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Are Thais reacting to Farang negative attitudes?


sirineou

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It is not just Thai people who grow weary of the constant negative attitude and complaining ... lots of us Expats who call Thailand our real home are sick of it too.  That is why you see us just go "glass eye' and not even acknowledge other foreigners ... simply not worth having them ruin a nice day.

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I doubt the vast majority of Thais think about farang and their attitudes at all.

 

My wife and her friends are sensitive to any perceived criticism of Thailand or family members. I think most Thai people are from strangers be they farang or Thai.

 

But I suspect we might be equally sensitive if visitors or immigrants in our home countries seemed endlessly critical to the way we live and what we believe.

 

Many reasonable Thai people are sympathetic when they see some of the casual discrimination. For example, I sometimes ride with a group of Thais. Whenever we go into a national park they are outraged I have to pay double and sometimes even argue with the ranger.

 

At one national park they wanted me to pay 200 Baht (versus 20 Baht for a Thai person) and the ranger would not budge. The Thai group refused to pay anything and we had to make a 200 km detour around the national park. Personally, I would have preferred to pay the 200 Baht, but didn't really have the choice!

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17 hours ago, Mavideol said:

some of the Thais that see on a regular basis and with whom I sometimes socialize, know the problems we (expats) are facing with proof of income, visa, double charges and so forth when I ask them if they think it to be normal/acceptable they ALL say not, the majority said that we should be treated with more respect when asked if they know that we criticize Thai officials, the answer was "" so do we "" it's all a matter of opinion(s) nothing else

 

My wife feels the same way. And you can imagine her reaction to those nice people in government who are slowly but surely trying to force me to leave - as others have said, like boiling a frog. The final step will be if I need health insurance to renew my marriage visa, which will be next to impossible to get as I'm over 70. Then what?

And related, a recent example of the difference here. I've twice in the past several weeks had to call people in the UK, my bank and an insurance company, and they could not have been more helpful. Whenever I try to do anything in Thailand it's 10 reasons why 'Cannot' from those in uniforms looking for an 'incentive' to do their job, or it's piles of paperwork. I had to get a new ATM card, and to do it I had to sign my name 15 times on various forms just to renew a card I already had - okay, complicated a little as I had a new passport.

 

I wanted to get my name included in the house book, but there were so many hoops to jump through, including getting my passport translated and the embassy in Bangkok needing to authenticate it, that I gave up. Then today I needed to post a letter to the UK, and needed a passport - to post a letter, for F**** sake. The place is a lunatic asylum. We'll need a passport to get a haircut soon.

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Yeah!  When this sort of topic comes up, I very rarely get past the first page.  If I've read it all once, I've read it all a dozen times.  The funny part, is that the operative word is 'read'.  It seems to me, that I don't 'hear' these things in conversations.

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A "Thai" girl who i had know for several years! said to me once

"You are not the Thai" you are foreign and NOT the same!

 

I stopped there and woke up!

 

What Thailand should fear is if overseas tourest just stop coming to Thailand and foreign investors just see Thailand too risky to invest in! Anything is possible in these dire economic times!

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32 minutes ago, Stevemercer said:

I doubt the vast majority of Thais think about farang and their attitudes at all.

I agree! seems a lot disagree and have an inflated view of themselves? :wink:

Where I live they are struggling to make ends meet and make sense of their own lives, they don't have the time to give a dam about the odd farang!

Edited by CGW
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A guy is positively impressed with a shopping mall and takes the time to take pictures and share ... for the ones who are interested. The ones who are not could just skip the thread and move on.

 

But he get's shot down for posting ... what you mean "negative Farangs?" ????

 

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5 hours ago, kenk24 said:

Thanks Yinn... this is truly what Thai people think.. my family would be bored by TVF conversations in 2 minutes...

 

I walked past a frustrated Westerner at a shopping mall sitting at an AIS booth or something... he was calm at least, but telling the young lady who worked there how customer service was so much better in his country... the fact that it was Sunday and she probably could not do much to help anyway... but, this condescending <deleted> goes on all the time... 

 

 

One time the hotel I work before, have the man about 40 year old order chocolate milkshake. 

