Learning Outcome: Global and Cultural Awareness

Reflection:

   For my Fundamentals of Speech Honors class, I had to seek a different culture that I was interested in, learn more about it, and write a paper about it. For my paper, I chose to interview my colleague Laurie was lived in Thailand for most of her life. Below is the paper I wrote and had to present in class:

 

Emma Allyn

 

SPCH-1010

 

Spear

 

9/18/2016

 

Intercultural Experience Paper

 

            On September 16^th, around dinnertime, a co-worker of mine, as well as a fellow classmate in most of my major classes, and I met for a meal to discuss her life while she lived in Thailand. Thai is a culture that I wasn’t familiar with at all before knowing her. I had spoken with her a few times at work about her experiences in Thailand and became very interested in knowing more. I feel that as a citizen of the United States, there is a lot of diversity around me, making me slightly familiar with several different cultures, but I had never taken the time to sit down and hear about one as a whole. By speaking with my colleague, I’ve come to find that Thailand is a high-context, collectivistic culture.

 

            Interestingly enough, I had no idea that Laurie (my colleague) had lived in Thailand for sixteen years of her life before I started working with her, even though I had known her for an entire academic year before she became an employee where I work. When I met up with her for dinner to talk about her time in Thailand, I wasn’t entirely sure what to ask her. My first instinct was to ask her 1) how old she was when she moved there and 2) how often came back to the states. Laurie, who I always thought to be a very quiet, listener type of person, was very quick and eager to talk about her life experiences. She moved there when she was two years old. Her parents were missionaries and took her and her five siblings to Thailand at a young age. The only time they would come back to America was when they would go on a six month “furlough,” meaning a break. During that time, they would visit different churches and reach out. Their main source of income was church support. Laurie lived in many different places in Thailand, including: Chiang Mai, which is a major city, and Ong Sit, which is a village. Speaking with her was kind of intimidating at first, because I had come to see that she was a very versatile, intercultural person. The way she talked about Thailand was a lot like it was second nature to her. It was something that I, as a person who grew up in one culture, couldn’t relate to. However, I discovered this was a good time for me to practice active listening skills.

 

            Something that Laurie and I both have in common is that we are both music majors and are both very in to music. While talking to Laurie about her life growing up in Thailand, she mentioned that music was her hobby and that’s how she became interested in music. For me, that seemed to break an intercultural barrier since it was something that we had in common. It also made me realize that music is consistent throughout every culture and it is something we all have in common, no matter what type of music it is. I became curious to know more about the kind of music that they played in Thailand. She mentioned that the instruments were more traditional and specific to the culture there. A few examples being: the Coconut Er-hi, which is like a Mongolian Violin, and also the KaRen Mandolin, which is like a Mandolin but tuned differently, it has about five to six strings, and you pluck two on the top for rhythm and the rest for melody.

 

An aspect of culture in Thailand that Laurie mentioned to me was that there are different languages. There is Thai, which is what most people in major cities speak, and the KaRen language, which there are many different forms of. In Thai, there are a lot of nasal words, but in the KaRen language there are both nasal and guttural words. The group of KaRen people that Laurie lived with the longest were the Southern Po. The difference in KaRen languages is that you can say the same word at a different pitch level and it would mean something totally different. Laurie claimed that she never learned any of these languages and for the longest time she regretted it, but she doesn’t anymore because she got a long fine during her time over there. This opened my eyes a bit to the idea of being an intercultural communicator and that you don’t always have to speak the same language to communicate with someone. Commiesco Global’s Thailand Guide says that “Thai communication is formal and non-verbal communication is often more important than verbal communication” and that “they will watch your body language and facial expressions, as these will be believed over your words.”

 

One aspect of Thai culture that she stressed is that tourism is a big deal in major cities.

 

Thailand is considered to be a very beautiful country that attracts a lot of English-speaking cultures to it, therefore a lot of businesses have written material in Thai and English because their goal is to cater to tourists. Since Thailand has become such a center for tourism for English-speaking cultures, everyone wants their child to be able to speak English since it will make them a more diverse employee. This being said, part of Laurie’s family mission was teaching others to speak English. I believe that Thailand is a very collectivistic country because tourism is such a huge way of making money. Laurie mentioned that citizens in Thailand will typically not tell you what they think and always agree with you. Commiesco Global’s Thailand Guide says that “It is difficult for most Thais to say no, so you must be cognizant of their non-verbal communication.” They are a very accommodating culture.

 

            Speaking with Laurie definitely inspired me to become a better intercultural communicator and that there is so many interesting aspects of different cultures to learn. At some point, I hope to take my own trip to a new country or possibly even in live in one and learn more about their culture.