Joe and I met last Monday on Landis green. I've since learned that he isn't very comfortable in the heat after this meeting because I was laying out in the sun while he was sweating profusely, even while drinking a starbucks iced coffee. Following up from our last meeting we spoke mostly about Thailand since he had told me about the beauty of his country, the demeanor of the people, and the availability of English teaching jobs. I had been doing my research and wanted to know more from him about what it feels like to be in school there.
He has been in the United States since High School but has a few memories from Thai schools to recollect. I was surprised to find out that students have to pick out what they'll do for the rest of their lives from the beginning of high school, or rather the decision is made for them. The way they school system goes, the highest scoring students are science and math "majors" while the lower scoring students study liberal arts, the remedial students are "bumped down" into agriculture classes. None of the students have a choice of what class they take and they take only one exam a year that decides if you are allowed to stay in your academic program. This sounds freaky to me, now I understand why all Asian students that come to the U.S to study is so focused. After learning that each classroom has at least 50 students, I was like "How does the teacher know that each student is learning?" and his reply basically meant that they slower students get bumped down with no questions asked. Super competitive environment! I can't imagine that kind of schooling, even in Nigeria.
Joe is so amused by me sometimes, I think because my academic life has been so much less intense than his so he can tell me his stories about hard times in high school, his undergraduate degree in Wisconsin, and his masters in Texas and I listen like he's describing an action movie. He chuckles in this "That's so cute!" manner when I talk about aspects of my major like writing fiction, workshopping, e.t.c, I understand how awkward it seems to him for someone to be going to college for these things. He is starting to be really supportive about me going to Thailand to teach English, recommending provinces and asking me to send him information about whatever schoolx I've seen with job offers so that he can ask his contacts back home about them. Before we left I asked him the question that has been burning in my mind since my Thailand research began, "Have you seen Black people in Thailand?". His answer was basically that there are a bunch of foreigners, some of which are black, a lot of people will be caught off guard because I'm a large dark guy but I likely won't have racist experiences.(Maybe great experiences with Thai women in his opinion :D) I think I've been overthinking the whole black thing, I assume it'll be the same thing in other Asian countries.
Thailand might not be judging, but China, unfortunately, is as far as who they hire racially. I recently read an article that one school wouldn't hire an Asian American just because they wanted someone to "look the part" even though he was born in the US and a native English speaker.
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