Essay from Expatriate in Thailand

Essay
Essay from Expatriate in Thailand
WATANABE Yoshizou

1 . Introduction
I was an expatriate in Thailand for five years and 10months from April 2017 through February 2023.
In Thailand, I worked at a production site of KYB
Steering (Thailand) (hereinafter "KST") that
manufactures power steering pumps and CVT pumps.
Since I originally learnt design only, my life as an
expatriate began with expectation and anxiety about thework at the production site. I definitely experienced
various things during the stationing. The following
introduces some of them.

Photo 1 Members of supporting departments (at the KST lobby)

Photo 2

Management members (at the KST lobby)

2 . Meals
Before the expatriation, the first thing that came tomind from the words "Thai cuisine" was only the typical
spicy dishes like gapao rice and tom yum kung.

Fortunately, I liked spicy food, so I was not so nervous.
At the welcome party, the local staff took care of me
and prepared non-spicy dishes at first. I thought Thailand
had some non-spicy dishes as well, but soon the spicy
dishes started to gradually appear.
I managed to eat up all the dishes while drinking beerwith ice in it, which is specific to Southeast Asia, to cool
my mouth. Then, I asked a question about the dishes.
They said the dishes that appeared in the latter half of theparty were so spicy that even some Thai cannot eat them.
They tested me in the trial (welcome party) to see that I
am OK with a little bit spicier dishes than those
acceptable to ordinary Thai. I was eventually judged as aperson who can eat any Thai food.
As an aside, I was surprised to find that there weresome Thai who could not eat spicy food at all althoughmost Thai dishes are basically spicy.
Thanks to the results of the test, everyone
recommended a variety of foods to me, including spicy
dishes, at dinner parties, which kept me satisfied withdelicious things to eat.
Among their recommendations, one was a fruit atwhich I was very surprised. That was noina in Thai,
about the same size as an apple. The surface is likecrocodile skin, looking a little scary. In spite of theappearance, ripe ones are soft and fluffy enough to bebroken open by hand and eaten. They are very sweet anddelicious. When I heard its English name (custard apple),
I was convinced that this tells exactly what it is.
Since I was expatriated alone, I usually ate out orbought food at supermarkets during the first year. Afteraround the second year, I started to cook for myself alittle, starting with a simple breakfast (scrambled eggs)
on weekends. I gradually expanded my repertoire toinclude stir-fries, baked goods, and Thai food (gapaorice, moo grob, or fried pork). I finally became able tocook simple dishes for myself, although I could not makecomplicated ones.
The cooking experience helped me a lot during thelong days off caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Ieasily killed time when I was locked in my house.

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KYB TECHNICAL REVIEW No. 67 OCT. 2023

impression that police officers in Thailand were working
not only for security but also to help people enjoy thefestival. I thought "That's how the land of smiles does it!"Photo 3

CuisinePhoto 4

Noina

During the water festival, while such public events areheld on the street, private companies may hold their own
unique events, such as calling monks to have a Buddhist
ceremony or distributing sweets to employees before theholidays. KST holds an interesting event on the last day
before the holidays at which the management, including
the President, are asked to sit down in front of theentrance of the company building and be splashed withwater by all staff members.
At my first year, I was told to come over to theentrance having first left my smartphone and wallet in
my locker. When I was sitting on the ground puzzling
why I had to do things like this, the event was started.
Somebody splashed some water over my hands at first
and the splashing gradually escalated to my legs, body,and head. Finally, a bucket of water was poured over myentire body, making me feel like I had become scrubbedof sin.
Leveraging the experience in the first year, I brought
water pistols to the second year's festival. That was myturn to let them become scrubbed of their sin. However,they were a cut above me: They brought a big water hoseto scrub me of sin even more carefully than the first year,
since I got along with them very well and it was mysecond year. Anyway, that experience brought me peaceof mind in part and made me recognize that we had
established a relationship in which we could be in close
contact with each other without hesitation.

3 . Events
Thailand is a tropical country with an annual averagetemperature of nearly 30˚C. It is particularly hot in April
when the world-famous water festival is held. I used toparticipate in the festival before the COVID-19
pandemic. When I dropped by a water spot, numerous
street vendors selling water pistols and buckets full of ice
water were lined up in rows on the roadside. The city was
fully prepared for visitors to be able to splash water oneach other even if they came to the festival with nothing.
There were such water spots here and there. Somewere moderate spots for families and some others were
popular among foreigners (tourists?) who liked vigorous
water splashing. I also found a spot where people werepainting flour dissolved in water on each other in addition
to water splashing. I enjoyed hopping between such
unique water spots.
To prevent trouble, some water spots were guarded bypolice officers standing alongside, which made me a littlebit nervous. When I was taking pictures of the festival
from the roadside, a police officer standing nearby cameand told me "I can take pictures for you", probably
because he thought I was a tourist. That gave me theKST also held a Sports Day and Futsal Competition.
There were two kinds of Futsal Competition: One was acompetition among three teams inside KST and the othera competition among three Thai teams (KYB Thailand,KYB Asian Pacific, and KST). The winner of the three
Thai teams would get the chance to participate in a sportcompetition in Japan in addition to monetary rewards.
Everybody in the teams was playing like mad.
I sometimes played futsal with staff members afterwork partly because I used to be a futsal player in Japan.
So, I knew how they were normally playing. In thecompetition, however, they were playing with new
aggression. When I found them moving in a totallydifferent way from usual, I felt keenly that people'spassion really affects their performance.
Although KST's hope of winning the competition did
not materialize during my expatriation, I realized thatmoving forward together with colleagues toward one
thing fosters a sense of esprit de corps not only forhobbies but also for work, leading to higher work
efficiency. I hope that the competitions in Thailand will
be resumed this year as we have recovered from theCOVID-19 pandemic.

