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
US players earn a lot of money, they can mention the "occupation" as "Football player". They can get more money as a presenter of goods, even they were in the state's team.
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...)
โดย: dont wanna no วันที่: 28 กุมภาพันธ์ 2549 เวลา:0:38:35 น.
Dear amatuer translator,
I followed your thread requiring inputs from Pantip here. So, since I'm here, I'm gonna throw in my two cents. :)
Personally, I've never had a chance to go to any soccer games in the US, but I've heard quite a lot about it. Through Hollywood movies, commercials, and my experience when a former boss of mine refused to attend some meetings because they conflicted with her son's soccer games, I think it must be really important. Being present at your boys' soccer matches, or your girls' dance rehearsals signifies the interest level you're putting into parenthood/relationship.
One of the factors that enable American parents to join their children's activities, meanwhile, harboring their Thai counterparts to do so, is the difference in household income, cost of living, and lifestyles. Simply put, cost of living in Thailand takes up a much higher percentage of salary than that in the US. Also, a large number of Americans are working for corporations, which give them weekends off, while Thai people are more to workers, and small-business owners (think noodles stands). There are not many Thais who can afford the luxury of stop making money on weekends.
It'll be so lovely if, in the future, we become more proactive in our children's activities, and don't put too much pressure on teachers as we've been doing all along. At least that's what I hope to do for my children!
NOTE: Minor Grammatical Error: to be exposed to
I have chances to persue my education and be exposed to a different culture in the US.
This is not about Soccer itself. This is about American cultures which believe in parent involvement in children activities.
My girl is a little bit older than your son so I totally understand your feeling. You will see it more when your son enters school. Most activities in school were managed by PTA including all sports trainings, talent show, academic competition, events, tutoring etc.
In addition to my point, Sport is American past time. Therefore we will see more parents involvement since it is human nature to do things that they enjoyed. Baseball is the most popular children sport avtivity so far. Soccer is more popular for girls (I think it is ironic and totally contrast with Thai's)
Thank you for inviting me to your bloggang, I have been busy during the past few weeks with many examination schedules to follow. There will be many teaching loads (not include thesis supervision) for me in 2006 with an overall of 300 lecturing equivalent hours.
I read your article at the beginning about the sentence "scholarship money being supported by Thai farmers and Thai people". I used to mention that to my supervisor as well, but he reminded me that "it seems a bit unfair to stress out poor people (well, the majority of Thai farmers are quite poor) because rich people also pay tax too and that might be even more than poor people". It is quite perplexing when you think about it. The situation is that many people who earn little do not have to pay tax at all and it might be better and more correct to just state that "the Royal Thai Scholarship Program with tax money from Thai people". I'm sure that Thai tax payers would be more than happy to see us doing works that are useful to poor people.
The soccer activity in American is quite famous but it could also be troublesome for parents who get too much involved. I heard the news that parents literally fighting with each other over a soccer game of their children. I understand that there is just a minority group of people who do that.
One good movie about realism of future career in sportmanships for college students in the US is "Coach Carter" with Samuel L. Jackson plays the leading role.
I think the differences between the two cultures stemmed from the fact that it is not a custom for a majority of Thais to express themselves in public. An example can be easily seen in a funeral, it is not uncommon for relatives of the deceased to give speeches about their beloved one in the American culture. But in a traditional Thai funeral, this is not appear to be so.
They do have a number of volunteers activities in Thailand, an obvious example is "The Princess Mother's Medical Volunteer Foundation". Many Thai volunteers did turn up during Tsunami aftermath at the Southern part of Thailand last year.
Thank you for your input on the taxing with the reference of NU paper. At least I'll be able to quote direct & indirect tax when discussing about the purpose of scholarship students.
Poverty in Thailand is the main cause of other problems in Thailand, thus in my view we should focus our research aims in helping the poors first.
เห็นด้วยกับคุณ Piglet-Yorkie ที่ว่า "...This is not about Soccer itself." ว่าส่วนหนึ่งเพราะวัฒนธรรมเมกา เขาเน้นเรื่องเป็น a well rounded person อย่างไทยเรียนเก่ง การกีฬาไม่เป็น ไม่เป็นไร อย่างเมกาเรียนเก่ง การกีฬาไม่เป็น กลายเป็น nerd หรือ geek ไปซะ โดนbrand nameซะอีก
Mentioning.. "scholarship money being supported by Thai farmers and Thai people" is alright to me.. to remind yourself that we should not forget about the poor which a majority of the Thais. . School voluteer program is a big thing here in the US. I sent my son to soccer games as well. My school ( that I attened) keeps track of all alumni the best it can as well as asking for support. I donate small amount every year to do whatever they want in school and wish my schools in Thailand would do the same.
อีกกลุ่มนึงก็พวกที่เกษียณแล้วไม่มีอะไรทำ มีเงินใช้ไม่ลำบากอะไรก็ออกมาเป็นอาสาสมัครซะดีกว่านั่งเบื่ออยู่บ้าน เราก็เป็นอาสาสมัครที่ the Library of Congress ค่ะ ไกด์ที่นี่เป็นรุ่นดึกที่เกษียณแล้วทั้งนั้นเลย
โดย: Rive Gauche วันที่: 2 มีนาคม 2549 เวลา:7:54:25 น.
================================= Note: My life has been intertwined with works and many others. New responsibility has emerged, resulting less and less time for my ordinary life. Although, a love to write is still intact... But having less time is related to having less imagination.... Therefore, I could not come up with new writings for quite some times.
It might be a good time for me to leave this forum for moment.... Please take it as Mr. A.T. is having a sabbactatical leave or something like that....
As noted above, my love to write is still the same... and will not be changed. Sometimes somehow, I hope I could come back and give some thoughts in this blog once more.
Cheers, Mr. A.T. June 6th, 2008
=================================
Hello,
My pen-name in Pantip is amatuer translator. Actually, I'm a lousy translator with lame translation. My pen-name is somewhat misleading, I have no background in linguistics what-so-ever. Anyway I love to read, write and communicate with people...
Reading is my most favorite hobby. I read everything from shopping bags to articles in theoretical physics. I do research and teaching for my living. So, reading, writing, thinking and doing research works are my everyday routine.
I would like to define myself as a person who is accepting new ideas and adopting those into my way of life.
I believe in power of knowledge/education. I think every society can be a better society with knowledge. Ignorance can be dispelled by it. Humanity can live sustainably and harmoniously with each other along with its biosphere with understandings in the nature surrounding it.
Apart from my philosophical thoughts reflecting who I am, I can tell you something I like or love in particular;
I love dogs.... Particularly, labradore retrievers.... One day, I would like to spend my time and life with them as a big part of my family.
Zhuge Liang is my hero. With his wisdom and faithfulness, he led a tiny army to a mighty and formidable kingdom. He left his humble residence with a hope to come back. But, sadly, he had never returned and died far far away from home in a horse carriage in a battle field. If I could choose where I would, I would say where-ever my lovely wife was nearby.
I value happiness and my family as my first priority. My profession and my philosophy come in the second. Pursuit in wealth has never been in my desire.
I'm glad to be your friend, and look forward to seeing you around krub.
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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...)