So something that has surprised me for a long time. 

 

Whenever I go to a restaurant by myself, a major part of the time the waiter/waitress will directly talk in English to me, and some other times they may try to speak Thai to see if I can reply, but after seeing I don't speak a word they will switch to English.... 

 

Now, things do very much change when I am at said restaurant with my Chinese wife, which just like me doesn't understand any Thai at all, the waiter/waitress will speak directly to her in Thai, the waiter/waitress will continue to speak in Thai 2-3 times despite my wife saying "Sorry, I don't speak Thai",  and even when they finally switch to English, they will give a look like thinking "Thai girl which became so farangized that doesn't wanna speak Thai to Thais anymore and now she speaks farang language to us to look cool ????". 

 

Even funnier was one time driving to Ayutthaya at night, Rama IX toll in Bangkok the police were checking with a flashlight. They told me to roll down the window and the policeman said something in Thai, I gave him a look like "no idea" and then he looked at my wife and talked in Thai, my wife said "Sorry, I don't speak Thai" and the policeman kept talking in Thai as if he was sure my wife was Thai and that she was pretending not to, to avoid their check. Eventually my wife showed him the cover of her passport, and the policeman said "sorry sorry, go go" 

 

I understand that although Chinese generally have a whiter skin tone than Thais.... It is certainly very difficult to differentiate between the two by the looks. 

 

Question is, why do Thai people seem to think that Farang in Thailand only get Thai wives when their wives look Asian? ????

8 minutes ago, ctxa said:

So something that has surprised me for a long time. 

 

Whenever I go to a restaurant by myself, a major part of the time the waiter/waitress will directly talk in English to me, and some other times they may try to speak Thai to see if I can reply, but after seeing I don't speak a word they will switch to English.... 

 

Now, things do very much change when I am at said restaurant with my Chinese wife, which just like me doesn't understand any Thai at all, the waiter/waitress will speak directly to her in Thai, the waiter/waitress will continue to speak in Thai 2-3 times despite my wife saying "Sorry, I don't speak Thai",  and even when they finally switch to English, they will give a look like thinking "Thai girl which became so farangized that doesn't wanna speak Thai to Thais anymore and now she speaks farang language to us to look cool ????". 

 

Even funnier was one time driving to Ayutthaya at night, Rama IX toll in Bangkok the police were checking with a flashlight. They told me to roll down the window and the policeman said something in Thai, I gave him a look like "no idea" and then he looked at my wife and talked in Thai, my wife said "Sorry, I don't speak Thai" and the policeman kept talking in Thai as if he was sure my wife was Thai and that she was pretending not to, to avoid their check. Eventually my wife showed him the cover of her passport, and the policeman said "sorry sorry, go go" 

 

I understand that although Chinese generally have a whiter skin tone than Thais.... It is certainly very difficult to differentiate between the two by the looks. 

 

Question is, why do Thai people seem to think that Farang in Thailand only get Thai wives when their wives look Asian? ????

Because that IS the case in the majority of situations.

Great topic.

Such a cutting edge thought provoking topic. 

 

BTW, my wife is Chinese and she speaks Thai. 

 

 

Same reason why Chinese people talk in Chinese to any Asian. It's a reasonable assumption.

12 minutes ago, wprime said:

Same reason why Chinese people talk in Chinese to any Asian. It's a reasonable assumption.

Sure, I mean like I said by the look it would be almost impossible for them to tell apart Chinese and Thai. 
 

But what surprises me, and always make me laugh is that Thais prefer to believe that we are cheating them and that she is actually a Thai who doesn’t feel like speaking Thai, rather than believing she simply is not Thai. Amuses me ????

17 minutes ago, Pravda said:

Such a cutting edge thought provoking topic. 

 

BTW, my wife is Chinese and she speaks Thai. 

 

 

Well, I guess your wife is Thai-Chinese. 
 

But in our case, we came from China last year. 

9 minutes ago, ctxa said:

Well, I guess your wife is Thai-Chinese. 
 

But in our case, we came from China last year. 

Same same, but different.

 

Its no big deal.

maybe the same reason all the market ladies and shop sellers speak to my thai gf in local hainan dialect.  confuses the heck out of 'em when i have to translate for her.

 

hainan and thai folk look similar, and it soothes the nerves of the locals to speak local dialect, seeing as how intimidated they are by my awesome hansumness.

2 minutes ago, ChouDoufu said:

maybe the same reason all the market ladies and shop sellers speak to my thai gf in local hainan dialect.  confuses the heck out of 'em when i have to translate for her.

 

hainan and thai folk look similar, and it soothes the nerves of the locals to speak local dialect, seeing as how intimidated they are by my awesome hansumness.

You’re Laowai or Chinese?

"Question is, why do Thai people seem to think that Farang in Thailand only get Thai wives when their wives look Asian?"

 

The answer is, because this is Thailand.

 

Next.

4 minutes ago, ctxa said:

You’re Laowai or Chinese?

 

laowai, at about 1.90m,

local boys average 1.55, the ladies around 1.45m.

39 minutes ago, ctxa said:

Well, I guess your wife is Thai-Chinese. 
 

But in our case, we came from China last year. 

 

But she also speaks Chinese. 

 

And when she flies to Japan people think she is Japanese. 

 

And when I lived in Canada, no one spoke Serbian to me, just this language I see on Thai Visa. 

