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Many students think to study well and get good grade in their transcript is the best thing for them and to achieve that goal they are more likely not contributing time to do other activities. At first, I believed like that but then my attitude gradually changed when I tried to do other extra-curricular activities besides studying. The first activity is being staff for Volunteer Spirit Association, Thailand.
During the first day, I was a local guide accompanying international volunteers to travel at the Walking Street in Songkhla downtown. Moreover, I was really excited because it is my first time to do voluntary work and use English language to communicate with foreigners. We, 30 Thaksin university students were waiting for them and looking forward to arrival of those people. When they arrived everyone said hi and greeted them with smiles. Time flied. In just a moment; all of us got a partner to find something to eat. And I approached 1 foreigner. The first time I saw her smile to me, I realized we can be good friends.
On the second day, students helped arranging the conference exhibition. It was my opportunity to meet 40 foreigners from 18 countries. My responsibility was being a representative of Vietnam. Furthermore, I was an interpreter for Thais, presenting the basic details of that country and voluntary work of Vietnam. I worked with Khanh and Phuc from Vietnam.
In addition, I learned many interesting things such as national dresses of Vietnamese. They always wear Ao dai on weddings and other formal occasions, In Vietnamese I can introduce myself by saying ﾓﾠxin ch?oﾔ that means ﾓHelloﾔ and if I want to tell my name ﾓT?n t?i l?ﾠ+ nameﾔ.ﾠ
Volunteering works in Vietnam are teaching the poor children who do not have a chance to go school, fix the broken books, build a house to the homeless. ﾠ
These ﾠexperiences makes me gradually understand voluntary work. It gave a chance to help other people. Even though, at first, ﾠI had low-motivation but I did it by volunteer spirit and real heart. This activity made me know how to work with other people, practice to speak English with foreigners who have many accents. This is very much different from studying in classrooms and I ﾠmet a lot of foreigners who are willing to share their experiences in voluntary works ﾠand also make new friends who are from different background. Plus, they promised that I was warmly welcome if I wanted to travel in their countries. More importantly, I learned different cultures and exchanged the idea and ﾠknowledge. If I never do this activity , I do not know how these activities are useful ﾠfor me. When you have an opportunity to do voluntary work, you should grab it.
Nootcharin Tiengtam
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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