Farang cannot know Thai-ness

[dutchboy]

Got a wake-up call for everybody.

There is no such thing as Thai-ness.

Rather there is Bangkok-ness and Rest-of-Thailand-ness.

People born and raised in Bangkok see people from what they call up-country as inferior human beings.

Not that this is something unique for Thailand. Being married to a Filipina who comes from a small province in the centre of the Philippines, she too isn't that keen on disclosing where she comes from when she's in Manila. Same difference as here, Manila people find themselves superior to people from the provinces.

And we probably could go on and on about all countries, because everywhere there is a region, ethnic group or whatever that is viewed like that and treated different.

The whole talk about one country having one identity is complete rubbish.

Coming from a country where (at least in my youth, it is becoming different now) tolerance was almost a basic learning topic in school, I am still raised with the idea that everybody is unique, and you have to accept everybody for what they are.

I've lived and worked in many countries, and seen many different cultures. Each country/culture has their own charms and their own non-charms. That's life, and just learn to live with it.

I've read some touchy comments about the word Farang, frankly I cannot care less. In the Philippines I am called Kano (short for Americano) or Joe, just because I'm white. If I have to get upset by that everytime I hear, I will be a very miserable person.

I have lived and worked in Thailand for 7 years and I've had my ups and downs, both in homelife exposure to Thai people and in my business exposure to them. The same as when I worked in the US for 6 years.

I have no particular feeling pro or against Thai people. My destiny is not here in Thailand, when I retire our family will move back to the Philippines. In the meantime since we'll be here for another 6-8 years, our children go to a Thai pre-school so they learn to speak Thai and can communicate with the people around them.

As for the Thai attitude towards the rest of the world, I cannot critisize (it's your own choice), just a piece of advice, since the majority of the (business) world is English spoken, learning English is not a bad thing, it will help you if you want an international career.

Other than that, as a foreigner I mostly enjoy living here is Thailand, even with all the peculiarities that Thai people have, but I'm sure they think the same of me, so just give and take.

[MonkeyP]

Well said, Dutchboy, though you could have been shrewder in the first part of your post. Bangkok is full of people from Isaan and Lana; there are street cleaners as well as master of the universe on Silom. Bangkok-ness is as mythical as Thai-ness. The snobbery you detect is class-based.

[Ian Wensor]

[b]What confuses a lot of farangs about Thai-ness is the apparent need for Them to tell what they deem white lies and resort to all sorts of devious behaviour in efforts to save face - regardless of the harm and inconvenience it causes
A case in point is when a farang asks a Thai (who hasn't a clue ) for directions is sent off miles out of his way, on a wild goose chase rather than the Thai just saying - " Sorry but I don't know"

There is however a brighter side to Thai-ness ... Should Thais' laugh when farangs have a mishap or accident, they're not laughing at them but with them... -It's a good hearted endeavor to lessen any anger , misfortune or embarrassment the farang might be experiencing and when one thinks about it ...THAT'S KIND OF NICE

[MTT]

Is this part of Thainess that is being talked about? I admit I did not grow up using public transportation and most of my experience has been in Thailand. So these are my pet peeves here. One, passengers in a bus who stand for fifteen minutes in a hot, stopped bus even as others are getting off. The jam ends and the bus just gets ready to go into second gear and somebody pushes the buzzer. The bus has traveled less than thirty feet! Or the converse, a bus is at a bus stop for three or four minutes. It starts to go and a person who has just been standing twenty feet away signals the bus to stop again because they were too lazy to walk the twenty feet.

[alpha]

maybe i will never know thai.ness - like a thai never will know farang.ness. ( Hèn oîda hóti oudèn oîda) (all i know is, that I know nothing)

[kalid]

This is the most interesting, if disconcerting thread. I plan to arrive soon, and I may stay forever.

To the question, I think farangs can know Thai-ness, its a matter of self-edcuation. Only a fraction of farangs have the curiosity or the desire to fully understand Thai-ness, but it can be done. As John Lennon said: "There is nothing you can know that can't be known".

We are all people, but the average Thai will think farangs can never understand. It is for us the farangs to suprise them!

[Eggmeng]

I don''t know if "...farang can know Thainess", but I'm convinced that the average man has a better chance of understanding another man, whether he be a Thai or from anywhere else, than he does of understanding 99.99 % of the women on the planet. And that includes his mother and his wife.

[egon]

MonkeyP is closing his eyes to the detrimental aspects of the thai society.Egon

[Eggmeng]

Constantly encountering people who make it clear after a very short time (either by word or action) that they only want to spend time with you because of what you can do for them. I teach adults part time at a language school where I have a class that I've been with for a long time. We were talking about Thai/Western cultural differences and I flat out asked them if a Thai could ever REALLY love a farang. In unison, they answered: "No. Not really. Not possible".

I see. So my Thai daughter can never "...REALLY love her father because he is a "farang."

Your post in general, was insightful, but I wonder what you were after or what you expected in posing this particular question. What you report having heard from your students is pretty disturbing.

Gee, I hope that as an educator, you took the opportunity to put some more questions to your students that gave them food for thought.

[observer 101]

"stefanbkk wrote:Constantly encountering people who make it clear after a very short time (either by word or action) that they only want to spend time with you because of what you can do for them. I teach adults part time at a language school where I have a class that I've been with for a long time. We were talking about Thai/Western cultural differences and I flat out asked them if a Thai could ever REALLY love a farang. In unison, they answered: "No. Not really. Not possible".


If you re-phrase the same question a little bit and ask the women if they could ever love Brad Pitt or if the men could ever love Angelina Jolie I'd venture to say you'd get highly affirmative responses. You need to provide them with clear mental imagery of westerners other then the ones they may get near cowboy.