Being a Prof in Thailand

I just talked with a nun whom I met at Sukato on the phone.  While I was there, she called me "Ying."  Now I've become "Ajahn Ying," following Phra Ajahn Tum and Phra Ajahn Note.  Oh, well...  It's not that I dislike the title, but to be called "Ajahn" (teacher in Thai)  means that I should behave like so to honor that kind of respect.  As if I have to live up to a standard.  And I'm so not Ajahn in many ways: I'm not 24-hour prim and proper.  Sometimes I'm so to-the-point on the verge of being rude.  My dresses are occasionally too short (only on the days I don't teach; else, the dresses would get more attention than my class instruction). 

Perhaps it was because I didn't do my undergraduate study in Thailand, but I was really amazed by how much respect Thai people have for those in the teaching profession.  P'Ed whose blog I translated for a while keeps calling me Ajahn Ying, despite my open request to be called just by my nickname.  Anyway, in the US, I called my former PhD adviser by his first name, Barry, and it took me a long time to get myself to do it.

Oh, this post will be on something that I'd like to talk about for a long time.  The other day I was discussing with a friend about fate.  I'm an utter believer in destiny that certain things are bound to happen, no matter what.  I told her how I went to take a scholarship exam just to practice before the university entrance exam.  I got a place to go to Canada to study BS, MS and PhD in plant biology.  I declined because I wanted to get my BS in Thailand; I got accepted into the prestigious Faculty of Engineering of Chulalongkorn University, and the idea of working for the government for a low pay and with a labyrinth of paper work was never appealing to me.

For the first few weeks, I wasn't that happy at Chula.  I hated the scolding system where senior students were allowed to yell at us freshmen for one hour every day.  I was like, I didn't study hard to be verbally abused like this.  This was a place where I was supposed to be educated, not to be treated like a slave.  Then another acceptance letter for the scholarship arrived for recipient substitutes.  With my mother's consents, I signed a contract to get a BS, MS and PhD in chemical engineering.

While doing an MS, I realized how much I disliked physical experiments that chemical engineers do for their research.  So I switched to industrial engineering, which was one of the best decisions in my life.

Then, when I was about to go home, I was asked to choose what government agency to work for.  None of the places I picked were universities.  I got a call from a staff of the Office of the Educational Affairs (in Washington, D.C.) asking me to reconsider my choices.  She said, you are way overqualified to work for those places.  (Thank goodness, she did call).  So I picked universities.

I knew nothing about Kaset.  I did zero homework (I should have visited all the departments and then made a decision).  What I did was to browse departments' websites and picked.  At the time, IE Dept at KU seemed to be the most active, so it was my top choice.  Of course, I got in without knowing anyone here.

As it turned out, I love this department.  I get along with my colleagues mostly because they let me do what I want to do and they don't get into my way.  (^ ^)

Though I never thought of teaching, now I get to do it.  It isn't such a bad job.  I like the fact that I can teach myself anything I find interesting.  I also get to read, get to work on problems, get to do computer programming, all of which I enjoy.  Last but not least, I get to be useful.  Relatively speaking, I'm a responsible and quite an able teacher.  This reminded me of another weird thing that will be a subject of another blog.