Anticipation Bias

Back in the Jurassic Period (around 1991-92) I was a newly-minted Foreign Service Officer assigned to the American Embassy in Bangkok Thailand.

One of my first social faux pas after arrival was to invite a lady to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball who, unbeknownst to me, happened to be the fiancé of the Regional Security Officer (RSO).  The RSO, “Jim,” was a former Marine himself and a heckuva nice guy.  I’m not sure but I don’t think he ever knew I invited his girl to the ball.  She was a lady about it, acted flattered, and quietly let me know she was already spoken for…

Flash forward a few months and our Ambassador David Lambertson decreed that, in the interest of professional development, the “Duty Officer” would attend the “Country Team” meetings so that the (usually fairly junior) officers could learn more about how things at the embassy worked.  The country team consists of the heads of the Political Section, Economic Section, the Consul General, Defense Attaché, Commercial Counselor, Admin Counselor, and other various departments and organizations in the embassy.  If the embassy was a company, the “Country Team ” meeting would be the equivalent of a meeting of the board of directors, the ambassador as “chairman.”

It was my first week serving as duty officer and it was pretty uneventful until I got a call late one night saying that the police had a corpse they suspected was a missing American and the duty officer was required to make a positive identification.  That wasn’t very much fun and I had nightmares for a while as that was my first dead guy.  Rest in Peace Mr. C.

Things became interesting when I attended the Country Team Meeting, of course sitting in the back, not actually at the table, just an observer.

The various departments reported on their activities and other information they thought the Ambassador might want to know like some news articles in a Thai Language newspaper.

When it came time for Jim, the Regional Security Officer, to make his report, it became even more interesting because an embassy family had come home to discover a burglar in their apartment!

Before I go on, I need to offer a quick lesson in Thai vocabulary.  In Thai, the word for both “thief” (noun) and “steal” (verb) is (roughly) “Kamoy.”  There is another word in Thai that doesn’t really rhyme with “kamoy” but since the sound doesn’t exist in English, Americans will usually pronounce it so it does.  Americans pronounce “Katoy” when they say the Thai word meaning “transvestite” or “transsexual” (man who becomes a woman).

So back to the Country Team Meeting…

Jim began his report by saying something like, “The family came home and discovered a katoy in the apartment.”

I giggled because it was so clear to me that the Jarhead (and I mean that in the most loving and respectful way possible) had gotten his Thai words mixed up.

He went on with, “They saw the katoy and…” followed by “The katoy said this and did that.”  Eventually  it was “The katoy escaped out the window…” which was followed by some questions from other members of the team.

By this time I was having trouble containing my laughter. I was literally WILLING my lips to stay shut but eventually the air pressure from my restrained laughs overcame the strength of my lip muscles and it came out in short spurts like somebody trying to play a trumpet but without the trumpet.

I got a number of fairly senior dirty looks at that point, a particular penetrating one from my boss.

Still having trouble keeping my mirth under control, I thought it was odd that in this learned group, I was the only one who understood the error and found it humorous.

I thought to myself, “Really? Do we have to be SO SERIOUS in the face of this world class hilarity?

Finally, the glares helped me get back under control and Jim finished his report.

I received more disapproving looks and shaking heads as everyone filed out of the room at the end of the meeting.

Still I didn’t get it.  It was FUNNY!

Then I learned what apparently everyone else in the room knew, a fact of which I alone was ignorant.

It was a KATOY KAMOY!