Hello all! Hope you're relaxing and some may check their inboxes Monday na ka.
I was thinking what struck me most the passing week and this is it ka.
I was invited to give 2 talks at an international college, one to Thai ajarns and staff, and the other to foreign staff.
For the Thai ajarns, it was more about readiness for change and teamwork, and about cross-culture for the international team.
As always, I love to have participants rate their own feelings on several things.
This time I asked 3 questions:
1. ความรัก&ผูกพันกับ......(คณะ)
2. ความรัก&ผูกพันกับประเทศไทย
3. การเป็นทีมเวิร์ค
It happened on the morning that the two groups would have to meet first before breaking out to 2 sessions. I decided to use the rating spectrum for both. The easiest was to translate the three statements.....the third was straightforward but the first two was a bit tricky ka.
In order not to get any question what I wrote in Thai, I translated the statement literally as 'love and bonds with ...../ Thailand'
We, Thais, use 'heart' to symbolize passion, commitment, and caring so when it comes to one love's for one's institution, it sounded weird to foreigners' ears......good thing they rated them anyway ka.
This had turned into a great intercultural learning ka! I told the international group that, 'had I known they would also have had this opportunity, I'd have used different wordings.' like commitment and dedication (and in fact passion in teaching and teaching at that particular institution) na ka.
One westerner told me, 'It's your country so it's for you to make changes (meaning don't expect foreigners to make changes but another westerner said that they could at least spark some ideas and actions for change! Whew!).
The former westerner shared with me how much experience he has had staying and teaching in a few countries. He also said in a foreign country when one has no family nor connections unlike when he/she is in own home country, his advice was to keep one's head low to be out of trouble and do the work. It made some sense thinking about it na ka! It was worth some good discussion and yes, I discussed several situations and issues with him ka....not easy to do so but it was very fun kaaa!
Many in this international group had sincere intention to be contributive as a faculty members while some have found the system to be too 'Thai/ bureaucratic/ rigid' and several seemed not to be so positive ka.
As internationalization (IZN) is high on our radar both at the international cooperation and networking, and quality-related matters, one more skill our leaders need is cross-cultural management to bear favorable results while retaining quality foreign faculty with our institutions.
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