Scientists Discover Inverse Relationship Between Expats’ Income And Thai Fluency

[guava]

It's generalisation but I've thought it myself. Two out of the three best speaking Thai people I've met are poor. One of them a French man used to clean the toilets in a go go bar to get 100baht, and he was fluent. Another was a mid 30's ex boiler house guy jailed for about two years in 2001 who picked it up in prison. But the third was a UN refugee specialist who's since moved on into industry and is very wealthy.

Now theres 3 people you'd be hard pressed to rank on a morality ladder...

[harrry]

My Thai got really good when I was a teacher, was broke all the time and had to beg the working girls to give me giant discounts on services rendered. The thing that surprised me is that despite my advanced age and lack of physical attractions, a lot of them would go for it when I pleaded my case well enough.

Don't ever tell me that some BGs don't have hearts of gold!

i cant understand why anyone with a modicum of self esteem would share something like this.

I don't see much honesty from most posters on the internet. I just thought that it might make a refreshing change.

At least a few posters are not two faced and have a genuine liking and respect for the people they have met here.

OOOPs didn't read the post date. Ah well it's still valid anyway/

Edited March 29, 2009 by harrry

[animatic]

I can just imagine the "scientists" on the Discovery Channel.....

We’ve come here to the wilds of Thailand to observe the mating skills of the rare Western Expat. Look, there’s one now. He’s approaching a female, but there's no success. The female moves on, unimpressed and unable to recognize the language of his mating calls.

He slowly moves on to a nearby watering hole, known as a bar, where he can more easily mingle without being detected for his inefficient calls. This time he makes a new effort by displaying his plumage in the form of cash hoping to attract a female. Ah-ha! The technique has paid off, but alas, only for short-time. But better short-time than none at all. Once the female has plucked the Expat’s plumage clean, he’ll be satisfied and ready to die, and the female will move on to the next one.

Anthropologists Delight!

[mmushr00m]

woohoo, Im not lazy and stpid, just alittle too well off to improve my linguistic skills.

.... actually I have been using that excuse for the last few months when ppl ask me why my thai is still terrible after 2yrs full time in Thailand. Wife speaks english, wife's friends speak english, my thai friends speak english (some even better then my expat friends), I work in an english environment and I live in BKK CBD where you dont really need to be fluent in Thai to get by.

...now I can say Im too well off as well

[BigSnake]

How much money are we talk here?

[TonySoprano]

i am making > 500k baht a month at the moment.

just so you know.

[Jimjim]

I think Not the Nation should just buy some advertising here. Do members really have to post a story from there every week?

[HumChang]

My Thai got really good when I was a teacher, was broke all the time and had to beg the working girls to give me giant discounts on services rendered. The thing that surprised me is that despite my advanced age and lack of physical attractions, a lot of them would go for it when I pleaded my case well enough.

Don't ever tell me that some BGs don't have hearts of gold!

i cant understand why anyone with a modicum of self esteem would share something like this.

Old, unattractive, poor, desperate, sexpat, teacher - what's not to be proud of?

I do hope there's still something he's not telling us - a dark embarrassing secret perhaps.

Hum Yai?

Oh My God... I have a good income and I know thai

Wrong- Just Wrong

[namoo]

i am making > 500k baht a month at the moment.

just so you know.

So your Thai language skills must be pretty good...

[Tod Daniels]

I often wonder how that site manages to stay under the "thought police" here. Then I realize, few if any english reading thais understand satire or cynicism.

It is a thai version of the Onion for sure. ..

[t.s]

I think Not the Nation should just buy some advertising here. Do members really have to post a story from there every week?

one could just as easily wonder why you persist.

[excaliber]

It's generalisation but I've thought it myself. Two out of the three best speaking Thai people I've met are poor. One of them a French man used to clean the toilets in a go go bar to get 100baht, and he was fluent. Another was a mid 30's ex boiler house guy jailed for about two years in 2001 who picked it up in prison. But the third was a UN refugee specialist who's since moved on into industry and is very wealthy.

For me, I actually made a conscience decision not to learn much of it because I really did feel that it was a hinderance to doing well. To learn Thai fluently brings you down to having to follow so many social rules, etc and you can't help but get involved in the day to day gossip. Turning up at a job interview speaking fluent Thai is a recipe for a low salary, as you'll only be compared to other Thai workers and not usually foreign.

However, I did end up learning a fair amount after falling for the love of my life who didn't speak any English. But since breaking up I've gone back to speaking as little as possible, especially around the work place.

your response is critically full of holes and bs. I've had excellent jobs here. Speaking & understanding the Thai language not only made my job easier and eliminated a lot of office gossip, increased efficiency, earned more respect from fellow workers, both Thai & farang, better salary (not less as you suggest) etc., etc. sounds more like an 'un-conscience decision' you made....."have to follow so many social rules" !!! horse feathers.... Does not knowing the language allow you to ignore local customs....just one question, What are you doing here?