Craftsmanship fair: modern design of the young Thai generation

For some reasons expats seem to prefer to go to new restaurant openings and roof top bars more than to more local events, because I haven't seen too many foreigners at BIG or the recent craftsmanship fair ay BITEC. With this blogpost I hope to help increasing the number at least for the next event: The Thailand Innovation and Design Expo 2014, 18.-21. September, Queen Sirikit Convention Center

So what are those fairs about? Mainly designer stuff from young Thais who are entrepreneurs, business people, artists. They produce organic salad, wooden beds or small houses. Below you will find a selection of exhibits I have seen at the recent fair at BITEC (that's a convention center that is actually accessable by BTS, via Bagna station). One product I like is De La Lita, a salad dressing. Well designed, fresh made, incredible delicious. They do everything right regarding marketing and distribution: A Facebook page www.facebook.com/DeLaLita.recipes, a website www.delalita.com and you can buy the products at Tops, Villa Market and Gourmet Market. Try the basilica dressing, its awesome.

Something very different and on a larger scale is Homes at Home. They are selling houses - made of wood, rather small, but also inexpensive. Sunshine 9, the big one, costs 30.000 USD. It is build in a few days, out of wood from New Zealand. They claims it is termite safe. You can see their products at www.facebook.com/homesathome.fanpage

Since we all want to be more independent mushboom might be a solution for growing your own mushrooms. It comes in a kit in a paperbox, more information on https://www.facebook.com/mushboomkit


Amantee makes finest french style bread, only the shop is quite in the middle of nowhere in 10120 Chongnonsee - Yannawa. Their webiste shows some products. We tried the fig bread and can only recommend it.

Some more impressions below.

Some thoughts about Barcamps

Barcamp Bangkok is coming soon, on August 23rd from 10am-5pm at TK Park in Central World. We try to keep the tradition of the awesome Bangkok Barcamps, but I was actually asking myself, what makes a Barcamp a good Barcamp.

Having organised those events in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and now in Thailand, many people always look at numbers. Cambodia has Barcamps in nearly every city and more than 1000 participants in Phnom Penh. Laos as well looks at - although lower - numbers. Myanmar is the record holder with 4000 or so.

But it is not so much about numbers. A Barcamp is just a place in time where people come together to share knowledge and get connected. The more people, the more connections, yes. But even a 50 people Barcamp like the last one in Bangkok in 2012 is a good one. Sometimes it is just a restriction by venue. This year we can only accommodate 350 people. So it is far from the 1000 participants in 2009. But it doesn't make it less good.

Some organisers also want to make a Barcamp a professional event. Like any other conference. But it is the exact opposite. We don't pay speakers, we don't lick a sponsors ass. No champagne, no canapés.  Local food, if any. Water, and some 3-in-1 coffee. We focus on the people and their way to collaborate. It is a pure experience. No distractions and kind of pure honesty. You don't have to pretend to be a successful entrepreneur, it is ok if you failed with your last business. It doesn't matter if you don't know everything about programming - there are people here to help you.

For me, a successful Barcamp is one that happened. That is my duty as an organiser: to make it happen. Everything else, and this is the core of the events, is in the hands of the participants.


A bit of background about Barcamps:

A Barcamp is a so called un-conference. We don't know who is speaking and we don't know what about. That is up to you. In the morning at between 10am and 11 am we will set up a time table and available rooms. You can pick a time slot (usually 30 minutes) and then write down the topic you want to talk about. Languages can be Thai  or English.



If we have more speakers than times lots we will conduct a voting.

From 1pm to 1.30pm we will have a lunch break.

5.30 pm will be the closing ceremony.

Participation is free. But we expect participants to be part of the event, and sometimes to give us a hand if needed.

The issue with English language skills in Thailand

First a disclaimer: I am aware of the fact that my English skills are not A+. That's why I am not calling myself an English writer. It is also not my mother tongue, so native speakers, please be nice.

