Last Professional Development Class Before the Trip!

On January 29th we met with Michael Sullivan, a psychology teacher from Hopkinton.  We talked about the social psychology connection of entering a new and different culture. Michael helped us to compare and contrast Thailand with the USA, from a social psychology view.  For example, we learned that in the "World Happiness Report of 2013", the USA ranked 17th and Thailand ranked 36th.  Both the USA and Thailand ranked honesty as the #1 value.   There were larger differences between the following values: love, forgiveness, politeness, and independence. Even though the countries are extremely different in many aspects, we learned there are still many commonalities.  I've always believed that people are people... but the norms of society can change us as individuals.

We also watched a movie, narrated by a little boy, about a day in his life in Thailand. I loved it!  This boy and his family lived along a river.  Their transportation was all by boat.  (Sounds great to me!)  He went to school by boat, the "grocery store" by boat, etc.  The "grocery store" was a floating marketplace.  Vendors come out in their long "canoe" type boats to sell their wares.  Customers come alongside the vendors in their own boats.  On our trip, we are visiting the "Floating Market."  I can't wait to experience this, and I'll certainly think of the little boy from the movie when we do this.



The Floating Market, Bangkok, Thailand