Stigma Fading For Mia Farang

[chanchao]

>>>I think the ratio for women to men in thailand is somewhere

>>>around 3-1...

>>Would you mind sharing the source of this statistic please?

> Ok maybe I exagerated a bit, probably 2-1. In Siam Square on a good

> day it's at least 10-1 I'd say.

And what would the ratio be at Lumphini boxing stadium?

Men have better things to do than to go funshopping at Siam Square one would hope..

Cheers,

Chanchao

[dfwbkk]

Source:

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/th.html

(the same trustworthy people that claimed that Saddam had nukes )

LOL !!

Now that's funny!

(Guess they said WMD's but that's beside the point)

/// DFW

[dfwbkk]

  And what would the ratio be at Lumphini boxing stadium? 

Men have better things to do than to go funshopping at Siam Square one would hope..

Cheers,

Chanchao

LOL

Posts like this one was the reason why I voted for you in the pop-thread...

/// DFW

[mbkudu]

>>>I think the ratio for women to men in thailand is somewhere

>>>around 3-1...

>>Would you mind sharing the source of this statistic please?

> Ok maybe I exagerated a bit, probably 2-1. In Siam Square on a good

> day it's at least 10-1 I'd say.

And what would the ratio be at Lumphini boxing stadium?

Men have better things to do than to go funshopping at Siam Square one would hope..

Cheers,

Chanchao

Who goes there to shop? I go there to eat and check out chicks. Yezzz.

[SeaVisionBurma]

I think the ratio for women to men in thailand is somewhere around 3-1...

Would you mind sharing the source of this statistic please?

Ok maybe I exagerated a bit, probably 2-1. In Siam Square on a good day it's at least 10-1 I'd say.

That's okay - maybe I should have elaborated on my original (barmy) question:

Would you mind sharing the source of this statistic please? It's at least 9:1 around MBK, and more along certain sois off Sukhukmvit Rd......

[chanchao]

Getting back to Mia Farang, here's one more from The Nation that includes some statistics! We all love statistics! And generalizations, we love those too, here we go:

The Mia Farang of Isaan, The Nation

16. of June 2004

"They are mostly typical Isaan women, rather dark skin, quite strong

and healthy and not the type to attract typical Thai men," said

researcher Decha Vanichvarod when asked to characterise mia farang, the

Thai wives of foreign men.

Decha is director of the National Economic and Social Development

Board's Northeastern Region.

"They are not 'beautiful' according to Thai men, or among the

good-looking women who normally head for jobs in the sex industry in

Bangkok, Phuket or Pattaya," he states in a soon-to-be published report.

Decha's study surveyed 15,284 mia farang in 19 provinces of the

Northeast, ranging in age from 20 to 52 years of age, and averaging 32.

Khon Kaen, Udon Thani and Nong Khai were the top three home provinces in terms of numbers.

Most of the women - 69 per cent - had an education no higher than Grade

6, 24 per cent made it to Grade 9 and the remaining 7 per cent graduated

from higher levels.

Eighty per cent of them had been married before. Many have children

with Thai husbands, the study found.

More than 50 per cent were from farming households and found they could not survive economically after breaking up with their husbands.

Many seek jobs in the service sector, such as hotel maids, waitresses

or masseurs, which they feel give them a better chance of meeting

foreigners.

Many meet Western partners through neighbours or relatives who have

married farang. The study says 63 per cent met their husbands

independently in Bangkok, Pattaya or another big city, 35 per cent

through a relative and 2 per cent on the Internet.

Before meeting their farang partners, 33 per cent of the women had

worked in Bangkok for less than Bt5,000 a month; 17 per cent worked in

Pattaya for a similar income; 13 per cent worked in other tourist cities

for salaries around Bt7,000; 26 per cent were farmers with a

Bt1,000-per-month income; and 11 per cent had already worked abroad,

many in factories, for salaries in the Bt30,000 range.

Since marrying, 72 per cent have become housewives and receive money

from their husbands upon request. The women send an average of Bt8,000 a month back to their families.

The top three home countries of the husbands are Germany, Switzerland

and England (20, 14 and 12 per cent, respectively). Other husbands of

the women surveyed were from Australia, the United States, New Zealand,

Canada, Sweden, France, Holland, Denmark, Belgium, Scotland, Italy,

Norway, Greece and Israel, and Asian nations including Japan, Malaysia

and Singapore, with small numbers from Laos, Hong Kong, South Korea,

Kuwait and China.

Businessmen comprised the largest group of foreign husbands (22 per

cent), with smaller numbers working as state officials, technicians,

engineers, retirees, teachers and doctors.

