Learning from Kunming trip

 Hi to all of you kaaa!

I took a 6-day group tour to Kunming, Dali, and Lijiang, came back yesterday evening and am still tired, reminding me of visiting China while I can ....lonnnnnnng walks and thin air are the toughest kaaa

Got some learning about this part of the country plus several others from the trip to share with you na ka.

- Surprised to find English proficiency level of people in the tourist attraction places and it makes me feel a little better about our own vendors and hotel receptionists ka.

I used a house phone in one Hyatt chain hotel to ask for a golf car.... to find it hard to communicate in simple English ka. I had to press my poor brain to give them both the name of the building and the room number in Chinese. 

- Our tour guide, as expected, was really fluent in Thai with an expansive vocabulary. She told us stories about different tribes in China.... My most impressive/unimpressive one is about the Naxi tribe. Here it goes ka:

              -- In this culture, guys have the advantage of being so very sabai since wives will take responsibility for being the main income earners of the families. We saw women sell apples, peaches and other fruits in season to tourists, carrying two buckets in two hands. This culture requires plump women strong enough to earn money and do housework ka. The husbands enjoy their time at home, drawing or reading and drinking. Some wives would have to go to look for their drunken husbands and bring them home.

               Even though I understand how familiar the Naxi women are with their own context and culture, I couldn't help thinking of today's world on gender equality. Glad I was born a Thai, not this tribe. If I were born there, I'd be a rebel, keeping slim and urging guys to go work too kaa !

- One little thing about food ka.....we were spoiled with too much food to eat and I couldn't help but feel bad about the food waste. On the last day when we had lots left, the restaurant offered lots of boxes to bring them back home. For us in Thailand, we'd be giving to our drivers or even our own selves. There, we couldn't give it to the driver. He wouldn't accept it and would consider it an insult ka. OUr guide would only offer to security guards or bring back home ka.

- China has been so advanced in many aspects and I can see the visionary leadership of the government from the investment on infrastructure, housing, and systematic approaches at the tourist spots like specific time and numbers for group visits, etc.  Definitely, there are gaps between main and smaller cities but things are developing much further. People have to sacrifice their own privacy since CCTVs are everywhere, making them more disciplined and life could be safer in a way because the government can go after thieves or those with misconducts quite easily.

It's good to go abroad once in a while to come out of our sabai box, meeting new peoples and cultures. Among the group members, I learned quite a few stories that reflect today's Chinese Thai business and families too ka....very interesting and glad to see them stay close to one another ka.

Touching and funny stories

 Hello all! Let's start Monday with some nice and light stories ka. I'd like to share several from a few social events to become nostalgic that warm my heart/to make my heart smile ka.

- A reception to welcome the new Executive Director of Fulbright Thailand brought quite a few alums to be there.....greeeeed! greeeeed! after many years. Several came with little stories back to their grantee time.....learning from me how to read palms, being told about late marriage, reminded to be 'proper' in formal settings.

Sounded like I was a fortune teller plus homeroom teacher, very far from being an executive director mai ka?

- My high school kids invited teachers to a little reunion. Again, I had a chance to have a longer chat about their lives ka. Two dropped out after they finished grade 8.... a little while after I left for the US. 

One has become successful selling spare parts to buy them from Japan. When I taught him, he skipped classes, often feeling cool to do it. Yet, the side story was that he had to help his parents who had to raise 12 kids (from one same mother). He never got back to school since then as most had to help with the family livelihood. He told me that he never skipped my class and it was the only one that he handed in all the assignments. So thrilled to learn about it as I only knew the story partly as a homeroom teacher ka.

Another has gone international to establish his own law firm. Then, he went to school late every morning as he had to help his parents carry their stuff to the market....did that even when he was a law student at Thammasat ka. Those days, the penalties kids would get at late arrivals could be caning or deducting their behavior scores, mostly the former by discipline teachers. Unfortunately.....no question asked ka. 

Success stories sure came from their persistence and meaningful study/life goals. I can't be more happy for and proud of them ka.

- Now, a story about my 8-year-old grandnephew who was born and raised in London by a Thai (my niece) and Italian (her husband).. The other day, when he was talking with his Italian dad, he mentioned about,  'much friends'. When his dad corrected his word to 'many friends', this little rascal asked him if his dad was more British than him. Sab mai ka? 5555!

Happy Monday na ka.

Interviewee experience

Hope this message finds you well kaaa! Monday again which could mean much less to a retiree like me....nidnueng! The only thing I feel happy about Monday is that I can get to listen to my regular news programs lae ka. You?

Last Friday, two American Fulbright alums to Thailand (Dr. Kevin Quigley and Dr. Bruce Svare) asked me for an interview to be published in their online 'Fulbright Chronicles'....this is the quarterly newsletter both have initiated, volunteered, carried out since early last year. This requires lots of 'heart-work', a wide network, time and energy ka.

