Sweet Home Thailand

I have not spoken much about this beyond my first few posts in this blog, mainly because I have discussed many of these issues in my other blog that discusses daily life in Thailand, but I should discuss what you need to know if you are interested in spending time teaching in Thailand, much like I am this semester.  First, some disclaimers.  I am teaching at the ABAC campus (Hua Mak) in the city of Bangkok, which is a very large metropolitan city of over 8 million people.  Some of the experiences and advice that I have to share might only be appropriate for teaching at this campus.  The two other campuses that I have been working with are ABAC’s undergraduate campus (Bang Na) which is just outside the city of Bangkok and the primarily undergraduate campus of MFLU, which is in the far north of Thailand.

There are several implications that only teaching graduate students in the city of Bangkok has.  First, the graduate students at ABAC are on a trimester schedule that runs all year long; Semester 1: Beginning of May - End of August, Semester 2: Beginning of September - End of December, Semester 3: Beginning of January - End of April.  The other campuses which cater to undergraduate students are under a typical two-semester + summer session schedule; Semester 1: Beginning of June - End of September, Semester 2: End of October - Beginning of March, Summer Session: End of March - Beginning of May.  This information is important because the graduate student schedule is well-suited to JSU’s academic schedule as “Semester 1″ takes place during summer sessions.  Though teaching undergraduate students is something that interests me as well, their schedule (”Semester 1″) runs almost a month into the fall semester at JSU.  I imagine that there are some arrangements both at the Thailand universities and JSU that could be made to accommodate this issue, however, such as utilizing distance learning to facilitate teaching while residing in another country or adjusting the class schedules in Thailand and at JSU.  Although I have not done this or even favor the idea, it is quite common for faculty in Thailand to cancel classes and reschedule them on different days of the week.  In fact, ABAC has a section on their Website that is dedicated to posting such schedule changes that also notifies students via e-mail and/or SMS.  Other possibilities would be condensing the course schedule from a 16 week calender down to a 15 or 14 week calendar.

Another implication of me only teaching graduate students is that, as you would suspect, they are much “better” students than undergraduates, meaning that they likely have a better command of English, are required to have at least 3 years of industry experience, and are likely much more focused or dedicated students.  Both ABAC and MFLU are ‘international’ universities in that all courses are taught exclusively in English.  I will try to get a better sense of how good of a command of the English language that the undergraduate students have at both universities before I leave by visiting those campuses and speaking with those students.

And finally, since I do reside in the city of Bangkok while I am teaching, I have easy access to whatever I could possibly want or need.  If I want food, there are literally dozens of different street vendors on every street.  If I want to shop, there are several large shopping malls that are only a short taxi drive away (20-30 minutes costing $3 - $5).  In addition, there are several night bazaars around that sell all sorts of wares and items that make perfect gifts to bring back home.  If I crave the ’social’ scene (which I don’t) there are many options available.  With respect to the undergraduate ABAC campus (Bang Na), it is really an isolated community that is a taxi drive to anywhere you want to go.  The Bang Na campus does have its own restaurants and its own shopping mall, but it hardly compares what is available at the ABAC graduate campus (Hua Mak).  One important thing to note, however, is that ABAC runs several coach buses daily to and from both campuses(about a 45 minute drive) that are free to faculty or “adjarn” as we are called in Thailand.  With respect to MFLU, though I have not spent much time there, the campus is a ‘regional’ facility that has been developed, much like the ABAC Bang Na campus, in a location all by itself.  Just like the Bang Na campus, at MFLU, there are places to eat on campus such as at the cafeteria or their restaurant.  It is only a short drive (less than 5 minutes) to get to the city of Chiang Rai (population over 60,000) from MFLU where there are many places to eat, however, and at the main highway that intersects with the entrance to the university, there are several street vendors and restaurants.  Something that I do not know much about is the availability of transportation around the MFLU campus and elsewhere.  I don’t know if many (if any) taxi’s service the university and the main mode of transportation is by motorbike for nearly all students to and from the campus.  There are no large shopping malls as the largest city nearby is Chiang Mai (population over 150,000) which is roughly a two-hour drive away.  An advantage to MFLU is that beyond the night bazaar there, it is a relatively short drive (45 minutes) to the Thai-Myanmar (Burma) border which can be best described as a ’super’ bazaar because of the variety of items for sale and how cheap they are.  Both the ABAC Bang Na and MFLU campuses are less than 10 years old and being segregated from the ‘big city’ may be attractive to some.

So with the above disclaimer, here are some important things to know about teaching in Thailand.

What to Wear

I always try to anticipate any and everything I need for any trip I take, no matter how long, and bring a few extra things.  So what are the key items then?  It is a long flight to get to Thailand (Bangkok) that will take roughly 20-26 hours depending on the number of connections and length of layovers.  Add another hour or so of flight time if you want to fly to Chiang Rai (MFLU) out of Bangkok.  A short-sleeved shirt and pants are always what I wear on airplanes as you can never tell how cold it will get.  You can also have a spare change of clothes with you in your carry-on if you would like to take a shower and refresh yourself at a layover in Korea (Seoul), Japan (Narita-Tokyo), or China (Hong Kong).  I have never done this, but Jet has and really enjoys this after 14-16 hours of flight time.  As for your checked in luggage, all that you really need are perhaps 2 or 3 days worth of clothes - as if you were packing for a weekend trip.  I say this because it is very inexpensive to purchase a brand new wardrobe of clothes to wear in Thailand (and who doesn’t want a brand new wardrobe?).  There are several street vendors and small shops that sell most leisure clothes (shorts, t-shirts, shoes, etc.) and more formal attire is available to buy on the cheap at large shopping malls.  For example, at most large shopping malls/areas in Bangkok or Chiang Rai (speaking from a man’s perspective) you can buy a custom-tailored suit made for you in just a few hours for less than $100.  If you are a good negotiator (which is a must in Thailand as all places to buy souvenirs and clothes expect to negotiate price) you can get a shirt and tie thrown in for free.  One of the things I did in my first days here in Thailand was visit a department store at a shopping mall, which happened to be having a sale.  I ended up buying three pairs of formal pants, four formal button-down shirts, two ties, and couple of packages of underwear - all for just under $100.  I haven’t needed to do any more shopping for clothes since.  The only issue with clothes that I have had was with shoes.  Though there are dozens of places to buy very nice shoes on the cheap, I wear a size 13 shoe (size 47-48 in UK) while every store that I have visited only carry up to size 11.5 (45 in UK).  With that in mind, I am glad that I did bring a pair of formal shoes, a pair of tennis shoes, and a pair of sandals to wear.  That is all I have needed for all of the walking, jogging, recreation, and teaching that I have done.

Just a few details that might be useful, the temperatures range from the low to mid 90’s this time of year in Thailand and is pretty humid.  It is also the rainy season, so picking up an umbrella (around $2 in Thailand) is useful to have handy at all times because it does rain each day, usually for only 20-30 minutes the entire day.  With this in mind, the weather has not been much of a factor for me as I do spend most of my time in buildings getting work done or travel from place to place, all that are indoors or covered with air conditioning and/or fans to keep you cool.  Any of your other essentials that you might need, for example, the name brands of the toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, deoderant, etc. that you use in America mostly available at superstores like the “Big C” or “Tesco - Lotus” (both are chains like a Super Wal-Mart) for prices that are likely cheaper than in America.  One other detail, the time difference is exactly 12 hours ahead of Alabama time, which makes it easy to figure out what time it is overseas if I want to call someone.

