Curtis Palmer chose to do a community service trip to the Maekok River Village in Chiang Rai, Thailand for his senior seminar. He expected to have fun with friends but also learned about a different aspect of Thai culture. As someone raised in Thailand, he wanted to gain more knowledge of his home country and give back through community service. On the trip, he was surprised to find that not all people in the village spoke Thai and many had migrated from other countries. His most memorable experience was hiking to a remote village that had little exposure to modern civilization, where he had to rely on body language to communicate due to the language barrier.

1. Curtis Palmer
Senior Seminar: P.5
07/12/11
Senior Seminar Interview/Presentation
What are the ways of knowing?
The four ways of knowing that are studied in the Theory of Knowledge text book are
perception, emotion, language and reason. Each of these ways can either help or
hinder out knowledge of the world.
What example did you use and why did you choose it?
I choose to use my Week Without Walls to trip to the Maekok River Village trip,
which was a community service trip in Chiang Rai that takes part in a program to
teach the local Thai kids how to speak English. I went on this trip expecting to have a
great time will all my friends, but not only did I have a great time, I had a great
experience with a different aspect of Thai culture that I didn’t know about.
ISB offers trips to countries outside of Thailand, so why did you, someone who
was raised in Thailand, choose to go to Chiang Rai?
I knew that for my senior year I was going to choose a trip that would be fun for me
as I got ready to transition back to my home country. As a junior, I really wanted to
gain knowledge of the country I call home and give back a small percentage of what
it has given me. It was not because I needed community service to graduate, I had
plenty of that; I simply wanted to do the community for the emotional satisfaction.
Once you got to Chiang Rai, what were your expectations?
We were all curious about what the next day would bring, and what the kids would
be like at the school. Everyone on the trip had lived in Thailand for at least a year so
they had certain emotional expectations but no one knew what they were in for.

2. The theory of knowledge identifies 6 primary emotions, which of those
emotions that you experienced on the trip do you think most contributed to
your knowledge?
I was surprised to learn that that my idea of what the north of Thailand was like had
been wrong for a long time. Most of the people that I met that had not been
modernized, did not speak Thai, so we couldn’t communicate. In actuality a lot of the
people are from the neighboring countries or had ancestors that migrated from
Tibet in the past.
Which way of knowing do you think most relates to the experience you had on
this trip?
Something I am very passionate about is language. It has been something that I have
excelled at all throughout my life because I grew up learning both English and Thai.
When I think of speaking Thai, I associate it with speaking to Thai people, however
this was not the case in Chiang Rai. I had to adapt to my new surroundings because
they were not going to adapt to me. This was a good experience for me in the area of
belief bias. Before I went and had this experience I believed that all people in
Thailand spoke thai and I could go anywhere in Thailand and communicate with
them. Then I realized that not all of the Thai people speak the same dialect, so I no
longer agreed with the simple conclusion that all Thai people speak Thai. It was
strange not having an advantage to my friends, because when I am in Bangkok, they
have to ask me how to say something or to translate for them. I found it very
frustrating and I am very glad I have learned to speak Thai and now I realize how
important language is.
What was your most memorable experience from the trip?
We set of on a hike on day and all we were told was to bring a water bottle and that
we were going to a village that does not often have exposure to modern civilizations.
This was an honor to be able to go to this village because it was a very interesting
learning experience and it made me feel like I was in the middle of nowhere in an

3. ancient world. The language barrier was an even worse problem and the only way
we communicate was by body language.