These few weeks, I've been talking quite a bit about internationalization (IZN), English, and quality to students or faculty members. Here are some of the stories to share ka:
1. Empathy: What do you think about the terrorists' attacks at the airport in Belgium? One girl interviewed by a TV channel said she didn't feel a thing as it was far from Thailand.
Using this as an introduction to my talk worked quite ok. It was difficult to check how people thought about it but one Fulbright family member said he felt really sad and when he checked what was said on his Facebook, he saw many saying, "Pray for Belgium". It made him feel like being part of it.
This secondary school ajarn is a truly 'inter' person who has empathy! It's an important quality we need to instil in our education community members especially when the world is increasingly technology- and money-led.
When asked what made him feel he is "inter" (global citizen more or less), he said he thought of the ability to think and the courage to ask and argue based on sensible reasons.
2. Monolingual vs Bilingual: English has always been seen as our barrier that can't be torn down. But it's not for this ajarn who said he has been trying hard for years, knowing it's important.
He said whenever he asked a native speaker of English how many languages he/she could speak and the answer was, "English only", he would think he was more fortunate to be able to pick up more than one language and that also made him proud and encouraged.
3. Everywhere is Thailand?: One faculty member of a higher education institution was sharing his experience with the group, pointing out that he doesn't believe that being proficient in English could help with travelling to an English-speaking country. He survived fine living in one such country for three months!
He then went on to say in that country, some policemen came to his place to charge him for burning leaves which was illegal. He was upset because he only burned a few leaves! He found it unreasonable.
Even when his intention was to stress the importance of the Thai language and dialects, his comments were unacceptable to me ka. I then told him that I agreed to the Thai dialects part but when in Rome, do as the Romans to observe their rules and regulations too as it's their/ not our territory where we're familiar with our own contexts to act appropriately.
As a faculty member who has to be a role model for future generations, his stories made me very worried ka!
Well! a long holiday to be happier for more positive energy to keep going ka.
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