Impolite Thai people

[..]

Neo said:

...Is there such thing as peace and quiet anywhere there are Thai's living? I can't believe they put up with pickups driving with giant speakers mounted in the bed through residential neighborhoods announcing their wares....

Well, some neighborhoods do not allow it. Mine for instance. And it is very Thai, with but a few Japanese and Farang thrown into the mix. Here is the sign at the beginning of our little soi:

 

 

And the vendors respect it and do not come down here. Nice & quiet here.

 

Cheers,

SD

[cardinalblue]

P127,

 

I actually agree with you about one cannot make a general statement that thais are impolite or rude..

 

What i was referring to is in specific and well-defined planned situations which is how thais function all the time, there are times that thais are indifferent to their surroundings (people and things) and there are other times that they are impeccable with proper manners and suberb etiquette.

 

IUY talks about the third circle as being a theory. For the non-believers, it is a theory; for others it is supported by consistent patterns of behaviors and regular vaidated observations. Not a theory in my book...

 

In family scenarios and meaningful working/social relationships in which the thai person will gain merit or respect, thais exhibit superior manners and courtesy towards those folks within those important circles. They know exactly what roles to play and they are in essence role-paying as precribed. I personally been very impressed how thais handle themselves in giving respect and following proper protocol. I have beena recipient of such behavior. Tradition also plays a huge part of this process. Sometimes i am not sure if these reflect true feelings or are they just fulfilling a planned way of beliefs and behaviors? Their whole educational rote system of learning without questioning/constructive criticism would support the latter.

 

What is polite or impolite behavior is in fact cultural driven and relies on a subjective interpretation. So something like their country's litter problem is interpreted by me as a negative but by the average thai probably not seen as a current problem. Where it is relevant is when with each passing day as thailand creeps more towards gloablization, international competition, and adaption of western concepts and flow of western money within their boundaries, the presence of litter will eventually impact tourism rates though litter is minor compared to other significant environmenetal diasters await them due to creed, corruption, apathy, attitudinal indifference and "stick your head in the sand" ignorance. Only a few scholars, NGOs, some activists recognize LOS is failing in public health and public safety, inadequate work comp/worker rights programs, weak enviironemtal policy and protection, across the board in so-called non-existent integrated waste management areas, etc...

 

Granted LOS is a dev country economically and one would expect to see this as par, but those astute thais know that where LOS lags far behind socially and culturally is the attitudinal apathy (lack of individual accountability) that permeates areas outside of the family and important work/social relationships and thus this brings us back to general, public situations such as traffic, road manners, env. protection, international customer service, soi dog management, litter/garbage/waste, day-to-day general public interactions and finally what this whole thread is about - why thais don't hold doors open for the general public?

 

Each situation dictates to a thai on how to behave, how to act, what is acceptable or unacceptable behavior in their eyes not ours and thus how we as westerners intrepret and rate this on our polite or impolite gauge. As i said, earlier, it is a clash of thai tradition vs our perceived democratic values....

 

CB

[Guest]

In family scenarios and meaningful working/social relationships in which the thai person will gain merit or respect, thais exhibit superior manners and courtesy towards those folks within those important circles. They know exactly what roles to play and they are in essence role-paying as precribed. I personally been very impressed how thais handle themselves in giving respect and following proper protocol. I have beena recipient of such behavior. Tradition also plays a huge part of this process. Sometimes i am not sure if these reflect true feelings or are they just fulfilling a planned way of beliefs and behaviors?Sometimes i am not sure if these reflect true feelings or are they just fulfilling a planned way of beliefs and behaviors? Their whole educational rote system of learning without questioning/constructive criticism would support the latter.