Electronics

There is one key thing that you need to know regarding electronic devices that you might want to bring with you on your visit to Thailand.  Check to see on the adapter/cord/plug if it has a “100-240 VAC” statement on it.  If it does, feel free to bring it along with you as you can plug it into any outlet I have encountered here in Thailand.  Though the voltage in the US is 110-volt electricity and in Thailand is 220-volts, devices with that label are OK to work in both locations.  The #1 device that I forgot to bring with me (I am still kicking myself over this) is my laptop computer.  I just didn’t think to bring it with me.  What a fool.  There is wireless access throughout both campuses at ABAC with plugs for high-speed Internet access in my hotel room.  I don’t know what the Internet situation is like at MFLU, however.  What you will need to do once you arrive at the Thai university is visit their IT department so that they can give your computer a new Thai IP address so that you can connect to their network.  I have been living these past few months with a borrowed laptop from my wife’s cousin.  It is a must to have a laptop (at least for me) because I like to continuously check my e-mail and the latest news from around the world, but also so that I can watch TV shows and listen to radio stations from back home that are available online, which does bring a bit of Alabama and Milwaukee to me in Bangkok.

I did bring some hard-copies of course materials with me (textbook, chapter notes, etc.), but I did store all of my materials for my classes and the research I am conducting in several locations … just in case.  I ended up putting all of my documents onto a flash memory stick (called a “thumb” drive here in Thailand … since it’s about the size of your thumb), onto the JSU server that I could access via FTP from Thailand, and into an online class ‘wiki’ (a free Website) where my students could also access all necessary course materials as well.  I also e-mailed myself some of the most important documents (e.g., scanned copies of my passport, first week PowerPoint slides, etc.) so that there was a back-up to all of the back-ups.  If I had brought my computer, I could have also had my files backed-up there as well.

Another key electronic device is a cell phone.  I brought my cell phone with me because all I had to do was request an ‘unlock’ code from my cell phone company (T-mobile) so that it could work overseas with a different SIM card and stop by any cell phone dealer in Thailand (there are plenty to choose from, just like in the US) to get a new SIM card so that you can still use your phone (though with a Thai phone number) without having to pay international roaming charges.  It’s useful having a cell phone, though I do talk to my wife several times a day, many of the administrators and faculty that I meet at the Thai universities ask for my cell phone (”mobile”) number.  Also useful is picking up an international calling card so that you can make overseas long-distance calls cheaply.  I picked up a 300 Baht or about $8 calling card at a gas station when I first arrived in Thailand and though it is almost used up, I have been using it for over 2 months making about two dozen calls that average about 15-20 minutes.  As for other electrical devices, it’s whatever you need. We brought along our digital camera and camcorder (with extra recordable DVD disks for the camcorder).  When our SD card has almost filled up on our camera, we brought it to a camera store and they made a CD copy of all of our pictures so that we could erase all pictures and start back over.  Each CD copy cost about $2-$3 for them to make.  We have had 4 CDs made so far, or about 1500 pictures.  The only other electrical devices that I have with me are my iTunes shuffle, which has saved me as I take a 5 hour bus rides to visit my wife and family every weekend and is also good for my morning jogs, and my electric shaver.

Language Barrier

Being in a new country that does not speak English can be intimidating, but it is actually not a problem.  Most signs everywhere you go around the country are written in both Thai and in English and the relationships that I am working on establishing with universities that only teach in English.  I have actually been quite surprised with how little Thai I have used and have learned since I have been here.  There are only a couple of key phrases that you should know, however.  The most important is “Sa wa dee” followed by a “cup” if you are male or “ka” if you are a female.  You also say this while putting your hands in a ‘prayer’ position to the tip of your nose.  This is the formal way to say “hello” and “good-bye” to people in Thailand.  This is especially important to do this for any administrator or to show someone a sign of respect.  The only time when it is usually not appropriate to do this greeting is to greet a child this way, however, if a child makes this greeting to you first, it is fine to respond in kind.  Other key phrases are “hong nam”, which is “bathroom; “nam pow”, which is “drinking water”, and “my ow”, which is “no thanks”.  With those few phrases, you can survive in Thailand.  There are instances when being able to speak more Thai would be useful, such as if I want to take a Taxi somewhere, but in those instances, I have just had my wife or a student write where I need to go on a sheet of paper so that I could show the Taxi driver.  I have several CD’s that teach ‘how to speak Thai’ which I will be glad to share with anyone at JSU that has taught me a bit more to say, but to get by in Thailand, only the phrases I listed above are the most essential.

Food

When it comes to eating, I can simply point to what I want to eat and it will be prepared and served to me.  If you know the name of a Thai dish, for example, “Pud Thai”, “Pud See Ew”, or “Mussaman” curry, you can simply say this and also get the food you want.  Jet (my wife) teaches Thai cooking classes at JSU’s continuing education program, which is quite popular, and can give you a ‘heads-up’ on what to expect when it comes to the food available in Thailand.  There is ‘American’ food available to buy as well (McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts, etc.), but that food costs about the same as you would pay for the same meals in the US, which is relatively expensive compared to eating local Thai food.  For example, for the price of a pizza ($10-$12) you could take a group of people out to dinner.  For my meals, I usually only spend $1 on a full plate of food that the same plate in the US would typically cost about $8-$10.

Courses

The strategy I chose was a simple one.  I was offered to either teach two sections of the same course or two sections of different courses.  I didn’t want to have to do twice the prep work, so I simply chose teaching two sections of the same course.  This has worked out well as it has allowed me to spend more time to work on my research and make connections to establish partnerships between ABAC and MFLU with JSU.  I also used this opportunity to ‘try new things’ with these students that if they went well, I could integrate back into the classes I teach at JSU.  For example, I am using a wiki quite extensively in both classes, mainly out of a necessity as there is no Blackboard or Blackboard equivalent at ABAC.  In addition, I am using much more video followed by class discussion, case studies, multiple new homework assignments, and personal examples of IT projects that I have worked on all to ‘mix-it-up’ so that the class would not be dedicated to a lecture format.  I thought that this approach would work best as it would allow non-native English speakers and particularly students of an Asian culture (which typically do not like to confront authority) to become more active in class.  Though every teacher has their own teaching style, what I have done seems to be working and I have gotten good feedback from my students.  In fact, my teaching style has become so popular that I am getting new requests from students each week to simply ’sit-in’ my class so that I now have over 40 students that attend my MBA class.  These students that want to ’sit-in’ my class are in their final semesters at ABAC, just before they have to take the comprehensive exam, and would like a ‘review’ of material that will be covered.  I even have one student that is taking the same class with another professor, who was not one of the many who switched to my section in the second and third weeks of class, who simply wants to ‘learn more’ about the topic I am teaching.

So how are the students?  As I mentioned at the start of this post, I likely only have a limited view to base my opinions on since I am only teaching graduate students.  But as I stated before, I have been pleasantly surprised at how well these students have adjusted to my teaching style and are participating in class.  If there is one thing that I would love to change about the students, however, is to be more prompt when it comes to time.  A class that starts at 6:30pm will start at 6:45pm because the majority of the class arrives late.  This is likely due in part to the heavy rush hour traffic and limited parking available on campus here at the ABAC Hua Mak campus.  But there is also a “care free” attitude as well that plays a role because students are accepting of returning 20 and 25 minutes after I call for a “15 minute” break.  This is just a cultural difference that I had to adjust to and it likely would have had a very negative impact on me if I forced the students to change to accommodate me.  Such concessions are essential and should be expected as I am not teaching in America, I am teaching in Thailand.  Though I do want to ensure a good amount of rigor for my classes and losing 20-25 minutes of class time can put me in quite a bind, you have to remember that this is not America, this is Thailand.  Even though I have been ‘forgiving’ in staring late, I still have a reputation as someone that strictly ‘watches the clock’.  I suspect there are unintentional cues that I am giving that suggest how uncomfortable I am with losing time.  As for my students understanding me, that is, me speaking too fast for them to understand, the first few weeks of class I reminded the students to feel free to let me know if I am speaking too fast (which did happen on one occasion) or if they needed further clarification.  I suspect either that students have adjusted to the pace that I now teach or that they have given up and only tune in when they can.  The students fared well on the midterm exam that they took last week, so I am hoping it is the former and not the latter.

