Pre-Trip Projections

To me, there is nothing to feel but apprehension before a trip. There are definitely many objectives which I want to achieve during the trip, such as completing our combined group project to the best of my ability. Yet these objectives seem remote. They are merely words on paper, with no form whatsoever. Everything remains black and white as of yet, but a mere plane trip would bring us a whole world of experience thereafter. The most surreal part of every trip is perhaps translating expectations into reality.

As a USP student, I hope to explore Chiang Mai with an open mind, and be receptive of any differences in culture. This trip is definitely a treasured opportunity to survey and understand people of another country. Compared to other trips which are guided, we have had the autonomy to plan our schedule. This contributes to the authenticity of the experience.

As amateur researchers, we will learn to explore the field ourselves, and not instead force-fit our research question into a generic tour schedule. Such planning teaches us to be independent and take ownership of our project.

My group is researching Youth Culture and Social Media. Our project focuses on how youth utilise the platform of social media to know more about social issues happening in their country and express their views.

We will rely mostly on surveys and focus-group discussions to collect data. However, despite much preparation, we admittedly still have the problem of a language barrier. Though I have attended a workshop on conversational Thai, I remain utterly lost on how to begin and sustain a conversation in Thai or English without potentially making things awkward between the interviewee and myself. While we ensured that we translated the survey and uploaded it online, there may be failures in communication when asking for participants’ consent. We would have no choice but to rely on the Chiang Mai University student attached to us and the tour guide.

Another concern would be our scheduling. As said before, since the schedule is entirely our creation. If it fails, we would have died by our own hands. But that is not something to be proud of; indeed, that is what I fear most.

Personally, I prefer an environment where everything remains within my control. However, on this exchange trip, I shall venture to be more daring and acceptable of uncertainties. Moreover, as a USP student, it is essential to be resourceful and able to solve problems. As with any situation, I should have faith in my plan, yet be flexible enough to change it to suit situations.

The topic of youth culture is close to our hearts, as we too, are youth. Differing social environments instil varying values and attitudes. This is perhaps what makes research in this topic intriguing. As human beings, being exposed to differing environments charts our growth in contrasting angles, such that we eventually become distinct individuals. Would there still be similarities across cultures? Thus, I hope to take note of the special behaviour traits in Chiang Mai youth, and perhaps be able to present such observations in an artistic form in my subsequent daily postings.

As a linguistics major, I am definitely looking out for features in language use (e.g. Gender marking in Thai), and also the social aspect of youth. This is partly the reason behind focusing our research on social issues. I have thus defined youth identity as their collective take on social issues (mainly focusing on education).

Comparing Singaporean youth to Chiang Mai youth is unavoidable and necessary. As Singaporeans, we tend to complain of a lack of a Singaporean culture (at least a culture which is positive and not founded on excessive complaints, etc.). It is somewhat unthinkable that we have a youth culture of sorts. One thing we know surely is that most of us are fortunate to not be burdened by hardships early in life, such as struggling to get out of poverty. Thai youth may thus be more concerned with social issues than we are, as these issues are closely intertwined with their survivability. As for Singaporean youth, they perhaps have opinions on certain issues, but are not vocal in expression.

Another topic I hope to contemplate is “materialism”. There have been discussion on whether Thai people are materialistic. On the other hand, Singaporean youth contribute to a café-hopping trend nowadays, living their ideal of “refinement”, and succumbing to exorbitant prices. Are Chiang Mai youth more down-to-earth? Do they spend most of their time working? These are some additional questions which interest me, and I hope to address them by the end of the trip.

Being in another country means that there are gaps in our behaviour and mannerisms. Hence another thing I have to be mindful about is my conduct. For our topic, we may have to delve into social issues which participants’ feel strongly about, and it is of paramount importance that we are sensitive to the feelings of the participants. Embracing diversity in views is necessary not only as a USP student, but also fundamental in a decent human being.

The humanities requires much introspection, and diversity usually provides much material for reflecting on the world we have become acquainted with. In our ever-changing landscape, being receptive is essential not only for our progress as nation, but also a good attitude to adopt to reduce friction between parties of differing opinions. Just look at how many wars have been waged or protests carried out because of differing ideologies.

Personally, I hope that I would not be that reserved during the trip, and be able to venture beyond my comfort zone. More importantly, I have to learn to embrace failure, and not give up trying. If we were to stand in the shoes of others, it is easy to understand why people would probably not want to stop to do a survey, when they could be spending their time in better ways. It is exactly because of this that we have to be doubly thankful to passers-by who stop to help us in our research.

Finally, as an amateur researcher, I hope to compile an authentic documentation of Chiang Mai youth culture, discarding all preconceptions about youth culture which I may have.

We should all see the world as it is, not as how we wish to see it.