Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand August / September 2015 - Art & Education Issue | Page 32
Education
BURSTING OUT
OF THE EXPAT
BUBBLE
AN INTERVIEW WITH STUART JAY RAJ
STUART JAY RAJ—FLUENT IN OVER A DOZEN
LANGUAGES INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
THAI, INDONESIAN, SPANISH, ITALIAN, DANISH,
SWEDISH, AND SEVERAL INDIAN AND CHINESE
DIALECTS—IS NOW THE CEO OF JCADEMY.
COM, AN ONLINE TRAINING PLATFORM
FOR COURSES RANGING FROM LANGUAGE
LEARNING TO PERSONAL FINANCE.
STUART HAS HELPED GOVERNMENTS,
MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES, AND NGOS
TRAIN THEIR STAFF TO HIT THE GROUND
RUNNING WHEN ENTERING A NEW COUNTRY.
HE HAS EVEN USED HIS COMMUNICATION
SKILLS TO HELP COMBAT HUMAN
TRAFFICKING IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION.
WANDERLUST WRITER ELISABETH LENHEIM
MET WITH STUART TO DISCUSS LIFE AND
LANGUAGE FOR EXPATS IN THAILAND.
With every language
you learn, you
learn the heart of a
country’s people.
—Stuart Jay Raj
by Elisabeth Lenheim
A
ll expats face challenges on
arrival, and language is the
big one. They tend to decide
quickly whether they want to learn
Thai or not. Some decide to stay in
their expat bubble where they think
they’ll get on fine, whilst others want
to burst out of the bubble into real
Thai life—and language is absolutely
key to achieving this.
Q&A WITH
STUART JAY RAJ
Have you always been interested in
learning languages?
“Yes! My grandfather was a polyglot
who spoke about 12 languages.
When I was growing up, we used to
32 WANDERLUST
CRACKING THAI
FUNDAMENTALS
The Cracking Thai Fundamentals
suite of courses includes
interactive lessons to prepare
your mind, body, and
environment with what you
need to develop a high level
of competency using the
Thai language and working
with Thai people. The courses
enable students to overcome
the psychological barrier of
learning a tonal language, while
demystifying the culture. Go to
http://jcademy.com or email
[email protected] for more.
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