Class 101 Classification of Gemstones January 8, 2006
Posted by Martin in : Education, Thailand , trackbackWednesday was my first day as a trainee Gemologist. I got up early full of enthusiam at the prospects of actually doing something constructive oncemore and perhaps naturally a little apprehensive as to who I’d be meeting and how tough the course would be.
I’d begun to pre-learn my way through the course material and on inspecting the syllabus I could see that I was not in for an easy ride. Having not actually studied anything formally in a classroom for over 4 years I was keen to crank my brain into gear and to prove to myself that I am a good student oncemore.
I arrived a little early and was pleased to find that Mary, a lady I’d met independently from AIGS was leading the course. I’d attended her ‘how to buy diamonds’ seminar a few months ago and enjoyed her teaching style then. On the first day we were five students, all from different backgrounds, few with any significant gemological background and, suprisingly two students of a similar age to me.
The first class was very much a general introduction to the course. It seems that we only have to attend class Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9-12 but to really benefit from the course we should use our remaining time to study the stones in the lab. Whilst certainly I’ve no immediate desire to enter gemology as a career I’m also not attending the course merely as a time-filler. I’m looking forward to the day when I’ll be able to meet people and discuss their decorations with them, rather than spend my party-talk conversing about e-commerce, investments and politics. I’m looking forward to my eyes immediately attaching to a lady’s necklace rather than her cleavage, and to be able to sit in the corner with my 10x magnifyer surrounded by interested women, desperate for me to inform them if their husbands are cheapskate gift givers or not.
It won’t be easy for sure. I’ve already met three people who either dropped out, or failed the last of the gemology classes. I am also very aware that colour-blindess may become a real pain in the ass. I looked down at my jeans last week and had no idea if I was wearing my black or blue pair. Interestingly though, I explained this embarassing dilema to friends the next day and they too disagreed on what colour they were. I have a theory that aside from red-green colour blindness I’m actually just colour-shy. When I first met Sue in Sammakorn village I was quite aware that she’d made me cycle around on her pink girly bike, but on her insistence that it was in fact purple I gave her the benefit of the doubt. I’m hoping that my sense of colour will improve now that I’ve got way of simulating it. If not then I’m going to be one hell of a frustrting student for whoever teaches me the ‘Coloured Gemstones’ module in a few months time.
We were joined by two more students last Friday, making a total of seven. This is a very comfortable number for us to get close supervision. I’m excited to get to know and to work with my new friends as much as I am about finally having a bit of discipline in my life again. I’ll be doing my best to study until the labs close at 4pm most days, and to relax at weekends, beginning with two days up north with Tik for her birthday.
Comments»
Hi, I am planning to go to Thailand to study gemology in the next two years, i fugured since you have been in that country for a few years already you might know the difference between different schools of gemology (such as GIA or AIGS). I am looking for an a affordable course with a lot of hands-on experience. Is there a school in thailand that has it all? thank you kindly, Costa. (toronto, canada)
Very good ! Keep this habit until your success. You are really a practical thinking person ma
Don Lapre Jones