Recreation

Since I spend every weekend traveling to Phitsanulok (5 hour bus drive from Bangkok) to visit my wife and family, I don’t have much of a need or desire to ‘explore’ Bangkok.  I do get some sightseeing done, and believe me, there is a lot of it to do all around the country, but I do this with my wife who is Thai, so I can’t really comment on this experience so much as I depend on her or her family to take us to different places to see and visit.  In other words, it is not from a purely American or foreigner point-of-view that would be of much use to someone from JSU interested in teaching in Thailand.  I could provide some suggestions of things to do and see (e.g., mountains, temples, rafting, etc.), but I suspect each person has their own tastes and my recommendations would only help those that have similar tastes as mine.  I can say that if I do have some free time, I do like to take long walks (1 - 2 hours) just to explore the nearby area and see things, stop at new shops, and try new foods.  There are lots of things to see around at the ABAC Hua Mak campus, but I suspect much fewer at the ABAC Bang Na and MFLU campuses.  However, if you are into nature, MFLU is certainly the place to be.  Lots of beautiful gardens and scenery everywhere you go.  That, in combination with it’s bazaar and proximity to Mai Sai makes it a very hot tourist destination.  Walking around the bazaar in Chiang Mai Jet mentioned to me, “It’s like walking around in Atlanta” because mostly everyone there were tourists or “farang” (”white” tourists).  I also like to exercise, so I do like to go for a jog in the morning (5:00am - 6:00am) when there is not much traffic and there is not much heat.  There is a soccer stadium very close by the ABAC Hua Mak campus where a few dozen people go jogging every morning.  Another form of recreation is playing pick-up basketball with the students (though I suspect many don’t know that I am not a student) in the evenings on campus from around 6:00pm to 8:00pm.  These have been great workouts for me as the humidity in Thailand allows you to work up a good sweat very quickly.  I am now at around 175 pounds (from around 185 before leaving) and in likely the best shape I have been in for years.

Driving

After having spent about 3 months collectively in my 3 visits to Thailand, last weekend was the first time that I had ever driven here.  It is awkward to drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road and to be driving in the ‘passenger’ seat, but most of the road signs are in both Thai and in English and those that were not (e.g., a Stop sign or a “No Passing Zone” sign) were in the same shapes as those in America so it was easy to follow.  The painting of the road lines are also the same as in America (white vs. yellow, dashed vs. continuous) so that was also not a problem adjusting to.  The biggest trouble driving in Thailand is driving on the same road as other motorists.  There is a hierarchy that exists not unlike a class system.  Cars reign supreme, particularly those like Jet’s Mom’s Mercedes Benz.  Next follow buses, well, some buses.  There are the double-decker coach buses that I take to and from Bangkok which drive at speeds that exceed most cars - those are the ones to watch out for.  All other buses, pick-up trucks carrying goods (e.g., pineapples, lettuce, other goods), and larger trucks all stay off to the side and most make attempts to get out of your way as you drive past (they drift over to as far to the side of the road as possible and/or put on their left-turn signal to indicate it is safe to pass them).  Then there are motorcycles that are just everywhere - and not the Harley-Davidson variety, more of the motorbike kind.  At every stoplight they fill in all of the voids next to cars and can shoot in and out of most every direction in the road.  Motorcycles far outnumber every other type of vehicle, but they are also the most careless.  Motorcycles typically drive on the median of the road as they are much smaller and slower than other traffic, but sometimes they make turns without looking or shoot across lanes of traffic seemingly without much care for their own lives.  It is mandatory in Bangkok for the driver of the motorbike to wear a helmet, but as you move further and further north, it becomes an increasingly rare sight to see someone with a helmet on.  Crazy.  And then you have humans.  They are the lowest of the low on the food chain.  All across Thailand if you are a pedestrian, you must always keep your guard up as no vehicle will slow down for you.  None.  Even in pedestrian marked walkways you have to keep a quick eye and an even quicker step.  The last bit of complexity when it comes to driving is the “U-turn”.  An economic way of developing the road systems in Thailand was instead of building ‘off ramps’ or bridges where you are able to go from one direction to another, in Thailand there are simply breaks in middle of the road at periodic locations where you can make a u-turn - a “U-Turn Lane”.  This is the toughest part of driving in Thailand as all vehicles can dart out across lanes of traffic, sometimes without much notice, to complete the u-turn.  That is why the horn and brights on the car become an essential tool.  Either flickering on and off the brights or repeatedly beating on the horn (as Jet’s Mom does so very well) as you approach a u-turn intersection lets anyone either waiting at the intersection or approaching the intersection to make a u-turn know that they better stop as you are coming through regardless of what happens.

What Else?

Surely there must be something else you want to know about my experience teaching and living in Thailand.  Let me know what that is and I will extend this post to include that.  Further, if there are additional items that come to mind, I will post them here as well.

I spent the past few days in Chiang Rai which is nestled in the mountains in the far north of Thailand and also just north of there (about 35 miles) to Mae Sai, which is a main entrance point to Myanmar (Burma).  Part of the trip was for relaxation but also to meet with my wife’s uncle, Dr. Vanchai  Sirichana, the President of Mae Fah Luang University(MFLU) in Chiang Rai.  Dr. Vanchai was the person responsible for securing me my position teaching at ABAC in Thailand this summer.  During my discussions with Dr. Vanchai, I did mention interest in working to build a relationship with JSU and his university to which he said that he would try to schedule an appointment to meet with the dean of the School of Information Technology.  While the partnership that I am working on with ABAC appears best suited for JSU’s College of Commerce and Business Education (I am still waiting to hear when my next meeting will be, this time with the dean of the undergraduate school of management), with this prospective meeting, initially this relationship appears to be best suited for JSU’s MCIS department as the School of IT offers degrees in areas aligned with JSU’s MCIS department, such as software engineering, animation, computer engineering, and management information technology.