Since we are in Thailand, I am wondering why the English language skills here are so low. In the regions economic hub you would expect more people speaking English, and in a famous tourist destination like Bangkok even more. But my personal experience is that very few people I met are able to have a long conversation in English. I also witnessed that many people I know actually know grammar way better than me, and may even have a larger vocabulary. Yet, they just don't speak well or enough.

As a houseman I go shopping a lot for groceries, food, whatever we need. Sometimes it seems the sellers in the small stall at the local market make way more efforts to communicate in English with me than the wannabe-models and guys at Siam Paragon. Yesterday at Central Embassy they had to call the manager on duty to explain me the promotion model in English.

There is some evidence that the English problem isn't new. In 1986, Chualalongkorn University conducted a study about the English skills of students:

1. Matayom Suksa Three students were rather weak in the skills of using English in both the sound modality and the graphic modality, needing improvement, especially in the skills of reading and writing.            2. Matayom Suksa Six students had a medium level of English skills in the sound modality needing improvement, while their skills in the graphic modality were rather weak needing improvement, especially in the writing skill.            3. University students had a medium-level of skills in both the sound and the graphic modalities needing improvement, especially in the integrative skills of reading-writing and the writing skills, which were very weak.            4. Concerning language components, it was discovered that Matayom Suksa Three and Six students had a low level of ability which needed improvement while university students exhibited a medium level of ability.            5. Concerning test score distribution, it was discovered that the scores of Matayom Suksa Three students were most widely spread having 6 levels of dispersion, followed by those of Matayom Suksa Six students with 5 levels and university students with 4 levels.            6. Concerning the skewness of score distribution, it was revealed that while the test scores from the English skill tests and the language component tests of Matayom Suksa Three and Matayom Suksa Six students were generally below the mean scores, those of university students were above.            7. Secondary school students from small and medium sized schools exhibited statistically significantly lower levels of skills in both the sound and the graphic modalities than students from large and extra-large sized schools (p < .01).  It was also discovered that the English skills of first, second and third year university students were significantly different with second-year students having significantly higher scores than first-year students (p < .05).

So there was a warning already that a problem might occur. But it is part of the Thai tradition to ignore signs like that. So teachers went on with what they did all the years before: Speaking something they thought is correct English (or American) and focus on Grammar.


In 2012 Bangkok Post reported:

Thai students' English-language skills rank below those of youngsters in at least three other member countries of Asean, according to a recent survey by Education First (EF), an international language school
Thailand ranked 42nd out of 44 countries surveyed for adult English proficiency -- below Vietnam (39), and Indonesia (34), with Malaysia the top Asean country at No 9.
The Office of the Education Council (ONEC), which revealed the results of the survey, said the level of English proficiency of Thai youth is  below par and cannot compete with other countries. 

In 2013, a conference in Chang Rai concluded that English skills are far from what they should be:

On 15th March, at Ban Mae Jan School in Chiang Rai, the Quality Learning Foundation with Rom Chatra Foundation and Ban Mae Jan School, arranged a conference to discuss preparations for ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). One of the most important factors, it was said, was that Thailand has to vastly improve where English language capabilities are concerned.

And finally, in 2014 The Nation stated that English needs to be improved:

The average TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) score in Thailand last year was among the three lowest for Asean countries, Enconcept E-Academy executive Apitha Wonlopsiri said yesterday.

He said the country's average score was 76 points (it was 74 points last year), but was still among the bottom three, which included Cambodia (69) and Laos (68).
Singapore topped the list with 98 points followed by Malaysia and Philippines (89), Indonesia (82), Myanmar (79) and Vietnam (78).
Apitha called on Thai students to urgently improve their English language skills.  

I made a little experiment: I contacted randomly around 80 Thai people on Beetalk and ask if they can speak English. About 80 percent answered to a initial "Hi" with a "Hi". When I asked if they speak English, 60 percent said straight away No, and the remaining answered "A little bit". None was able to have a conversation in English. Their profession was from market seller to hair dresser, accountant, administration officer to microbiology student (the latter scored best, by the way, but still far from fluent). Age group was between 20 and 40. It also seems that older people have better skills than younger, at least when it comes to speaking.

