The Siamerican

For students who have studied, study, or are planning to study at Bangkok University International College (BUIC), Group presentations are (were/will be) a major part of the college experience. Depending on the instructor and course, groups for projects and presentations will either be voluntary in selection or assigned. Depending on class sizes, group quotas can be anywhere from pairs up to eight students.

Because students can have conflicting schedules, lives, and responsibilities in their daily lives, coordinating meetings among large groups can prove to be burdensome and stressful. Even once every member in the group finds a common time in their schedules to meet up and discuss logistics and details of the project, report, and/or presentation, communication barriers among students of varying backgrounds and nationalities is the next obstruction to overcome.

Thus, it is quite common for one or two more affluent members of the group to take on disproportional loads of the work, while the lesser affluent (or perhaps lesser motivated) members sit back and show up for the presentation with orders and directions from the groups leaders. While this may not sound like the ideal community dynamics, it’s sometimes the least stressful path.

For example, if you found yourself in a group with all leaders, it’s likely you’ll have a case of personality clash. If all there are are leaders with ideas who refuse to listen and pay respect to other ideas other than their own, progress can seem to be an unreachable goal. Luckily, intellectual minds at the college level are induced with at least some level of reasoning–thus nothing is impossible.

Chances are, however, is that the group will be a mix of leaders and followers; If the student has the confidence and essential prose to express his/her own idea among the group, other group members be happy to take receptive if not passive roles. Many students just want to get the grade and be over with the burden, taking the path of least resistance and seriousness. And so, they tend to end up in groups with their friends and others of similar backgrounds, if they have the option to choose their own groups; Farang will group with farang, and Thais will group with Thais–snug and fit in their comfort zones with their own countrymen, if possible. Thus, many instructors will assign groups to mix it up some.

The Siamerican just had a major group presentation yesterday for Modern Presentation Techniques class. The type of presentation was pure entertainment, with a general purpose to entertain the audience. The Siamerican’s group chose the topic of friendship and broke the structure of the speech, as required, into three main themes: Finding and developing common grounds in communication, language, and interests.

While the other groups in the diverse class all ended up in their own cultural ‘clicks’ as mentioned above (there was an exclusively Scandinavian group, a few French groups, and a few Thai groups) the Siamerican’s group was the most internationally mixed group of all. There was Zarina from the Phillipines, Zaul Pan from Myanmar, Gengus from Bhutan, Andy, a Thai Italian from Italy, and of course the Siamerican, a Siamerican from the USA.

While every other groups presentations proved to be entertaining and interesting, the Siamerican’s group which included a few skits and a closing song was perhaps the most engaging (though not to infer or brag that it was the best as the quality and ideas of other groups were fantastic) as the instructor even had the class give an extra round of applause at the end of class– specifically for the Siamerican’s group performance.

The presentation was a quick ten minutes, but the Siamerican was nervous as ever as he had a major role in each three parts. In the first skit, Zaul Pan played a blind man, and the Siamerican played a deaf and mute. Bumping into eachother, conflict immediately arose in that a blind man and deaf person have no obvious common grounds in communication. It was eventually resolved when the deaf person pulled out a joint and lit it up, and the blind and deaf person became friends (smell was the common ground). In the second skit, Andy had approached the Siamerican to ask help in homework. Only problem is, Andy didn’t speak English, and the Siamerican didn’t speak Italian. They eventually realized they both spoke Thai, and thus found their common ground in Language. For the final piece, to represent finding a common ground in interests, the group performed ‘More than Words’ by Extreme with the Siamerican on the guitar. The class joined in and sang some, also clapping the hands along, which was reassuring to the nervous performers.

Well, performances aren’t always fun like that and can be disastrous if one doesn’t prepare physically and mentally prior. Luckily for the Siamerican, stage fright has never been an issue, and his previous public, crowd, class (teaching English for five years) and group speaking only reinforced his credibility and confidence as a speaker.

His next presentation is on Wednesday for Mass Media communications class. It won’t likely be as dynamic and engaging as the group dynamics are quite different with various leaders and their ideas concensus to base half of the 30 minute presentation on a pre-made video. If anything, this will give the Siamerican a chance to take a more passive/observing role, viewing the instructors and classmates response and attention to such an approach.

Stay tuned..