I met with Dr. Thongchai Yooyativong, the dean of the School of Information Technology, to discuss the possibility of a relationship yesterday afternoon before I left to return back to Bangkok.  We spoke for about 45 minutes and we each had quite a bit to say and contribute to the conversation.  As with my conversation with the president of ABAC a few weeks ago in Bangkok, I conveyed that JSU is a university with a very strong regional reputation but that most of our students come from the region (a 100 mile radius) and have not done an extensive amount of travel.  One of the primary benefits of an partnership with MFLU would be the possibility of providing a much greater diverse educational experience to our students that will likely benefit them in a global economy.  I mentioned that JSU would be open to discuss any possible options for a partnership, but that it might be best to ’start small’, suggesting student/faculty exchanges and possibility hosting a ’student exchange with industry exposure’ which were similarly discussed with ABAC.  I did not bring up the possibility of a student exchange seat available through JSU’s international house as this is what I already discussed with ABAC.  Dr. Thongchai was very interested to hear what I had to say and also spoke about the goals and directions of his school.  Although MFLU is an international school (all instruction taught in English), similar to JSU, the majority of its students come from the region and surrounding countries (Laos, Burma, and China are very close in proximity).  Dr. Thongchai said that his students would likely be very interested in student exchanges or visits to the USA as they would prefer traveling to an English speaking country (a language they already speak as they use the TOEFL and IELTS as entrance requirements) rather than some of the non-English speaking countries (for example in Europe) that MFLU currently has a relationship with.  Dr. Thongchai spoke of his goal of increasing involvement from the business community into the university, something that I have been doing during my time at JSU, and about developing an IT research center for the area to attract new business.  When speaking of his students (his school has around 500), Dr. Thongchai said that most graduates leave the area for the ‘bigger cities’ like nearby Chiang Mai (about 2 hours drive due Southwest) or Bangkok (about 9 hours drive due South).  Not that this is a problem for JSU, but I think we could relate to his situation in that most job opportunities for our students are offered elsewhere (e.g., Huntsville, Birmingham, Atlanta, etc.)  He said a goal would be to offer enough possibilities that those students would stay in the region once they graduate.  Speaking of students, MFLU currently has just over 8,000 students with a goal of 10,000 students in the near term - sounds a little like JSU, right?  What is different is that MFLU is only 10 years old and the university, meaning that the university has grown tremendously in just a short amount of time.  Some of the problems that comes with such a young history and quick growth is that his school has yet to build a strong national reputation and as Dr. Thongchai stated, ‘human resources’ or enough faculty with practical experience is an issue, so much so that he worried whether his school could handle many more students than its current enrollment.  On that point, Dr. Thongchai offered to me as a way of establishing a relationship between JSU and MFLU the opportunity to teach at MFLU next summer in a similar way that I am teaching at ABAC this semester.  I did not commit to that and simply said that such a possibility was ‘interesting’ for me and my family.

One thing that did strike me early on in our conversation was Dr. Thongchai’s interest in a relationship that actually did something, which I suppose might be a criticism of previous or existing partnerships that his school has.  This struck me as this is the same attitude I like to take with any project I take on - producing results.  I suspect that is why Dr. Thongchai might have offered me the visiting professor position for next year as he felt that I might be able to contribute something to his school immediately, much different than my role at ABAC this semester which is more of ‘filling in’ and teaching a few classes.  That is something that does interest me.  Another thing that Dr. Thongchai and I discussed was me returning to MFLU to visit in about two or three weeks.  Dr. Thongchai said that he would book me a flight and accommodations on campus (perhaps at their new resort that they just opened up I hope!) so that I could spend a day or so to meet all of the current IT faculty, meet with their students, get a detailed tour of their facilities, and I offered to give a presentation on some of my recent research as part of this visit.  One unstated objective that I have for this visit is to get a sense of the ‘quality’ of the students at MFLU.  I am able to sense that quite easily at ABAC teaching classes here, but what is it like there?  Although all students must be able to speak English and all instruction is in English, how does their command of the language compare with students from ABAC?  Unlike at ABAC, there are parts of the MFLU Website that are only available in Thai.  As another possibility of some ’small’ steps in establishing a relationship between our schools, I suggested that there be some sort of ‘virtual’ team collaboration between our students, to which Dr. Thongchai was very receptive.  Our initial discussion suggested that three parties be involved; that I have my graduate software engineering students act as project managers for Thai undergraduate student groups who are developing a real-world software project for a Thai company.  I look forward to discussing this and other possibilities further when I visit the campus next. 

As a final note, Dr. Thongchai invited a delegation from JSU to come visit MFLU next year to view the facilities and formally agree to any memorandum of understanding (MOU).  Dr. Thongchai mentioned sometime in March 2009 but I suggested that January 2009 might fit better with our academic schedule, however, this is something I wanted to discuss further only after I received input from JSU.  How does one of these ‘delegation’ visits go?  Where does financial support come from?  What is entailed in these visits?  For how long do these visits last?  If things do progress well and satisfactorily from JSU’s point of view, I could work to secure visits to both of ABAC’s campuses as well during any potential visit as well as any other location or with any particular individuals.  What are your thoughts?

In general, I think that are expertise that both MFLU and JSU could share, beyond student exchanges, that would benefit both universities.  From our experience in building relationships with industry partners, teaching distance education, to our faculty’s background (among other items) to experience with MFLU’s degree programs (I am sure their animation program could offer new ideas to the MCIS department’s popular game development program) and international business connections, this could really be a win-win situation.  In all of this discussion, however, I have left out talking much about the university environment.  Similar to JSU, MFLU is located in a mountainous region (here are some pictures of the campus).  As I described the beauty of the architecture of ABAC’s Bang Na (undergraduate) campus a few weeks ago after my visit there, it cannot compete with the natural beauty of the MFLU campus.  It is quite stunning and beautiful and you really do get a sense of being in a ‘paradise’ as the university was build (and development still is ongoing) into a community all on its own.  And if you do have the opportunity to visit MFLU, be sure to plan on bringing full suitcases back to America as the shopping at the night bazaar in Chiang Rai and just across the border in Burma (they don’t stamp your passport when you cross the border, you just pay a $5 fee) is like no place I have ever seen.  All sorts of wondrous items and souviners can be bought on the cheap in bulk quantities as well as ‘knock-offs’ for any piece of jewelery, clothes, purse and most any other item.  It is really quite a sight to see and something amazing to experience.

I have searched through the JSU Website for a few of the answers to questions I had.  Although there wasmuch conflicting information available, I am using the JSU undergraduate catalog for the ‘latest’ details.  Of course the current catalog (2007-2009) does not reflect the increases in tuition that are expected for the Fall of 2007.  Please take a moment to review and either confirm or refute (with corrections) these details. 

Dr. Kelley (MCIS department chair) has been doing quite a bit of legwork for me over the past week to find answers to the information that ABAC was seeking.  One item that he has spoken to Dr. Ketterer (executive director of the International House, International Programs) about is a student exchange program with free tuition and room & board that is based on 1:1 reciprocity in which one exchange student from ABAC replaces a student from ABAC.  In essence, a Thai student would receive one of the International House scholarships while a JSU student would have tuition and accommodations secured to study in Thailand for a year.  Dr. Kelley reported that there were similar agreements currently in place with other universities in France and Morocco and that it would “probably be approved”.  This is a terrific development that I do hopes come to fruition as this could be a good starting point to kick off any partnership with ABAC.  Of course there are some questions that I have, like when is the earliest for this reciprocal exchange to occur?  Further, if given ‘free tuition’ by JSU (and vice versa), would the Thai student still pay tuition expenses at ABAC for their duration?  Or even further, if a JSU student wants to study at ABAC (or vice versa) without a scholarship offer, do they pay JSU or ABAC tuition rates … or both?

