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. WWW.WANDERLUSTMAG.COM