So, the question is "Why"?
Why Are Thailand’s English-Language Skills The Lowest in South East Asia? as Tastythailand is asking.  While he says that Laos has surpassed Thailand (what I strongly reject, Laos is far behind Thailand), some arguments are very reasonable:

• Thailand’s Education is a Rote System – In Thai schools, students are taught to copy what the teacher writes on the board and memorize it. ...
• Critical Thinking Skills Are Not Taught – In Thailand, critical thinking skills are not taught. Students are rarely expected to think for themselves, so don’t question anything the teacher teaches....
• Thai Education Concentrates on Grammar – Throughout most of the years Thai students learn English, classes are normally concentrated on learning English grammar....
• Thai Teachers Are Poorly Trained – As much as most Thai teachers work hard to teach their students, few have the skills to teach English correctly....

I totally agree with everything above and want to add some more explanations. I myself learned English in school, but 30 years ago there was no need to speak English in Germany ever. Reading yes, but speaking? No. Even movies were dubbed in German. So only when I started travelling - my now wife forced me, and I am still thankful for this - I began to speak English on our journey through Asia. So I understand the problems of young Thai people who can simply get away with it. There is no real need, unless you have to communicate in English at your work. You have movies, books, music in Thai, your friends speak Thai, and in a country with 80 million people and a still healthy economy and a huge domestic market, only a few need to talk to foreign investors and bosses.

And then there is this strange relationship with foreigners in general. While everyone likes to drive a car and uses and iPhone (both not really invented by Thais), there is still some discrimination and resentment against foreigners.

Thailand is at risk to be stuck in the middle income trap. That means the economy will plateau, and the country won't make it to an higher level. One reason is that people are just doing fine. They have a job, a car, mobile phones, a condo and the kids can go to a international school. Why should the new middle class work harder?

Since new curriculums will focus more on Thainess, Thai culture and history, I doubt English skills are about to improve significantly. And again, it is not so much how you scored in a test. If you keep silent in a business negotiation with a partner from one of the AEC countries next year. nobody cares about Thai people being shy. They will just move on to the company from Cambodia or Myanmar, where staff dares to speak.

The Solution? Radical reform in Education. More English movies, music and documentaries in TV (and less Korean). Selling English as the ASEAN language might help as well. But this takes a long time and maybe comes too late already. Or I am too pessimistic?

Romance in the modern times

Saw this young couple sitting at Terminal 21. He was playing playstation while she was checking Facebook. Could imagine a more romantic setup for a date, but maybe this is how they do it these days?

Get your dinner from the market

When it comes to food, I always wonder how local stalls can sell it that cheap. I can't cook a dish for 30 baht, no way. But since it is so convenient, I go quite often to the local market here and buy stuff. Below some pictures. The market is an afternoon/evening market, located at Soi Wat Dan Samrong/Corner Soi 62. For some reasons stalls change a lot, so you will never get the same stuff on the next day. Since it is quite local , people don't speak English (but some do), and most can at least tell you the price and what kind of meat the dish contains. You can buy cooked dishes as well as meat, vegetables and fruits.

So many stalls offer traditional Thai dishes. Just try it out.

If you prefer to cook at home, get the ingredients here.

 The market is small and not much crowded, but I met the most friendly sellers here.

The fish cakes cost just 20 Baht - and they are sooooo delicious.

Japanese food is cheap as well - 5 Baht per ball.

Something about Bangkok you can't really share on Facebook

Every morning a ride my motobike about 7 kilometers through streets and sois in the suburbs of Bangkok, and in the evening I ride the same way back home (mainly Soi Lasalle and Soi Bearing). I captured once this ride with a gopro cam  http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oLvQJypnS3I) and while it gives you some impression about the area I live in (and the traffic there too), one, and maybe the most important thing is missing: the smell of hundreds of small street food shops, the odor from the early rain, from the overflowing sewage system, the gas powered tuk tuk (are they using any parfume there?), or from a decade old diesel truck.

