Farang cannot know Thai-ness

[faranginkorat]

The post is correct, Farangs can not know "Thai-Ness".

Farangs will never understand that the convenience offered by driving on the wrong side of the road outweighs the dangers created.

Farangs will never understand why you still love your drunken father who you send money to from Pattaya.

Farangs will never understand why it is legal to generate unlimited amounts of noise in residential neighborhoods in order to sell a 10 baht icecream.

Farangs will never understand why you park across from our gates everyday making it difficult to get our cars in or out of the driveway, but the first time we park across the street from your gate, to try to show you something, we are called all kinds of names and harassed.

Farangs will never understand why you allow people with no idea whatsoever how to drive to get a license for 200 THB under the table.

Farangs will never understand why you allow your children to drive around on motorcycles when they are 7 years old.

Farangs will never understand Thai husbands that allow their wife to live with a Farang when he is in country, help spend the Farangs money when he is not, and think he is maintaining "face".

Farangs will never understand women losing their house in a card game.

I could go on and on, but I think the point is made.

You are absolutely correct, Farangs can not understand "Thai-Ness".

[KhunJoseph]

well....??? Does realising it's, [or was now that they think their resorts are worth Western rates], an okay place to visit once a year; but knowing it's absolutely not a place, if you have a choice, to live; count for understanding the overall situation? I could not live in a place with no free speech and here the air is clean and I can drink water from the tap.
If somebody runs a red light and hits me in Thailand it would be my fault, no thank you!!! and if he is a mad scooter driver with no helmet and smashes his skull, I would be up on charges for a fatality.
I have enjoyed my visits to Thailand just as much as I am glad I don't live there.
A lot of Thais women I know understand Thainess; they got themsleves out, to Germany, Britain, America and Canada. It took about 2 months in 2003 / 04 to 'know' people are not allowed to say what they think and there is choking, burning garbage and litter all over the place.
If those 2 things are ever changed.
........against the law to be honest, so the Corrupt stay in power, have mia nois and yachts, what is not to know?

[blog888]

I am shocked about the ignorance that speaks out of some of the contributions. People living in Thailand describing what they observe but not trying to understand what could drive people behaving like that. The guy who has '250 girl friends in 2+ years' most probably had no time to really try to understand how they feel and why they are doing what they do.
I am European but I experienced that as a foreigner you can come close to the very kernel of Thai culture if you try. The point that is difficult to westerners is that almost nobody will ever tell you the truth straight. Many things you will not understand as a foreigner you may not even like but you can try to accept and respect them. If you do it and have patience you will gain more insight because pieces will come together. Thai culture is much more complex than it appears to be at first glance. Believe me there are good reasons, in a western sense, why Thai behave the way they are doing. There is a way foreigners can come closer to understand Thai. I believe that it is mostly your will to open up.
If foreigners try to project their experience and values on to Thai society they will fail.
So the discussion in my perception is mostly about differentiation between those that are and will be 'outsiders' and those who really try to understand.

[adamt64]

Yeah, I think Thais probably don't like to understand themselves and their culture, people, nation thoroughly...they like to focus on the parts they think are good and ignore and deny the bad...the murders of foreigners, the rapes, the murders of Thais, the thievery, the corruption, the violence...and Thais don't exhibit such a vast knowledge of the world and its people either...so this is probably not such a great argument to get into...it lacks substance. "Farang" only means "guava" in the Thai-English dictionaries too, so I think it's probably time that be considered a racial derogatory slur, at least in some contexts and tones. "Farang" also appears to be a Tourette's syndrome word which people cannot control themselves from spouting out on the street or elsewhere spontaneously...it's a word that has very little meaning due to its odd usage and non-literal interpretation, and often most resembles a territorial claim, like a dog barking or some other base unintelligent sound indicating hostility and protectiveness. Children are obviously taught to lose control of their speech when they a foreigner enters their visual sensory field, at which time they will shout "FALANG!!" and often nothing more, as if there were a war ongoing and whites were somehow the enemy...local burnout drug addict males and dubious, unkempt women clearly influence this dereliction among the children...and "falang" certainly does not mean "foreigner" either since Chinese and Indians are not called "farang" and it doesn't indicate a direction which one travelled from since the USA is to the East, Russia to the north, and Australia to the South...so again, this is a very stupid topic which is probably supported by the prostitutes, drunks, and other not-so-smart people around here...Thai and Caucasian...they sure do have a great big feeling though, don't they? Now if only they could win an argument with words or explain anything completely, effectively, explicitly and directly with real words without resorting to violence or corruption...I'd like to see this one out, thanks. It's not dignified.