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Essay from Expatriate in Thailand

an American. At a meeting where I was excited about
using my "fluent" English in discussion, I could notunderstand what he was saying at all because both mytongue and ears had already been tuned to Thaiglish. I
ended up being devastated again. Still, I managed to getthrough the situation by employing the strategy of asking
him to repeat the words over and over again andfortunately he spoke very slowly. Based on thatexperience, I can always deal with similar difficult
situations by employing the same strategy, which is now
patterned, although it may not be good depending on theother party or topic. Anyway, this can still be used as agood countermeasure.
Photo 5Photo 6

There was one thing that I thought was interesting withEnglish. When Thai people were talking about work,
they mixed in 10% to 20% English, not 100% Thai.
According to a book, Thailand has had to rapidly accept
many different cultures from the outside world andcultural advance has outpaced language advance. As aresult, words that did not exist in Thai came intoexistence. They seem to speak in English under somespecific circumstances including business. I realized thatThailand was that kind of country. As a Japanese, I felt
intimacy with Thai people because I noticed that we also
have many Japanized English words whose
corresponding Japanese could not come to mind.

KST Competition

Competition of the three Thai companies

4 . Languages (English and Thai)
I was originally not good at English. Before
expatriation, I took a language training course and was alittle relieved to be able to have a little English
conversation. But, I was devastated from the start as soon
as I was transferred to Thailand.
First of all, I had a hard time understanding what Thai
were saying in English with their unique pronunciation
and accent (Thaiglish). For example, a word sounded like"kover". I did not get the meaning and asked them to say
it again and again... then, I finally understood they had
said "cover". I gradually learnt that they basicallypronounce English according to Roman letters. I felt
somewhat guilty when I asked them to say it again manytimes, but the experience deepened my understanding of
Thaiglish while the local staff deepened theirunderstanding of my Japanglish. This interaction
enhanced the communication level and we eventuallybecame able to communicate with each other.
Soon after that, I became able to say what I wanted toin English. When I finally had some confidence in myEnglish capability, I got involved in a job working withTotally apart from English, I memorized only aminimum of Thai words including numbers and food. Ofcourse, I heard daily conversation in Thai during work,
but I did not learn Thai in the classroom. However, as I
had heard Thai over six years, I became able to roughly
understand what Thai people were speaking about on thetopic of work. Ears may learn the language themselves.
When I understood the direction of their discussion orwhether they were saying a good thing or a bad thing,although I did not understand the details 100%, I abruptly
joined them at some midpoint of the conversation insome cases, which dramatically surprised them. This wasa very effective and helpful skill that could be applied tocases where staff members had difficulty in a scene I did
not notice or when they could not promote an activity
well.

5 . Work
KST is a small factory with about 250 employees, butthere are various departments, including factory sales,pump parts procurement, cost management, accounting,and human resources. I had only experience in designwork, so I was very anxious about what I could do at thefactory and whether I would be able to communicate
with the staff.
In the first year, I managed a transfer project fromJapan and worked on quality issues, some of whoseelements were similar to those of design work. I ran this― 42 ―

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way and that in an unfamiliar place and business, butpartly because it was a product transfer from Japan, I wasable to complete the transfer with the support of various
people including the members of the related departmentsof KANAYAMA Plant in Japan.
After that, I was assigned to cost management in thesecond year, factory sales in the third year, and work
responsible for procurement of pump parts in the fourthyear.
In cost management, I was given base data for setting
targets for cost reduction activities and actual projects
from cost planning and procurement of Gifu North Plant,and manufacturing and production engineering ofKanayama Plant, which were very useful in deciding
how to manage and promote KST activities.
In terms of factory sales and pump parts procurement,
the related sales and procurement personnel in Japangave us information about the situation in Japan, past

activities, and procurement policy. The provision of thisinformation enabled us to add one-step more advanced
operations to KST's factory sales and pump partsprocurement, thereby strengthening the functions of thedepartments.

6 . In Closing
Looking back, I realize anew that I was able to makevarious improvements at KST thanks to the support of somany people during my six years of expatriation inThailand.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all thoseconcerned in Japan, all the expatriates at each office, andthe local staff at KST who helped me during my stay inThailand.
I would also like to acknowledge the opportunities I
had to experience so many other things that could not bereported in this article.

Author 

WATANABE Yoshizou
Joined the company in 2005.
Pump Design Sect., Engineering
Dept., Mobility Devices Headquarters,
Automotive Components Operations
Took present post after working in
PS Pump Engineering Dept., EPS
Development Center, and KYB
Steering (Thailand)― 43 ―