Useful statistics about Jacksonville State University (JSU)

• Cost of living in Alabama is over 21% lower than the US average
• The median (in-state) tuition rate (15 credits, 1 year) among US universities: US$16,245 (536,285 Thai Baht)
• The (in-state) tuition for JSU (15 credits, 1 year): US$10,140 (334,620 Thai Baht)

Expenses for International Students

• JSU Undergraduate Tuition (out-of-state): US$380/credit hour (12,540 Thai Baht)
• JSU Graduate Tuition (out-of-state): US$500/credit hour (16,500 Thai Baht)
• JSU Undergraduate Distance Learning: US$240/credit hour (7,920 Thai Baht)
• JSU Graduate Distance Learning: US$300/credit hour (9,900 Thai Baht)
• JSU health insurance policy per semester: US$285 (9,405 Thai Baht)
• Cost for room per semester: US$1030 (33,990 Thai Baht)
• Cost for meal plan per semesester: US$980 (32,340 Thai Baht)

Currency exchange rate: Thai Baht 33 = US$ 1

JSU 2008-2009 Academic Calendar Key Dates

• Fall Semester 2008: Begins August 28, Ends December 16
• Spring Semester 2009: Begins January 8, Ends April 28
• May Term 2009: Begins May 6, Ends June 3
• Summer I 2009: Begins June 8, Ends July 2
• Summer II 2009: Begins July 8, Ends August 4

Sources

• JSU Tuition Fees, JSU Busar’s Office
• JSU Academic Calendar
• JSU Dining Plan Rates
• USA Today’s 2006 College Tuition & Fees Survey
• Alabama/JSU Cost Of Living Comparison

I attended the welcome ceremony for the incoming class of undergraduate International Business Management (IBM) students yesterday morning.  This was a group of around 100 junior students that were just admitted to the program this semester and are considered the “best-of-the-best” students at ABAC as to gain admittance to this program, there is the highest GPA requirement of all programs at ABAC - I believe 2.75.  Incidentally, the average GPA of all IBM students is 3.0 and the average GPA of the class that was just admitted is 3.4 - the highest GPA’s of any degree program at ABAC.  While at this ceremony, there were several presentations made by faculty members and by a IBM student organization that organized the entire event that highlighted the requirements (curriculum options) and expectations of the students.  They also highlighted the success that their students have had participating in dozens of national and international team competitions over the past year.  I was firstly amazed that there were so many competitions out there and also impressed by the fact that the ABAC students always finished in the top 3 in each of these competitions, winning prizes in excess of $5,000 in many of these challenges.  There was also a panel discussion consisting of four recent IBM graduates to have them talk about how they each have achieved success so soon after graduation (e.g., working for top consulting firm Deloitte, management trainee responsible for over 100 staff or over $30 Million in accounts, etc.).  A point of emphasis throughout this morning session (from 9:00am - 12:00pm noon) was on the importance of case-based learning (e.g., how it directly helped them in student competitions, in job interviews, and in their current jobs), particularly that of evaluating Harvard Business Cases in the IBM curriculum.  The IBM chair mentioned to me briefly that this was done intentionally as the IBM curriculum has recently shifted to emphasising more cases in each of their classes which has been met with some resistance from students due to the additional costs involved and not seeing the value of those cases.  I did not stay for the afternoon session after the lunch break since it was focused purely on team building exercises, but I did leave impressed by how strong the students of this program appeared to be.  Another thing that I was able to extract is that the goal of nearly all of the Thai students is to start their own business.  This is something that the IBM chair commented to me on after so many students mentioned this as either their short-term or long-term goal.  The IBM chair, who is Indian, contrasted this with Indian students who primarily want to find a job and advance within the organization.  In trying to contrast with American students, I mentioned that our students typically look for an interesting or “fun” career that will give them independence.  I don’t know if that is an accurate representation of the majority of American students, but starting your own business likely isn’t that high up as it is with Thai students.

I was invited to the IBM welcome by the IBM chair that I had discussions with in the past week about establishing a relationship between ABAC and JSU.  Specifically, I was invited to give a 15 minute presentation, with PowerPoint slides, about JSU and the possible benefits of student exchanges.  I was scheduled to go on just after the IBM faculty were each introduced and just before the panel session, but since they were running short on time, I was asked to only take about 5 minutes at 11:00am.  I scrapped the slides and spoke of why I was at ABAC this semester and the benefits I was able to get teaching in another part of the world and being able to better understand a culture by experiencing it first-hand than by just reading about it in a textbook or seeing it on TV.  This tied in well with the presentation that the president of ABAC gave a few minutes earlier when he spoke that in order to do business successfully in different countries (e.g., with China, Japan, Australia, Russia - all of whom were students represented in the room) that you had to understand those cultures.  I then spoke about JSU and where it was located, highlighting the local businesses that my students had done projects for in my class over the past year, but also mentioned companies located in Atlanta (e.g., CNN, Coke, etc.), which were brand names that they all knew and recognized, while only a handful said that they knew were Alabama was located in the US.  I finally spoke about some of the distinctions of our programs (e.g., business school included in the Princeton Review, AACSB International, ABET accreditation) but tempered that with noting that JSU is often recognized as the “Friendliest Campus in the South”, which I then elaborated on.  I spoke of how when Dr. Ford walked me around through campus during my campus visit, he knew so many of his students by first name.  I also spoke of how so many of the students walk around on campus wearing JSU apparel.  And finally, I spoke of how generally nice people are in the South (e.g., wave “hello” at all passing cars and greeting someone with a great big “hey y’all”) and how each of these things is not common at universities in America (or at least the few dozen that I have either attended or spent time at in the past 10 years).  I felt that with the short amount of time that I had, this type of message might have had the most impact on the students.  I returned to my seat next to the IBM chair after my talk and she rather excitedly told me that I was the “right person to give that speech”, which got my spirits up.  I stuck around for the first half of lunch as a few students wanted to know more about JSU, which made me regret not mentioned or directing students to our Website (www.JSU.edu) during my talk.  I am sure there will be about a dozen other things I will think of in the next day or so that I should have said, but it certainly was a learning experience.

Before I left, the IBM chair still seemed quite interested in working on a partnership with JSU.  She had told me that the dean of the undergraduate business school was also eager to meet with me and that she had thought about including someone from the registrar’s office as well at our next meeting.  That being said, she wanted to know when we could schedule it.  Yikes!  I am still trying to crunch numbers and I am so hoping to hear back from many of you about the questions I had from my previous post.  I thank those of you that have already responded, but I really can’t schedule a meeting yet to further our talks until I have more information (e.g., what time of year a ‘group trip’ would work best, if campus housing would be available for such a trip, if the business school in interested in getting involved in the partnership, if JSU is willing to offer a seat in the international house for an ABAC student, if so, what would the conditions be, any idea on expenses like tuition, room and board, cost to organize industry visits, etc.).  I am really desperate for any help that anyone could provide and I am very appreciative knowing that for many of you at JSU this is the “off” time during the summer months.

I was finally able to meet one of the chairs from the undergraduate business school to discuss potential partnerships with JSUthis morning after our original meeting was canceled (death in the family) and attempting to coordinate schedules.  I ended up meeting for about an hour with Mrs. Radha Sirianukul, the chairperson of the department of international business management (IBM), along with the director of international affairs in his office.  She seemed very interested as well in whatever type of relationship that JSU would be willing to pursue.  I suggested that it may make sense to start off slow with student and/or faculty exchanges, and then in the next year(s) that we can evaluate its success and discuss enhancing the relationship with other arrangements, such as with joint programs/degrees.  One of the things that became clear early in the meeting is the need for specific details regarding the programs at JSU.  I had already shared with Mrs. Radha the JSU college of commerce and business administration as well as the MCIS department’scurriculum listings to compare with ABAC’s IBM program (ABAC has over 9,000 undergraduate business students), but there were other details related to costs that I will need to provide that will help in future discussions.  Costs are obviously a prohibiting factor for students from Thailand (but very good exchange rates for JSU students) so I need to provide ballpark estimateson details such as the cost per credit hour, accommodation expenses, and living expenses.  If I can get these figures along with comparisons from other US universities (to show how much more affordable a JSU education would be), that could go a long way in selling our program to both the administrators and students of ABAC.  From the JSU Website, there are varying numbers out there, so I would appreciate any assistance in tracking this information down.  If you have ideas for other information that would be useful to share, please let me know.  Corresponding statistics from ABAC are also being compiled by Mrs. Radha and I will share those once I get them.

