Calm, confident and with no need for a helmet, this young woman riding her motor scooter through the streets of Chiang Mai is telling of the modern Kingdom of Thailand. Influenced by the West and yet with a strong national identity, this Buddhist nation is the friendly hub of South East Asia. A cultural melting pot, Thailand shares borders and ethno-linguistic minority peoples with Myanmar, China, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia. Anthropologists and linguists flock to northern Thailand to study the languages and cultures of the minority groups living throughout these borders with fascinatingly complex languages and cultural histories of their own. Eva, a young woman from Slovakia, lives here in Chiang Mai and assists researchers by creating extensive language maps to better understand the different dialects and languages in the region. This kind of information is essential for many reasons; to understand how many different language communities exist, where they are located, how many speakers there are – and whether they need assistance with translation and language development. Watch a five minute video about Eva and how her church in Slovakia is supporting this work in Thailand.

Photo & Words: Elyse Patten
High Res image available on Skip