# New UK Ambassador for Thailand



## Song_Si (Jun 11, 2010)

*UK envoy tackles the local lingo*
Nuthatai Chotechuang 
The Nation October 15, 2012

*New UK Ambassador Mark Kent doesn't look like your usual reserved diplomat. He carries a black backpack almost everywhere, and it's heavy. So what's in there?*

"Lots of books, actually too many. My iPad, and some bits and pieces. I'm a little bit messy. I should take some out and also to balance my shoulder," he says.

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Born in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, Kent has been in office for two months, but he has spent more than a year studying Thai at Khon Kaen University, Chiang Mai University and in Bangkok.

Thai is his sixth foreign language, after Vietnamese, Spanish, Dutch, French and Portuguese. And despite his busy schedule, he still finds time for Thai lessons twice a week. "A language is like an onion, as the more layers you peel off, the more layers you still need to peel off," Kent said in an interview with Nation Channel about the challenges in learning the local lingo. It was his first time to talk on TV in Thai.

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Kent attended a political science course at Chulalongkorn University for a month before he was appointed, which helps him understand how history and politics are taught here.

He also has a better comprehension of this country's foreign policy. His four-year term will focus on trade and investment and tourism, making sure that 850,000 British travellers to Thailand each year are looked after properly.

"Trade and investment are a traditional element of the Thai-UK relationship and this year marks 400 years of official contact between the two countries and the first contact at that time was based on trade. My job is to ensure that people are aware of the opportunities available in Thailand."


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