Why Do Thai People Always Talk About Money?

[theinside]

Almost every Thai that I've ever met in my 7 years in Thailand seems obsessed with money. It seems that they talk about nothing that isn't directly linked to money and wealth. I cannot understand why money is the only thing on their minds, there're countless other subjects to talk about but Thais don't seem to care about them. I'm talking about Thais from all different backgrounds, poor to super rich. And I never hang around the bargirls, it's expected that they would be crazy for money.

As for showing off their wealth, they really let you know when they have cash. Some go as far as telling you how much is in their bank when they've just met you. I wouldn't lower myself to tell them I have more or less than them, it just doesn't interest me!

[GuestHouse]

Without knowing I'd guess the OP is British.

I say this because it is the British attitude of denying or underating wealth that is out if sinc with much of the rest of the world, not the Thais who are out of the ordinary in this respect.

British attitudes to money (or wealth) went through a marked change at the begginning of the industrial revolution when a new super-rich appeared from industry challenging the position previosly reserved for the 'landed' and 'titled' classes.

While Wedgewood received a title, the new industrial wealthy that followed him were treated with disdain - terms like 'New Money' entered the lexicon and being rich was no longer enough.

These attitudes remain in modern British society.

So while it might be vulgar to discuss wealth in the UK it is not so in very many other parts of the world - including Thailand.

[nidge]

Perhaps i've been here too long now, but i don't notice Thai's talking about money. Cows, pigs, rice and babies is about all i hear!

[Briggsy]

I agree with both posters.

I would also like to add my experience. The rural poor (even when residing in urban areas) certainly do have this trait. However the middle classes seem to have a much wider range of topics of conversation and do not seem to dwell excessively on the topic of money. The reasons for this seem fairly obvious. It may be like sex: Those having it don't talk about it too much; those lacking it......

Finally if one were to analyse the amount of time spent discussing different topics of say, a Brit, like myself, you might find a large portion of time was spent discussing topics that are either taboo here (can't mention it ) or moot (e.g. social justice). Also, Brits spend a lot of time criticising others. Some Thais may avoid doing this completely (Buddhism, right speech etc.) and some may only do this to close Thai friends not to farangs (fear of repercussions).

[niller74]

Above all they talk about FOOD.. what they ate today and what they will eat tomorrow.

[theinside]

The Thais love money more than their religion and their own family. Why else would they send their daughters to work as prostitutes??? It's not because of poverty, it's greed! I read that Thailand has the lowest number of unemployed people in the world, so there's other jobs the girls can do.

[Wandering]

In Thailand it is essential to establish status positioning.

Age, income, education, experience, who your friends are, your job.

It all goes into a complex equation to determine who is

Pra

Tahn

Aachan

Kru

Phi

Nong

Goo/Mung

This determines how high your fingers climb when you wai.

[basjke]

Whenever I stop somewhere with my motorbike I will have some onlookers.The first question ALWAYS will be,HOW MUCH.I usually reply with,sorry forget already.Hate to talk about money,and especially to strangers.

[rgs2001uk]

In Thailand it is essential to establish status positioning.

Age, income, education, experience, who your friends are, your job.

It all goes into a complex equation to determine who is

Pra

Tahn

Aachan

Kru

Phi

Nong

Goo/Mung

This determines how high your fingers climb when you wai.

excellent reply, the thais are more class ridden than anything in the uk, i believe there are at least 21 different ways just to call someone you.

maybe the thais should adopt the indian style of placing dots on their forehead to make it easier to establish who is who and exactly where they are on the social ladder, mind you i can understand why they dont, allows them to indulge in their other passion for talking bs.

[Steele404]

Yeah, seriously, i also hate it at times.... I'm half german/thai and so every now and again I have these gatherings with my thai family side. I just had dinner on Mother's day with 15 peeps.

They always talk about "I know this person who knows that person who knew this person somewhere" or "I got connections with this person or that person and I can hook you up with them".... anything that are related to status symbols, like cars, jobs, career.

That also reminded me this time when I was having a street side noodle in Sukhumvit and overhearing 4 Thai ladies talking about how much money their "Farang Pua" (farang BFs) have, while one of the girl was saying that her old farang husband was sick and this could mean an inheritance for her.

[Jingthing]

Yeah, so if you learn the Thai numbers you really know most most all you need.

[a2396]

Without knowing I'd guess the OP is British.

