Do the Thais have a different relationship with silence / doing nothing than Westerners do?

[BritManToo]

21 hours ago, Hal65 said:

For those of you with some handle on the Thai mindset, I wonder if they have a greater sense of peace with nothingness. Is it the case that they simply don't feel the need to keep themselves busy? Or is this more a sign of general poverty than inner tranquility?

Nothing to do with mindset, all to do with IQ.

The lower the IQ, the happier to sit and do nothing.

[wgdanson]

3 hours ago, GalaxyMan said:

Amen! My goal in life was to do nothing, to have no responsibility beyond feeding myself. Finally, I made it after working too hard, too long, and couldn't be happier for it. I am never bored. I am a reader and have ~250,000 digital books and a Kindle to keep me happy. If/when I feel the need, I do something, but I'm happiest doing <deleted>-all. I see sunrise every morning and am usually asleep before 9. Life is goooood! ????

Reading one book per day will take you 685 years ! Unless you've already read some of them, then it will take less.    LOL

[1FinickyOne]

3 hours ago, GalaxyMan said:

My goal in life was to do nothing, to have no responsibility beyond feeding myself.

my goal was homeless with bank account... I have the bank but have 2 homes... I can still aspire. 

[HLover]

59 minutes ago, Enoon said:

 

Discontent.......the Western Way.

 

Thank you Thai people for helping me to see that.

 

 

Especially the BKK youths fighting in groups and the taxi workers knifing occasionally.  Thank you to all.

[Knocker33]

Simple answer. Thais are one of the laziest bunches  I have ever met .I know there are the odd ferw who work hard but in general they are lazy barstewards 

 

 

 

 

[Damrongsak]

On 8/19/2019 at 8:06 AM, NCC1701A said:

yes my half Thai half Chinese girlfriend is not like a Thai at all.

Her Chinese DNA makes her profoundly different.

My wife's parents were Vietnamese.  She's so busy around the house it drives me crazy sometimes.  And she's over 60 years old.

[Speedhump]

On 8/19/2019 at 7:10 PM, Briggsy said:

I would add to this discussion the concept of the word beua which is always translated as bored in English. Many English including myself fall into the trap of thinking the Thai is bored in the Western sense of the word, nothing to do, nothing interesting, nothing to challenge or entertain. 

 

However when the Thai uses beua, it is almost always when they are sick of something or peed off with something. It is much more focused on an activity or person, etc., and clearly negative.

 

I have never heard a Thai person express boredom in the Western nothing to do sense. I suspect many never and the remainder hardly ever feel such an emotion. When there is nothing to do for a Thai, it is great, just sleep.

I think this is spot on. When they say bored with/of, they mean peed off at or fed up with. As far as real boredom goes, I also am not sure they experience it easily. They do enjoy idle time very much (we are generalising, I know not all are alike), I think it takes a longer time for them to be bored than many Westerners (not me, I can do absolutely nothing for many days on end). 

[Fairynuff]

On 8/20/2019 at 11:22 AM, thasoss said:

well i've read some good explanations to thai idleness,peacefulness,sleeping a lot and it all sounds wonderful except at the same time the house remains filthy,and there's rubbish all around the yard....i'll call it what it is....laziness.

You can blame the weather,the education system in school,or the lack of direction from parents to children.

However they all seem to wake up quickly when food and drink is offered free and a hand out for some money for free.

Your straight to the point honesty will not be universally applauded here!

Edited August 21, 2019 by Fairynuff

[Briggsy]

On 8/20/2019 at 7:40 AM, tifino said:

when mrs says it,

though there's a sort of L in there - b'l'eur (in a drenchish sounding sort of way)

  -  I am made to take that reaction, as a sort of deeper level of exertion of emotion, than 'bababaor'

That's a totally different word. It is an English loan word, blur. The Thais use it to describe mental fatigue or mental fog.

[Tayaout]

It always annoyed me so much when I was in the west everyone needed to make them feel important by "doing something" (then complaining they feel tired) . Sometimes it's better to leave nature follow its course. I always spent a lot of time "doing nothing". This is when I get my best light bulb moment. I'm extremely productive for the short time I need to bring food on the table. The remaining of the time I do as I please and a lot is spent sitting in a field somewhere observing nature. It feels good not being judged by other Thai people and this is why I live here. 

Edited August 21, 2019 by Tayaout

[katana]

On 8/19/2019 at 4:53 PM, Airalee said:

Exactly.  

 

There is however a word that Thais use for when they are just sitting there staring off into space in a seemingly contemplative mood.  I don’t know how it’s spelled in Thai language but it sounds something like “meuu” (with an elongated sala eu sound)

You're probably thinking of Muh เหม่อ - abstracted, to be dreamy, gaze vacantly/absently etc...
There is the old song Yahm by Labanoon from 1999, the opening line being
Muh mawng fah...When gazing at the sky...

 

[dimitriv]

On 8/20/2019 at 6:22 AM, thasoss said:

well i've read some good explanations to thai idleness,peacefulness,sleeping a lot and it all sounds wonderful except at the same time the house remains filthy,and there's rubbish all around the yard....i'll call it what it is....laziness.

 

I remember my first time in Thailand. I was in a taxi from the airport to my hotel. When looking outside the first thing I noticed was that NOTHING is finished. 

 

When Thai clean a street it is still not clean when they finish. When they paint a house they can stop, without finishing it. I live in a condo which is a couple of years old. It should be finished, but it is not. Years after they finished there are still things that need to be done.

 

It reminded me of southern Europe, but 10 times worse. I think it is laziness combined with a very relaxed view on life.

 

 

[Fex Bluse]

It's cute that they seem to enjoy doing nothing.

It is NOT a trait I admire.

All of us would like to sit around, feeling pleasure as often as possible, but we have to be adults and advance humanity instead.

[Mikisteel]

Maybe I sound more sympathetic here but I assure you I am not.

 

Madam Steel can be prone to this but I don't think it is intentional. She just sometimes does not know what to do and this is as a result of poor parenting and yes I underline that point but I also massage it in a way which does not completely point the finger at her folks. 

 

Her folks whilst clueless are not silly enough to accept druggies and drinkers in their family and they never gamble or do the lottery but they are fiercely Buddhist so maybe the monks have a better chance than anyone to gain.

 

The question becomes what do those monks tell the locals about madams family. I believe they do gossip like that.

 

Back on point, in the 5 years I have been married i have seen her grow but my concern is does she see it and I don't think she does so I tend to reminisce about stuff a lot as I know that helps her see the journey. 

 

One thing I detest is sitting in a negative and failing to jumpstart the mind forwards. There have been times when she knew something which she believed but it was actually not true, this tainted her view of me and she will not mention it and in the end it will come out and it takes 2 minutes to solve and she spent 3 months thinking badly of me.

 

That's hard to swallow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Airalee]

7 hours ago, katana said:

You're probably thinking of Muh เหม่อ - abstracted, to be dreamy, gaze vacantly/absently etc...
There is the old song Yahm by Labanoon from 1999, the opening line being
Muh mawng fah...When gazing at the sky...

 

Thanks!  You actually explained it better than the Thai that introduced me to the term.

[CLW]

Reminds me of a conversation with a Thai classmate. I asked her about her hobbies, she said social media. I asked her back that is a medium but no hobby. She replied: But I can spend my free time with it, therefore it is a hobby.