From Children to Chiang Mai

I was speaking with Dr. Irvine the other day about studying in Thailand and he brought up something  really great. He mentioned to me that he has a friend/colleague that works in Chiang Mai (a large city in Northern Thailand) at a study abroad facility. Dr. Irvine said that he would give me his name so I could get into contact with them.

I was undoubtedly excited at this opportunity. Not only will I be expanding my exposure to Thailand, but I will be in contact with people who are actively working in Thailand. I think this would be a good opportunity to familiarize myself with people who are actually working abroad. It would be good to witness first-hand the sorts of intercultural skills that are need to work with people of all different cultures.

As well, there is an option through Thammasat where I can volunteer as a teacher and help Thai children learn English.

I think that with the first option I can learn different methods in dealing with people who are culturally and linguistically different from me, and not just Thai people since the study abroad company works with people of all nationalities and ethnicities. I feel that I would learn an enormous amount about the logistics that entail studying abroad (from the administrative side) and a whole lot of planning and organizational skills.

With the volunteering, I believe that I would hone my communicative prowess. Not only am I trying to communicate with non-native English speakers, but those that aren't that great at it which would cause even more frustration and confusion. However, the experience would teach me to be malleable to situations that need me to be able to communicate effectively. Through this, I imagine that I would learn new ways to communicate since trying to communicate with children is entirely different from communicating with adults. It would force me to break out of my preconceived notions of understanding and cause me to find new, inventive ways that could possibly fall into other parts of my life.