5 minutes ago, ChouDoufu said:

 

laowai, at about 1.90m,

local boys average 1.55, the ladies around 1.45m.

Haha that I know. Laowai from Shenzhen here too. 
 

What surprises me even more than the question in this topic is how on earth you manage to understand Hainan dialect? I can speak Mandarin pretty well, and when I was in Sanya their dialect sounded like Vietnamese to me ????????

1 hour ago, CharlieH said:

Because that IS the case in the majority of situations.

Case closed. 

10 minutes ago, ctxa said:

Haha that I know. Laowai from Shenzhen here too. 
 

What surprises me even more than the question in this topic is how on earth you manage to understand Hainan dialect? I can speak Mandarin pretty well, and when I was in Sanya their dialect sounded like Vietnamese to me ????????

As an aside, all my chinese/malaysian friends in kuala lumpur all speak hainan.

 

Of course i only speak gibberish after a few drinks with them.

4 minutes ago, ctxa said:

Haha that I know. Laowai from Shenzhen here too. 
 

What surprises me even more than the question in this topic is how on earth you manage to understand Hainan dialect? I can speak Mandarin pretty well, and when I was in Sanya their dialect sounded like Vietnamese to me ????????

 

numbers and simple phrases.  enough to get by in the market.  hunny-bunny is even starting to pick up a little of the local lingo.  funny part is our mandarin pronunciation is gooder than the locals, some of which can't speak standard a'tall.

 

thing is, asian countries are still pretty homogeneous.  despite the interwebs and teevee and movies,  most everyone around them is just like them.  if 99.9% of foreigners have local wives/gf's, they have difficulty getting the concept that the lady that looks just like her is also a foreigner.

 

come to think of it, i can meet new local chinese folks, have a short conversation in mandarin, and then they'll ask (as they were trained in classroom dialogs) if i can speak chinese!

I think this explains the phenomenon

 

 

The funny thing is when you pay for something. I'll give the money to the cashier/restaurateur/market seller, and they'll give the change to my better half.

 

Now I know she's prettier than me, but why on earth does she always get the change? She laughs about it too, it doesn't bother me, just something I've noticed.

1 hour ago, GinBoy2 said:

I think this explains the phenomenon

[VIDEO]

 

 

Hahaha, nice one! As silly and staged as that video may seem. It's not too off reality!

Funny?....... when I was here with my Serbian wife no one thought she was Thai.

1 hour ago, Nout said:

Great topic.

Sure, expect this will solve the world's problems.

10 minutes ago, ctxa said:

 

 

Hahaha, nice one! As silly and staged as that video may seem. It's not too off reality!

The reason that funny little vid jives me is personal experience. 

 

I can speak fluent Thai and Lao, yet with my wife there I can speak and it's like I'm invisible, everything is directed to her

2 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

The reason that funny little vid jives me is personal experience. 

 

I can speak fluent Thai and Lao, yet with my wife there I can speak and it's like I'm invisible, everything is directed to her

Same, when I am with my Thai adult son.

 

Son responds with 'ask him (indicating me), he speaks Thai'.

 

Has no effect.

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, scorecard said:

Same, when I am with my Thai adult son.

 

Son responds with 'ask him (indicating me), he speaks Thai'.

 

Has no effect.

 

 

 

Curiously this Asian thing doesn't seem to translate to the West, in America at least.

 

I can be out and about with either my wife or my adult son, yet nobody seems to make the assumption that I'm the only one who can speak English.

 

It's all very curious

32 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

I think this explains the phenomenon

 

 

Lol, I was at the last minute expecting her to yell out "one fried shrimp" in English, now wouldn't that be funny.

 

Reminds me of an incident I had years ago in Venice, pretty sure it was a station of some kind, maybe a ferry station, anyways I walked up to the window where you pay for the fare and I said to the guy in my limited Italian, exuseh, noh parleh italiano, cupish Engles and he shook his head as if to say no and I stepped back to the girlfriend and said no luck he doesn't understand English and then this American older couple as loud as buggery started talking to the same guy in English and he said; c Senior you go straight ahead and a turn a left a at the stairs, he then looked at me as if to say what.....LOL

 

59 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

Curiously this Asian thing doesn't seem to translate to the West, in America at least.

 

I can be out and about with either my wife or my adult son, yet nobody seems to make the assumption that I'm the only one who can speak English.

 

It's all very curious

Few years ago I took my grandparents to visit London. So that they would be able to get out of Spain at least once in their life and visit another country. 

 

Well, my grandma wanted to buy sort of a hat at some random stall around Picadilly Circus and started speaking Spanish to the poor man there, and she seemed angry when the poor lad couldn't understand her. Don't think it's that different after all...

4 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

Curiously this Asian thing doesn't seem to translate to the West, in America at least.

 

I can be out and about with either my wife or my adult son, yet nobody seems to make the assumption that I'm the only one who can speak English.

 

It's all very curious

Is that because:

 

1. Plenty of Americans are not aware that there are other languages, or

2. Are aware that other languages exist but assume that every person in the world speaks English (as their first language).

 

 

Is not only Chinese, I had Malay, Indo, Filipino friends, here girls and guys and always a Thai person would speak Thai with them in a restaurant or in general as its just a Thai assumption that they think they are Thai because they are in Thailand.

For some reason Thai people as whole are or rather used to be perplexed and in awe seeing a farang speaks thai and just to be on safe side they turn to the person whom they think can speak thai...