Page Four
Fiil‘ll Year Abroad - Part II

SCARLET AND BLACK '

Friday. October l3, I96I

 

Thai Girls Show Disciplined Behavior,
Hide Sense Of Humor With Shyness

by Gretchen Schiele

Since the middle of June i
have been living here in Bang<
1:01: at Wattana Wittaya Acad-
emy, an old and respected girls'
boarding school. it resembles
a rustic estate surrounded by
lawns of rich green grass.
cause it was the ﬁrst girls
school in Thailand, the people
here are especially proud of its
history.

There are several elderly
teachers who remember the days
when Wattana was in the coun.
try and students paddled miles
tip the klong (canal) to reach
it. Today it is in the city and
its undisturbed klongs are cov-‘
ercd with lotus blossoms and
other plants.

Teaching English to girls trorn
10 to 18 at Wattana and at
Jones Hayes, an overcrowdedl
school in the lieait of the Chi-l
nese section of Bangkok, has‘,
been interesting and rewarding:
d got my ﬁrst impressions
Thai girls from their classroom
behavior, which reflects lllelr‘
disciplined upbringing. respect
for teachers and careful atten-
tion to formalities.

lt is not. as i had thought, a
joke that in Thailand people,
keep their heads lower than‘
yours to show their respect. Be—,
cause of my height this is no
problem for my students un—
less I am seated at my, desk.
Then they will drop on their
knees—a custom which makes,
me wince a little.

I am still a little bafﬂed
by the students sense of hu-
mor and shyness. They some-
times fail to appreciate stories
that I had thought would
amuse them but are tickled
by little comments or facial
expressions that I make with~
out even realizing it. The ex—
treme shyness along with the
classroom formality creates a.
special problem in my older
classes where 1 am supposed
to work on English conversa-
tion.

The best single opportunity 1
have had for seeing my Wat—
tana students in an informal
situation was at a Chl‘istiani
Youth Fellowship retreat at a
camp site on the Gulf of Siam.
One fourth of these students
were Christian This percentage
is only a little higher than that
of the school, even though it is
a Christian school. For these 46
girls, a retreat of this kind was
a new experience. They were
eager for a good time away
from the boarding school rou-
tine,

Outside the city a few kilom-
eters our overloaded bus wit
temperamental brakes broke
down, and we were stuck for
rour hours at a garage and a
rundown little country store.
Having spent a number of sum-i
mers as a camp counselor at,‘
home and taken American girls
on similar excursions, I knew
well what a nightmare a delay
like this could be. Rather than
complain or cause me any con—
cern, these girls seemed con.
tent to talk, sing. drink social
pop and walk around from one
shaded spot to the next. I was
probably the most worried and
uncomfortable one there.

. We finally arrived in camp,‘
and when i came to the Cablnl
which I was to share with eight
of my students, they seemed
excited and happy to have their
“teacher" staying with them.
They promptly pounded and
tested each bed to see which
was the most comfortable. Oil
course, they offered me thel
shower ﬁrst, but I preferred (ill
let those more adept at chang-
ing clothes inside a sarong gel
ﬁrst Thai modesty decrees thatl
notii g comes off unless some

"the

JD’S
. Spot"

otia

lthing else is on, This, incidental.‘don faces a dreadful day onus). the

,ly, is quite a trick.
‘ Each morning the girls were

'Reicl Says That

ZAre Social Centers Oi Na’rion

i by Steve Reid
The American tourist in Lone

underground
pavements,

trains

lrushing r b
c iin ing

pounding

English Pubs

,Amcrican lunch eo- the
Pub's iicarcst relative in the

conversation is noti‘
limited to how the cricket tciiini

lis doing, or what the weather is.l

up with the sun and early forjstairs, hurtling through art gal—lwas 0,. will be. But of caursei

their KP. duty, Their cagerness lows and being shouted at by'lhe conversation depends entire,

lto can-y things left our strong—
,al'med missionaries feeling a

icrosity along with their appre—
iciativeness ot the little things
done for them contributed much
itc the spirit of icllowship that
.‘we attained.

' The serious progrmn ,was

centered around the themes of ,

what the word “vocation"
means to a Christian and the
Christian approach to mar-
riage and family liic. These

subjects are also discussed by .

Christian Youth Groups in the
states, and, though l.misscd
the content at the talks,
knew by the girls’ attentive»
ness that they were interested.
We had plenty of time for

the kinds 01 group fun possible

t a campiswimming, hiking,
scavenger hunting and campﬁre
singing. Though i was reminde
ed time and again of my camp.
ing cxperiences in America, the
customs and the lorins of tun
did make this exerience unique.
I was both amused and embar—
rassed when, after promising to
be the life guard for a 6 am.
swim, I awoke at 6:30 to ﬁnd
the girls ready but politely
wa' ing tor me to wake up—
without any help.