They've come up with a special interview section and so when I was asked to do it, I couldn't say no......both had their ways to prevent me from turning it down. I prepared responses on my notebook, skimmed through several times and the following is what I learned:

- Like when I do my podcast to send my guided questions, I don't strictly follow them. I think there could be 1-2 questions asked from their earlier sent list. Good thing we three know one another quite well and that made me much less nervous. My podcast experience also teaches me to expect some side questions when we touch on some stories that could be interesting to pursue/highlight. Sure it challenges interviewees lae ka

- If I have to rate my own responses, it could be like B-. I'm not tough on myself na ka but I think this is my weakness when answering questions ka....have to think faster, have some ready examples to make it more concrete and understandable, and answer right to the questions ka. Need more practice but not sure if I want to do more interviews 5555! 

Seriously, it's a good way to challenge myself to get a higher grade ka!

- Kevin used Zoom's AI to capture key points, which made life easier to get started. It needs a more thorough review like using the pronoun 'he' for me, transcribing some words wrong when using specific Thai places or from my pronunciation ka. 

- I reflected after the interview to find that I could have come up with a short list of only keywords about the Fulbright Program to include some stories for each of the keywords too....it could help make the responses much stronger dee lae ka.

Happy Monday ka.

Creative ways with AI

Hello all, It's Monday again na ka.....so fast the time has passed by!

I watched one sanuk YouTube video the other night and it caught my (almost full) attention ....the little lost moment was from my addiction to social media 5555! Two MIT graduates who discussed use cases of AI were Ta-- Virot Chiraphadhanakul, MD of Skooldio; and the other, P -- Pat Pataranutaporn, who just got his doctorate from studying at the MIT Media Lab.

What I like and still remember are:

1. We won't be less intelligent from using too much AI help as long as humans have critical thinking to know what to be the best inputs and check AI outputs. AI could help sharpen some  of our skills and when we've got it, it's no longer in need and we have more time to take up many other unimaginable tasks.

Don't fall into the trap of believing AI far too easily as it has been trained to please humans according to what information we put in. It's better to have AI ask questions to ignite our thinking and ideas, which would enhance learning.

2. Deepfake could be dangerous and destructive. Yet, if we use it wisely, it could be one effective learning tool ka. It could be used to link us with and listen to 'guru's in each particular discipline or even people in history, especially those who are our idols like Einstein so it would seem we could talk with them directly. That could inspire us with more learning motivation. It could also apply to learning history with more fun.

For some, by deepfaking someone they don't like, they may find it a drive to compete to beat the person in a favorable/positive way.

3. Nong P talked about his project working on self reflection for us to talk with our own selves in form of AI like us now talking with AI -- our older version. That could help us look back to assess ourselves and come up with what we should do now.

4. Nong P has been working on Thai Khon dances, decoding their dancing steps  with Pichet Klunchun ('.....he bridges traditional Thai Classical Dance language with contemporary sensibility, while keeping the heart and wisdom of the convention.......efforts in contemporizing Khon). The work is amazing and what amazes me even more is the way Nong P looks at Thai classical dances ka.

On one hand, it was good to preserve the traditions while on the other, it's made us become more like AI. His wish is to have new steps to share and perform from our creativity that goes beyond traditional limits ka.

Follow this link if you wish to listen to the talk na ka:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoMZ4FNTSGM

Enjoy your day ka.

Generative AI and Speed Learning

Hello hello all! I got to listen to a very recent talk on "Using Generative AI to Strengthen and Speed Learning", at the Faculty of Engineering by Prof. Barbara Oakley ka. She’s an engineer and a global leader in educational innovation with over 3.5 million learners on Coursera.

From her session, it proves clearly why she’s been so popular ka….I enjoyed it very much and in fact, plan to watch it to see her slides, which really caught my attention when I saw it briefly.

For this message, I’ve got some key points on Dr. Proadpran Punyabukkana, our Fulbright alum from Chula’s Engineering Faculty too na ka. Here are ‘our’ learning points’ ka:

·          We need to stress repeatedly what Fei-Fei Li said and quoted by Prof. Barbara that AI doesn't replace people, but people who use AI will replace those who don't.

Even we’ve heard educators talk about it, not so many in education and classes have started and continued using it ka.

 

·          She mentioned ‘Suno’ to generate a song. I’ve already tried with my prompts and come up with 5 songs..….amazingly fast and impressive. Have used them as birthday gifts…..learning by doing loei ka.

 

·          I like the way she used metaphor, making this AI topic so simple to understand, e.g. comparing the use of different Generative AIs like Claude, ChatGPT to types of cars from different manufacturers. All have their unique strengths and different characteristics so we need to know and select what matches with our work best ka.  

Khun Tonson/Santitarn also loves doing it and how I wish many more teachers would ka.

 

·          She told us that she was asked by a publisher to write a foreword for a Japanese version of her book on 'Common Sense Teaching'. As she had no idea about Japan teaching in Japan, she uploaded the book on Claude, asking how it supported and gave insights from a neuroscientific perspective into teaching in Japan. Her piece surprised the publisher how much she knew about Japanese education when she didn't ka!?!

 

·        She said concept maps wouldn’t be as good as the flashcard technique as the latter enhances memory retention similar to what Generative AI can do to help.

Obviously, learning is best when we can understand and register it in our brain for more thoughts and actions.

 

Let me end here before it goes on and on. If you wish to watch it, check out this link ka: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GCuAe7UY0A

Happy Monday.