Mathew Biadun | Column Writer
Doing one’s research is always critical to traveling. Knowing the culture, the language, the weather. Finding out which destinations are ‘must-see’, and which ones aren’t worth the ticket. Doing research beforehand is always important for a week-long vacation.
Doing research for a hundred-day study abroad experience? Now, that was critical. In the weeks and months before setting off, I pored over lots of online resources about Thailand, trying to learn as much as I could before coming here.
Much of it was useful. However, they also gave me a number of preconceptions about the country, which often turned out to be untrue or flawed. Here, I wanted to revisit a couple of preconceptions, and see what had been wrong or right in my imaginations of Thailand, compared to what I’ve learned after seventy days here.
Cuisine: My last article was entirely about the cuisine, so for further information, I would look there. However, in general, it was completely different than what I had imagined. Crab rangoon and pad thai are not omnipresent, or even particularly popular, dishes. Both lack white rice, which comes with nearly every meal here. Pork and chicken are staples. Mango sticky rice isn’t a universal dessert served everywhere either. Mangoes are common, but only as a part of a larger Thai fruit ‘canon’. Just as commonly will you find flavors like lychee, coconut, papaya and especially durian. My preconceptions were like assuming that apple pie, french fries or buffalo wings are the staples of American food. Sure, they’re common. But not omnipresent.
Monsoons: My research had taught me that I’d be coming to Thailand near the end of monsoon season, which lasts roughly from the start of summer to early November. When I had imagined a ‘monsoon’, I had imagined not rainy days but rainy weeks. Day after day filled with endless rain. Perhaps that’s what it’s like earlier in monsoon season, but for me, that wasn’t the experience at all.
The monsoons I experienced were sprinters, not marathon runners. The rain would come out of seemingly nowhere. Clouds would suddenly roll in overhead. Once you felt droplets, you had only a few minutes until they turned to showers, and from showers to storms, and from storms into thick downpours of rain, so thick that one couldn’t see through them. They casted grayish-white curtains over the streets during the next hour. But after that they just…stopped. The clouds went away, the sun returned, and all of a sudden, the day was nice again. The only remnant of the storm would be a street flooded in water up to your ankles. Then the next day, the whole cycle repeats again, and another storm comes in for another hour. Quite literally a rise-and-repeat storm.
Buddhism: My idea of Buddhism was far more literal and conservative than what I had imagined. I had pictured Buddhist monks strictly following their teachings, living lives of vegetarian simplicity, and casting away material desires. That’s true, but not to that full extent. Many monks here are young men that only do it for a few months at a time, as a rite of passage and to represent the family. I’ve seen monks with smartphones, and even one in an Apple Store. They aren’t usually vegetarian from what I’ve heard. Buddhism here is much more of a philosophy and a way-of-life. It's a series of teachings you strive to follow, with occasionally religious traditions like making offerings or visiting temples. There are ‘hardcore’ Buddhists, of course. But from my experience, they are in the minority. It’s important to note however, that I do live in Bangkok, which is not representative of the whole country. It’s very possible that I am amongst the minority, and thus believe it to be the majority. But that is my experience.
Education: Online, the common opinion was that Thai education was fairly rigorous compared to American universities. Exams were said to be much harder and more impactful. That is true, but it isn’t the whole story. Your final and midterm will be worth some 60-70% of your grade, yes. The rest is likely to be a group project, with homework or participation collectively no more than 10-15%. However, it does balance out. In my entire semester, I’ve had maybe three assignments to do. So you have very little work to do besides those two exams, on which you’d better do well, because there are no retakes. So really, it's just the opposite swing of the pendulum. Do we want no homework but highly graded exams? Or do we want lots of homework but few major exams? I leave the choice to you.
Communication: Before coming here, I was a little nervous about communicating with the Thai. I knew none of their language. However, that turned out not to be a problem. Jobs in Bangkok that interact with lots of foreigners (such as restaurant staff or taxi drivers) usually know enough English to get around. Meanwhile, even if they can’t, modern technology is immensely helpful. You can take a picture of a menu item or use google translate. It’s not perfect, but then, any Thai you learn won’t be either. Communication is very-much possible, as long as you’re patient and keep it simple. I definitely can’t ask someone about the Thai Stock Market. But the location of the nearest bathroom? Yeah, I can do that.
Prices: I came in thinking that things were cheap, and they are. This is easily the most valid preconception that I had. Compared to America, things here are far less expensive. Food, drinks, taxi rides and clothing are far less than their American counterparts, even when it comes to the more expensive imports. I buy a whole party-size bag of Doritos here, for example, and it's a dollar. Of course, that doesn’t apply to everything. A Playstation is going to be roughly the same price, for example. But for day-to-day life? It’s far more affordable.
Preconceptions are inevitable. Research, pop-culture, and hearsay will always give your mind a basis of what to expect from a new location. You cannot avoid it. Neither are they a bad thing. It’s completely natural to try and learn about a new place before going. What’s important is to update your preconceptions with new information, and thus transform it from an amalgamation of secondhand knowledge, into firsthand experiences amplified by other knowledge.
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