An Announcement

I will be returning to Montana State for the spring semester. I am returning early for the single reason that the quality and availability of education for a native English speaker at Thammasat is severely limited. Talking to one of my British professors, he put it quite plainly: “if [I] stay here for a full year, [I] will be behind when I go home.” There are two reasons for this. First, the course offerings are limited. Within my faculty, there are only two 400 level course offerings (one of which I’m enrolled in) and a handful of 300 level courses, of which only two or three may transfer to Montana State as history credit rather than elective credit. Frankly, I’m unable to find eighteen transferable credits of classes for this semester, and judging by the course-listing for the spring semester, I anticipate that I will be even more taxed to take at least fifteen credits. I should have been more cautious of this when I made my choice to stay for a year rather than a semester, but at the time I was thinking in terms of culture and not education. In terms of a cultural education, I can’t saw how much more rich or full my Thai experience would be for staying ten months rather than five, but in terms of academic education, there’s no question that I will be greatly advantaged to return home in January.

Secondly, my courses are being taught in English (by American and British professors) to almost exclusively non-native English speakers. Most of the Thai students are conversant in English, but far from fluent. As a result, most of the lectures are superficial and repetitive, so as to give the non-native speakers a fighting chance at comprehension. The scope and depth of material covered is not nearly the equal of similar courses at Montana State. As my American History professor commented to me, “this must feel like high-school for you.” Unfortunately, with the notable exception of my Thai language course, he couldn’t have said it better.

As a sophomore (with few high-school transfer credits and a recently switched major) I don’t feel that I’m at leisure to take a full year away from academic rigor, regardless of the concurrent cultural education. Many of the other international students here are seniors who have already completed all their university requirements or need only a few credits to transfer. If that were my position, I would be much less concerned about transfer credits and my academic education here. As it stands, however, I fear that two semesters here may set me back from my goals for the foreseeable future, rather than advancing me towards them.

As a positive side note, depending on when my professors give their finals, I may be finished with Fall Semester by December 1st, rather than December 15th, as my ISEP materials stated. This will give me an unanticipated additional two weeks travel and enjoy Thailand and surrounding areas, in lieu of the traveling I would have done during Spring Semester.