Reflections of cultural differences (Sports)
Hello,
First of all, I would like to express my objectives in writing this series. I'm totally Thai by birth, documentations and spirits. I have been studying in the US under the Royal Thai Scholarship Program with tax money from Thai farmers and the people of Thailand. I'm grateful with that.
I have chances to persue my education and to be exposed to a different culture in the US. I have seen many issues that we, the Thai, can learn and assimilate those good ways of thinking from the Americans.
OK, that's not related to what I would like to discuss about. Let's move on to the topic then.
We're a busy family. So we have to send our children to daycare in a daily basis. One day when I went to pick up my older son from his daycare, I evedropped two of parents talking about soccer (a.k.a football in Thailand). They talked about one of their players in the team was moving away to other city. So, in the coming weekend, their team would have one player less than it would be.
So, seeing this as a fine chance to bring my nerdy son to a physical sport, I asked one of the parents who was also one of my son's classmate. We had seen each other for a while. And, he said he would be happy to have my son in his team.... Almost forgotten, he was also a coach of the team.
In my city, it's classified as a medium-sized city with 150,000 populations. Well, not too big not too small, so we expected that we would see a tiny number of teams in that young age (4-5 years old).
Surprisingly, when we arrived at the field. There were many many people in the area. There was a traffic jam... children in soccer outfits, babies in strollers, parents in causal dresses, and senior people coming to cheer their grandchildren.
In this division (4-6 years old), boys and girls would play in the same team. There would be no separation between gender until 7 years of age.
So, there were 4 boys and 3 girls in my son's team... All of them looked very eager to play.
Coaches? There were 2; one, the head coach, was Hannah's dad, and another one, the assistant coach, was also one of my son's friend's dad.
Every team has its coaches.... All of them were volunteering parents.
In that time, American soccer teams were quite successful in the World Cup. Its male soccer team went to the final world cup. The female soccer team won the world champion.
My first impression about this was these might be the keys to success of the Americans in soccer; willingness of those youngsters to have fun with the sport, and, as equal as in the importance, coaching and coaches from the very beginning.
These are something that we don't have in our country. I cannot tell you the exact reasons... But I do know one thing from an American proverb; There is nothing better than a heart of the volunteers.
This might give you a clearer picture of what's in the American's heart and soul. This positive attitude can be seen in every corner of my city. Volunteering in coaching, volunteering in public services, and so on are one of those volunteering activities.
With this basic public sacrifice, it can gradually and strongly build a foundation of anything we can imagine....
The soccer World Cup Champion can be one of those... Who knows?
What do you think?
Best regards, A.T. (2/27/06)
NOTE 1: Made a corrrection as suggested by Khun เอริ...จัง
Create Date : 28 กุมภาพันธ์ 2549 |
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Thai players earn only salary from their company, thy should fill in the blank as "employee". If they aren't a Olympics winner, all they got shold be only the government preseter in anti-drugs, safe sex or safe driving campaign.
As Thai parent, actually in Thailand, what would you like your child to be?...
(Feel free to correct my mistake, would you please...)