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| Preparing for Prae's arrival, Tet and work diplomacy - Jan. 31, 2006 | | Date Created: Jan 31, 2006, 11:54 AM |
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Above photo: The Vietnamese community celebrated the Tet New Year on Saturday.
I was talking to Prae last night, after her last day of work at Sea Dream and she was getting packed. And I realized that this is a pretty big deal for her as well -- although I had farther to travel, she's dropping the life she had in Phuket, quitting her job and moving here to this tiny apartment to a life that will be rather foreign to her, even if it is in her own country. Relatively speaking, it's as if she left her life and job in Florida to move to Long Island to be with me -- not in terms or climate, certainly, but I guess it did hit me that in her mind -- as someone whose perspective of distance is relative to Thailand and not the U.S., where distances like the 500 miles between Phuket and Bangkok seem just as great as a cross-America journey to us.
What I realized, I guess, when I had been thinking all along of what I was giving up to come here and be with Prae, it had never occurred to me that from her perspective, she's giving up as much. She's certainly not thinking that way from how she talks; I'm the one who thinks too much. But I think the thought has crossed her mind, and I know she's a bit nervous about this herself. For one, every person here except the maids and grounds crew, has an advanced degree, and that's not something that escapes my thinking and leaves me feeling sometimes intimidated -- not so much for my own education or intelligence but that I will somehow bee looked down upon for not having the pieces of paper that say I earned higher degrees. Already I know that Prae is intimidated by that, and she probably has more reason to be, as there are a lot of Thai grad students here, and here she is with no other purpose to be here than to be with her farang (a term for westerner) boyfriend. Although she has her bachelor's degree, she has admitted to me that the university she attended was not one of the top, most respected ones, so she doesn't have that to fall back upon as I do Dartmouth. Interestingly, even with only my bachelor's degree, the Dartmouth reputation helps me keep my standing among those who were educated in the States. As far as I can tell, I am the only one here with an Ivy League education, and that definitely means something to those familiar with the Ivy League.
Anyhow, we both may be a little nervous, but I think we're excited to see how this next, more realistic phase of our relationship works out. I think we're both pretty optimistic as well. I think I've mentioned that Prae has the idea to start a massage business on campus, which would be great, and so far the few people I've mentioned it to are very excited by the prospect. I think it would be great for her as well. My next-door neighbor, Krishna, who works for the business school has offered to pose the idea to a group of business school students to use as their business plan this semester, so Prae could wind up getting a comprehensive business plan and market study done for her.
Krishna has proved to be a great guy, and through him I've met a few people, as he attended business school here and knows quite a few people. One of them, a student named Gorky from Bangladesh, has been particularly interesting to talk to, as he is Muslim and not necessarily anti-American but skeptical of Americans. We've had some really fascinating conversations about religion and politics, and it makes me once again enjoy being on a college campus where you can have those fascinating conversations over a beer at night -- although I don't think Gorky drinks; he does smoke, however, and he hasn't interrupted our conversation to stop and pray toward Mecca, so he's not altogether devout. (I'll have to remember to point that out to him next time he criticizes the hypocrisy of Americans.)
The job seems to be going quite well. I'm not getting much done because I keep having so many meetings, but that seems to be how things are done here. It definitely is a different pace from that which I'm accustomed to. All the headaches and bureaucracy that everyone complain about here, they're awful and all, but I keep thinking to myself, Thank God I don't have to put out a newspaper on top of all this! The mind-set is definitely different because of being here in Asia. Lunch, for instance, is seen as very important. Same with not putting in too many work hours. So the stresses are not many, and in that regard I somehow think that will wind up letting me get more done and be more productive. I do have to say though that I am so accustomed to bringing work home in my mind it worries how it will affect my relationship with Prae. It seems that unlike a newspaper, people don't actually expect you to bring work home in your mind or in reality. |
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Above photo: Many of the Vietnamese students wore traditional ao dais to the Tet festivities.
