Amy Kunrojpanya, head of communications and public affairs for Google Thailand and Indochina, is a woman of many talents. The Australian speaks eight languages and has volunteered her time and skills with several community development organisations in Southeast Asia, including Thailand. She has transformed challenges into opportunities and found the motivation to strive towards her goals.
The amiable executive spoke with Life on a range of issues including her approaches to mastering foreign languages.
"Let everyone be your teacher. This might sound strange but you can learn something from everyone when it comes to languages, if you're open to let them teach you. You're not limited to the classroom or to a book, language is around us every day and our interactions with each other provide great opportunities to increase our vocabulary, contextualise our lessons and improve our pronunciation and listening skills (and that's just the beginning)."
"Be bold and try to speak as much as you can to as many people as you can. Many people freely admit to me they want to get better at English but rarely speak the language because they're embarrassed they will make mistakes. This fear of failure holds so many people back from progressing with a language. If you can laugh at yourself and accept that you'll get it wrong more times than you'll get it right (to start with) but you will improve, you're already on your way.
How did you cultivate an interest in languages?
I feel like learning a language — really learning it — is a privilege, because it creates opportunities for greater understanding. I find consistently when I'm in a country and someone discovers that I can communicate with them in their mother tongue, it's less about me and what I want to say and more about them and the ideas, experiences and insights they want to share. More often than not, they've been waiting to share (those experiences) with someone, if only they'd just ask.
I think my interest in languages stems from having a healthy curiosity. And from my talkative nature.
I learned languages all through my education and found that once I began to spend time living, studying and working in other countries — learning through immersion — I became more adept in a language or a script, and more confident and comfortable using it daily.
From your experience, what's the easiest and most difficult language, why?
It's not a simple thing to answer because languages are all unique and evolving and how easy or difficult they are really differs by the individual learning them. All of the languages that I speak, read and write, with the exception of English, are Asian languages, mostly Southeast Asian. I find them all to be beautiful and complicated languages in their own ways — from different scripts, to different tones, and different linguistic roots and grammar structures.
Bahasa Indonesia was the first language I learned, followed by Japanese, Thai, Laotian, Khmer, Burmese, Mandarin and Vietnamese. Tonal languages, for some reason, really resonate with me, perhaps because I'm also musical and rising and falling tones feel like melodies to me. Vietnamese is by far the hardest language I've ever learned; it is a very poetic language, expressive and emotional while being precise, and mastering it is both an art and science. Today I'm not fluent in all of these languages, although at one time or another I was, but I am very fortunate to have a job that allows me to use all my languages regularly, which keeps them fresh and stretches my skills in the best way possible.
What motivated you to join Google in Thailand?
Thailand was the first country I ever travelled to and I owe much of my career and my love for Asia and Asian languages to the wonderful experiences I had with Thais. Joining the team that would open a Thai office in Thailand and focus their efforts on helping Thais get more out of the internet felt like a wonderful way to positively contribute to a country that I now call my second home.
What has surprised you most about working here?
When I look back at the first year, all I remember is feeling excited. We started as three people, hot-desking in a small rented shared office space; today we are a growing team with the same shared belief that we can help our country continue to move forward with a little help from Google technology and the internet.
I don't feel constrained or limited in my work, quite the opposite, I feel a tremendous sense of freedom. Google encourages everyone, at every level to not just think big but to go out and do big things. To tackle really hard problems, as our founders say 'to have a healthy disregard for the impossible'. I love the freedom this statement gives us, because it embraces successes and failures alike and encourages everyone to change the world around them, in whatever way they can, every day. It's not about words hanging on walls, its about the decisions we make every day and lives we can positively impact in doing so.
What's your personal philosophy on working and balancing of family life and work?
That's a great question. I believe balance for everyone is personal, it's not one size fits all. We all make choices about what is important to us and what we will prioritise, and for many people, 'no' is one of the hardest words to say and to stick to.
For me personally, I've discovered the things that make me a better leader are often not about others, or the wider organisation, but about personal choices that only I can make — like getting enough sleep, regularly exercising and planning time to be offline so both my body and mind can recharge.
I've learned that there is always more to be done than there are hours in the day and that if we let it work can consume our every waking moment, so we need to set boundaries and assess and re-assess those boundaries over time.
I feel it's important to try and set an example for those around us, when we can, and to be honest when we're out of balance, and take the time we need to restore it, whether that's taking lunch away from your desk, or closing your laptop in favour of an early night's sleep. Small decisions make a big difference, and the best thing about finding your personal work-life balance is that each day presents a new opportunity to make choices, one day at a time.
