AndersMUC

My theory is that where you have poor driving you have good food. US, Brittian, Japan and Germany have good driving habits and uninspiring food. Thailand, China, Taiwan, Fraance and even Singapore have poor driving behavior, but fantastic food.

To asnwer your question, they just do not know any better. They have never been shown the correct way.

I disagree...

I'm German, with an experience of roughly half a million European kilometres under my belt, from UK to Romania. I still don't think that driving habits in Germany are good. I'm just adapted to them. But compared to traffic in countries like UAE, China or Thailand I perceive the general approach to driving to be more aggressive over here. Thais don't care about rules in traffic, Germans tend to care about them too much - quite many of them tend to target you at full throttle because they feels it's their legal right to drive there...

In Dubai or Shanghai the traffic is dense, but if some driver sneaks into a gap right in front of another, it's ok. He was quicker, so be it. If the same happens in Germany, the "duped" driver starts a fuss and tries to punish the first one and insists on "his right". You can observe this a lot on Autobahnen (German highways), where speeds are higher and, most importantly, speed DIFFERENCES can be extreme.

I also think a major reason for the low number of casualties in German traffic is the fact that most of us drive rather modern cars with high security standards. (The cars are also checked every two years.) The death toll among bikers is much higher, but few people ride motorcycles over here.

Oh, and talking about aggression in traffic: I'm a bicycle sports guy. But I've experienced too many life-threatening situations on the road bike, riding alone as well as in larger group. I try to avoid streets completely now and only enjoy my mountain bike in the woods or my track bike on the bike track. Cars are deadly sooner or later.

If you really want to help someone you have to first understand that not everything is positive. It is very good and helpful to highlight the positive. But you need to keep it real. Other than that I am sure your intentions are in the right place.

If you want to help somebody, that person must first be willing to accept your help.

My personal experience: If you really want to help people, you have to first get your own s**t together and LIVE it. Your example might inspire some people who are looking for pointers.

You won't be able to reach the others. Certainly not by telling them what to do.

Interesting Discussion! But I'd be more interested to get insight into your own experiences, and how you deal with prejudice and rejection in your daily life.

A short remark first: I'm aware that we are all racists. It's hardwired in our brains. (As Kitsune pointed out earlier.) Or, to be more precise, we are xenophobic by nature. Back in the days when we roamed the planet in small herds and tribes, a group of hominids didn't have much contact to other groups, and every contact was potentially hostile and dangerous. For all of us it's family first, then friends, then maybe neighbours. But certainly not strangers.

I think we often pick on racism because it's easy to see - putting off foreign people is so much easier if you can spot them because they look different. That's when we label xenophobia racism.

I'm aware of the history in my area, central Europe. I know how neighbouring nations discriminated each other, even though they were so close, also culturally. It was just opportune for certain groups, it helped fuel hostility and do the many wars that our history books are full of.

I'll go to Thailand for the fifth time next week. I have some contacts there, and I do hope that a few might become friends some day. But I am also aware that when I relocate to Thailand, I will face a lot of prejudice and injustice from people there, especially the administration. I am sure this is the same all over the world. It certainly runs this way here in Germany, where not only foreigners are treated badly by the administration, but also poor people.

So - where do you have difficulties through deprecatory behaviour in your daily life as expats? And, much more importantly, how do you deal with it and overcome it in a charming, friendly way?

Good afternoon!

I'll arrive in Bangkok next for my fifth stay in Thailand. I'm exploring the country to check if it's the right place to relocate - so far it feels right for me.

However, I'm interested to meet people living there already to hear their experiences. Please send me a PM or reply if you have time to meet me for a coffee or a beer in one of the cities I'm going to visit: Bangkok, maybe Pattaya, Khon Kaen, Chiang Mai, Vientiane (Laos), Phuket.

Cheers,

Anders