May 31 2009 /
From Family to Community to the World..
by Dawut Sassanapitax, Thailand 08-09
hosted in McKinleyville, CA
Hello! My name is Dawut Sassanapitax. (I know it is amazingly hard to pronounce it). I am from Thailand and I am spending a year here, in the US as a YES exchange student. In Thailand, we usually greet each other by putting the palms together and bowing; which is called “wai”. There’re also different levels of wai too, which depends on the situation or on who you are greeting. I felt a little bit weird when I first came here and people just greeted each other by shaking hands, but I have learned to adapt myself to this system.
I have had a really great time and experiences here. I mean it is not just great all the time, because as I am not an American; being here is really hard to adapt myself to the surroundings. I have learned a lot of things from here, not just improving my English; but also I have learned a lot of things about life. I see the world in a way I had never seen it before. I have learned how to adapt myself to be in the society by not throwing away who I am, and what I believe in.
And, of course; I would not have a really great time here without my host family. It is REALLY important for us to have a host family. It is not just that we learn a lot of things from our host families, but our host families also learn a lot of things from us. And, I think that if we understand each other much better; if we learn much more how to live with other people who are totally different from us; we should be able to live in peace. Not just in the family, but also for our community; and hopefully we can live in this beautiful community together where everyone respects and understands each other.
