Thirty nine students from thirteen different countries have just enjoyed being a part of Asian University’s fourth Summer University programme. Students came from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Russia, Slovenia, Spain and elsewhere, making it a truly international experience.
They spent a week at the university campus, meeting the students, and learning from them about the Thai way of life. A Thai evening of presentations by the Thai students was followed by an International evening, with the visitors telling everyone about their home countries. Several of the visitors had brought along food and drink from their countries for everyone to share. People either loved or hated the salty licorice from Denmark! However, most people enjoyed tasting the wines. Then a weekend on Koh Samet to relax, including dinner and a fire show on the beach, before enjoying a week at the Jomtien Sea Breeze Hotel. The final week was spent based at the Ambassador Hotel in Bangkok.
The courses offered the young people a chance to listen to many experts and practitioners to improve their knowledge about business and tourism in Asia, especially in Thailand.
Visits to local businesses gave them an insight into the wide variety of products and services here. They enjoyed seeing behind the scenes at the Royal Cliff and Amari hotels, where they heard about hotel management in Pattaya. They were very impressed by the Bangkok Hospital, Pattaya, where Dr. Iain and Neil gave a presentation and showed us some of their facilities. Other places visited included Mama Noodles production plant (Thai President Foods), Nong Nooch gardens, an authentic Thai meal on the beach at Tung Seafood, Tiffany’s, Henry J Bean, etc. In Bangkok they went to the Grand Palace and the Stock Exchange of Thailand; they learnt the benefits of travelling by Skytrain (BTS) and found plenty of evening entertainment venues to explore. Of course shopping was on the agenda, in both Pattaya and Bangkok, with visits to malls and street-markets.
Everyone enjoyed hands-on classes in Thai Massage, fruit carving and cooking Thai food as well as an introduction to the Thai language and Muay Thai boxing. The students heard about the Art of Meditation from Pra Suchart at Wat Yan, and gave alms to a group of monks early one morning at the university.
The Special Guest speaker this year was Mr. Chung Po-yang (Po Chung) OBE, SBS, JP, a co-founder of DHL International, and a very successful entrepreneur. This lecture was open to the public and Po Chung came with his wife, and told everyone about his life, so far, before telling us about his many business and philanthropic ventures. His talk was an inspiration to the young students who are just starting their working lives.
Some of the comments on the course included “Awesome!”, “Very well organized”, “I liked the chance to talk with the lecturers” and “The mix of international students.”
Staff at Asian University are now starting to plan for Summer University 2010.
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