Getting inside the minds of Thai youngsters

Getting inside the minds of Thai youngsters

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Tomorrow is National Children's Day and that question is sure to be put to many of the pint-sized participants in events organised around the country to mark the occasion.

Human resources firm Adecco recently released the results of its fifth annual survey into careers that Thai children would ideally like to pursue and their hopes and wishes for the future. The results on the job front were not particularly surprising. The most popular choice of profession was doctor, followed by soldier, policeman, engineer and teacher.

The survey was conducted among seven- to 14-year-olds living in various parts of the country. It found that the reasons children wished to enter the medical profession were threefold.

A desire to help other people, a desire to be able to look after their own families, and the prospect of enjoying a high income (up to 100,000 baht a month).

Other popular job choices were chef, singer, musician, TV/movie star and model/product presenter. The reasons given by children for making these choices were that all these careers allow one to give happiness to others. Surprisingly, the percentage of those polled who want to be businessmen/women when they grow up was only 3.5%. According to Tidarat Kanchanawat, regional director of the Adecco Group (Thailand), this is a much lower figure than that recorded in previous surveys by her firm.

When the children were asked to list the first three things they would do if they were to be appointed prime minister of Thailand, their answers included taking good care of the general public, developing the country and improving the education system. Other areas in which Thai youngsters wanted to see improvements made were the enhancement of public infrastructure, reform of laws and regulations, elimination of illicit drugs, fighting corruption, solving flood problems, reducing political conflicts and finding ways of ending the ongoing violence in the far South.

Most of this year's answers indicated that the children had been influenced by the media, particularly television, and by the political situation in Thailand during the last quarter of 2013. That means that children are paying more attention to politics than they did in the past, Tidarat said.

When asked what activities they would be involved in over the coming weekend, most of the children said they would be attending classes at tutorial schools. Some replied that they would be playing computer games, watching television or helping their parents with household chores. Asked what activities they would prefer to be doing this weekend, most replied that they would like to be going on a trip somewhere with their families, or playing games/sports or spending time with friends. A few said that they would like to take part in the ongoing anti-government protests in Bangkok.

When the children were asked which was more important to them, making lots of money or spending time with their families, 94% chose the latter option. The 6% who chose the first options said they would use the money they had earned to take care of family members or to pay for higher education.

The last question posed was, what is your dream place to live? Only 30% of the children said they would choose to continue living in Thailand. Among the leading alternative locations given were Japan, the US and the United Kingdom.

_ Karnjana Karnjanatawe

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