---

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com

[chanchao]

Alright I'll start:

> Most of the women - 69 per cent - had an education no higher

> than Grade 6, 24 per cent made it to Grade 9 and the remaining

> 7 per cent graduated from higher levels.

That's pretty much what I 'feared'.. Only 7% of our significant others have any kind of higher level education. Then again, let's also keep in mind that the survey is ONLY for Isarn women, who on average I'd say are more likely to come from a relatively poor rural backgound. (I.e. there's just more in that income/social group/class overthere). When you would survey 'mia farang' in Bangkok then you may get a larger percentage of higher educated mia farang.

(I think that a lot of problems in inter-cultural relationships are not exclusively caused by the difference in culture, but also by the difference in social status and education.)

(Not saying that these problems are always there or can't be overcome.)

Cheers,

Chanchao

[Rhys]

The bass rings dudes...watch the cherry pick at the school...

[bangsaen bob]

Someone should do a survey up there asking if they have heard about the Beer Garden on Sukhumvit Soi 7. I would imagine it's the most well known spot in Thailand for mia farang hunters, or girls to lazy to get a real job, or work in a bar.

[tuktuk]

Someone should do a survey up there asking if they have heard about the Beer Garden on Sukhumvit Soi 7. I would imagine it's the most well known spot in Thailand for mia farang hunters, or girls to lazy to get a real job, or work in a bar.

Well you are right, but at least 50% of the girls there are hookers and also about 10% are girls working in normal jobs and go there to meet farangs for pleasure. But you will find out quickly by talking zo them.

[tuktuk]

Someone should do a survey up there asking if they have heard about the Beer Garden on Sukhumvit Soi 7.  I would imagine it's the most well known spot in Thailand for mia farang hunters, or girls to lazy to get a real job, or work in a bar.

Well you are right, but at least 50% of the girls there are hookers and also about 10% are girls working in normal jobs and go there to meet farangs for pleasure. But you will find out quickly by talking zo them.

By the way, none of them will be angry if they go home next day or in the night with a whatsoever amount bath in teir pockets.

[plachon]

Getting back to Mia Farang, here's one more from The Nation that includes some statistics! We all love statistics! And generalizations, we love those too, here we go:

The Mia Farang of Isaan, The Nation

16. of June 2004

"They are mostly typical Isaan women, rather dark skin, quite strong

and healthy and not the type to attract typical Thai men," said

researcher Decha Vanichvarod when asked to characterise mia farang, the

Thai wives of foreign men.

Decha is director of the National Economic and Social Development

Board's Northeastern Region.

"They are not 'beautiful' according to Thai men, or among the

good-looking women who normally head for jobs in the sex industry in

Bangkok, Phuket or Pattaya," he states in a soon-to-be published report.

Decha's study surveyed 15,284 mia farang in 19 provinces of the

Northeast, ranging in age from 20 to 52 years of age, and averaging 32.

Khon Kaen, Udon Thani and Nong Khai were the top three home provinces in terms of numbers.

Most of the women - 69 per cent - had an education no higher than Grade

6, 24 per cent made it to Grade 9 and the remaining 7 per cent graduated

from higher levels.

Eighty per cent of them had been married before. Many have children

with Thai husbands, the study found.

More than 50 per cent were from farming households and found they could not survive economically after breaking up with their husbands.

Many seek jobs in the service sector, such as hotel maids, waitresses

or masseurs, which they feel give them a better chance of meeting

foreigners.

Many meet Western partners through neighbours or relatives who have

married farang. The study says 63 per cent met their husbands

independently in Bangkok, Pattaya or another big city, 35 per cent

through a relative and 2 per cent on the Internet.

Before meeting their farang partners, 33 per cent of the women had

worked in Bangkok for less than Bt5,000 a month; 17 per cent worked in

Pattaya for a similar income; 13 per cent worked in other tourist cities

for salaries around Bt7,000; 26 per cent were farmers with a

Bt1,000-per-month income; and 11 per cent had already worked abroad,

many in factories, for salaries in the Bt30,000 range.

Since marrying, 72 per cent have become housewives and receive money

from their husbands upon request. The women send an average of Bt8,000 a month back to their families.

The top three home countries of the husbands are Germany, Switzerland

and England (20, 14 and 12 per cent, respectively). Other husbands of

the women surveyed were from Australia, the United States, New Zealand,

Canada, Sweden, France, Holland, Denmark, Belgium, Scotland, Italy,

Norway, Greece and Israel, and Asian nations including Japan, Malaysia

and Singapore, with small numbers from Laos, Hong Kong, South Korea,

Kuwait and China.

