American Culture and History Discussion (ICU)

Hello Everyone!
So Last week about four student's from the Thai studies program met with Thai students( mostly from the English Department) to have a discussion about American culture and history this exercise i believe would add points to their grade just as it would ours.After signing up for this exercise i didn't realise that this was the topic of discussion, so i joined my colleagues that morning as we made our way to the class. After meeting the Ajan(professor) for the class we waited for the Thai students to arrive and as we discussed and introduced ourselves the lecturer said... "i hope you're all ready to answer questions from my students".. at that point i said to my self "huh"?..i hope i'm not in the wrong place but then i realised it was a talk about "American Culture and History" so she told me i could stay and talk about the Gambian Culture and how it differs from that of the Thai's , this excited and relaxed me a little,relaxed me because i thought i had to preside over a prompt Q and A session about America of which i had minimal knowledge, excited me because i've always wanted to share the Gambian culture with my colleagues and friends as this was one of my Goals as an Exchange student, so i later made a mental note of some of the subjects i would like to Discuss.

Five minutes later, after the students settled from the Rather cool morning, we launched the session,introduced ourselves and the states we came from, this was important for the class as the course was on some form of American History and so i saw some of them scribble the names of the states especially the student's from America.The lecturer however, began with a question to one of students asking what the Stars on the American flag Signified, and so as she responded, i couldn't help but notice the enthusiastic faces of the students as they listened keenly to her description, this was also a learning process for me coming from Africa i didn't quite know alot about American culture and history, so it was equally beneficial for me.




This question was accompanied by a host of other's such as, what the stripes on the flag meant,the Uncle Sam concept,the meaning of the statue of liberty and which country it was from and finally Why Florida was called the Sunshine City( this however amazed most of the students as they thought all parts of America was cool). I basically gave them some similarities between the Gambian and Thai culture such as the closeness of parents and their children, friendship, hanging out in groups and the educational systems. We later sang the American Anthem together and so even though i didn't know the words and didn't have the script i just made some mouth gestures or finished the lines as the song went on.




This was followed by the conclusion of the session by the lecturer and so she urged them to pose any pending questions, after that the Thai student's presented Traditional Hand Woven Fan's for us with their names written on them in hearts , i thought it was really generous,cute and friendly of them to give us gifts after the almost brief session, this goes to show how 'Gift Giving' is important in Thai Culture .
After this, we said our farewells and all did a standing ovation and so we proceeded to our Thai class with Ajan Boy.

I will keep you posted on other subsequent activities.
Pai Gon Nai Kha( i've got to go) but,
Pob Gan Mai Kha( see you soon) =)