I say this because it is the British attitude of denying or underating wealth that is out if sinc with much of the rest of the world, not the Thais who are out of the ordinary in this respect.

British attitudes to money (or wealth) went through a marked change at the begginning of the industrial revolution when a new super-rich appeared from industry challenging the position previosly reserved for the 'landed' and 'titled' classes.

While Wedgewood received a title, the new industrial wealthy that followed him were treated with disdain - terms like 'New Money' entered the lexicon and being rich was no longer enough.

These attitudes remain in modern British society.

So while it might be vulgar to discuss wealth in the UK it is not so in very many other parts of the world - including Thailand.

I think Brits are pretty much in line with most western countries about this. I think the obsession with money is more of an Asian thing though. I have seen similar fixations with money & status from Chinese, Koreans, Malaysians, Indians, etc. Much higher than what I would consider the norm in my own country USA.

[Seizhin]

Doesnt seem right for me.

I've hardly met people who talks directly about money when it's related to their money.

I'm always interested to talk about the subject of business, which relates to money, wealth but not as far as my bank account, those people who talks about the ammount in their bank are either desperate to show how rich/poor they are.

[Chaimai]

Above all they talk about FOOD.. what they ate today and what they will eat tomorrow.

Mai chai and mai chai - they talk about money while they are eating the food. Eating with the mouth closed is not a Thai characteristic.

Secondly, they can barely 'plan' for today's meal, let alone tomorrows.

[cpt0money0timeshare]

yo when i met my shortys family fo the first time, dey aksed me how much money i was makin n sheet...

i was like, yo' you wanna stare down the barrel of my glock n den aks me dat again??? whatssup wit dat?!

[BigSnake]

I guess we all wish for what we don't have and wish we did, having said that; talking about money is not just a Thai thing during my 40 plus years of travel to many countries(with a few long stays here and there) I have found people in general talk about wealth, whether it be GNP , Enco or personal money is a mover of things and people. Enough said!!

[cpt0money0timeshare]

hers family be aksin me bout makin money on my timeshares, i get ril sick of dat.

and dey always wantin a piece. i never wanna go visit dem, but my girl says i gots to go maintain. im sick of hearin bout money cash money. i make my money, i keep my money, ain't gonna go nowhere fer ril.

[Chaimai]

hers family be aksin me bout makin money on my timeshares, i get ril sick of dat.

and dey always wantin a piece. i never wanna go visit dem, but my girl says i gots to go maintain. im sick of hearin bout money cash money. i make my money, i keep my money, ain't gonna go nowhere fer ril.

OMG !

a new batch has hatched

Edited August 13, 2008 by Chaimai

[RakJungTorlae]

hers family be aksin me bout makin money on my timeshares, i get ril sick of dat.

and dey always wantin a piece. i never wanna go visit dem, but my girl says i gots to go maintain. im sick of hearin bout money cash money. i make my money, i keep my money, ain't gonna go nowhere fer ril.

OMG !

a new batch has hatched

wah man where he go? oh well. you know what they said - no money no honey..

You know that's all I hear westerns talking about mostly too Is money this and value that.

Edited August 13, 2008 by RakJungTorlae

[mikethevigoman]

hers family be aksin me bout makin money on my timeshares, i get ril sick of dat.

and dey always wantin a piece. i never wanna go visit dem, but my girl says i gots to go maintain. im sick of hearin bout money cash money. i make my money, i keep my money, ain't gonna go nowhere fer ril.

OMG !

a new batch has hatched

A rapper amongst us !

[ilyushin]

Guess I am Thai because I'm always talking about money!

[intumult]

Buy a lady a new pair of shoes or a dress or whatever and her friends and family want to see the receipt or know how much it cost.

Thai's obsessed with money? Noooo.

[majorpacman]

Let's take three steps back first:thailand is consider to be a developing country. second: the separation between the poor and the wealthy is moderately high. third:goes with the culture age, seniority.

I think thai people should get over depending on the senior (phee)or older--munching off them or phony politician. Too much hope and support will results in abuse in power (hint Spong bob face case--Thaksin). Government lies, give fault hope and then self serving and then run away like Thaksin case....i worry about the poor people more.