He get angry so much, because it have to much chocolate! He say that “not how to do”. We already sell this one more than 10 year, nobody else have the problem. Maybe 1000+ before. 

 

We give him the new one but he still angry. Then he say he will check out early and never come back.

He think we sad about he not come back? 5555555 we happy that.

 

you correct. MOST Thai people not see/talk with foreigner. So not think/talk about/ care foreigner.

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its going to be a problem anywhere you go in a foreign country.

 

its not natural for people to be 100% accepting of those who are different. the further you go afield, tbe worse it is.

 

those old movies with foreigners being loved and welcomed by the natives were pretty much a fantasy myth or ideal situation for entertainment, not reality.

 

many people still have these movies they grew up on in mind when they travel as adults.

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12 hours ago, brokenbone said:

hey yinn, would you mind telling me your age ?

also would you like us to correct sentences ? like when you write

"so answer your question'

i would write 'so to answer your question'

 

So to answer your question 26.

 

So to answer your other question, Thankyou for offer but no need. I know I wrong a lot, if I want I can look up sentence structure. But I to lazy to do with every sentence. Make me want to sleep. Is boring. Then in one week forget again.

 

my way is to train English, more than study English. I think better for me. 

Can not learn to quickly everything. Is quite difficult. Just do it! 

Edited by Yinn
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53 minutes ago, Yinn said:

So to answer your question 26.

 

So to answer your other question, Thankyou for offer but no need. I know I wrong a lot, if I want I can look up sentence structure. But I to lazy to do with every sentence. Make me want to sleep. Is boring. Then in one week forget again.

 

my way is to train English, more than study English. I think better for me. 

Can not learn to quickly everything. Is quite difficult. Just do it! 

if your native language is not english, and you live in thailand.  there is no reason why you should be ashamed of your english.  people who correct others all the time on their use of grammar are what you call "SNOBS".  ignore them.

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20 hours ago, observer90210 said:

Are farangs now reacting to the obvious discrimination, dual charging, immigration hassles and general discriminatory attitude towards them, from Thai policy makers...would rather be the question IMHO of course. :jap:

I have a black friend, VERY dark skinned, who learned to speak Thai. When he heard the horrible things they were saying about him, he'd try to engage them saying he understood what they were saying. Didn't slow them down one bit.

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1 hour ago, kevinmartyn said:

I truly believe the United Kingdom will very soon be the global financial hub of the world! And its currency will once again have strength because of stability!

the global financial hub of the world will be the country that comes out with the most inventions.  when you make inventions, you have stuff to sell others.  as a result, you have money circulating around you.

 

that said, what has the UK invented in the last century?  for that matter, what exactly has UK done to justify their exchange rate so high compared to other currencies?

 

the same can be said for china, and every other country in the world.  what has your country contributed to the benefit of mankind that would justify your standing in the world?

 

question.... in the last century, most of the most important inventions in the HISTORY of mankind came from what country?  hint:  this country invented the airplane, the internet, the computer, computer languages, micro chips, cell phones, light bulbs, radio, etc.  the list goes on.

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18 minutes ago, DEKEM said:

if your native language is not english, and you live in thailand.  there is no reason why you should be ashamed of your english.  people who correct others all the time on their use of grammar are what you call "SNOBS".  ignore them.

That depends. if you're talking to someone that makes it clear that they want to learn from a native speaker and welcome polite correction, then it's a wonderful thing to do for someone. But I wouldn't do that without it being clear that the person wants it. On the other hand, I've had some hilarious moments where Thai people rudely correct my pronunciation of ENGLISH words when of course they were wrong and I would have never asked them to do that.

 

The bigger ethical question is whether or not native English speaker should reply to broken pigeon Thaiglish in proper English or not. 

Edited by Jingthing
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14 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

That depends. if you're talking to someone that makes it clear that they want to learn from a native speaker and welcome polite correction, then it's a wonderful thing to do for someone. But I wouldn't do that without it being clear that the person wants it. On the other hand, I've had some hilarious moments where Thai people rudely correct my pronunciation of ENGLISH words when of course they were wrong and I would have never asked them to do that.

