Thailand is the only South East Asian Country not to be colonized
by a foreign power, and its inhabitants are very proud of it I
can tell you. It was mainly down to some clever political maneuvering
by their then king that they managed to keep their independence
at a time where it was very much the vogue for countries whose
influence in Europe was fading to grab a bit of Asia or maybe
a chunk of Africa. Disgusting by modern standards but quite the
norm not so long ago.
France got what came to be called Indo-China and left it with
some dodgy plumbing, a few churches, some cheese and excellent
coffee and bread. They weren't welcome and were kicked out. The
countries that made up Indo-China were Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Brunei, Myanmar (Burma), Malaysia and Singapore were British,
and although successive Prime ministers of Malaysia can't seem
to make up their minds whether to teach English as a first or
second language or not at all, both Singaporeans and Malaysians
speak pretty good English. Also, apart from Burma where it can
be a bit tricky, in most the major cities of these countries you
can be assured of a good G and T. The British weren't welcome
and were kicked out although its amazing to think that Brunei
only gained its independence in 1984!
Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch and I'm not too sure what
their legacy is as I've never been there or read much about the
county-clogs maybe? I don't know. Anyway you guessed it, the Dutch
weren't welcome and were kicked out.
The Philippines were colonized by the Spanish, hence a very high
percentage of Spanish words in both Tagalog and Cebuano, the two
main Philippine languages, then they were colonized by the Americans,
then the Japanese kicked the Americans out, then the Americans
kicked the Japanese out and finally the Philippines kicked out
the Americans and got and their country back! I don't think any
of the countries were at all welcome! Incidentally English is
the medium of instruction from Kindergarten / Nursery school in
the Philippines meaning most Filipinos are bi or even tri-lingual
and although most accents are a little strange to native speakers'
ears, by and large Filipinos speak the best English in the whole
of Asia.
