Many foreigners who live long enough in contact with Thai people often wonder why the latter behave in ways so different from theirs, and often so difficult to understand, because they defy our logic.

Obviously, there are major cultural differences between England or France, and Thailand.

But still, that doesn't explain everything.

I was wondering about that for many years, until I read a book written by Nicholas Carr.

This book, The Shallows, has nothing to do whatsoever with Thailand...the name isn't even mentioned in it.

The Shallows is an historical and scientific description of human ways to communicate, up until the advent of the internet, and their consequences on our brains (how they are wired and rewired through the ages).

Now, you won't get the answer to the question asked in the title of this post today, because I still have to write it down in a clear and compact form, and also because that will leave you some time to think about it...hence the "part 1" in the title.

Yet, there is already a clue in the lines above...a clue which is in front of us everytime we look at the local date which is not the same as the official international date.

In other words, we and the Thai people live in vastly different centuries.

This is true when it comes to religion (Buddha was born long before Christ), but also when it comes to communication, except that the centuries are not at all the same for both cases.

To be continued soon...

 

I always thought it had something to to with eating a lot of fish sauce

Many ways to approach something....

What makes ours automatically correct or superior?

In many ways they're a lot healthier than we are.....

 

Even though my wife arrives at solutions 180' of from mine she accomplishes the same end result.....

I've learned many, many times over to trust in her judgement.....

Edited October 30, 20178 yr by pgrahmm

Feudal society inherently different from Democratic society.

Most of their school and university revolves around obedience, worship and dance, not study as we  know it.

 

Does it matter?

It's just different.

Edited October 30, 20178 yr by MaeJoMTB

6 minutes ago, MaeJoMTB said:

Feudal society inherently different from Democratic society.

Most of their school and university revolves around obedience, worship and dance, not study as we  know it.

 

Does it matter?

It's just different.

And cheaper.

12 hours ago, pgrahmm said:

Many ways to approach something....

What makes ours automatically correct or superior?

In many ways they're a lot healthier than we are.....

 

Even though my wife arrives at solutions 180' of from mine she accomplishes the same end result.....

I've learned many, many times over to trust in her judgement.....

It is not about who might be better, but rather about explaining where the difference in thinking and reacting comes from.

It also explains, among other things, why Thai people have so much difficulties to learn a foreign language such as English.

 

15 hours ago, Brunolem said:

To be continued soon...

Don't bother to continue.

2 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

Don't bother to continue.

Don't worry, I won't!

I am not one to force feed information to people who don't want it.

 

By the way, I like the humour in the formula below your text...greetings to...good one...

17 hours ago, MaeJoMTB said:

Feudal society inherently different from Democratic society.

Most of their school and university revolves around obedience, worship and dance, not study as we  know it.

 

Does it matter?

It's just different.

In fact they are quite similar as in both the elites rule, democracy is just feudalism with the illusion of choice.

 

That aside the more you dig into the Thai version of Buddhism a lot more the Thais make more sense. In fact many of the crazy superstitions I used to think were crazy actually have a solid esoteric basis. As most of us come from a societies molded by the iron fist of Christianity, we are in fact the ones that misconstrue reality.

12 minutes ago, Rancid said:

In fact they are quite similar as in both the elites rule, democracy is just feudalism with the illusion of choice.

 

That aside the more you dig into the Thai version of Buddhism a lot more the Thais make more sense. In fact many of the crazy superstitions I used to think were crazy actually have a solid esoteric basis. As most of us come from a societies molded by the iron fist of Christianity, we are in fact the ones that misconstrue reality.

Religion probably plays a role but, if I had been "authorized" to delve further in my little expose, you would have seen that written communcation, first and foremost, explains the differences between Thais and not only farangs, but basically the rest of the world populations...

They are developing, most of us come from already developed counties, it ain't rocket science