 

The bigger ethical question is whether or not native English speaker should reply to broken pigeon Thaiglish in proper English or not. 

in a teacher/student scenario, I would agree with you.  but in a situation where you are dealing with strangers, those correcting others for errors in grammar are usually snobs.  snobs are not necessarily just foreigners.  there are thai snobs, chinese snobs, etc.  the worst type of snob is those who just totally ignore you when you speak their language and they don't think you should be doing so for whatever reason.

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4 minutes ago, DEKEM said:

in a teacher/student scenario, I would agree with you.  but in a situation where you are dealing with strangers, those correcting others for errors in grammar are usually snobs.  snobs are not necessarily just foreigners.  there are thai snobs, chinese snobs, etc.  the worst type of snob is those who just totally ignore you when you speak their language and they don't think you should be doing so for whatever reason.

Some people actually want to learn English. I agree don't assume random strangers do but you don't need to be a formal teacher to help out people that see speaking with a native speaker as an opportunity. 

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53 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

On the other hand, I've had some hilarious moments where Thai people rudely correct my pronunciation of ENGLISH words when of course they were wrong and I would have never asked them to do that.

Well, there is English and there is English, just 2 examples:

Most Americans i meet say "wader" instead of "water"..

Many Northern English say "werk" instead of "work"..

..Just saying..

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21 hours ago, observer90210 said:

Are farangs now reacting to the obvious discrimination, dual charging, immigration hassles and general discriminatory attitude towards them, from Thai policy makers...would rather be the question IMHO of course. :jap:

The vast majority of expats have no hassles with immigration or find any discrimination against them. Those that do so is because they have been using others to put up funds for thier retirement, posing as tourists and trying to stay long term.

They dont like the fact that Thailand is beginning to enforce laws. I've just spent 5 days in a huge government hospital, possible the only expat there. I was treated with huge friendliness from both the staff and patients. I live in Thailand because I love the people. But there are a lot of farang trash in Thailand now that nobody likes.

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you can pick up on this via tone without knowing thai after you have been around awhile. you can hear the tone and they will usually turn away or walk away or act like they are talking to someone else.

many vendors will insult you when your looking at food or merchandise if you dont buy right away.

its even preferable as i dont have to hear what they are saying so the negativity on me is limited and just bounces back on them since there is little reaction from me, other then leaving.

I have a black friend, VERY dark skinned, who learned to speak Thai. When he heard the horrible things they were saying about him, he'd try to engage them saying he understood what they were saying. Didn't slow them down one bit.


Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

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8 hours ago, DEKEM said:

I disagree with you.  and just to let you know, I'm asian.

 

asians in general have long memories.  if you do something good to them, they remember.  for instance, I had this friend of mine (who happens to also be asian) give this ladyboy who was begging for money to get food to eat 200 baht.  several years later, she still remembers me and my friend.

 

when I first moved to thailand 22+ years ago, I didn't know any thai.  I remember walking up and down this soi.  the motorcycle taxi guys would greet me with "uuing".  they ALL would say that to me every day.  "uuing".  "uuing".  after a few weeks of this, I thought to myself..  "uuing" must mean hello.  so, I started saying "uuing" to everybody too.  people miles away would say "uuing" to me too.  so, in my mind, "uuing" MUST mean hello.

 

then, I started my classes at AUA.  on the first day when I greeted the teacher with "uuing" thinking I was smart.  she replied "why you call me fat?"

 

on that day, I realized that all the motorcycle taxi guys on my soi told all the motorcycle taxi guys up and down the block my story.  I'm talking for miles around, mind you.  I realized I was a big joke to all of them.

 

thais remember EVERYTHING.  and they spread it around.  all asians are like this.  whether you are in thailand, china, the PI, cambodia, etc.  EVERYWHERE.

 

a long time ago, I almost went crazy over this reality.  but then, I realized it's everywhere.  heck, you get confirmation of this on thaivisa.

 

moral of the story,... adapt or die.

1.      Yeah you are Asian, so do me a favor, share your Asian experience with someone who can relate. My experiences and how I was brought up probably isn’t the same as you nor how you react/behave in this country.

