Post-Trip Reflections

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and with the blink of an eye, our Chiang Mai trip comes to a close. This trip was filled with fond memories as well as several unforgettable events that will continue to be part of conversation topics with USP peers.

Prior to the trip, I had three main expectations. Firstly, I had hope to gain new experiences in a relatively new research field for me and apply the skills learnt in future. Secondly, I had also hope to improve my interpersonal skills due to the need to interact more with people in a humanities-based research. Lastly, I had hope to be open-minded in order to experience and understand Thai culture from a Singaporean perspective.

Being more of a science person, the research I have done is always science related. After all, science research is my area of interest, and it is something that I hope to pursue as my career in future. I have even thought to myself before, ‘What is the use of doing a research on youth culture? It isn’t even related to what I want to do’. However, I still decided to keep an open mind through this process as all research would have skills in common that is transferable. Furthermore, the last time I did a research work was in JC, and this could be a good refresher on research experience.

To be very honest, what I found out during this trip is that humanities based research is very different from science research. Yes the goal is still the same, which is to carry out ‘experiments’ to test your hypothesis. The step-by-step process of minor adjustments and corrections to the method is very similar too. However, the similarities end there. When it comes to the fine details of collecting data through interviews or focus group discussions, or refocusing our research question, I often found myself stuck and not able to contribute much to the group. I found it harder to connect different ideas together based on the data we have collected. Being more ‘limited’ in this aspect, I often find myself feeling a little inferior.

However, through the course of the trip, I started to realise that perhaps I have forced my expectations of a science research onto our Chiang Mai research. In that sense, I was not as open-minded as I thought I was, and this resulted in a lot of unexpected experiences that I was not able to immediately deal with. Perhaps if I have thought through more carefully what to expect in a social science research, I could have gotten more out of this fieldwork experience. Nonetheless, it was still quite a novel experience which I believe would have applications in future. After all, the research project is not finished yet and there are still a lot of potentially useful experiences to take away.

Regarding improving my interpersonal skills was an area where I feel like I have met my expectations. This was not limited to interaction with Thai youths on the street, but also with student translators from CMU or even my fellow USP friends. Throughout the entire trip, I got a lot of chance to interact with youths from a different culture and background. Having to approach them to help us do survey was not the easiest thing. However, I was very pleasantly surprised by their willingness to help us do the survey despite the fact that we were complete strangers, and we do not even speak their native language. Most of them would at least entertain our request, even if they end up politely declining. Only a very small percentage of them would completely ignore us or avoid us. I actually got a little annoyed with 2 girls who ignored us when we were gathering survey results at CMU. On reflection, I am guilty of such actions as well, and I do not have any rights to get angry at those students. It is almost like I have started to take the culture of politeness in Thailand for granted. Hence, my main takeaway from this expectation is not take for granted when people treat you nicely.

I felt that I was sufficiently open-minded during my stay in Chiang Mai. Being right there in the heart of the city is indeed a great way to experience a culture, from the bustling night market to the multiple temples and the Buddhist traditions, there was no end to new experiences during the trip. Despite being a free thinker, that did not stop me from trying out some of the Buddhist traditions. One of the more interesting experience was in Doi Suthep, where some of us carried a flower and walked 4 rounds around the temple, an act meant to show respect to Buddha.

Despite that, there are a lot more opportunities which I felt that I missed to better understand Thai culture. For instance, when the tour guide was explaining some traditional significance of a certain tourist hotspot on the bus, I did not really pay much attention, spending the time resting instead. I also felt that I could have better make use of the time spent with our student translator, Fye, to find out more about some of the traditions that Thai youths engage in. In fact, it would probably have been very interesting to contrast the effects of globalisation versus older traditions. However, it was still a very interesting week of cultural exchange, and I wouldn’t trade this golden opportunity for anything else. I would definitely say that this trip has helped me in a continuous journey in developing global perspective.

Research work aside, I felt that the most impactful experience during the entire trip was the amazing race. I went into the amazing race expecting a pretty standard amazing race experience. What I got out of it was a very much refreshed mindset. While this was a unique leadership experience, interestingly, there was actually nothing unique about the amazing race itself. It was a pretty standard format with some clues to different location and tasks to be completed along the way. Now as a young adult, perhaps we are able to appreciate more the intricate details of teamwork. We are also able to capitalise on our experience and carry along these experiences as we carry on with our life. For me, the leadership workshop taught us to appreciate each other’s strength and weaknesses, and play to everyone’s different ability. I also felt that this workshop had a noticeable impact on our group dynamics, as we bonded through the amazing race. But more importantly, we are able to recognise each other’s strengths and weaknesses more clearly now, which is highly important as we move forward together as a team.