Thomas Hughes
On October 2, Payap University’s English Communication Department
celebrated the achievements of students who just finished their senior
internships and projects Prior to a dinner feast at the Centara Duangtawan
Hotel, Seniors Brett Whiteside and Naw Charlotte Htoo and recent grad
Pajaree Kotchanittrarom shared tales of struggle and triumph in their work
in Thailand, Singapore and Australia.
Brett
Whiteside (left) delivers his presentation on “Language Space.”
Brett started off by displaying the language videos he created for studying
Thai, Burmese, and Korean. Beginning in June, he recorded over 100 videos of
native speakers in discussions on various topics. He then edited and
uploaded the videos to YouTube. Many of the Thai videos were transcribed
into Thai script so that viewers can read along while viewing. These
transcripts are available on his blog at learnthaifromawhiteguy.com.
Ajarn
Jaranya Thepphornbanchakit, Head of English Communication Program, cares for
the students like her very own.
Brett gave a talk on his project entitled “Language Space.”, for which he
had filmed the videos of native speakers of Thai, Burmese and Korean
speaking in order to provide resources for people learning languages. As a
bonus, many of the Thai videos have been transcribed as well. He came up
with this idea after years of “studying in classrooms and not once enjoying
the material provided.” Brett has attempted to create interesting, authentic
content. He also emphasized that, “You need to dive into the real stuff and
the sooner you do, the sooner you will get good.” His videos and a
discussion of his methods are on his blog, learnthaifromawhiteguy.com
Naw
Charlotte Htoo speaks of her experiences at a Singapore law firm.
Next, Charlotte discussed her internship at a law firm in Singapore. She
first revealed the difficulty in finding a position, as it took several
months of networking before finding one. But once in the office, Charlotte
was able to utilize the knowledge from classes in Payap’s International
College and the skills gained from doing club and community projects. In
three months she went from being an unpaid, part-time intern to doing the
work of a fully-paid legal secretary working 11 hour days. She even landed a
job offer at the end of her internship, however, by then she had decided
that legal work was not for her.
Pajaree
Buschhüter spent 10 months struggling with her studies and part-time work in
Australia.
Pajaree finished up the program with a talk on her 10 months of struggle
studying and working part-time in Australia, during which time she completed
her internship as a German teacher at a well known language school in
Sydney. Although she came away not fully satisfied with her study time in
Sydney, she remarked that the ups and downs of the entire experience taught
her that it’s “not a waste of money when you buy knowledge.”
At the end of the program Chiang Mai Mail MD Peter Malhotra encouraged the
students to find their voices and share them as part of the many “voices of
Chiang Mai” to help change and strengthen the country. So, the students
heartily thank Khun Peter and Khun Phitsanu for allowing them to share their
voices and experiences here.
|
Pratheep S.
Malhotra, (Peter), MD of Chiang Mai Mail congratulates the
interns and wishes them unbounded success in their lives and
careers. |
Siwach
Nithiwaraporn, Centara Duangtawan Hotel’s Food and Beverage
director, demonstrates the finer points of table manners.
|
Phitsanu Thepthong (left), editor of Chiang Mai
Mail, and Thomas Hughes (2nd left), lecturer at Payap University, along with
other guests enjoy the proceedings.
Everyone is enthralled by Ajarn Jaranya
Thepphornbanchakit’s words of wisdom.
Teachers, students and guests at the end of a
memorable and informative evening.