2.      I don’t think you read my post/words with consideration as you have typed out some individual experience that in all respect...IMO, is a bit lame not to mention a bit cliché. You can’t even spell ‘fat’ in an English phonetical way to come near how it’s said in Thai. “Uuing,” for fat, come on now.

3.      AUA? I didn’t learn my Thai from being held up in some school or group for teaching.

4.      And my last and maybe most important point aside from that you are Asian;you used a single example/experience to say you ‘disagree’ with my post that included multiple experiences over time, particularly, repeated behaviors/views, at least, implied and that’s what I meant.

 

You then finish with ‘moral of the story. Adapt or die.’ Relate much? I don’t just mean with being a non-Asian in Thailand but when quoting someone to then disregard its contents and details provided for your own short-sided advice to adapt. You may need to adapt to keep your job and your boss happy…maybe that social circle that you value so much, being Asian.

 

I chuckle at your single experience typed. But yeah, I guess we can agree to disagree. Even though I never said anything about how much Thai people can remember. ????  I will take your point that “Asians have long memories,” sure. Can be quite petty and nosy too if you ask me. Just saying. Don’t mean to come off as negative. I just find the use of single instances to counter someone who was talking about continued views/behaviors experienced, again, ‘short-sided.’

Edited by Solinvictus
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33 minutes ago, Solinvictus said:

1.      Yeah you are Asian, so do me a favor, share your Asian experience with someone who can relate. My experiences and how I was brought up probably isn’t the same as you nor how you react/behave in this country.

2.      I don’t think you read my post/words with consideration as you have typed out some individual experience that in all respect...IMO, is a bit lame not to mention a bit cliché. You can’t even spell ‘fat’ in an English phonetical way to come near how it’s said in Thai. “Uuing,” for fat, come on now.

3.      AUA? I didn’t learn my Thai from being held up in some school or group for teaching.

4.      And my last and maybe most important point aside from that you are Asian;you used a single example/experience to say you ‘disagree’ with my post that included multiple experiences over time, particularly, repeated behaviors/views, at least, implied and that’s what I meant.

 

You then finish with ‘moral of the story. Adapt or die.’ Relate much? I don’t just mean with being a non-Asian in Thailand but when quoting someone to then disregard its contents and details provided for your own short-sided advice to adapt. You may need to adapt to keep your job and your boss happy…maybe that social circle that you value so much, being Asian.

 

I chuckle at your single experience typed. But yeah, I guess we can agree to disagree. Even though I never said anything about how much Thai people can remember. ????  I will take your point that “Asians have long memories,” sure. Can be quite petty and nosy too if you ask me. Just saying. Don’t mean to come off as negative. I just find the use of single instances to counter someone who was talking about continued views/behaviors experienced, again, ‘short-sided.’

sorry you got upset.  just my opinion.

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1 hour ago, DEKEM said:

sorry you got upset.  just my opinion.

You do not owe an apology.  Clearly, this person has a TON of baggage, VERY thin skin, and a MASSIVE ego issue.  Just ignore this and move on ... a total waste of your time. 

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3 hours ago, J Town said:

I have a black friend, VERY dark skinned, who learned to speak Thai. When he heard the horrible things they were saying about him, he'd try to engage them saying he understood what they were saying. Didn't slow them down one bit.

No doubt some of the criticisms are real. as many could be critical of our countries and our cultures, I am sure much of the above take place in our countries. I know it does im mine.

 I was recently traveling to a European country with my daughter , I will not mention which as not to offend the otherwise very nice people there. My daughter wanted to see  a major soccer game she had hers so much about in the US.

I am fluent in the language of that country but my daughter speaks non.

It seems that unlike the US where everyone seats anywhere and if one is to misbehave, would be thrown out of the game by security, In that country they separate the fans at opposite sides of the stadium otherwise they will kill each other, (you all know who you are:wink:)

There were a couple of Black players on the opposing team. You should hear the epithets hurled upon them. I was embarrassed simply to heat them and happy my daughter did not speak the language. 

Moral of the story, no need forthe "pot calling the kettle black " racism is a human condition and Thais are human. 

 

PS: I get the culture shock, don't think that Thais or any other people don't get culture shock when moving to other countries. My Mom always told me " When new to a place Keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut"  

 

 

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