Businessmen comprised the largest group of foreign husbands (22 per

cent), with smaller numbers working as state officials, technicians,

engineers, retirees, teachers and doctors.

---

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com

I would treat any studies like these, especially from NESDB, with a handful of gleua. For a start, where are they going to get hold of 15,000 mia farang who are going to participate in such a study? Sukhumvit Road? Pattaya? Living at home with the pua in Isaan? Through embassies overseas? And the survey method? Telephone? On the street waiting or at likely looking bars? I don't think so - after all these are karachagan that strictly work 9 - 5. With a sample size that big, there would almost certainly be some wives of Forum members interviewed, so come on guys (and wives?), how many of you or your other halves been subjected to such a survey in the past year or two??

I would be especially sceptical about the "80 % already married" one, although I guess there are many ways to define "marriage" I guess.

Like so many surveys in LOS, while it contains a few general truisms that anyone with an ounce of noddle could deduce, I wouldn't dwell on the actual figures too much.

[Martin]

Don't be misled by that 'education' statistic.

We farangs come from Western or Westernised backgrounds in which every young person has had primary and secondary education for this last fifty, or more, years. And where further education is generally easily available and affordable.

But amongst Thai women of all ages you will find many whose innate ability would have made them successes in the educational system if it had been accessible and affordable to their parents, but it wasn't.

My wife has a much more powerful brain than I have, and she is shrewder and steadier in her thinking than I am.

Yet I made it to the equivalent of Associate Professor, so she had the innate ability to go very high in one of the professions.

If she had been born nearly fifty years ago in Singapore, she would have had free primary schooling, then won a scholarship to have free secondary schooling, and then another to take her through university.

But her parents, in a very impoverished village in Esarn, could only ever give her one year of schooling.

All her English, and her general knowledge of psychology, of cooking, and of building, she has had to learn for herself by listening, watching, and practising whilst earning her living in a great variety of jobs.

There will be lots more like her, hidden with her in that 69%.

Sometimes, though, I think that her missing out on being schooled may have been a blessing in disguise. I certainly missed seeing and learning from a lot of the experiences that she had, simply because I was fully occupied in doing the things (many of which were a sheer waste of time) that schoolteachers demanded of me.

One thing that I particularly notice is her confidence in speaking the English that she acquired one word at a time.

Thai university graduates seem to be fairly adequately schooled in reading and writing English, but very inhibited about trying to voice it.

Could it be that their teachers have actually 'taught' them to be ashamed of their pronunciation (dis)abilities?

[ASIC]

What does "karachagan" mean? Google says it's a city in Kazakhstan!! And by the way, the rest of us also learned english "One word at a time".

ASIC

[Martin]

Sorry, ASIC. I didn't mean to imply that others can learn more than one word at a time!!.

My wife learnt one word on one day, at a time. She was working, as a teenager, in the laundry at a USAF Air Base near Udon. She would ask her boss for the English word for some Thai word. If he didn't know, he would ask the (American) 'big boss' who was manager of the whole facility, when the 'big boss' came round on his daily inspection. As she did her ironing my wife would say that word to herself, and also run through all the other words that she knew, in her head. Her entire dictionary is in 'RAM cells' in her head. To this day, she can decipher very little written Thai, and no written English. It amuses me to see teachers and bank managers, who have had years of English lessons, deferring to her because she is confident in speaking English and they are not. If it comes out that she had only one year of school they are completely puzzled.

I wonder if Thai teachers of English do their students the dis-service of making them un-confident.

If the teachers are uncertain of their pronunciation, students will pick up the unspoken message "Don't try this yourself--even though I give you a pass in the exam".

[ASIC]

Yes I know what you mean. Also, I don't think Thai teachers make their students "un-confident" deliverately or not. I think it's to do with the way they teach. Also, it's easier to give homework in the form of "grammar" exercises than in spoken english. It's like in my parents days back home. Both my parents speak very limited English, for the same reasons.

ASIC

[stroll]

Decha's study surveyed 15,284 mia farang in 19 provinces of the

Northeast, ranging in age from 20 to 52 years of age, and averaging 32.

Khon Kaen, Udon Thani and Nong Khai were the top three home provinces in terms of numbers.

Most of the women - 69 per cent - had an education no higher than Grade

6, 24 per cent made it to Grade 9 and the remaining 7 per cent graduated

from higher levels.

Eighty per cent of them had been married before. Many have children

with Thai husbands, the study found.

How does the education level of the farang husbands compare?

The high proportion of previously marriaged seems to confirm that farangs are less prejudiced about divorced women and those with children.

The study doesn't state which proportion are staying here or abroad.