The first Foundation Workshops in Thailand ran in March and October 2015. At the beginning we hoped that teaching in English with a translated summary would be enough. We also hoped that the hand-outs and course material could remain in English. Both of these ‘hopes’ turned out to be unrealistic.
We also discovered that there are almost no translations of Anthroposophical books into Thai. We decided to employ an interpreter for the workshops, and to get all workshop materials translated, including some crucial material written by Rudolf Steiner – a mammoth task.
We have now completed the first Biography Work training cycle. We have discovered that the preparation of the course material takes almost as long as conducting the workshops. Further training cycles should take less time to prepare. It feels a huge responsibility to bring the Biography impulse via written material to a new country, as there is little available to cross-check our work. We have to be as accurate as possible and all quotes and resources need to be double-checked.
It now appears that our translations are spreading out into the local networks of people interested in Biography Work, Anthroposophy and Waldorf education. In retrospect, it seems that the decision to run this training was a huge step into the unknown. ‘May the force be with us …’
The training in Thailand is conducted under the umbrella of The Three Worlds Creator, a consultancy organisation based in Bangkok. With a lot of good-will and support from the local organisers, translators and interpreters, and the 3 Worlds team we move forward into this second training cycle.