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Australian New Colombo Plan scholar Jordanna Miller left Townsville for Walailak University to get to know a Thailand that few outsiders ever see.

Jordanna Miller, a Bachelor of Arts student majoring in English at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, is spending more than a year at Walailak University as a recipient of the Australian Government’s New Colombo Plan Scholarship.

Her reason for choosing Thailand is simple. “Almost everybody knows about the country, but very few people actually know the country,” she says.

Miller says Western media tends to spotlight tourist hubs such as Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket, which can overshadow Thailand’s history, culture and social norms. She chose Walailak, a regional university located in Nakhon Si Thammarat, a southern province, for the different experiences it could offer.

“By choosing Walailak, I have opened myself up to many unique experiences and opportunities that I would not have otherwise had at other host institutions,” she says.

The campus itself was a pleasant surprise. Her home campus is comparatively small and many students study online, so she was struck by how alive Walailak feels, with students playing sports, sharing meals and shopping for daily needs, and with its Monday night market and Thursday night Bota Market. “There was just so much life and community,” she says.

In her first semester, Miller took three Thai language courses: Theory of Using Thai Language for Communication, Thai for Foreigner, and Intercultural Communication in Thai Society. Two were one-on-one classes with her ajarn (teacher), while she studied alongside four other international students in the third. Intercultural Communication in Thai Society and Thai for Foreigner both included field trips, where she used Thai to order food and handle other real-life situations. Outside class, she studies independently for two to three hours a day.

Miller thanks all her ajarns for creating “safe and welcoming environments” for students like her, and for instilling “a deep love and appreciation for the Thai language.”

Asst. Prof. Theerawat Klaokliang, one of Miller’s Thai lecturers and Acting Assistant Dean at the School of Liberal Arts, says Miller has shown a noticeable boost in confidence, especially in speaking and pronouncing Thai words. “Early on, she spent time mapping Thai sounds to English phonetics, but she can now navigate tones and structure everyday conversational sentences with remarkable fluency and ease,” he says.

What stands out most in their sessions on daily life and local culture, he adds, is that “she doesn’t just memorize vocabulary—she strives to understand the cultural context behind it.” She asks questions and repeats words until she gets them right, which he says reflects “genuine dedication to learning.”

Beyond her coursework, Miller has joined a range of university activities, including a lunch with Thai students organised by the Center for International Affairs, where she picked up informal conversation and slang words such as เริ่ด (roet), a word popular among young people meaning fabulous. But some of her best language lessons have come when she is on her own, at roadside stalls and small salons where nobody speaks English.

One came when she was trying to order plain rice. She said ข้าว (khao) meaning rice in several tones until the amused server brought a dish of rice and gave her the phrase she needed: ข้าวเปล่า (khao plao) meaning plain cooked rice. “It is now a part of my daily vocabulary,” she says.

On a solo visit to Kiriwong Village, a small village in Lan Saka district in Nakhon Si Thammarat known for its fresh mountain air, she read the Thai-language menu at a small restaurant and ordered khua kling, a fiery southern Thai dry curry. Asked whether she liked spicy food, she replied ไม่เผ็ดไม่อร่อย (mai phet mai aroi), meaning “if it’s not spicy, it’s not delicious”, which made the owner laugh. When two tourists with no Thai walked in, she even found herself translating for them.

Her takeaway is that language learning is not a straight line. “Some days, you will be able to communicate better than you do on other days,” she says. “You just need to keep going and not focus too much on the mistakes.”

Asst. Prof. Theerawat says the biggest hurdle for international learners is Thai’s tonal system, “where a slight shift in pitch completely changes a word’s meaning,” along with word-order patterns that differ significantly from Western languages. His advice echoes Miller’s own. “Never be afraid of making mistakes. Language isn’t just learned from textbooks; it’s absorbed through active listening and regular speaking,” he says. “Treat every misstep as your best learning opportunity.”

Practising outside the classroom matters, he says, “because language is living and inseparable from culture.” The classroom builds the foundation of grammar, vocabulary and sentence patterns, he explains, but “the vibrant campus of Walailak University, local markets, and the Nakhon Si Thammarat community serve as the ultimate real-world classroom.” Stepping out to order food, ask for directions or chat with Thai peers helps students pick up “natural conversational rhythms, nuances, and body language that no textbook can replicate,” he adds. It “builds genuine confidence, fosters meaningful local connections, and turns language into a practical tool for everyday life.”

She also attended a Muslim wedding in nearby Phatthalung province with one of her ajarns, wearing a hijab and joining the reception meal, a chance to experience the local culture first-hand.

Over the coming months, Miller’s main goal is to improve her Thai as much as she can. She says the New Colombo Plan scholarship represents “new experiences, new perspectives, and new connections.” To Australian students considering Walailak, her advice is direct: “Just do it. Fight for it, as hard as you can. Securing a New Colombo Plan scholarship is difficult, but my time so far at Walailak University has made the process worth it.”

“I feel incredibly lucky to be in Thailand,” she says, “and I hope to make the most of every single day.”

Photos courtesy of Jordanna Miller, Ajarn Kanchanokchon Woodeson, and Asst. Prof. Theerawat Klaokliang
Article by Settaboot Onphakdee, Division of Corporate Communications