You can add television news to the list of areas where questioning and constructive criticism is out of bounds. In the "Thai Day" supplement to today's local International Herald Tribune there is an excellent article on the superficiality of television news in Thailand entitled ?Reforming television news.? The author, Khun Boonrak, points out that for hours after the Tsunami, Thai television failed to interrupt its daily fare of soap operas and lame comedies to report on the tragedy. When they finally started reporting on the tragedy, they simply recycled footage and analysis from CNN and the BBC. He also points out that the corruption scandals we read in the English language press here don?t make the television news. Khun Boonrak: ?television news [in Thailand] is now a totally one-sided activity in support of the powers that be.? For anyone interested in Thailand, this is an article worth reading.

Where it is relevant is when with each passing day as thailand creeps more towards gloablization, international competition, and adaption of western concepts and flow of western money within their boundaries, the presence of litter will eventually impact tourism rates though litter is minor compared to other significant environmenetal diasters await them due to creed, corruption, apathy, attitudinal indifference and "stick your head in the sand" ignorance. Only a few scholars, NGOs, some activists recognize LOS is failing in public health and public safety, inadequate work comp/worker rights programs, weak enviironemtal policy and protection, across the board in so-called non-existent integrated waste management areas, etc...

You are right about there being an ostrich mentality here, and much of it is culturally rooted. But as much as I complain about things here, I do recognize that the emerging educated middle class in Thailand is changing things. As Thais become more exposed to the rest of the world, they are becoming less tolerant of the cronyism and corruption.

 

It is no accident that, outside the south, the current government has first begun to lose its popularity in Bangkok. Or that the governor is from the oppostion party. Many of the most insightful and critical pieces on the current government have been authored by Thais.

 

For Thailand to grow politically and economically, protectionist rules and policies, fueled by the self-interested nationalism of convenience of vested interests here, must be swept aside. More - not less - globalization is needed. The 1997 financial crisis is a classic example of this. The crisis occurred primarily because of connected lending; that is, local banks lending on the basis of connections rather than sound underwriting.

 

Lending was and remains the primairy means of capital accumulation in Thailand; funding for businesses here primarily takes the form of debt rather than equity. And because lending was based on connections rather than sound commercial principles, the loans were unsustainable, and the economy collapsed.

 

Connected lending thrives in insular and protected financial markets. When foreign financial institutions are allowed to compete freely with domestic institutions, the amount of connected lending declines rapidly and dramatically. This has been shown time after time. At the height of the financial crisis, over 90% of loans from government owned banks were NPLs and about 70% of loans from domestic banks where NPLs, but only a scant 11% of loans from foreign financial institutions were classified as NPLs (under the stricter standards that foreign financial institutions apply.) I see the problems everyday here at work.

 

But opening up the market is bad for vested interests. For vested interests, it is much easier to raise funds through connections rather than having to compete in the market place for funding by demonstrating competence and transparency. Hence, the use of manipulated nationalism to protect business interests and de facto monopolies.

[Guest]

"Mr. MiB was clearly annoyed; his comment, verbatim: "This Thailand. You farang. Pay me 2,000 now". I didn't argue; I simply repeated what happened. He didn't dispute the facts. The small group of farangs, who didn't know me but knew the facts, backed me up. There were Thais present, who knew what happened, but they just stood back and smiled. With me standing my ground, a small group of strangers backing me up (all farangs), the MiB reluntantly backed off on this blantant extortion attempt, commenting "bull shit kee nok farang." "

 

 

one of these days an exchange ( scene) like this will end up on video tape. It will be interesting to see how far it gets ( and any positive results)

 

If there were a decent version of 60 minutes in los, it would have material for every night of the week

[pattaya127]

another thing is that we westerners take a lot fo things much more seriously than thais, and that shows in how benign they can be, outside of following the tried and true codes of social behaviour.

 

I remember this past winter when i first stepped out of the hotel on my first night, to have soup, the young server girl askd me if i was going to Phuket. Just off the plane, in 100% western mode of thinking still, i though she was going to speak of the loss, and i'd say "i am really sorry". but she just added "now Phuket, not good for tourists, have sounami too much, ahahahaha (giggling)".

 

Welcome to thailand, P127!

 

I bet if she mentionned an old lady not helped, she'd say "thai people sometimes OK, sometimes very bad, ahahahahah...".

