Recipient of the Joshua and James Haglund Memorial Peace Scholarship
My semester abroad in Thailand was life-changing. The experiences I had over the past four months have helped me become more culturally sensitive and open-minded. I’ve also learned how to be more adaptable as I’ve navigated new cultural values and challenges. Intrapersonally, I feel more confident not only in my ability to navigate unknown circumstances, but I feel more comfortable being in spaces where I’m the minority, which has been incredibly humbling.
One of my favorite experiences, as well as one of my biggest challenges, occurred when I stayed in a rural village for a week. Throughout this stay I lived with a host mom, Mae Noi, and learning how to communicate with her was much more challenging than I could have anticipated. At that point I had been taking Thai language classes for a few weeks so I was excited to practice speaking with her in Thai. But the language barrier was very strong because Mae Noi spoke a northern dialect of Thai, which is slightly different from the Thai that I learned. She also had trouble understanding me because of hearing related issues and likely because my tones weren’t correct. So I had to figure out how to communicate with her over the course of a long week together.
I didn’t have internet access in the village, so I couldn’t look up how to say something to her in Thai. Therefore, when I lacked the vocabulary or Mae Noi didn’t understand what I was saying, I was left having to find creative ways to communicate with her. I would often use visual cues, facial expressions, observe her behavior and jump in to help her as much as I could in the garden and with doing tasks around the house. I had to learn how to communicate with my host mother more nonverbally by using problem solving and observational skills. As a result, Mae Noi was still able to see my good intentions through our unique ways of communicating. She recognized my eagerness to be involved, to help, and my genuine desire to learn. I was able to develop a strong bond with my host mother despite the challenges we faced and I plan to keep in touch with her in the future. If it hadn’t been for my effort and attention along with her patience and willingness to collaborate with me, I would not have been able to learn as much as I did from this experience.
As I briefly mentioned, I took a Thai language class which was a tool that helped me be more successful throughout my experience abroad. Communicating with others in Thai was the key to developing some wonderful connections with locals. This was especially useful for my internship during the last six weeks of my program. I interned at a small non-profit in Chiang Mai that works to support women who have gone through gender based violence or sexual exploitation. The greatest part of this experience was being able to make connections with the women they serve. I got the opportunity to exchange language and culture with the women through practicing Thai with them and also helping teach weekly English classes to them. Learning how to communicate with the people in my host country was so important because it helped me be a cultural ambassador. Furthermore, it enriched my experience as a whole because I had the ability to build relationships with some wonderful people that I otherwise might not have been able to if I didn’t speak Thai.
My time in Thailand will have a lasting impact on the rest of my life. I gained a lot from it interpersonally and skill-wise. But the biggest takeaway I have is an immense amount of inspiration to seek out more learning opportunities that are waiting for me around the world. I am eager to find other ways to connect with people with diverse backgrounds and see the value in cross cultural learning experiences. Thank you so much for supporting my education abroad!