GCD Core Value - Intercultural Communication

I am a 16-year-old girl living in Thailand, with Thai blood, a Thai passport and a Thai nationality. However, my family originated from India. Around a hundred years ago, after the second world war, my ancestors moved to Thailand and started a family here instead. Ever since I was born, I have been taught to speak Thai and English, though I barely know any words of Punjabi or Hindi, and I went to India for the first time in December 2018, but only for roughly 6 hours.

In October break this year, me and my family had gone back to India to Amritsar which is a small town containing a sacred Sikh golden temple where people go to pray. In Amritsar, English is not a commonly spoken language, which made it harder for me to understand the people and culture there, along with what is happening around me and what me and my family could do. Both my parents know Punjabi fluently, my siblings only understand it but I cannot understand nor speak it at all. The only place where people would be speaking in English was at the hotel, which we were only in the morning and evening, as we spent our days in different temples/gurdwaras or around the town.

Going to Amritsar has made me realize that different cultures have many different beliefs and values, including the way they dress, eat, talk and do certain ceremonies. To communicate properly, I had to talk to my parents, ask them to translate for me and mainly focus on non-verbal communication from the people there. An example of this is when we wanted to go in a tuk-tuk from one place to another, my parents would have to talk to the guy, and then tell me what he said since it is in a different language. Also, in the room to pray for my nephew, they were singing the prayer which was from a book written in Punjabi, which I could not understand. But my entire family could.

This has had a major effect on my thoughts about different languages and culture as it has made me realize that people from different parts of the world have different ways of communication through movement, body language and specifically the way that they speak. I used to think that different languages were just one way of communication but now I have realized that language is a major part of cultural differences and even the way people think. The places we live or are brought up in, have a major effect on our lifestyles and verbal and non-verbal communication skills/ By learning a new language, it will open you up to a new culture and way of thinking. The meaning of certain words can be interpreted differently in the language and culture and the way we express ourselves, the way we use our bodies to communicate, can allow people to think differently of us as humans.

I value this language a lot as an Indian girl born in Thailand. I am a third generation Thai but I have an OCI which means that I am an overseas citizen of India. The language is barely used by my parents but I hear Punjabi from my grandparents all the time. When I hear the language, I always think about how I may look Indian and go to many Indian festivals, but did not have the opportunity to learn this language or go to this country as a child. As I am growing up to become more of a teenager and adult everyday, each time I go to India, I will value how people talk, dress and communicate non-verbally because of this. I am more aware of their body language and how people use facial expressions to show what they are feeling.

Another example where I wanted to speak panjabi during the trip is when I am just on the road or in a store wanting to buy something. To buy something, I need to communicate. When I was there; in the store, in the temple or just standing on the road, I had no way of verbally communicating to anyone except my family members. Once I was going into a store to buy a toy for my niece, but the seller was talking to another customer. The toy was too high on the shelf for me to reach but since I could not ask someone to get it, all I could do was stand and wait until someone looked at me so I pointed to which toy I wanted to see. There are many times during the trip that this happened, even in restaurants sometimes the waiters could not speak english since we were in such a religious and culture based city in India.

Before I went on this trip, I did not value language, culture and religion nearly as much as I do now. Before this trip, I thought of it as just a way of communication, a way of talking to each other or family members, but I did not see how much of a difference a language can make, for someone who doesn't understand it. It never occured to me how much a language can add to one country's purpose of religion and how a language can be interpreted in its way of songwriting, prayers and so much more.

In conclusion, by going on this trip, it has helped me have a better understanding of the Indian community, my origins and the language/facial expressions that help to create significance of the country itself. I have experienced where my grandparents and parents used to live and how this affected their way of bringing me up to be Thai-Indian.