CityNews – Kwanchada Weewong is a student at Chiang Mai University who has been a repeated beneficiary of various scholarships from India. She had already received a 10,000 baht scholarship from the Indian business community here in Thailand to study Hindi, has recently received a short term one month scholarship to Wardha in India from the Embassy of India and is about to leave on an eight month sponsored programme to India.
“I have always been fascinated by India and its languages, especially Sanskrit and Hindi,” said Kwanchada. “This scholarships made me learn many things, such as understanding the people, culture, places, food and especially the Hindi language.”
“On our recent trip, on weekdays my friends and I studied Hindi, an intensive course in sentence patterns and practicing composing sentences by speaking and writing with an Indian teacher. Each weekend, we travelled to other cities, such as Aurangabad, Nagpur, to study historical sites. And we tried to use the language we learned. I would like to thank the Embassy very much. This short term scholarship at Wardha in India gave me a lot of experience, fun, friendship and Hindi knowledge.”
Kwanchada started off her studies in the Faculty of Fine Arts, CMU but transferred to the Faculty of Humanities in order to study philosophy since she herself was struggling to find herself. One day, seeing that CMU offered courses in Sanskrit, Pali and Hindi, she realised that that was the right fit for her as she had always been fascinated by India.
On learning that the Embassy of India offered short and long term scholarships, Kwanchada applied and received her initial 10,000 baht scholarship which she said gave her a real impetus to learn. She spent the following two years honing her Hindi skills before applying for and receiving the recent one month scholarship. Having completed her one month scholarship, she returned home only to recently learn that she has also been offered an 8 month scholarship by the embassy to study in Agra.
Kwanchada says that her and the 10 other students from CMU who received the scholarship, along with the few from Bangkok’s Silpakorn University, see the opportunity as a great fast track to future careers which could involve translating Bollywood movies, acting as official translators, being guides of assistants to Indian business people or even entering the diplomatic field.
She wrote to Citylife asking us to publish her story and her gratitude, in hopes that other students will also seek opportunities which can help them achieve their dreams.
“I want to thank the Embassy of India for their generosity and belief in me, they also waived the visa fee for us all, and my lecturers Seksan Sawangsri and Pattama Sawangsri, of the faculty of Eastern Studeies, CMU, without whose support, encouragement and help I would never have got to where I am today. Also the Geeta Ashram Association of Thailand for the 10,000 baht scholarship,” said Kwanchada.