SoCAM 2011, HERE WE ARE!

Written by Jono Lucerne Thursday, 07 July 2011 07:58

So here we are finally at SoCAM 2011. The Students arrived on Friday and we had orientation with a girl named Gift. It was an amazing gift, pun intended, to have Gift with us. She talked about the world view of the Thai and how it relates to Hinduism, Chinese Animism and Buddhism. She explained that Buddhism is the main Thai religion which influences the Thai people’s world view but that a lot of Hinduism and Animism is mixed in as well. We learned a bunch of dos and don’ts of Thailand with one example being that the head is a sacred part of the body so it is extremely rude to touch the head of someone who is older than you.

On Saturday we got up fairly early to take the students to Wararot Market where we had a photo/video scavenger hunt. The students had to split up in small groups and find a bunch of things on a list related to Thai culture or simply land marks in the area.

Afterwards we all met at the Art Cafe where we hang out over lunch.

The rest of the weekend was time off for the students to rest, go shopping or get a head start on their journals.

Monday was the first day of class and Calvin Conkey, the International Director of Create, began his teaching on Cross Cultural Communications. He began with Biblical foundations and then, on Tuesday, told us how to deal with indifferences among another culture.

Calvin shared amusing stories of cultural differences. One particular story is: About a Suruwaha Tribal who was wearing nothing but a piece of fabric. When asked why the tribal man didn’t think it would be easier to just not wear the cloth at all, the man replied, “What do you want me to do? Go around naked?!”

Wednesday we played a fun and challenging game which we can’t really talk to much about because it might give it away for the people who haven’t played it yet. We can say, that it was a roleplaying-type game involving two make-believe cultures that kind of clashed together.

In the afternoon it was movie night. We watched a classic film called Who Framed Roger Rabbit? which the animations were created by Richard Williams, the creator of the book we are studying this year The Animator’s Survival Kit. Stephen Spielberg was also involved as the producer of the movie.

We will be looking forward to the rest of Calvin’s teaching as well as next week’s speaker Carol Conkey, Calvin’s wife and also International Director of Create, who will be teaching us on Developing Media Strategy.