Dear All, hope life is beautiful every day ka.
I gave a talk at the First CULI-LITU International conference entitled, "Colorful ELT" late last week. It was a striking topic that made me have the urge to accept the invitation right away, feeling that it must be quite challenging.
It was very challenging once I started thinking seriously of what to share with the audience who are basically teachers of English and language experts. In addition to the nervousness, I didn't feel that safe, coming from the culture of trying not to make mistakes when speaking English! I still make many mistakes all the time but feel much more comfortable ka!
Even after over 3 decades of watching Thai people learn their English, I feel that not much has improved, especially many kids in provinces. We still can't speak or feel far too shy to speak the language. We still stay a bit away from foreigners. We still think Americans are caucasian only.....the list can go on!
My colleagues helped search for several related studies after we decided to focus the talk on our own Thai cultural traditions, what Fulbright Thailand has placed a high important priority all along. We found that the studies pointed out Buddism-related dimensions like respect the more senior and no confrontation; and the notion of 'Kreng-jai'
(Negatively -- You do or say something against your true
feelings because the person is at the upper hierarchical level or he/she
does not want to look bad in others’ eyes. Positively-- You do or say something against your true feelings because you're considerate of the impact you have on others
in their daily as well as emotional lives or think of the trouble that someone
will go through.)
I was surprised that the studies didn't touch on the notion of 'Mun-sai' what I have personally found is one of the root causes in the Thai life from studies to daily living.
(Man-sai---negatively, one feels jealous, annoyed, irritated because
another person behaves pretentiously or ridiculously, or the person shows off
that he/she is better at something. Positively, it means teasing a person
in a loving way because the person does something so very cute, or the person
exaggeratedly says something good about herself/himself that could be found
amusing.)
I crafted my talk around the latter plus 'Mun-sai'. My argument was for the Thai teachers to reflect on their own selves, how they have grown up and learned another language in classes amid the'Kreng-jai' and 'Man-sai' feelings.The self-reflective activities will lead them to see how to use the two positively. For me, it'll contribute even better to the Thais to become more professional in the regional and international forums.....as very few can understand why Thai people feel 'man-sai' about everything and everyone easily ka!
Another point that I raised was 'diverstiy' that comes along with understanding about the mobiity and changes in the world while respecting each other's ideas and thoughts regardless of age, race, background, authority, etc.
The points above are our Thai cultural traditions that need to relate to teaching and learning in general as well since they're part of the real root causes.
It's Chulalongkorn Day tomorrow so I think from his reign, Thailand has started to move speedily to become more modernized in many aspects....though English proficiency stays on as our huge challenge until today.
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