Thais: 'class' and 'diversity'

Hope you all had a very relaxing weekend na ka.

I have something to share and will sure wait to get some comments ka.

During my recent trip to Banff, Canada, our group used a private coach service, allowing us to have 21-seat coach and a driver for 4 days.

The driver was a 24-year-old guy who finished his two-year college education. He was also our guide, telling us about the Rockies and some little funny/interesting stories. Most of us most of the time were attentive to listen and ask questions as well (could be a bit different from our Thai typical tourists?).

When we stopped for our lunch at a Chinese restaurant, we invited him to join us and order food plus let him get started as our guest of honor.

Right away, I was thinking about us here in Thailand.

The question is, “Would we treat our Thai driver similarly?”

We would invite a Thai driver for lunch but would we ask him to be at the same or separate table?

Would we ask him to be the first to choose the food and the one to start eating first?

Thai people have the sense of ‘class’ that may go without saying but….

Is it ok or is it time to change some of the practices?

Would it be better to encourage our drivers to learn more and become more knowledgeable in some ways?

I also think about ‘learning’ ka. Obviously, we haven’t done enough to nurture the sense of learning in our people.

How should we go about it starting from the younger ones to our own older generations….our own generation is to be stressed so as to be good models?

How could we be more open to respect diversity, recognizing that individuals have their stock of knowledge and experiences to share?

How could we cross the seniority and authority lines sometimes?

I sure had lots of questions going on my mind then and I do now too ka!

Any comments mai ka?

 

Cruise ship experiences

Let me now share with you what I’ve experienced being on a cruise ship for the first time ka.

1. Systematic

To handle over 2,000 passengers for 7 days with 800+ crew members is a huge challenge from safety and health to food, daily programs on board and disembarkation processes for passengers to visit several Alaska cities.

We were given hand sanitizer every time we went into any of the dining rooms. Our hands were very clean and dry!

I’m also impressed with their communication ka!

They did extremely well ka through several channels, i.e. daily newsletter, public address system, and announcement at the end of some key activities like evening show or competition or workshop.

One of the instructions was for us to take up the offer to help when getting on smaller boats to ensure our safety, saying that their staff members were professionally trained! Interesting ka!

For more complicated processes, they put down clearly all the steps that we had to follow strictly. The instructions were easy to understand too ka.

The very first port we visited, we needed to go on a smaller ‘tender’ and we all needed to group ourselves and get a ticket when we were all ready. The shuttle periods and ship departure were stressed over and over again.

On our last day which needed many more steps, they even had a separate letter just for the most important issue!

2. Attentive

To make sure we were tended to closely, we would have our same dinner table booked with two same waiters every evening (we did have another choice to have buffet dinner ka!). Our waiters were really attentive. The more senior would suggest food we shouldn’t miss while his assistant ended our meals with different games every day….and he was really upset we could answer almost all of themJ! One same sommelier was around for advice on wine too.

Talking about dinner, there was a funny story ka. A waiter was asking my friend what she wanted for dessert. She didn’t want any but he said, ‘Excellent choice’ without knowing he said so ka. Talok dee.

For cabins, the head of the housekeeping team would introduce himself on the very first day we checked in. Each with his team would take care of the same 22 cabins throughout the duration so we got to know him and could make direct requests as needed ka.

Besides the system, having the same people made us feel familiar with the new environment much more easily too.

3. Diversity

Both passengers and crew members were very diverse. So were the programs and food ka.

The programs were catered for more senior passengers with entertainment like a Musical, songs from the 70’s, plus shows by popular comedian and magician. Activities for kids were also available. What struck me was time allotted specifically for ‘LGBT’, and the other was for ‘Single and solo to mingle’….real diverse mai la ka?

I attended a few activities and the one I liked most was about ‘The Art of a Trained Memory’…..suited senior citizens mak ka! Well! I need to be more determined to train my brain still ka!

Sounds like a sanuk mai ka?

Vocational schools and cruise ship industry

Hello from my home desktop ka….good to be back to write again!

May was very a hectic month with various activities while June was filled with some work and more pleasure, fortunately.

During my one-week cruise ship trip, I met quite a lot of people/waiters, obviously including Filipinos. There were many Indonesians and it surprised me somehow….I may not have thought about Indonesians as mobile people mung ka!

One Filipino guy who was ‘assistant waiter’ helped take care of us at all our dinners.  He wants to continue working in this industry and his ambition is to be ‘Restaurant Manager’.

It was a delight to see two young Thais who were also on the staff team ka.

I felt very proud of them and was even more impressed after talking with them.

Both graduated from vocational colleges, one from Roi-et and the other from Chonburi.

I asked the first one about his English proficiency and he said he had to take the test twice which was really hard for him. Once he was on board, he gradually picked up the language as he was assigned to a new station every day and met lots of people under differing situations ka.

The other is a Mixologist who is highly capable. He’s had more experiences working in some hotels in Pattaya before. He impressed me with his determination and persistence ka. His responsibilities required him to tend the bar for 12 hours and could be longer if there were guests. He was exhausted but feeling good about it. From his 7-month contract, he has been able to earn 450,000 baht and has already sent home 300,000+ for his parents to build a house. He said as he is the first one to enter this industry from his college, he plans to share his experiences with his ‘juniors’ at his college once he comes back home.

My thoughts about these two Thais are:

1. They are excellent examples to inspire vocational students and others in our society to think twice about vocational schools.

2. Though vocational colleges can ‘boast’ of the success (like how much they could earn, and how great the opportunities have given, etc.), they need to look into their own curriculums seriously and identify both strengths and weaknesses how to produce more qualified graduates….whether the colleges themselves have the capability in this service industry and what would be needed to enter the industry. Otherwise, these two kids could only be exceptional cases the colleges keep promoting to the public which doesn't signify the true quality of the colleges lae ka.

3. To follow this track, our own kids have to learn how to dream realistically to be more determined, and tough, and most importantly to have courage to go try and fail.

4. Could vocational college teachers become their models on these attributes (including their efforts to learn foreign languages) too?

More to share soon ka!