You won't get that on a taxi or your air conditioned car. And it is something you can only try to describe, but technology has yet not make it possibe to share a scent. The pleasant smell of a simmering curry, the for some not so pleasent flavor of a durian stall. The spices vaporizing in the smoke of a BBQ grill. The fragrance of fresh roses and flower bouquets sold just next to the street. The stinking garbage truck I am stuck behind, and the parfume of the young girl on the mototaxi right in front to me, mixing to an unforgetable conglomerate of what makes this City of Angles so special.

(Of course there are downsides, like a BTS ride in the evening rush hour in the hot season or the attempt to walk through the fragrance department in a shopping mall without breathing)

Research actually shows that we remember a scent or smell quite good, even from our childhood. We can actually "recall" a scent in our brain. Remember the book "The parfume"?

- You can smell as fresh as a daisy every month and your scent cells are renewed every 28 days, so every four weeks you get a new “nose”.

-  Smell is the most sensitive of the senses. People can remember smells with 65% accuracy after a year, while visual recall is about 50% after three months.Research has shown that smell is the sense most linked to our emotional recollection. So, when linked to a product, that can reap dividends. 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/20-fascinating-facts-sense-smell-1977351#ixzz34U8KDYfx 

Maybe this is what makes Bangkok so unforgettable?

Some people even want to develop devices to create and share a scent: http://mashable.com/2013/05/13/chatperf-scented-phone/

But that still cannot catch what your nose gets from a stall selling my favorite Palo, the five spices mix with tofu, eggs and pork belly: cinnamon, anise, even the sugar seems to vaporize and crawl slowly through the street in a layer of fine smelling molecules, like an invisible yet detectable promotion banner.  I actually smelled it for a while until I figured out what dish it is that is smelling so significant and tasty. (Another discovery was the shop that cooks lotus stems - not so pleasant)

The only way to actually catch it is called "say thung". You buy some street food for take away and when you are back home and warm it up in the microwave for 20 seconds, it still smells like the hut with the middle age woman you bought it from.

On a side node: the olfactory experience in Vientiane/Laos for example is totally different. It is mainly burning trash with a dominant note of melting plastic and a little bit of charcoal grilled meat. Saigons sewage smell is like Old Spice: it blows everything away even the most beautiful parfume.And Phnom Penh, as much as I love it, is - from the nose speaking - a huge garbage dump.

More happiness (and calories): new Siam Square One shopping mall

So we have another shopping mall in Bangkok, where no other shopping malls where before: At Siam. It is called Siam Square One, has an open concept (means no air condition), and contains mainly restaurants. Its easy access from the BTS level (thats the 3rd floor then), and divided in Summer, Winter and Rainy sections (whatever that means). Right now there are very few shops open on this level, what is booming is the food upstairs (propably because of massive promotion).

The center attracts hundreds of students from the nearby university, I guess they are here out of curiosity and food promotions.

Entrance from Siam Square

The architectural design is interesting but also a bit confusing. The open concept is reflected in some open spaces with trees and natural light, but that is kind of absorbed by the dominating color black. Still a lot of construction going on. 

Looks like shopping malls are the thing to do in Bangkok, taking Gateway and Mercuryville aside, if you want to do retail business. Maybe the future more happy people will spend even more money as they do already: at least they will spend it there for food and not more useless investments that will even increase the debts.

Interesting is that entrance from the BTS station is quite spacious, and so is it from Siam square. But street level entrance from Rama I is a small dark hole. Thing is that no food is at level 1 and 2 so people entering from the BTS won't even see it, and customers from Siam square are lead to Level 3 through a wide open space. I wonder if the small shops downstairs can survive for long. 

Plus, they returned to a confusing concept of escalators up and down, forcing you to walk around to find you way. On the positive side, the open concept gives space for sitting and relaxing, so it might be a place where people meet and rest, chat and sit - something that remembers the old Siam Square.

Just bring mosquito repellent, the place is infested.... 

Some pictures below

Looks a bit cold and dark, more like a prison

Trees

More trees

Starbucks gives away some free drinks

Promotion at a restaurant drives students nuts

This one looks actually quite nice

Opening soon

Entrance