In other discussions, one possibility that the chair seemed very interested in was in hosting some sort of “academic exchange with industrial exposure”.  This would be a group tour of several students that would visit JSU for a two-week stay and involve them attending JSU classes, JSU research presentations, industry-guest presentations, and tours of local businesses (either around JSU or in Birmingham and Atlanta).  I imagine these events could be coordinated with other JSU campus events (e.g., guest lectures) and/or student organizations (e.g., tours of local industry, tours with other international students).  The benefit from ABAC’s perspective is that this would offer a low-cost alternative to year-long exchanges and could be a good starting point to initiating the relationship between JSU and ABAC as well as get a good “buzz” about future students traveling to study at JSU.  This would also work good for ABAC as this could be either offered either as a separate 1-credit course (a seminar in international business) or as part of a midterm project for an international business course.  All undergraduate ABAC business majors are required to conduct individual research as part of their degree and a research paper discussing this “academic exchange with industrial exposure” could satisfy part of that requirement.  Some some key questions that resulted from this exchange, again, were what costs would be involved with operating this type of exchange?  Is it possible to secure student housing on-campus for a group of students or is this type of exchange even of interest to JSU?  What time of year would this be best to conduct this academic exchange?  ABAC has school all-year long, so I suspect the best time for JSU to host such an exchange would be in the summer (June-August) when it might be much easier to secure student housing and when faculty (like myself) are likely to have open schedules to conduct and participate.  The first semester (of a trimester) for ABAC runs from the end of May until the beginning of September.

Continuing our discussion about exchanges, the director of international affairs brought up the relationship that ABAC has with Loyola College of Maryland and how the partnership has been in place for 18 years now.  The director mentioned that Loyola College sends a large group every year to study at ABAC and how their students have had nothing but positive experiences during their time here.  A partnership that ABAC has with Loyola College is that they offer about 15-20 Loyola College graduates from undergraduate programs like in English and Psychology as well as MBA students to teach at ABAC for 1 year with free room and board, round-trip airfare expenses, and a salary (similar to my current arrangement).  If this is of interest to JSU, ABAC might be willing to extend these opportunities to JSU graduates.  I would like to know your thoughts on this type of partnership and if this type of arrangement is worth pursing.  I had the time to finally to visit ABAC’s undergraduate campus (Bang Na) last week and I was simply amazed by both its luxury and beauty; here are some pictures that I found online of the campus.  I figure that this could be something of interest to see for JSU students or faculty members that are willing to visit there. 

The director of international affairs also remembered from our initial meeting how JSU might be willing to discuss offering a place at the international house for one of their students.  He suggested that this could be a great “starter” to initiate a partnership with JSU and that as part of such a student exchange, either for a semester or a year, the student could return to ABAC and give a seminar to talk about their experience and could be a driver for additional students taking classes at JSU.  I did remind the director that I was not in a position to grant such a request, but that it is possibility that might be available if discussions continue to progress.  With that in mind (perhaps this is something that Dr. Ketterer could best address), what is the likelihood (strong, mild, weak) that JSU would be willing to offer a place at the international house for an ABAC student, and if so, what would be the value of such an offer (in terms of dollars - to demonstrate JSU’s commitment), for how long (a semester, a year, or two students for a semester each), and when (spring 2009, fall 2009) could this be possible? 

We finished the meeting agreeing to meet again once we got more detailed information regarding our programs and possible partnerships.  Mrs. Radha told me that she would also approach the other chairs at the undergraduate business school as well as the dean to discuss possible partnerships with JSU.  Mrs. Radha also invited me to speak about JSU and the possibility of exchanges to the incoming freshman class of business students this Sunday, which I agreed to do.  I was quite excited to get this offer because this could be a great opportunity for me to market JSU and its programs to a large group of ABAC students that could be prospective exchange students.  So some final questions, is there any specific information that I should convey to the students of ABAC?  I plan on discussing where JSU is located as well as specifics about the MCIS program - a presentation that have have given to countless high school students to several area high schools in JSU’s proximity.  What should I mention about the JSU business school?  Finally, is there any specific information that you would like to know about ABAC that I can request Mrs. Radha to obtain?

I really would appreciate any help or suggestions that you would have as ABAC does seem quite interested in establishing a relationship with JSU and I would like to get as much as I can done during the rest of my time here in Thailand.

I guess when things seem to be at their worst, things can only go up. Not that things were that bad last week, but this week there has certainly been an improvement. I had scheduled a meeting with the President of ABAC (Brother Bancha Saenghiran) yesterday (Tuesday) morning with the intention of introducing myself and discussing possible relationships between JSU and ABAC. It was also necessary for me to meet with Brother Bancha as he was the person responsible for giving me my position this semester in Thailand, that was secured with the help of Jet’s uncle (President of Mae Fah Luang University in Thailand). It really is about who you know and the connections that you have to get things done. Brother Bancha was kind by saying that I had a very good recommendation from Jet’s uncle and was interested to know how I was doing (so far) during my time in Thailand. After a few minutes of short talk, I mentioned the interest that JSU had in initiating a relationship with ABAC, to which he was very receptive. He seemed very pleased that I already had the support from JSU (thank you Dr. Turner for the letter!), at which point he knew that both JSU and I were serious about establishing a partnership. Brother Bancha made copies of Dr. Turner’s letter and recommended that I speak next with the director of the office of international affairs at ABAC.

I was able to schedule an appointment with the director of international affairs (Glen Chatelier) this afternoon (Wednesday) and discussed the interest that JSU had with forming a partnership with ABAC. Glen immediately came off as a very energenic individual that was full of creative ideas and appeared like an individual that could ‘get things done’ by contacting whoever that needed to be contacted. In about 30 minutes time, he had called four different people from ABAC getting feedback and suggesting possibilities for collaborations, he had taken three calls from different individuals, and was even chatting with a student that walked in his outer office in-between calls asking if she had any interest (and trying to convince) in studying in the US. Glen had gotten his degree from Notre Dame, so he was very familiar with Alabama and how affordable it might be to study there (e.g., relatively good, affordable cost of living). As an aside, the student was only interested in studying in Australia. We held the meeting in his outer office as he said that his office was simply a mess. I can imagine how it might look as he seemed to be the type of person who would be quite comfortable doing ten different things simultanously. Regardless, Glen had suggested a variety different possibilities for relationships, ranging from student exchanges to joint degrees. He was even quite creative with the possibilities that he came up with, for example, he simply called the chair of the undergraduate business school, and after a little back-and-forth, suggested having 10 students from ABAC visit JSU for two weeks as part of international business class to do things like go on visits/tours of local businesses, attend classes at JSU, and get exposure to the American culture. I did mention to Glen that what would be of interest to JSU is to start the relationship small in the short-term (e.g., student, faculty exchanges) and then extend the relationship in the long-term (e.g., joint degree).  Glen stated that ABAC does have goals set to increase the number of outbound exchange students from each region of the world, so starting slow with student exchanges would fit in well with their overall strategy.  Glen mentioned that a possible goal to start with could be establishing a reciprocal, perennial exchange program (similar to the semester exchanges that ABAC currently has with Loyola College of Maryland), but at this time, we will keep all options open.