It's the thai people need to push in order to change their lives and force the government to be more stable and less corrupted. In my case, i can't trust the thai government, let alone believe that my vote will go to the right politician, instead of buying votes. I find the Thai government to be incompetent and lack the needs to maintenance balance for all social class and law.

every time i go to thailand to vist....hey you should pay for it since you are older and blah blah....i am like "hel_l no....i am not rich."

i do speak thai, but after awhile i just pretend not to understand and speak english. Alot of time they have education, social status to show off, but remember the money earned they make is much lower. This one of the factor--talks about status and money. New cell phone, new car and simply dumb and indebt tryin to be popular and cool.

Don't get me wrong, i like thailand but it's the people that need to drive for there own rights and balance.

from,

american-thai point of view.

Edited August 13, 2008 by majorpacman

[CaptHaddock]

It's different here in the USA, but I am not sure how different it is. Common topics of conversation are: occupation, real estate market, stock market, home renovations, job, overseas vacation plans, make/model of car, cost of college for the kid, wine, restaurants, vacation/retirement home, wedding preparations, etc. All of these items can be translated more or less directly into dollar values and people certainly do make the translations.

What stands out is that in both Thai and US cultures there are acceptable ways to talk about money and ways that are less so. When I am in Thailand I find Thais are always asking outright what I paid for this or that. Now that seems to me too crude a question to pose so baldly, but I admit that I sometimes try to figure out how well off the members of my wife's family are, which ones will have a pension, and so on.

So, I think Americans and Thais are, more or less, always sizing each other up as to relative economic and social standing.

[Jingthing]

I don't know Capt., in the typical American office environment it is a big big taboo for people to know exactly what everyone is making. It pisses people off to know someone they think isn't as good as them makes more money, so the cultural bias is to keep this all very secret. Strangers will sooner tell you their sexual habits than their salary. Thais seem rude to us in their directness about money. I think usually they don't intend to be rude because they don't see that behavior as rude.

Edited August 13, 2008 by Jingthing

[CaptHaddock]

I don't know Capt., in the typical American office environment it is a big big taboo for people to know exactly what everyone is making. It pisses people off to know someone they think isn't as good as them makes more money, so the cultural bias is to keep this all very secret. Strangers will sooner tell you their sexual habits than their salary. Thais seem rude to us in their directness about money. I think usually they don't intend to be rude because they don't see that behavior as rude.

No contradiction there. I wouldn't dream of revealing to my colleagues how much I make, but I pay attention when someone lets something slip about himself. The other day, for instance, in a conversation about life insurance, I asked a colleague why he bothered with whole life insurance instead of just relying on the term insurance available from our employer. Well, he said the limit of $X thousands of dollars was too low to provide for his family if he croaked. I realized right then that I earn more than he does because the upper limit to the life insurance I can buy is about five times what he quoted, a possibility of which he is unaware. Of course, I never let on.

The reason it is a big taboo, and indeed, a firing offense in some offices, is because people want to know so much.

[jetjock]

I did not realize that so many TV members were so fluent in Thai that they could understand enough conversation to generalize that Thai people always talk about money. I do know that I have never heard any of our Thai friends that we socialize with (who all speak English) talk about money however I do hear them talk about alot about food which seems to be a very important subject with the ladies.

[kennkate]

GOLD My wife is always telling me how much GOLD the people next door have.

I tell her it's best not to have any, bad people only come and get it,

It's also better not to broadcast your wealth for the same reason.

Thats why the brit's dont like to say and keep em guesing

best to say you are getting by but its not easy at 64 Bhat to the pound and falling

[cophen]

The reason that Thais want to know how old you are, how much you earn and your marital status is so that they can place you within the Thai world view. The same thing goes on all over the world - the only difference is the criteria that are used.

[mgjackson69]

I did not realize that so many TV members were so fluent in Thai that they could understand enough conversation to generalize that Thai people always talk about money. I do know that I have never heard any of our Thai friends that we socialize with (who all speak English) talk about money however I do hear them talk about alot about food which seems to be a very important subject with the ladies.

A person does not have to be fluent in Thai to realize when they are talking about money. If you understand the words for the individual numbers and orders of magnitude it is pretty easy to pick it out of the conversations.

And they *do* talk about money....a lot.

My wife's mother point blank asked me what my salary is. My wife and I had previously had the conversation about how Westerners tend to keep that information a bit more private, and she really did not want to ask me for Mom...but you know how it goes, "Mom ask". I just replied back with a number that is about half of what I make. My wife knew the number was low, but what I said is what she told Mom. Mom was ok with that figure, end of story.

Westerners do talk about money, both directly and by showing off via conspicuous consumption.

The Thais are just more direct about it.