Pre-trip by Hoang Nam Phuong

Very soon, I will be making the first trip overseas with USP faculty and fellow USP scholars. The lessons with Professor Pang and Professor Song on research skills and ethics, the group meetings to formulate our research questions, the laborious search through the Internet for articles on nutrition labels in Thailand, down to finding out where we will visit and who we will talk to, all etched in my mind both the difficulties and the curious joy of research. Difficulties are expected, to be sure. We will be in a foreign country, trying to understand at depth the culture and concerns of a people whose language we do not share, whose customs are unfamiliar to us. We will utterly depend on our translators for communication both simple and complex: to order food, to ask for direction, to buy things, and most importantly, to communicate with the Thai people about our research. We will count greatly on the responses of the local people for our research, which centers on their perspectives and their decisions. The USP selected its scholars partly for their ability to pursue active and independent learning, and I have always enjoyed independent academic endeavors. But no man or woman is an island, and a trip that will remind me of my dependence on others – the local people, my professors, my teammates – will be one well worth taking.

In all honesty, I was less than inspired to be assigned the topic of healthcare, and nutrition labelling was not a subject I was well-versed in or thought much of. But as I started to seriously research it for the work plan, the subject began to open itself to some interesting research directions. I began to see the significance of research into people’s understanding of nutritional information as a defence against non-communicable diseases like diabetes and obesity. Perhaps our contribution to this field of knowledge will be only a drop to a boundless ocean, but I am grateful for the chance to try, together with my fellow scholars, to expand the extent of our knowledge, even by just a little. I’ve had the first taste of that curious joy of research. I started off at a loss, not knowing how to begin, as was my group, but once I began seeking, I found new knowledge, and there is a hungry pleasure spurring me on to find out more and more. I hope this sense of intellectual curiosity will accompany me and my friends throughout the trip, and beyond, when many among us might take up research projects in NTU.

Yet I hope that this journey will not be reduced to just an academic experience, valuable though that is. I have been to Thailand thrice as a tourist, and in none of those times have I ever been more than a tourist. Regrettably, I did not truly discover and understand the local way of life. This time, I want to see more, to go beyond the surface and really taste the rich Thai culture. There’s no telling what I will find. For now, that will remain a mystery. And I won’t hold myself to the unreasonable expectation of liking everything I see and everyone I meet. But that is the beauty of an adventure – to be open to surprises and take it in stride, to learn something from every person and every experience. To me, that is one of the most satisfying rewards a scholar of the humanities might hope to obtain.