Feature: Studying in China gives Thai reporter more opportunities in life

BANGKOK, April 15 (Xinhua) — "Learning the Chinese language and experience of studying in China make me more competitive and give me more opportunities in life," Thai reporter Pravit Thangthaweesook told Xinhua recently in an interview.
Pravit is one of the few Thai reporters working for Thai language media who can speak Chinese well and he shared with us his story in his house in Bangkok just before the Thai New Year, Songkran.
"I have been learning the Mandarin for a year in Beijing Language and Culture University from 2011 to 2012, at the age of 23," said Pravit, who is now a sports reporter working for a popular Thai television channel.
"I was so determined then," he said, "after working in southern Chinese city of Guangzhou for the 2010 Asian Games for a month, I made a decision to quit my then work and to go to China for further education."
"My friends that I came into acquaintance in Guangzhou helped me to ask several universities there and I decided to go to Beijing as Mandarin is based on northern Chinese accent, so I think learning there would be better."
"I chose Beijing Language and Culture University by myself as my Mandarin textbook is published by this university and I applies through an agent here."
"China is so big, even food is bigger than here in Bangkok, which is very impressive," Pravit said.
In the summer break, Pravit decided to travel to the southern Guangdong Province to pay respect to his ancestors by train, and also to learn more about this country.
During the travel from Beijing to Shenzhen, Pravit talked with a lot of passengers, learning their stories. "From that I learned that Chinese and Thai societies share many similarities," he noted.
"My grandfather came from China, actually he fled from China during the wartime, my first impression about China is a war-torn, impoverished country when I was a child." But seeing Beijing and Shenzhen totally changed his mind, "China now has developed better than my home-country Thailand," Pravit said.
"In such a short time, China can built a city like Shenzhen, that is not an easy job," he commented.
After accomplishing the one-year Mandarin program, Pravit got his job quite easily.
"On the second day that I came back from China, I got a job because I wrote in my CV that I have mastered the Chinese language, which is quite popular in Thailand now," he said.
"Four years after I came back I got a job here in the TV station as a sports reporter," he added, "just because I know Mandarin and I have been learning in China, I got many opportunities here in Thailand."
Although being a sports reporter, Pravit was assigned to be the presenter of a TV program about the Chinese TV series Three Kingdoms last year as he knows Chinese language and watched the series when he was in China.
"Chinese language is my secret weapon, and there are more people contact me for help after they learned that I can speak Chinese and have been learning there," Pravit said.
He also led a group of Chinese reporters to the northeastern Thai province of Buriram recently as the province wanted to attract more Chinese tourists to visit their ancient Khmer temples and modern sports facilities after the province contacted him for consulting.
"Thanks to Belt and Road Initiative, there are more and more news about China, and I got more and more opportunities," he added.
Recently, Pravit also reported about Mandarin education in Thailand, and about Thai-Chinese cooperation on tourism.
"I set an aim to myself before I went to China, that is to get our two peoples understand each other better, and get closer, so I am now doing things according to the aim," Pravit said.
He also encouraged more Thai reporters, Thai people to go to learn in China.
"Chinese language is one of future world-languages, so studying in China can help you to find out China's past, present and future, and also to find more about the world, it is worth learning there in China," he said.
Source: Xinhua