[thinkabaht]

Caow jai khon Thai, farang tam dai........if they try!

I, unlike blog888, am not shocked by the ignorance, hipocracy and self righteousness that speaks out here in this thread, after all, they are 3 qualities that really define our "western-ness"

We come to Thailand intitially to get our kicks and escape from the mundane predictability of our western lives and we remain here, perpetual tourists looking for pleasure at every turn. Then, when we fail to intergrate and understand the ways of our hosts, or realise that when you settle in a place it stops being a holiday, we join a forum and bitch about it to other "disillusioned" western 'men', and go to bars in Pattaya and Phuket and do the same there. Its very sad! If you dont like the way Thai people are then perhaps you should "Bai glai glai loi"

To say that Thai people are myopic is myopic in itself. Its lack of education that you mistake for short sightedness. To say they are xenophobic is a ridiculous generalization derived from the fact that the area 'where you live' has been hammered by tourists of various orientations for years, who come and throw their money around and get their kicks without a care for the culture or the people which, to them, are both deemed novel. Go to Ibiza, Paris, Kuala Lumpur or Bali and see what the 'locals' think of you. You will find that tourists are disliked but tolerated and if you act like a tourist, which I'm sure many of the critics writing here do i.e. not speaking the language, not accepting the culture, then you should expect to be treated as one.

If you have 250 single Thai girl "friends" then you are clearly a sex tourist and one of the causes of the alleged xenophobia. Try moving out of Pattaya or wherever it is you live, to an area populated by Thai people alone. Learn to speak the language and dont assume that everyone wants something from you and you might just get to experience real Thai-ness. If you hook up with bar girls who have come from poor families who live in areas where the standard of education is poor then you have to moral/cultural differences and, if you really want to be with them you have to try to understand why they are different or a least accept it.

Hipocrisy is an ugly trait!

[sibley]

I have lived in Thailand for two years now and i have not a clue what Thai-ness is because the Thais change there mind to suit the occasion one day they will smile and say that's Thai culture the next day it is not but one thing is for sure farang are seen as walking ATM,s

[orthorim]

Thai-ness is overrated, just like any other form of nationalistic self-identification. It's self-limiting.

For Farangs doing business in Thailand, it's great to know Thai-ness, as it's the environment we are swimming in, we need to understand it so we can thrive. Just like we need to learn the rules of the road in Thailand in order to drive here accident free, we need to understand cultural sensibilities - should I say neuroses? - to master the social life here.

For Thais, it's would be best to forget all about it and to take an open minded approach to the world. And quite a few Thais do, actually.

There's a lot to overcome, and it's just so much easier to see for us outsiders, and infinitely harder for people who grew up here. All we can do is try to get over our own inherited beliefs... and to see all humans for what they are beneath that thin veneer of cultural paint.

People quite often ask me - don't you have a problem with the different culture? Isn't it a problem between you and your wife that you come from totally different cultures? My answer has always been the same: No. I don't have a problem with the different cultures. Cultures are cultures, nothing to get hung up on. The deeper truths in life are completely separate from the culture you grow up in. They're universal, and apply to all humans, no matter where they're from or how they were brought up. Thai culture is more open in some respects than where I came from in the west - and in other ways it's more closed. What's the big deal? If the culture here becomes too oppressive to live here, I will move my family back to the west, to the USA, more specifically California. But so far that hasn't happened.

[th-dean]

I'm Thai and after reading this, I'm so sure that you Farangs here are far from Thai-ness.
Like Khun thinkabaht said, living in the tourist area can mislead the perception in Thai-ness.

Seen that Superstition is an obvious Thai-ness. I accept that. But they (Superstitions) are not the true Buddhists. Thai people that really are the Buddhism will have no relation about this.
Belief and walk along the MIDDLE WAY (Eightfold path) of Buddha is the basic way of living of Buddhists.

About the Driving, when I was abroad first, I was so curious how good manner that they drive (Germany). This is a very good point and I want Thais to improve themselves of driving. But I still think that it’s better than Indian and Chinese driving.

[Aussie John]

Thai cannot know Farang-ness . It goes both ways.

[benp]

a bit like the yanks............ dont know much about their own country and even less about the rest of the world! pity.....