On Saturday night I went to a party put on by Vietnamese students for the New Year -- or Tet -- also the Chinese New Year. I realized that this was sort of campus news happening, so I went back to my room to grab my camera, shot the festivities and got my photos up on the Web site on Monday morning. People were astounded that I was working at midnight on a Saturday. I didn't tell them that in the other lens compartment of my camera bag was an open Heineken. For me that was just plain fun, not work. Actually a result of that may wind up being one of the houses or townhouses on campus. I'm getting a little more optimistic that I might be able to use my influence -- and apparently I have more than I think -- to get one of the houses on campus that would allow me to have Sophie. That would be ideal, because this is a great place to have a dog -- lots of open spaces, places to walk and very little traffic except on bikes. We'll see about that. I'm crossing my fingers. |
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Above photo: Karaoke -- this time popular and traditional Vietnamese songs -- seems to be a part of every celebration here.
Related to my rising influence, my boss brought me in today to discuss his management style. I was a little dumbstruck. It turns out this new president has brought a much more Western philosophy to the management style here, and it has all the old-timers here scratching their heads, trying to make sense of it. So I shared my views and encouraged him, and he seemed to appreciate it.
What happened was this: There are two vice presidents for external relations, one of whom I have met and who interviewed me, and we get along pretty well, I think. Both of these VPs are my boss's boss. The second VP is a Burmese professor who is based in Paris and also works for UNESCO. She is in charge of fund raising and visits Bangkok only a few times a year. Her name is Professor Ni Ni -- pronounce it as you like.
Her idea, as I mentioned in a previous post, was to create a video to present to Oprah Winfrey on her birthday. Somehow this would solve all the financial troubles of AIT. To say that my boss and two Burmese coworkers were skeptical of such an idea is being judicious. But since this woman is the highest ranking Burmese national at AIT and the Burmese stick together, they were in no position to disagree with her. My boss is Indian, so he didn't care about that, but she's his direct superior, so he was put in a sort of tight position. I figured because I'm new here and I'd never met her that I had little to lose by being the fall guy, and I volunteered to take the lead position in dissuading her. I figured my best tactic was to be firm but polite, and I've learned that you must do everything with a smile on your face in Southeast Asian culture. I also had the backing of my boss that no matter what happened in the meeting.
So anyway during the meeting, I repeatedly interrupted her with valid questions about her idea. I knew that in Asian culture, one is not supposed to interrupt his superior, but I kept excusing myself, saying my very nature as a journalist provoked me to ask such questions, and, I explained, if I were to understand the task she was laying before us, I needed to know her exact ideas. While I was not able to get her to back down, I did not expect this: If she were to reverse a decision on what she initially considered a great idea in front of two of her countrymen and in front of me and my boss -- all of whom were her inferiors, she would lose face -- and face is definitely not just a Japanese thing. So I knew it would be extraordinary for her to reverse her position.
But the meeting did end up with her saying to me that she hoped we would get to know each other well enough that we could raise our voices at each other. She said she hoped that I, as a professional in a field outside her realm of expertise, would feel comfortable to tell her "No," if she were to present an idea that did not make sense. It was pretty amazing, actually, and the two other Burmese were sitting there slack-jawed after she left. She had just admitted she could have been mistaken about the Oprah video without, of course, admitting it, and we technically are still assigned to produce it -- for Jan. 29, 2007 -- a date that will likely pass without another mention of the video.
And today, when I was at lunch, Prof. Ni Ni invited me to dine with her.
It was quite a triumph, and the two Burmese in the meeting were still talking about it today.
Of course the entire process took most of the morning. In the afternoon, I met with several editors of the Bangkok Post, which again was rather fun, and I came away from there with assurances of several upcoming stories that will include AIT. Additionally, they asked me to write a profile of our president for their Sunday profile section. One of the nice things about meetings in Bangkok is I get a car and driver. There are some things that are just great about this country. So things are looking pretty good work-wise. |
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