NorthernRyland

Don't ask questions you already know the answer to.

She didn't claim it was your fault for not stopping? I see so often people driving like if they get into the road this means they've won and now you must stop for them. The idea of road rules seems to be beyond these people.

The girl may have tried to rush the turn because she was nervous about sitting in the middle of the road. I see many Thai's pull all the way over to the left and before crossing because they don't feel safe waiting in the right lane in the middle of the road, which is probably smart because people here are always going too fast and will swerve in to the other lane instead of slowing down and stopping. So much poor emotional control with the Thai people when they drive. The guy was probably going too fast for the road given how many cars are turning across it. Not that it would be enforced but a much lower speed limit like 40 would probably be smart for those road conditions. Another sad but predictable death on Thai roads.

so it's way more expensive than America now? Still lots of good $20 meals to be had in America and the portions are in excess of what you need anyways. BKK can piss off with those prices.

Reminds me of this one

IMO Thai's are pretty anti-social outside of their immediate family and they aren't looking out for people around them. It's a real sore point for the country if you ask me.

I've had 3 girlfriends in Thailand and they never asked me for anything. Only my wife now has started asking for things since I have a good job but when I was broke she never asked for anything. For example I agreed to buy her a new Flip 5 phone (buying new phones is stupid IMO so I don't support her here) but she has to pay me back by covering the electricity. 🙂 Very little money problems if you find the right kind of women.

How so? This is pretty extreme so I'm curious. I have many misgivings with Thai people but nothing spiritual like you describe. I wonder if the people that do well with Thai people have lower expectations of other people? I think it's possible if i really expected Thai's to meet my own standards and beliefs then held them accountable then I would have real problems but I tend to take them as they are.

Sorry if I spammed with messages, I tend to get a thread late and start replying as I go along. The only thing i don't like is when pages of two people bickering consumes the forum. Sometime the mods will shut that down but not always. Probably better to take those to DMs.

Truly a damning indictment of expat life in Thailand. I don't think it's that bad for what it's worth.

Please mute me then. Is there even a mute/block function here?

No I'm really not. I speak Thai just fine these days and that's how I communicate with people here. I'm just telling you how I observe THEM to be, not even towards myself. Sure you can go out of your way to talk to them but that's not normal behavior and it makes people uncomfortable sometimes. After I come back from the US I feel more outgoing but eventually I settle in the to the culture and that includes not making small talk with the 7-11 girls and random people selling food. Maybe I should do that more but I all I'm saying is it's not normal in their culture.

That's always makes me cringe too. Schools in America are pathetic in so many ways (I dropped out of HS at 17 it was so painful). All that matters are the kids really. I was raised in a university town with lots of government and research jobs so the kids I went to school with had higher than average intelligence as their parents where in these sectors. It made a huge difference in my life. Now I imagine if I put my kids (don't have them though) in Thai school where I live now. The majority of the kids would be from parents who were working in farms or selling things by the side of the street and food stalls. 100% guaranteed they would come out lower IQ just from that alone. That's the real reason people put their kids into private schools, that is to have their kids socialize with kids from other families that could afford the school in the first place.

It's like with any kind of growth. You can give a kid good diet and they'll reach their highest possible height or can you can starve them and they'll be shorter then they would be otherwise but they're never going to reach 9 foot with good diet alone. There's always an upper limit which is heritable. This is the same as all species no? Doesn't matter how well you train your dog you can't teach them to speak. Likewise you can't take a person with 80 IQ (presuming good diet and environment etc..) and put them in the theoretically best school possible and expect them to get to 130 IQ.

I bet you had a good baseline to start from. As for Thai's abroad there could be a bias in favor of intelligent people that are more willing to take risks because they feel more confident or simply have the skills and ability to let them go abroad in the first place.

Lots of research on the heritability of IQ. I'm convinced it's at least 50% genetic and you can't educate yourself out of it. I know where my limits are and you can only get so far with the brain your parents gave you 🙂

100% For me it really helps my mood to go back home during the summer and visit my parents while they're still alive. It doesn't matter how much you like Thailand, if you have one of those bad days with the locals it can hurt on an emotional level and turn you against people in general. That's why I'm dedicated to controlling my living situation more and avoiding the bad neighbors that make your daily life miserable. We can't escape driving or burning in the north though so it's best to just get away once in a while.

This is all true but it's also true that you should let the rotten parts of a culture dominate the good people who are doing things right. All the things that piss us off about Thailand do the same for many Thai people, i.e. dangerous driving, stray dogs, burning, noise etc... We should all be fighting back with the locals against these bad actors and it should never be seen as "Thai bashing".

This would be a great development if they actually cared about other Thai people doing it. 17 years now and still I've never seen a Thai police officer patrolling the road to arrest dangerous drivers.

In America I think the average university student is something like 110 IQ, so higher than average as a baseline. I think engineers, doctors etc.. are 130 and math majors 130+ then beyond that are philosophy majors. You can dig around to find this information from the past but they've obviously stopped testing IQ now and in fact dropping requirements to meet diversity quotas. US is digging it's grave but that's for another thread.

I've gone on the record before but the average person I met in Colorado (where I'm from) and especially from the mid-west region and miles above any Asian in terms of friendliness. How often do you see a Thai person have a casual conversion with a stranger in public? They usually don't even say thank you to cashiers, something which would be considered extremely rude in America. I could go on and on about the ways Thais are not courteous to each other in public but I bet most of you already know this.

This isn't reason to dislike anyone but consider this if you feel like you're not making connections here and the ones you have are shallow. For reference janitors in America were once sampled to have an IQ of 90 which means you're basically living in a country of janitors. If you're above average IQ it's going to be basically impossible to make deep connections with 99% of the population. Just imagine what it would be like if 50% of the people in your country were less intelligent than your average janitor. It's devastating really but fortunately Thai's are friendly and easy going people so just try to enjoy the simple things in life and you'll at least feel welcomed.

Uh no, I like it here. I go home every year for 2 months to gain back some sanity though.

Sorry but living in a foreign country is what you makes you racist in the first place. I never had problems with Thai people until I moved to Thailand. Many people can relate I'm sure.

but the people themselves are nice and friendly enough, no? It's just that what they do impacts you. If Thai's were more considerate I would be 100% happier in my daily life.