What: Coe Asia Term
When: January 12 - April 29
Where: Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia
Who: Myself, seven other Coe students, and our fearless leader Professor Robert Drexler.
Why: Because I'm a language-monger with the travel bug.
Asia Term is a semester long cultural experience. We start out in Thailand and will be there for about two months. The group of us will be studying Thai language and culture at Chiang Mai University in Chiang Mai, as well as participating in an Asian Literature course taught by professor Drexler. We also visit a few UNESCO World Heritage sites while we're there, hence the weekend trip to Laos! We leave Thailand in March to travel to Hanoi, Vietnam, where we will study Vietnamese at Vietnam National University. We will also have the opportunity to stay with a host family and become English conversation partners. We stay in Vietnam for less than a month, and from there we spend two weeks in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Then it's back to Thailand for the Thai New Year - and the three day long water fight! We leave Chiang Mai on April 20th and head back to Bangkok, where we stay until arriving back in the states on April 29th.
Does that sound awesome, or what? I'm super excited to get going!
For those unfamiliar with East Asia (myself included) here's a pretty good map that lays out the different countries.
Starting off in Thailand, we land in the capital - Bangkok - [insert witty pun here]. Then we travel by night train north to the city of Chiang Mai, where we spend most of our time. We study about a semester's worth of Thai during our stay, so I'll just outline the language briefly. Thai is a tonal language, meaning that saying a syllable in a high voice and then saying it in a low voice make for completely different words/meanings. There are five tones in all: high, rising, mid, falling, and low, which gives the language a singsongy quality to it. But unlike Japanese (thank God!) Thai has a system of 41 letters, which make up its words in a way similar to English. The difference here as well is that Thai adds in markers to show what the tone of the word should be. Also, the written language looks like a mix between Egyptian hieroglyphs and bent paperclips.
Didn't believe me? Shame on you.
As for Laos, we fly to Luang Prabang for a long weekend - the royal capita of Laos which preserves traditional Lao culture. (Which I totally just copied out of my handbook so I look like I know what I'm talking about.)
We remain in Hanoi for most of our stay in Vietnam, but we do get a field trip to stay on Halong Bay for a night! We'll learn survival Vietnamese . . . which has seven different tones . . . which are different than the tones in Thai. Bring it!
We head for Siem Riep in Cambodia to explore the ruins of Angkor Wat. Then on to Phnom Pehn to do more exploring and do some English teaching!
Excitement! Now to finish up some last minute planning and get to it! If anyone has any questions, feel free to email, Skype, post a comment here, or leave me a message on Facebook - I am still 100% accessible overseas. I will update again the night before I leave (Jan. 11th) and then again when I'm settled in Bangkok!
Wish me luck,
~Abby
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