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Finally, after all the detailed preparations, I got my first bird’s eye view of Kalmar, the Swedish town where I was to enter a programme in international management. |
Baltic Business School (BBS) is situated in Kalmar, Sweden, which was my destination. Let me explain briefly why I am in Sweden. I am a master student of the College of Management, Mahidol University (CMMU). I am here at BBS as an exchange student of CMMU, and have already passed some CMMU examinations.
I don’t believe that Sweden is a destination that most Thai students would choose as a place to further their education, but I think it is interesting to me. Kalmar is situated on the southeast coast of Sweden, close to Öland. Unlike Bangkok, Kalmar could be called a town rather than a city, as the population is pretty small, about 58,000 inhabitants. It is a very calm, quiet, small town. Therefore, it took just a couple of weeks for me to get used to the roads and places here.
One different thing I faced here is that instead of using a car, most of the local people here always bike. I think the reason is due to the size of the town. I also take a bicycle to school, to go shopping, and go to many other places. In the beginning, I wasn’t used to it and my entire body, especially my legs, were really sore from biking. However, I consider it as exercise because I rarely biked in Bangkok; I never biked when I wanted to go somewhere far away. Here I can, which is good for me.
By bike it takes me around 35 to 45 minutes from my place to the school, and 15 to 20 minutes to the city center. This means that I spend at least one hour biking a day, on average.
Facing a new environment
 Wow! It’s snowing. |
The first thought in my mind when I knew that I was going to study here was how I could adjust myself to the new environment, which is much different from Bangkok. This new environment includes the weather, food, friends and class atmosphere.
The weather seemed to be the most important thing that I had to be well prepared for, as I am familiar with Bangkok weather, hot to very hot. Sweden is located in the very north of Europe, and the cold weather is unavoidable. While I am writing this article (November), it is three degrees Celsius during the daytime and minus four to minus six during the nighttime. What is even worse is that this is just the beginning of the winter; from now on it will be getting colder and colder. Just imagine how terribly cold it is going to be in December, which is the coldest period.
I started practicing getting used to the cold weather by wearing fewer clothes. The basic idea is the less clothing that I put on will make me get used to the cold weather easily. If I still put on many layers of clothes at the beginning of the winter, how will I be able to handle it when it’s colder? And now I think this idea is workable and I am adjusting to the cold weather.
 Why not try typical Swedish food? Well! |
Then I have to adjust myself to the new kind of food, western style (including Swedish food), which I do not personally like that much. Swedish food is similar to general western foods, which are creamy, oily, insipid and not spicy at all. However, I find that it is the good opportunity to develop my cooking skills, as I do believe that most Thai students studying abroad turn to be like professional chefs by the time they return home.
I recently started cooking various easy dishes made from eggs. Next I’ll go up one more step using instant food ingredients to make the more difficult dishes like green chicken curry and spicy chicken soup. Chicken, beef, and pork are a lot cheaper than fish and shrimp in Kalmar. Surprisingly, vegetables, cabbage for example, is more expensive than meat, which is different from Thailand. This is undoubtedly why people here do not have slim physiques like those in Thailand.
The people here are another thing that I have to adjust to. Back to my programme — a Masters in International Management. There are about twenty nationalities in our class. This means that it’s not only Swedish people that I have to learn from but also the twenty nationalities from different parts of the world.
International student life is rather different from what I used to have in Thailand. The two main activities of most Swedish and international students are, of course, studying and going out partying. There are normally three party days a week, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. And each party consists of pre-party, done at one friend’s place, real party, and after party, again at one friend’s place. Surely, I do have to party with them sometimes. Even though it seems like too many times a week, I would say that most, or all, of the students are always aware of their limits. Once they go out partying, they do enjoy themselves; but at study time, they put their all into that.
In class
 In class, students from twenty countries discuss, exchange opinions and even argue, but the disagreement ends there and everyone respects the final results. |
Regarding my course of study — there are four courses in this semester. They rotate week by week during that time. Each week we focus on only one course and there are three classes. In general, the first day is the theory session (five hours), the second day is for a case study and group discussion (three hours), and the last day is the presentation session (two hours). It may seem that three classes a week is not so heavy. In fact, it is, as there are many case studies, outside readings and assignments. I also have to do presentations. More than that, I have to prepare for the thesis that has to be completed by the end of May 2003.
Talking about the class atmosphere – participation from students is common in an international class. The students are willing to take part in every activity, to share their ideas, and dare to express their thoughts. Discussion is normal, and sometimes it looks a little argumentative as they express their opinions. That seems aggressive and it is not the same thing that occurs in a class in Thailand. However, once the discussion is over, it ends there. They do not consider that discussion as a personal matter and they also respect the final results.
Another aspect of class atmosphere is the teaching style. Since the programme is international management, the professors and guest speakers come from many countries, such as Sweden, France, Thailand and Finland. They have different teaching styles. One of the teaching methods that I really like is that of a French lecturer. Usually, the professor uses case studies as a method, but the more interesting point is that he does not give the complete details of the case study. He lets the students think of what further information is required in order to get the whole picture of the case. This method helps motivate the students, of course me too, not only to concentrate on the case but also to think as we are doing the case.
New teaching methods
 Our first presentation was a painting to reflect our attitudes and thinking. Mine was these musical notes. |
I’d like to tell you about my first day of class. The French professor gave all the students painting equipment and then we all had to give a presentation on what our paintings were about. The basic idea of this was that the painting was the reflection of attitudes and thinking of the painter. For me, my painting was musical notes at different levels. I gave the presentation to the whole class explaining that musical notes represent a part of my life. The different levels of the notes indicated that sometimes life went up or down. No matter how good or bad a situation we had to confront, positive thinking was necessary. Music can help me out of difficulties, as always.
Blindfolded and with a limited time, we had to make a rope rectangle. In the process, we learned a whole lot more. |
On the next day, the same professor let the students go outside and divided them into groups. Each group was assigned to do an activity in relation to Strategic Leadership. The group was given a rope and had to make that rope into a rectangular or square within a limited period of time. The condition was that each group member had a small piece of cloth tied over his/her eyes. This meant that there was a discussion among all group members about the strategy of how to make it — who was going to be the centre, who were going to be the followers. The rest of the class were observing and gave the group comments about why they did succeed, why not, and what the difficulties were.
From my point of view, this method really helped us a lot, more than sitting in the class and listening to a lecture about what Strategic Leadership is, its definition, how it works, what effective strategy should be. I believe that would be quite boring. On the other hand, this brought the students into the real situation to see how the other groups were doing, what the good points or the problems were. Of course, I got a lot of ideas from this activity.
This is just the beginning of my new and different journey. Hopefully, interesting events will continue to happen to me in my international life!
terryfrd@ksc15.th.com |