So where do we go from here?  I have another meeting scheduled with Glen and one of the department chairs from the undergraduate school (I believe from the business school) on Friday morning.  Glen had felt that it might make most sense to start out examining the feasibility of establishing a relationship with the business school first as it is the largest group of students at ABAC, consisting of around 12,000 (10,000 undergraduate; 2,000 graduate) students (Glen’s statistics; I can’t confirm if this is accurate yet).  We tried to get the dean of the graduate school involved in this meeting, but he is very busy right now, so Glen said that we would work on some ideas without out him and get him involved a little bit later on.  There are also some details that I will have to get additional information on, such as whether JSU/ABAC will recognize degree credits earned at their respective universities, how JSU views the accreditation/rigor of ABAC’s programs (how would JSU evaluate ABAC’s business programs?), how comparable the degree credits are for ABAC’s programs to that with JSU, as well as a dozen additional questions that will likely come up during my search.  If you have answers or suggestions to some of these questions, please share them with me.  If there are additional questions or directions that I should be pursing, please feel free to share them with me also.

With so much promise entering this week, there has been nothing but disappointment that has followed. In the second executive-MBA class, attendance improved as the majority of the students had arrived by a few minutes after the scheduled class start time, so class began full-speed ahead about 10 minutes late. Not terrific, but an improvement. I certainly don’t think that I am unreasonable for wanting class to start on time particularly because I often require the entirety of the class to discuss course materials. During the lunch break, one student approached me and mentioned that the way I teach was “like in the movies”. Not knowing what he meant (there have been many movies illustrating “good” and “bad” teaching over the years), I asked him to elaborate. He went on further to describe how in the movies a bell rings in a school and all of the students sit down for the start of class and when the bell rings again, even if the class discussion isn’t finished, all of the students get up to leave. I suppose that was just an illustration of how that student, and likely others, perceived my teaching style to be rigid or structured simply because I wanted to start class on time. I guess this is just a cultural difference that I will have to adapt to during my time here. Another setback was that most of my students had experienced problems using the class Website (wiki) for posting their assignments (e.g., creating a student profile and posting an IT-related ethical article on the discussion forum) and accessing course materials. I had never experienced problems using the wiki, but I realized that this was a problem as a student illustrated the wiki ‘hanging’ while logging in on her laptop during class. My only suggestion at the time was to be patient and persistent to access the site. I have not had any further complaints issued by e-mail, which I take as a positive sign, but is no guarantee that students are no longer experiencing any problems as Asian cultures tend to shy away from confrontation to authority figures. The best example of that would be the final set-back that I had in class. The first week my students had said that my pace of teaching/speaking (my usual pace - at least the pace I use in the US) was good so I continued at that pace the second week. It wasn’t until during the lunch break that one student mentioned that I was in fact speaking too quickly as she was having troubles ‘translating’ what I was saying at times, but by the time she had figured out what I was saying, I was already on the next slide discussing something different. After she told me this, a few other students standing around agreed with her assessment. So why didn’t the students speak up sooner? Why didn’t anyone ask for clarification? Why didn’t anyone raise their hand? To give the students and option that was less “confrontational” than interrupting me in class, I suggested that students simply make the motion of raising their hand with their hand palm-down and then lower it - as if to say “slow it down”. Although I did consciously try to slow my discussion down after the lunch break, no student made that motion and I suspect that some students still had problems. The next item that came to my attention was how a few students again pressed me to ‘lighten’ the course load, stating that since it was only an 8 week class, professors (or ‘Ajarns’) rarely cover every chapter in the course text. My response to them and to the entire class was that I was making compromises and eliminating some of the content from each chapter to fit this abbreviated schedule, but that I felt there was content from each chapter I felt was important to know so I was not going to ’skip’ entire chapters. During the lunch break I found out that the executive MBA program is something that is completed in a year and a half as students take courses all year long (they have a trimester schedule here), consisting of 2-8 week classes each Saturday and Sunday for each semester. It’s no wonder these students keep pressing me to ‘lighten’ the course load. Something that the students told me during the lunch break that did trouble me was how they recounted taking a previous class where the instructor made an agreement that he would give them all A’s (e.g., A, A-) if they would take him out for Karaoke at the end of the semester. I don’t know if this story has any truth to it, but it certainly rubbed me the wrong way as it seemed that the students implied I might be also willing to negotiate a similar compromise.

As for the promise of meeting ‘key’ individuals to discuss potential partnerships with ABAC, it never happened, at least not yet. I spoke to the Ph.D. program coordinator yesterday (Wednesday) and he had yet to have been contacted by anyone about when to specifically organize the meeting. That gave me the feeling that if I don’t meet with the dean and find out who those other ‘key’ individuals are, the meeting might not take place for a while. It was almost like a laid-back type of attitude where “we will get to it when we get to it” seemed to be the way things were done. I don’t know if this is an accurate depiction of how things run here and it really is unfair to characterize the work style as such from only one incident, so I will have to update this as the semester continues. Unfortunately, my other interactions with faculty members have been very poor. There are no posted office hours, simply an “In/Out” sign posted on their office doors (those faculty members that have offices), and I don’t even know if faculty members are even required to have office hours. There certainly wasn’t any pressure on me to hold office hours, which would be difficult considering I have only been given a “temporary” office that I don’t have the key to and I only have access to from 9-5 Monday-Friday. That makes it hard to hold useful office hours when I teach a night class and a class on Saturday that fall outside of that time frame. As a compromise, I have told my students that I will be available both before and after class to answer any questions they have, else I am accessible by the course Website and by e-mail. I have gotten several questions by e-mail and after class so far, so I am assuming at this time that I am meeting the students needs for access to me. The last disappointment for me was trying to catch-up with the MBA program director to simply introduce myself and thank him for the work he did, namely helping to coordinate the letter from ABAC that I needed to get my Thai visa. I had stopped by his office on the 11th floor (lots of stairs to climb) several times last week to do just that, but as I just mentioned, he was never in his office and I had no idea (nor did anyone else) when he might be. I finally just sent him an e-mail asking to meet with him, which he replied a few days later that he would like to meet me at 11:00am today (Thursday) at his office. I showed up at 10:50am (I always show up early) and I waited until 11:30am when I just figured he forgot or had other important business to attend to. I have sent him an e-mail explaining that I might have ‘just missed him’ in his office, but I have yet to hear back from him about why he was not there. Like I said, lots of disappointment this week. (*Update: I did get a response back a few hours later apologizing that an ‘ad hoc’ meeting came up and asked that we reschedule)

On a somewhat different note, I did fill-in for my former colleague at UW-Milwaukee to teach an undergraduate English class at the university right next to ABAC (about a half-mile away across the street). This former colleague of mine (who is Thai) is actually one of my best friends and it just happened to be a coincidence that the school he taught at was so close to the one I was offered a teaching position at. The class itself ended up being pretty similar to the class I taught for high-school seniors in Phitsanulok. An introduction of myself and a lot of prodding of the audience to get a question-and-answer session going. After about a half hour of that, I had the students watch the IT videos that I am using in my classes this semester and had them comment on them. Needless to say, it was a long three-hour class as it was very difficult to get any meaningful discussion going. Another interesting development or a pure stroke of fate was that I ran into another colleague of mine from UW-Milwaukee, in fact, the only other Thai student in the Ph.D. program. It turns out that he is teaching marketing classes full-time (4 sections) at ABAC both at the graduate and undergraduate school and that both he and my other former Thai colleague didn’t know that they were both in Thailand and located so close to each other. If anything, having a couple of people close by that I know quite well was at least one positive to take away from the past week.

I scheduled a meeting yesterday (Tuesday) with the Ph.D. program coordinator for the information technology (MIT) program at Assumption for today.  I had thought that the premise of the meeting would be to allow me the chance to introduce myself to the Ph.D. students and discuss possible collaborations with them, but it turned out to be so much more.  The program coordinator called me on my cell phone and asked me to meet him in his office and from there, he took me to the conference room in the graduate school of business where three other faculty members were awaiting.  After a moment for introductions, I mentioned my interest in collaborating with their Ph.D. students, to which they said something could be arranged.  After discussing my research and educational background, they invited me to “sit-in” on a future meeting where they would be discussing the structuring and possible revisions of their Ph.D. program.  I did get the feeling at this time that the group was somewhat reluctant to open-up further to me as I would only be here until the end of August. 