On our last night at camp
two had a beautiful campﬁre on
ithe beach. Dressed in costumes
which showed imaginative use
,of sarongs. dowcrs, scarves and
palm leaves, the girls gave skits
and performed folk dances fro
dieterent parts of Thailand. This
was the one time when i saw
their reserve completely break
down; they screamed with
laughter at a couple of their
“tom boys” who paraded around
las cheese cake queens and were
ifollowed by servants fanning
Ithem with huge palm leaves.
T h i s evening’s entertainment
imade me even more aware of
‘the talent, originality and sense
Iof humor of my students.
Sitting on the porch chatting
iathight and on our long hikes
, p the beach, l discovered that,
,as I had suspected, all of them
lean converse informally in Eng-
llish and cnioy doing it, The re.
turn to the classroom was also
a return to the brief, tortured
little English sentences from
nei‘vouselooking girls. I look up.
on this as a challenge, and l
have told my Thai teacher
friends that this situation in
my class is going to change!
hey only smile—shyly.
lBURKLE
iConl. from p. 2
the Russian, American
French embassies,

How many will join in we
don’t know. Many students are
apprehensive about getting in-
volved in large mass actions, es

and

the reputedly Communist-led
student organization, is so will-
log to join in and provoke vio—
lence whenever they gel. wind
of student action anywhere.

lng‘aild very excing. It cer—
tainly beats prepping for start
log all the fall term. And in
case you are wondering where
the toll students get all the
time, no one is ever dropped
from school for low grades and
no minimum grade average is
ircquired for graduation.

 

I ,

'guides about the marvels of
what was once Cluse to civiliza-

Be-‘littlc foolish, This kind of gen- non.

Although it is not the best
way to see a place, our tourist
friend has little choice; he has
only 12 short days in London,

labout these famous spots would
ibe utter foolishness, not to say
a waste of his money.

But he has a chance, if he
wishes, to sec and even partake
in one of the most curious and
‘chaineleonic institutions of man
—alld this is the Chance of the
public bar, known as the Pub.

. this presents a monumental
i problem, tiinewise that is, be-
cause it takes time to become
familiar with this strange
species; it takes time to chat
with some tcllow and ﬁnd out
what he did during the war,
time to starc at an outland.
l ish Dickensian character and
time to observe the Pub
i metamorphose through its sev-
t cral stages as its patronscomc
and go.
Because the Pub lsoriented to
vaei-yman, thc Britishcr and the
Englishman (they are two sepae
rate races, you understand)
might both agree that a ‘pl‘opel"
lPub is not to beicund in down-
‘town London. So one must go
out where the city asserts its
.viliage character again, to Ham-
;stead. Mile End Road, Wimble-
jton or Shepards Bush, cach less
ian half an hour from the city
i_a Pub far enough out so that
it has its regular customers, yet
close enough to attract seine of
ithe city characters, dissidents
and students.

Even though these Pubs might
lack somc of the country au—
thenticity, the American who is
lused either to the brightly
.lit llqour stores of New York, or
,to the dully lit (but also expen-
sire)
should discover many surprising
and even pleasing things.

The only unwelcome part
,about the pub might be the
change in the actual liquid re-
freshment (known to the Grins
nell world as ice Cream) from
passable Budweiser to giiastly
guinesscs, awesome ales and
stiﬂing stouts, particularly when
served warm, as they are in at
least half oi the Pubs. (1 sus-
pect that this is one of the rea-
‘sons why Britain set. the legal
iage lower than the US, not
ibeeause she trusts her young
ichaps, but because they have
lto havc a great dcal of grit
‘and determination in order to
,ilearn to drink the stud.)

 

1 Thus, after a couple of swal-
llows of boiling ale. conversa—
,tion, the forte of the Pub, bc~
‘omes a welcome relief. And

pecially when the “Zengakurcn.”'Cmitrary to the practice of tthsleep until noon, and then, ful-

l Correction

l Astory appeared in last wcelt's‘become extinct m the rush of evaluate

Scarlet and Black concerning

All in an it is my interesg the new vision standard ior incllong ago in the American way

AFROTC. The standards,
printed, were wrong.

as

Cori-ectcd, they read — um:

corrected distance vision must
i be less than 20/400.
l vision must be corrected to less

than 20/30 in one eye and 20/40
|, in the other.

 

WE HAVE A LARGE SELECTION

OF DELICIOUS

BAKED GOODS

TRY SOME TODAY!

