The majority of this week in the office was spent preparing for a Sports Day that the Duang Prateep Foundation is hosting at the Chumchon Phatthana Primary School. The Sports Day is being planned by DPF’s English Coordinator, Claire Berger—she has been central to developing the English program at the kindergarten, and she continues to develop the teaching curriculum today. The activities were meant to be a fun break from school and inaugurate a year-long house system (similar to Harry Potter) to encourage students to develop community and good behavior. However, Claire still lives in Australia, so as we’ve gotten closer to the Sports Day there have been a few logistical difficulties in communication.
First, Claire only speaks English, whereas the staff at the Chumchon Phatthana school only speak Thai. At DPF, Khru Prateep, Monwarin (IR section head), and Title (sponsorship section head) speak Thai and English, so they help facilitate communication. But because of the layers of communication—exacerbated by difficulties in scheduling conversations and the miscommunications that happen over the phone—and because the DPF staff’s English is not perfect, it seemed there were some growing frustrations. Most importantly, Claire expressed that she had met with the school and the foundation to explain what a Sports Day was (similar to “field days” I had growing up in America), and yet they still seemed confused, while brushing off her attempts to further explain why this wasn't a normal day where kids play organized sports. This was primarily because of a cultural split: the leadership in Thailand had never heard of a Sports Day, so they weren’t sure how to plan it without a full picture. And without the English ability to clearly understand what Claire meant, no one could make progress despite their best efforts. However, there were similar concerns about smaller details, such as how much space would be available, the number of teachers that could assist, whether half the school could attend classes while the other half engaged in the sports day in the morning, the availability of equipment, and so on.
As a result, I became a sort of middle-man for Claire and the English-speaking foundation staff. Claire and I hopped on a call to talk through her entire plan in English, aided by the additional fact that Australian and American sports days and school “house systems” are similar enough. I then put together a document of the day’s itinerary, wrote a simple but detailed description for each competition, found example YouTube videos, and linked them for a demonstration. Afterward, I sat down with Wut—a student who is working at DPF—to talk through the document and videos, which allowed him to re-write them in Thai and then verbally explain the day to the rest of the DPF staff and the primary school, with me there to answer any questions that came up—which he translated. Although this process was simple enough, there was a lot of repetition and similar communications with different people, so it took up most of my week.
To me, it was really interesting to watch this disconnect in real-time. Everyone had the best intentions, the Sports Day was ultimately not a very complex matter, and the solution was simple enough (plus, since my computer was broken during Week 4 as I mentioned in a prior update, I write this now knowing that the Sports Day was a huge success). But between the language barrier, the cultural barrier of the Thai staff not knowing what a Sports Day was, the different cultural expectations around communication and meetings, and the fact that this Sports Day was Claire’s big project while the staff at DPF and at the primary school were more focused on making sure that their chaotic day-to-day projects stayed in line, the process had become difficult—especially for Claire, who of course deeply wanted the project to be a success. It’s helped me reflect on the fact that even very simple jobs can be very meaningful. Making a Word Doc with a bunch of links to “potato sack relay” and “egg and spoon race” feels kind of frivolous or stupid, especially coming from a place like Georgetown where everyone values professional development and corporate development to the point that it’s almost frenzied. But it’s what needs to happen, and setting aside that idea of leadership and growth is a form of leadership in itself. And having the patience to kindly see small communications through, to adapt them in small ways rather than to repeat yourself up and down the chain of communication, and to meet people where they are and provide information instead of being disappointed that someone else had not already informed them, is a form of leadership too.
Other than planning the Sports Day, I also continued to teach at the kindergarten. By now, I’ve been able to develop relationships with a lot of the students, and have also been slowly gaining some Thai vocab that’s helpful for teaching. It’s definitely helped facilitate better learning. We’re still teaching greetings and emotions, and each time the classes rotate in you can recognize the improvements the children have made. It’s been a lot of fun, and having experienced teachers to help lead the way, as well as Claire’s curriculum, has made the learning curve very smooth. I’m really excited—but also increasingly sad—for my final stretch of time here.