Meeting Rajabhat's English Department

On Wednesday, Jan. 28, Dianne and I were picked up by a Payap U. van and driver, and taken, with Dr. Pearl inside, three hours north to a luxurious four star Chiang Rai resort on the Mekong River. We arrived to breakfast and introductions to Rajabhat's English Department, about eight faculty and their chair. Our purpose was to evaluate their proposed English MA program, which we had seen in draft a week ago. The conference room held a long table around which the faculty were seated; introductions were made and we began discussion, starting with an opening salvo by Dr. Pearl (my Payap supervisor and department chair), and followed with my own two cents worth. Our critique seems to be well received; the discussion became animated at times and continued for almost three hours without break.

All this was just fine, except for one thing: The room was freezing cold. Probably in the mid 50s, and nobody said anything as the air conditioner blasted away full force. I could see that most of the faculty sat with their hands snuggled between their legs or under their thighs. After an hour, the temperature hovered in the low 50s. Nobody said anything. Actually, I was suffering less than most because before the meeting started, I made a quick escape to the hotel lobby and bought, for less that $15., a wonderful jacket made in China. Finally Dianne weied with her hands folded together and brought to her face and made a quiet retreat out of the room to contact a hotel employee. A minute later the temperature problem had been solved and the room became liveable again. I tell this little story because it's symptomatic of much of Thai life: few will speak up when there's a problem. The yellow shirts occupying the country's airports in Decemeber did it without army or police intervention. There was only one death associated with their protest, so one could say that turning the other cheek at times works.

The meeting continued amicably and smoothly even though the substance of the discussion was anything but easy. The curriculum we had seen before arriving was mostly full of linguistics courses; the Dean of Humanities, who was also present at the meeting, was himself a linguist, and most of the faculty were too. Dianne made an impassioned argument for the humanities; I spoke of the US English major at most universities as a tripod of literature, writing and language study. Pearl supported this drift and enhanced it with her own arguments, persuasive especially because she herself has advanced degrees in linguistics. When we finished the morning, the curriculum had two tracks, one in writing and literature, the other in language and linguistics. And, finally, much to Dianne's and my surprise, the English Department chairwoman handed me an envelope with a thank you letter (in Thai), and a very generous stack of Thai baht.