DANISH MAID

818 Fourth Avenue
—We feature pastries of all kinds

,and to miss seeing and hearing

But to our rushing friend ,

liquor Stores of Newlon,l

ly on thc‘typc or people who‘
come, and that depends upon‘
ithe time of day.

On a Sunday afternoon, the

rub takes on its most domes
tic mask as whole English
families descend upon it, The
kids are told to amuse them-
selves while the grownups
hash over the latest blunders
by dear Harold. outrages or
our own Jack or discuss com-
munity developments and
decrees.
l Some people come in still
‘dressed from church, others in
old working clothes; some come
o have a regular meal (be-,
cause many of the Pubs have,
‘their own small restaurants).
iand others just tor a short pint
lbefore facing the afternooh’sl
icliores.

The illusory effect of domes-
tic tranquillity prescnts itseli,.
lat least until the Conversationi
lis overheard, and then the resin,
‘Z'dLion comes that ll. is not by‘
accident alone that the tradition
of Hyde Park and that of illei
Pub exist in the same country.i

The second, and perhaps more‘
interesting phase, comes in late,
afternoon and early evening on
week days, when the working
people come in for a little re-l
laxation. But as always, the em-
phasis is on drinking just
enough to loosen the tongue but,
not enough to completely dis—
able it. '

Perhaps the most interesting
way to approach these people
is to start them talking about
some ﬁgure of authorityiother
than the Queen, which is still
considered foul playiand then
just sit back for some lively
and entertaining descriptions of
‘public leaders.

Topics that always seem to
raise vociterous arguments and
dcelamations are ones like
whether the German troops
should be allowed to train on
British soil, or what should be
done about the Proteus and
her nuclear oifspring.

But the more political ques-
tions should be saved for late
evening, when the Pub emerges
into its final stage by the en-
trance of students and their
dates (maybe) who have come
in for a bit of refreshment, of
lcitwingors to discuss policy ov—
er a game of darts and of frus-
trated beats to sit and think on
the evils of society.

But whatever may be said, the
most important thing is that the'
Pub is somewhat ot a grab bag'
and thus avoids any stereotype
which eager young exchange
students would want to put on
iit by discussion in college news~
papers.

I
So let us hope that on at least

one day, our tourist friend Will

 

:‘ly rested, set out on a leisurely]
day of Pub crawling, taking time
llo appreciate a species soon to

 

,Britain's modernization as it has‘
let sti-ire.
i

Danforth Grants
To Be Awarded

Applications for Danioitli
Graduate Fellowships worth up
to $12,000 are now being receiv—
ed, James H. Stauss, Dean of the
College, announced today.

The fellowships, offered by
the Dantorth toundation of St.
Louis, Mo. are open to male col-
lege seniors or recent graduates
preparing for a career of teach-
ing, counsclmg or administrative

i work at. the college level. Appli-

cants may be planning to major
in any recognized tield at the
American graduate school of
their choice, but should not
have already undertaken grad-
uate work.

Approximately loo fellowships
will be awarded to candidates

‘ from accredited colleges and uni—

versities in the United States.
Nominees will be iudged on in-
tellectual promise and person-
ality, integrity, genuine interest
in religion and potential for ef»
fective college teaching.

Winners will be eligible for
up to four years of iinancial
a. istance. with an annual
ma. mum of 51.500 tor single
men and $2,000 (as well as soon
per child) for married men,
plus tuition and tees, students
without financial needs also
are invited to apply.

In addition to the annual stip—
end winners will be guests of
the foundation at an annual ecl—
ucation conference held on the
shores ot Lake Michigan, Lead»
ing scholars are brought to the
conference for lectures. semi»
hers and personal contact with
the Fellows.

Danlorth Graduate Fellow-
ships are unique in that they
may be held tor hie, with cor»
tain benefits after completion of
graduate work, such as financial
assistance to attend educational
conferences and stipends to pur~
chase books and periodicals dur~
ing the first three years of
teaching.

Students may hold a Dantorth
Fellowship concurrently with
other appointments, such as
Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Ful~
bright and National Science
Foundation. Winners will become
Daiiforth Fellows without sti —
end until these other awards
lapse.

Further information concern-
ing the program may be obtain—
ed in the Dean's office from
Dean stauss who may nominate
up to three candidates. Nomina»
tions must be submitted to the
toundatioii by Nov. 1.

LETTERS
Cont. from p. 2
that an essential ingredient of
any form or recreation is enjoy.
merit. Uniortunately, forced hall
participation in a sport not
generally enjoyed docs not
achieve these desired ends.

Perhaps if we have reached
the point where there is never
even a sutticient minority ot
the girls in the hall interested
in hockey lM’s it is time to re-
thc program rather
than criticize it.

Ann Hamilton

 

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