After living in Thailand for just over two years, I have picked up some very valuable life lessons. As an American, Thai culture can often times feel like everything is upside down. However, living in a different culture allows you to reflect on yourself and your own culture in a very unique way. These are some Thai ways of life that I want to continue to incorporate in my life.
In Thailand, a bpai tiao is a trip of any length. I’ve written about some of my more significant bpai tiaos to tourist destinations here, to be used as travel ideas and tips.
A couple months ago, my co-teacher asked me if I wanted to join her and some other teachers on a trip to Koh Kut, an island near Koh Mak along the Eastern seaboard and near Cambodia. Feeling like I hadn’t spent much time with her, and thinking that this would be a great opportunity for me to bond with some other teachers, I smiled and said, “Yes, that sounds like a lot of fun!” Flash forward to last week, and the day of the trip had arrived – it was time for a fully Thai-style bpai tiao.
When you think of the culture of a place, what are the things that make up that culture? There are a lot of different things that might come to mind, but one thing that is a part of every culture is music. Humans beating out rhythms and singing are everywhere. However, each locale has their own interpretation and significance applied to music.
more “A Brief Introduction to Music in Thailand”
I’m writing this on a Friday night and a raging karaoke party is bumping right outside my door and has been for the past couple hours. I foresee it going a couple more. I ventured out at the beginning of the party to get some stuff from the raan kai ka, or little store and closed my door when I came home as I did not have the energy to try and join the festivities this time. But I did try to analyze karaoke in an Asian context as opposed to a Western one. more “For the Love of Karaoke in Thailand”
I’m terrible at journaling. I usually only do it when I’m having a really difficult time and so I rarely have any recording of when I’m feeling really good. But, I bought a Moleskine planner that has lines for each day, not a lot, but enough to write a short paragraph, and set the goal for myself to write at least one sentence or something to sum up each day. I’m proud to say that I was able to do it for the whole last year, and so I looked back over what I wrote as I reflected on my last year in Thailand. I wanted to share some of them here with you, to share with you what a year in Thailand feels like at the end of each day.
Yesterday, after hearing about it since the beginning of the semester four weeks ago and watching the kids practice sometimes during class time, was finally Sports Day. This Sports Day just involved the students at our school, not other schools like the Sports Day I briefly attended when I visited back in March.
I’ve posted about the field trip that I went on to Chonburi with the 4-6th graders, and last week Wednesday was the 1st-3rd graders turn for some end of the semester fun.
I got a message from my co-teacher the day before telling me about it, since school has been out and I wouldn’t have known about it. She told me that they were going to go to the museum and the Korat Zoo. I figured, I haven’t been to the Korat Zoo before and it would be a good opportunity for me to spend some time with some of the other teachers at the school, so I went along.
Recently, the upper classes went on a field trip to the zoo, aquarium and beach in Chonburi. It was a very Thai-style bpai tiao, with a karaoke bus, rushing through exhibits and swimming with clothes on. Here’s a video summary of the day.
In Thailand, a bpai tiao is a trip of any length. I’ve written about some of my more significant bpai tiaos to tourist destinations here, to be used as travel ideas and tips.
On Tuesday in the wee hours of the morning, I made my way to school. The fourth, fifth and sixth graders were to go on their end of semester field trip and rather than spend the day sitting at school in an empty classroom len-ing Internet (playing on the Internet), I decided to go with them. This was the quintessential Thai trip.
After my conversation with my co-teacher about critical thinking and watching how schools work here in Thailand, I feel comfortable saying that learning, in the Western sense of being curious about a topic and wanting to learn the why and how of it, is not valued here. Learning in the sense of memorizing and reciting is valued. Which brings me to tell you about how I have spent my time after school for the last couple weeks.