 

It's the ahahahahaha that is the most important thing, let's face it. That's why the society is easy to navigate thru on many levels and the life easy. All you have to do is "ahahahahahahaha" ..... ::

[Tiger Moth]

Any politician would be thrilled at your ability to subtely distort what someone else has stated.

 

You said, "OK, adding "in this instance" is better than saying "thais are" like 60 million+ thais are impolite, period.".

 

"Impolite Thai People" was the subject of my post. In the post I discussed 2 Thai people who had been polite in a very specific instance.

 

The amount of text possible in the title is insufficient to put the entire post. If you read my post you would know that I talked about a specific instance.

 

So, keep your, "OK, adding "in this instance" is better than saying "thais are" like 60 million+ thais are impolite, period.". I never said 60 million thais are impolite. It was you, through your spurious analogy, who generalized and then suggested that in the specific instance I mentioned, the behavior was not impolite.

 

I stand by my title, the specific instance I related and the conclusion that the behavior was impolite.

 

And I never said "maybe", "I guess" and I never attempted to understand what went through the head of a Thai businessman that I never met in a specific situation that I did not encounter.

 

Please keep your speculations, distortions, innuendos and mind reading to yourself.

[gummigut]

On a totally different angle...

 

Have you exited a taxi cab with a girl, and after you got out, turned around and offered your hand to help her out?

 

I've only had TWO out of TONS take my hand. Those two were hi-so/westernized.

 

They just don't know what to do and ignore the hand, though I've got one or two looks that said, "You stupid, I'm not disabled".

 

<<burp>>

[David_66_UK]

As far as I am concerned the thing which I consider most rude in Thailand is when the bell is rung in a bar that many Farang do not even acknowledege the buyer of the free drink, let alone offer to buy a drink back. (I am not just talking about when I do it!).

 

I guess it is a cultural thing............

 

(BTW whether someone thinks "The guy is a c#nt for ringing the bell" is not material, you have just had free drink - and if you think long term the more encouragemnet you give someone with even just a thank you or nod of the head............ the more likely he is to do it again!)

[EasySt]

Well at least you don't have Jehovahs Witnesses knocking on your door every other day. Or maybe you do ::

 

About the comments of how "that is impolite" no matter who you are etc. Well I bet you don't think that touching someone on the head or showing them the bottom of your feet when you cross your legs is impolite do you? I see farang being impolite in this way in the LOS all the time because they don't know any better.

 

I bet you don't think that raising your voice in order to make a point or to try acomplish something in a negotiation or a disagreement is impolite either? After all, that is how we do it in the west so it must be ok right?

 

And what about having your woman walk in front of you. Nothing wrong with that.

 

What about public displays of affection. Nothing wrong with holding hands and kissing in public.

 

I don't see anything wrong with touring buddhist temples in shorts. After all it's hot and humid out there. Can't expect me to wear pants. That's just crazy.

 

Are we not just their guests. Are we there to impose OUR social and religious beliefs on them. Should we not respect their customs and traditions and whatnoteven though we may not understand them sometimes.

 

How would you feel if there were a bunch of buddhist sex tourists (or ex sex tourists or whatever) coming to your country and making themselves at home and trying to imposing their beliefs and social norms on you or expecting you to respect their beliefs?

 

For everything that YOU find impolite or whatever about them that they may not understand there is probably something about YOU that they feel the same way about.

[Central Scrutinizer]

Easy,

 

Very good points and well stated. Exactly the thoughts I was going to post when I got around to posting in this thread. It's a cultural difference really. Okay to point out as an observation on these differences between the two cultures, (which was how the OP posted his observation and query), but nothing to get defensive about or excited over. Just the ways of this culture. You'll see in the states differences in politeness as well. North and South have some differences, as do big city and small town.

 

I agree as well that WE sometimes come across as impolite to Thais when doing certain things they were raised to see as impolite (the examples of which you have already stated here).

 

Good post.

 

Cent