As our discussions appeared to be wrapping up, I was asked in general if Jacksonville State University might be interested in collaborations or partnerships with Assumption University.  I had not planned on discussing the possibility of partnerships until I had the chance to meet with the President of the university, but since they had initiated the discussion, I did mention that JSU was indeed interested and that I had intended to discuss such possibilities during my time here.  The individuals there were quite receptive about what I had to say about Jacksonville State University (specifically the MCIS department) and did cite their partnerships with other American universities (namely Notre Dame and DePaul University).  They also asked what type of partnerships JSU would be interested in and I mentioned that all possible options were open to discussion.   They then asked where to go from here and I suggested that we set up a meeting with all of the appropriate individuals that needed to partake in such discussions (e.g., Dean, others) so that we could work to make such a partnership a reality.  Everyone there seemed quite interested in this and decided to schedule a meeting for next week (to be determined … I will receive another call in the near future) and were optimistic that some sort of arrangement could be worked out before I left Assumption University in August. 

Needless to say, I was quite pleased with these discussions and I am optimistic about the possibilities that lie ahead.  I will certainly update progress as it happens and review all of the useful suggestions that I received from everyone at JSU.  In the meantime, feel free to comment with any recommendations or thoughts that you have, for example, what is the best type of partnership to start with (e.g., start with student exchanges, work towards joint programs?), documents that I should have prepared, or anything else that I should be aware of before this upcoming meeting.

I spent part of this first week in Northern Thailand (Phitsanulok; a 5 hour drive by bus) so there is not much to report on with respect to the work I have been able to accomplish over here.  I was able to stumble upon a virtual tour of the campus, which (if you are able to figure out how to take the tour) should give you a pretty good idea of the Assumption University graduate campus at Hua Mak.  The accommodations that I was given by the university is on the 12th floor of the Queen’s tower or “Q” building.  Here are pictures that someone else has taken from the building I am staying at, which are similar to the views I can see from my room.  The “studio-type” room is modest and is similarto a college dorm room, but it is very clean and comfortable withlots of space to work and store my things.  The room is air conditioned (a must here in Thailand) and it has a small patio witha wonderful view of Bangkok.  The room has a small refrigerator and a TV that has 6 Thai channels, 2 Indian channels, 1 Chinese channel, 1 French channel, and 1 English channel.  The English channel (from what I have seen so far in one day) has HBO Asia on in the morning and CNN International on in the evening.  I have been able to acclimate myself to the environment quite well here after about 2 days of feeling jet-lagged.  This was the first time that I had felt jet-lagged coming to Thailand - perhaps it is due to the fact that I arrived in Thailand at 10:00am in the morning while my two previous visits here I arrived at 12:00am midnight. 

There is ample food to eat around here as there are literally dozens of sidewalk vendors from which to choose.  The challenge that I am facing now is that I don’t speak much Thai, so instead of requesting food (all menus are in Thai and the people that cook the food don’t speak English), I find myself limited to the locations that have the food ready to eat on display.  I simply point to the dish and they can figure out what to do from there.  The food is also very cheap here.  For example, I just had lunch at one location (a plate of bamboo chicken and vegetables with rice and a bottle of water) for about 60 cents.  And the food was delicious too.  You can find American food around here, but it costs about the same as it does in the US so it is relatively expensive.  For example, a meal from KFC will cost about $3.00 here in Thailand.

I was able to start making my final preparations for my first class on Saturday, which is now less than 2 days away.  A challenge that I am facing is securing an office here on campus that has a computer.  I purposely left my computer behind in America and I now realize that that was a mistake as there is wireless access everywhere on campus here and there is an ethernet connection in my hotel room.  I have been able to contact my former colleage and classmate at UW-Milwaukee who is teaching at a university literally across the street from ABAC (Acronym for Assumption University) and he has told me that he would let me use one of his old computers.  That will not happen until he is available to see me sometime this weekend or in the coming week.  In the meantime, I have been going from office to office to computer lab to access the Internet, which is working fine now, but I worry about where (and whether I will have) my permanent office will be this semester for office hours.  Another slight issue is that my first class will be held this Saturday, May 10 from 9:00am - 4:00pm while the new faculty orientation will also be held on Saturday from 9:00am - 12:00pm noon.  I was told by the department secretary that this would not be a problem as I should not miss much from not attending the orientation.  Let’s hope she’s right!

I was able to find out that I have 31 students registered for my MBA class on Thursday nights and 11 students registered for my executive-MBA class on Saturdays, so they should have a pretty interesting dynamic to them.  I still have to learn all of the odds and ends of classes here and all of the cultural norms of teaching a class in Thailand, so I do expect some growing pains in the first couple weeks.  For example, the department secretary (who has been been very helpful) has told me that I will be given an allowance as a faculty member here (all faculty are addressed as “adjun” here) to the coffee shop down one floor from my classroom as this is the place where students hang out during the break period of evening classes.  There is also a university policy that students must have an attendance rate of at least 80% or will automatically fail the course.  I am sure that there will be a number of other items that will come up that I should be aware of, but yet know nothing about.

I have put all of my course materials online so that my students can access them, however, I have been told (so far) that I could not get an e-mail list of my students so that I could get them access to the Websites before my first classes.  One thing that I have been able to confirm here is that I have had no problem logging in and accessing BlackBoard from JSU.  I have also been shown the classrooms where I will be teaching my classes and they appear to be excellent facilities.  They consist of a two “U” shaped rows with whiteboards and a projector and it appears that all of my teaching materials will work (e.g., PowerPoint slides, videos, Website access, etc.).  I plan on spending the day tomorrow (Friday) confirming that all of my materials will load properly.

As for the people that I have met since I have been here on campus for just over one day, I have met the department secretary (Jenny) who has helped coordinate my visit (e.g., all necessary paperwork, van to pick me up at the airport, reserving a room during my stay here in Thailand, etc.) and I have also briefly met with the Dean of the school of business, Dr. Kitti, who in a short 5 minutes welcomed me to ABAC and he briefly mentioned that there could be opportunities for me to teach more classes at ABACin the future.  I have been trying to arrange a visit with the head of the Ph.D. program here so that I could speak withthe students and discuss possible research collaborations over the summer here with them.  The Dean of the department mentioned that their students could use some advice/support conducting behavioral research, so this could be something quite promising this semester.  I was also given a welcome letter from the director of the MBA program, Dr. Ismail Ali Siad, that included a paper to review that was submitted for publication at their university’s journal.  I have yet to meet with Dr. Ismail, so I don’t know if this was more of a favor, if it is intended as a “test” of my knowledge, or if it was to make me aware of their journal.  Perhaps I am trying to tell too much from this.

There is one further thing that happened since I have been here this first week - I was invited to speak to a high school class in Phitsanulok.  Funny how even in Thailand I am still making visits to high schools.  The class I spoke to was my aunt’s (wife’s side) senior English class of about 50 students, and since I really didn’t have much of anything to prepare for this one-hour visit, I simply introduced myself, spoke about why I was here in Thailand, and held an informal question and answer session.  There were a handful of students that spoke English quite well, but in general, the students were quite shy.  Apparently my visit went well as the students and my aunt invited me to come back.  There were pictures taken so I will try to share those as I get access to them.