite stable. It's not cold all year round.

Not really. It depends where you are. If you're in the far south or the peninsula, it’s more stable. It still varies quite a lot. If you are in the North or near the mountains, it can go down to 10 degrees in winter sometimes, especially at night. This year was not so cold, but we had 12 degrees, 13 degrees. And then in the daytime, it's maybe like 18 to 20. You have hot season and it can be up to 45 degrees.

Yeah, it can be very hot. It's not always. But 33 is quite a standard day temperature. And then in rainy seasons, it can vary quite a lot. So it's can be quite hot when it's not raining, but when it rains, it can be cooler. It can be changeable. It's still quite warm, I'd say, though it's still kind of hot, but it can pull off quite quickly when it rains. If it gets windy, especially.

Gwen

For someone that have grown up in the UK that have never experienced whether this hot. what did you feel when you first arrived in Thailand and a 40ish degree temperature. What did you feel at the beginning？

I like it. When I first came here, I was working for an NGO (非政府组织) so they have AC quite a lot in the offices. But then when we went out, we normally went up to the mountains and the communities and the mountains we were working with, and that is a bit cooler. I like it though. I like hot weather. For me, it's okay. For some of my friends that visit or do sometimes of the year here, they struggle with it a lot more. Now I start to get quite tired in hot season. It starts to get more difficult. I think.

Gwen

Do you use the air conditioner to help you go through the hot weather?

I try not. Too, but in the daytime, when I'm teaching, there is AC in the classrooms. It makes it easier then. So I'm not in the absolute heat of the day. When I come out, I'm riding my scooter and that's OK. And the houses here are built to keep the heat out. They are built to be cool. You feel the cold a lot more in winter. But in the UK the houses are the opposite. So they have a lot of insulation (隔热材料) and they are made to keep the heat in. It's the other way around. And then in the summer they get very hot because they don't let any heat out.

Gwen

You mentioned that you worked in an NGO when you first got there. What was that about?

They provide education for communities that don't have access to the government's education. So some of them are remote communities, some of them are like refugees from Myanmar (缅甸), or they are…One place that we worked with was like a temple and often the temples have kind of orphanages attached and they will provide education for the kids that are living there. But they don't have a lot of money. We would source English teachers that wanted to work as volunteers to help these communities and stay for 6 months or a year and help the community by teaching English in their school for free or a very low cost.

Gwen

That was something. So was your job in particular teaching English?

No. I was coordinating volunteers. I did use to teach English for them sometimes, but I was more a volunteer coordinator then.

Gwen

What do you would you feel about the job or the experience?

I like the job. It's a bit frustrating, but it's nice, it wasn't bad. And the other staff were very nice. The volunteers were always nice. So that was good.

Gwen

The frustrating part, what was that?

We were just trying to work with limited resources and trying to work out where to put resources as well. Like trying to do the best job you can with the little money that comes in because you rely on donations and volunteers. So it's difficult to always be able to allocate things in a way that helps everybody.

Gwen

How did you get by with very low income? How did you get by through the six months or one year time?

That was for the volunteers, they would work. Schools and the temples, they will provide a room for free for the teachers or staff. So they are able to have accommodation and they will give them food and things. But then they just have to work for free, so they will have saved up. I had a very low income, but Thailand can be very cheap. So if they provide a room and enough money for food, you don't really need too much more than that.

Gwen

Indeed.

Yeah, it is possible to do it for a while and it's really good work experience.

Gwen

Where did you get the Information for applying for the job?

It was off a website and I forget the name. There is a website. Advertisers, NGO jobs and work? And it's an international website. I can't remember the name right now.

Gwen

Is it available for people from all around the world or just English speaking…?

No, I think it's available for everybody. The website is in English and it's really just a platform for people that want to apply. And then different NGOs can advertise on that platform. And a lot of the jobs are available for anybody. You sound like you have very good and very clear English. You would be fine if you wanted to go and do something like that, I'm sure they would consider your English to be good enough.

Gwen

There must be a memorable experience.

Yes. It was very interesting. You got to meet a lot of very interesting people and get to know the local communities and the way that things work in Thailand as well, which was very interesting. It's definitely worth it for a time, I think.

你从事过志愿者工作吗？是什么样的工作？

如果没有，你愿意尝试文中这样的志愿者工作吗？

大家还想听“老外”说些什么？欢迎留言哦