Friends for life

Here I am ka....much later in the week as life has been on the go go go during these weeks ka!

A few things happened and here are several:

- My karusart chula (Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University) had a reunion to celebrate our group's 45th anniversary. Out of 18 in our group, 15 managed to be present. We had a function room just for us, knowing how noisy we could be....and it was so true ka. A friend wanted to 'boom chula' so we did after we stood up to the Chula theme song. At the age of over 60, we did quite well and YES, very loud too!....no one passed out kaaa!

Besides a vdo which contained memories written by everyone, we had two more activities ka. One was for each to bring whatever they've kept to remind us of the good old days.  A friend showed a cylinder-shaped box with a rolled paper inside. She read it out loud that it was from 'Dao Chula' (Star of the Chula Class of 1979). It turned out to be from me and I was nothing close to be a Dao Chula kaa. I was embarrassed but it was a great laughing time for all! My friends said, 'ช่างกล้า'!

I used mentimeter for all to play. Funny to find different little things from my friends who may not be so digital besides Facebook and LINE ka. Several couldn't get to the page while others found they were a bit too slow to follow. Anyway, it turned out to be quite effective, especially when showing a Wordcloud who we valued our long relationship!

We promised to do it again every 3 years with little parties in between.

Another get-together is with my ship friends (back from 1985 under the Southeast Asian Youth Program...then sponsored by the Japanese Government). After almost 35 years, our friendship has generated to include our younger generation. We had our 4 Japanese friends to join a Thai friend's son's wedding. 

This Thai friend has been super super great in retaining the relationships.....not only with our ship gang, but also with her own kids' host families. Amazing how she could keep up with all from Australians to Germans to Japanese ka.

The two events leave me to wonder how the younger generations value their friendship in this digital age and hope they can enjoy the beauty of friends for life the way our generation can ka.

Cheers.

Working with GMS countries in Myanmar

Hello all! I had a mission under SEAMEO-RIHED in Myanmar last week, which was about management and leadership for vice presidents/vice rectors of 24 member universities 

Here I am, sharing what I learned with you ka! 

The first thing that popped up on my mind was 'hospitality' ka. I was heading to the Immigration, a university rector was waiting at the end of the escalator to greet us and lead us the way. It was a pleasant surprise and I felt very grengjai while thinking that in our Thai context, we wouldn't see such a greeting! This is why 'context' is highly important to consider in many situations na ka.

Second is the thirst for learning. Because it was held in Myanmar, a few were allowed to be observers. They took it seriously, completing the work assigned in workshops with questions to make sure they could understand the task clearly. In our context, it seems that observers aren't required to have much responsibility so they could just sit in a bit too comfortably sometimes ka (Me included!) 

The observer status could become quite meaningful and contributive when the expectation is set prior to the activity ka. One I went recently turned to be such a valuable learning experience. I was expected to be a 'full-time observer' and be 'very observant' to fill in a form offering key issues I've seen at the end of the exercise. It was an 'outside-in' effort from a person totally outside this specialization. Basically, my offer was a broad picture of management from leadership to logistics.....guess it has been rooted from my working at OHEC for long to be readily using my horizontal lens ka.

The third one is the role of rectors in GMS-UC who have so much on their shoulders with far fewer vice rectors to help. The enormous challenges to tackle require careful thought-out plan and communication. I'm glad they were highly enthusiastic to learn and yes, their personal actions showed, 'life-long learning', a truly 'empty glass of learning ready to be filled' ka!

Fruitful study visit

Hope you all had a nice Mother's Day ka.

Last week, I felt real good to be on an IPST (Institute for Teaching Science and Technology)...international 

cooperation and organizational communication team to MFU (Mae Fah Luang University)

It went better than expected and credits went to both the host and guest teams ka.

On the host end, its VP for international relations gave us a lecture on, 'Gender in Science', which made me 

equip with a little 'gender lens' to be more aware and understanding about the topic, e.g. how social attitudes, the ways we've been brought up, and our environment have shaped our thinking, with or without knowing; how to make use of the lens to have gender 

equity for both male and female, etc. It was a fun session with lively interactions. The host team learned too

 since normally, they didn't have such an opportunity to sit in and listen to their supervisor's talk on this topic ka.

Another rare chance for the host team was to have dinner at their President's residence as guests....when 

normally, they had to act as host to serve visitors. This occasion brought the IPST group to get some food for

thought from the MFU President too and they started using his terms like, 'Get it done! Honesty, Think 

Positive, etc.'

Both host and guest teams shared their scope of work, focusing on strategic directions with a very brief 

background about their organizations (I was very happy it was brief with fine highlights on what was 

needed....in too many forums, so much time tends to be spent on background information that may 

bear only minimal use ka!)

The two teams commented, raised questions and answered based on their experiences and thoughts, 

which to me, showed that even the two organizations are different in many ways, there could be so many aspects to share as outsiders.

They had more opportunities to break into groups to discuss the actual daily operation and challenges to 

come up with some new ideas or confirmation of proper ways of work.

It was a study visit I felt the benefits were mutual and it could be because of several factors: the readiness 

of the two sides to be open, share, and learn; a safe environment to express their ideas freely;  the ability

to see links of the learning to their work; and the semi-structured program for optimal sharing.

Feeling sanuk and goooooood kaaa!