Do We Farang Talk Too Much?

[PeaceBlondie]

Mama often said I must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle. I talk way too much. Only today, I spent 40 minutes at the pool, being talked to by a German who seldom let me get a word in edgewise.

Do we talk so much because we're in a foreign country? Because we like to hear ourselves talk? Because we don't want to hear anybody else tell us we might be wrong?

[rainman]

I guess some people talk more because they're talkative, others talk less because they're more quiet. I don't think it has anything to do with Thailand

[Zeid]

I am not dure why but thais that i have been around have not considered me as a falang, not sure what the reason is. i guess due to my ethnic mixed background.

but they have all told me that they find it amusing how falangs can sit down and discuss a trail of ants for half a day.

[canuckamuck]

If you compare my phone bill with my wife's (she's Thai), it's like I don't talk at all.

Edited July 29, 2007 by canuckamuck

[Pink Mist]

Mama often said I must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle. I talk way too much. Only today, I spent 40 minutes at the pool, being talked to by a German who seldom let me get a word in edgewise.

Do we talk so much because we're in a foreign country? Because we like to hear ourselves talk? Because we don't want to hear anybody else tell us we might be wrong?

the conversation was under water PB?

[tijnebijn]

I am not dure why but thais that i have been around have not considered me as a falang, not sure what the reason is. i guess due to my ethnic mixed background.

but they have all told me that they find it amusing how falangs can sit down and discuss a trail of ants for half a day.

This is also my experience , the Thai think and talk to me all the time why do farang their mouth never shut up .

being here for a while and still talk many myself the tourists that I encounter with time to time do have a more hurry hurry

way of doing everything indeed . Always got to do something running biking reading papers books etc etc .

Not that Thai don't but in a lesser way , we farang are used to more information from the tv and how we in the West grow up genarally.

We are much more in a hurry thats for sure .

[qwertz]

Not all Germans talk a lot but those who do, you only have to listen and you have a friend.

I'm a good listener so I have a lot of friends.

They tend to state facts, or at least their take on them and it is a fact that Germans buy more magazines and non-fiction than any other Europeans.

The Thais ask a lot more personal questions than most farangs IMO.

[chuchok]

Mama often said I must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle. I talk way too much. Only today, I spent 40 minutes at the pool, being talked to by a German who seldom let me get a word in edgewise.

Do we talk so much because we're in a foreign country? Because we like to hear ourselves talk? Because we don't want to hear anybody else tell us we might be wrong?

the conversation was under water PB?

Can't have been.You would need to be an Australian to decipher it.

[lannarebirth]

I talk about 90% less than my girlfriend who talks about 200% more than other Thais. If ever there's something I need to convey that requires more than a few sentences I'm told I talk a lot. I think mostly they tend to criticize that which they do not understand. Same goes for many farangs I suppose.

[teacup]

How do you define “too much” ?

More than 7-10 hrs a day?

or talk about someone else too much?

or repeat the same thing over and over again too often?

or talk too much…like as a “big mount”?

[autonomous_unit]

Based on our cultures, we have different things on our mind that we think are worth talking about, and we also have different rhythms to our conversations. I've often noticed that the Thais I am exposed to tend to speak in much shorter, overlapping bursts with each other. Like they're taking turns saying one phrase or sentence at a time, whereas I'm used to people speaking for paragraphs before taking turns. Maybe "talking too much" means "not letting me get a word in edgewise"? Someone can speak relatively little during a day, but irritate by not allowing pauses for others to speak at the culturally anticipated points in a conversation...

[roietjimmy]

As compared to Thais? Probably farangs are more likely to strike up a conversation with a stranger but when a group of Thais get together, farangs are amateurs in the talking department.

[sbk]

I am not dure why but thais that i have been around have not considered me as a falang, not sure what the reason is. i guess due to my ethnic mixed background.

but they have all told me that they find it amusing how falangs can sit down and discuss a trail of ants for half a day.

I find this comment extremely ironic in light of my Thai mother-in-law who could (and probably has) talk the hind legs off a donkey.

Have you ever been to a funeral? Or a wedding? The volume and amount of talking going on puts my talkative family to shame.

[kmart]

If you removed the words "aroi" and "suai" from the Thai vocabulary, you would shorten any conversation by 90%

[lannarebirth]

I am not dure why but thais that i have been around have not considered me as a falang, not sure what the reason is. i guess due to my ethnic mixed background.

but they have all told me that they find it amusing how falangs can sit down and discuss a trail of ants for half a day.

Yeah, that's possible if you're talking about 2 farang with an interest in ants. The Thai equivalent would be, "I wonder where that ant trail leads">>> "get a bag and we'll collect some to eat">>> "ooooweee these are aroi mak mak">>>>"my auntie used to cook the most aroi ants, aroi aroi", "I was at my cousins funeral and yi brought some ants aroi, aroi, aroi">>> "the ants from my village are more aroi than these, aroi, aroi, aroi, aroi">>>aroi>>>>aroi>>>aroi, etc. Same half day spent talking about ants.

[sceadugenga]

What I like about forums is I can think about a reply for as long as I like. In conversation the subject can change several times before I get around to it.

Sceadugenga... Slow thinker who doesn't talk much.

[besth]

I think that there is a bit of a "been there-done that-bought the t-shirt" factor in some farangs who like to listen to themselves and more interested in their monologues than in conversation, but I don't think it is a majority.

[WaiWai]

Do we talk so much because we're in a foreign country? Because we like to hear ourselves talk? Because we don't want to hear anybody else tell us we might be wrong?

I think these are really interesting questions.

I do think that when some expats get together they do a lot of "catching up" for the times they have been unable to communicate at all. or unable to communicate fully, or unable to communicate with someone they believed likely to understand them fully, for both linguistic & cultural reasons.

Sometimes, too, I have wondered if the type of person who speaks without letting the other person get a word in (like the chap PeaceBlondie encountered at the pool) and other types of not-so-great communicators are rather over-represented in expatland . It would make sense that such a person is less bothered by more limited opportunities for communication.

Whether foreigners talk more than Thais is not something I could venture an opinion on, but it's possible, since Thai would be a "high context culture" and many foreigners would come from "low context cultures". High context cultures rely far more on non-verbal messages and context clues than low context cultures. (See

http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/Speech/rccs/theory63.htm for a nice, simple presentation of the differences.)

Edited July 29, 2007 by WaiWai

[garro]

We have two ears and only one mouth for a reason

Can we talk about meee now?