Post-Trip Reflection

Many university students yearn for an intercultural exchange – for the opportunity to immerse in a different culture, broaden one’s global outlook and travel. Just one semester into my university education, I am blessed to be given this opportunity to experience a week long intercultural exchange to Chiang Mai. “Enriching” duly described my experience in the land of smiles. Although I may not have accomplished all the goals that I had set out for myself before the trip, my time in Chiang Mai had nevertheless been a fulfilling and rewarding experience: one that has given me the opportunity to learn more about research, develop as an individual and above all, forge new and stronger friendships that I believe will last a long time.

Learning to be more culturally aware and sensitive is definitely a key lesson that I have picked up on this trip. Well, through the hard way I would say. At Wat Chedi Luang temple, we were chided by two middle-aged ladies for photographing one of our monk chat participant who was holding on to an A4 paper that wrote the words “make up” in Thai. That was not all. During our amazing race, we did a jump shot at a temple and was reprimanded by an elderly. These instances were certainly terrifying but it had highlighted to me the importance of being sensitive to the culture of others. It was our lack of awareness that had resulted in these incidents that could have been avoided. In future, perhaps it would be wise to find out more about the people we will be meeting and their culture, so as to minimise such ugly events from reoccurring.

During this fieldtrip, I have also learnt to appreciate the differences in our cultures. We all share a common consensus that the Thais are generally more friendly and helpful toward others. They appear to possess a stronger community spirit as compared to us Singaporeans. Perhaps this could be attributed to their lifestyle and living environment. In contrast to Singapore, where we live in well planned and developed neighbourhoods, the Thai may live miles away from town or shops selling basic necessities. The need to help and depend on one another could be the driving force for a stronger community spirit in the Thai society.

One week was certainly not adequate for me to accomplish the ambitious number of goals I have set out for myself. Due to time constraint, we were not able to visit the long neck Karen at the hill tribe nor were we able to afford more time at Wat Chedi Luang temple to learn more about monkhood. With eleven of us sharing the same itinerary, it would have been difficult to fulfil and accommodate all of our personal goals. It was inevitable that we have to forgo some of our personal interest. However, in losing some we gain some. Although we were not able to spend more time chatting with the monks, the time that we gained was well spent at Sode café collecting favourable responses for our research!

As expected, there were a few unforeseen circumstances that had cropped up during our course of research. For instance, on two occasions, my camera SD card failed to save the footage we have recorded. It was certainly a demoralising moment but we did not let our emotions get the better of us. We learnt to think on our feet and work as a team to resolve the issue. It was also through such instances that had taught me how to be more adaptable and the importance of it. For example, we may have lost certain footages of the interview for our documentary, but we could still salvage the situation by summarising and eliciting key pointers from our interviewees in our subsequent interview questions.

Unlike science or mathematics, there is no single and definite answer for the arts and humanities. On this fieldtrip, I realised that many social factors are intertwined with one another. It would be inconclusive to state that foreign entertainment media has influenced Thai youth’s attitude and belief. We will have to consider how the youth’s socio-economical background will affect their opportunity to receive education, which in turn influence their access to foreign entertainment media. This research module has trained me to keep an open mind and stop thinking solely from a scientist perspective.

There were also several opportunities for me to improve on my photography skills on this fieldtrip. With the camera lenses I have borrowed from Wee Kim Wee, I have learnt the various uses of each of the lens and how to use them to my advantage. Furthermore, I am grateful to Natalia and Yong Jia for sharing with me some photography tricks and for showing me the basics to Adobe Lightroom. They have offered me with a good foundation that I can further build on in time to come.

My biggest takeaway from this trip was certainly not the data we have collected for our research nor the soft skills I picked up. It is the friendships that I forged on this trip that is the most valuable of all. In years to come, I don’t think I will recall the content of my research but only the laughter, joy and wonderful moments I have shared my friends in Chiang Mai!