What Does It Take For Thai's To Listen

[dumball]

Probably one item that most Thais are not aware of let alone use , is iodized salt , lack of iodine in the body produces retardation of the brain , put that together with a diet that contains insufficient calories and you may have some answers . What i have seen is that they use mostly coarse salt of the variety and far too much sugar in most of what they consume .

So you came to Thailand to look slightly intelligent ?

You failed miserably.

What was your first clue ?

[AlexLah]

It is not just Thailand, I meet the same stupid bevaviour all around Asia.

No Pro active thinking here in Asia.

Blame it on the schools whatever.

Most of them will never try to understand as the excuse is we always did like this and this is bla bla culture.

Whatever.

[roygsd]

I have to say I agree totally with the OP.

I run a small business with 14 Thai staff. When I started I tried the tolerant, I respect your culture and your ways bit. That was until I realised what a mug i was being taken for. Now we work on a Western model. My wife (who manages the Thai staff) is no longer allowed to justify stupidity with a giggle and "Its the Thai way" she has to tell the staff. I work on the basis that my 14 Rai's are a corner of a foreign land that is forever England and if they work here then they work our way.

It has not been easy!!! 50% of the staff have been changed in 4 months and we still have a long way to go. Even though we pay 30% more than they would get locally and provide language lessons it is still an uphill struggle especially when they patently don't understand something but pretend they do. If I could find a way to explain to my staff that not understanding is perfectly acceptable and the sky won't fall in on them then i would be a happy man. But this never say you dont understand attitude seems so ingrained that however many times we tell our staff they still do it. This morning one of my western staff asked for beans with her scrambled eggs, the waitress took the eggs away then nothing. After 5 minutes I went in to ask where it was. I found the scrambled eggs sitting on the side and the waitress chatting to the cook!!!! A boiled egg was being prepared. Go figure!!

" Its the thai way" as you wife has explained to you already!

roy gsd

It maybe the Thai way but it is not my way!!!!! And since I pay the wages and my business is not a democracy its my way that goes. I maybe a barely tolerated guest but it doesn't mean I have to become Thai or accept within my business the Thai way. Outside I am tolerant and accept the difficulties that come with being a stranger in a strange land, I may not like it but I do accept it.

Mmm, Seems you may not have appreciated my humour, I fully apreciate your frustration and I loved the bit about the egg saga, it is typical of my own experiences over the years, that may be why I choses to visit rather than live in LOS, fo rthe moment at least.

Roy gsd

[roygsd]

Poor old magoo,what a sad existance,sitting at a PC all day trying to make smart replies regarding technical things that he admits knowing SFA about.

I am sure I have met magoo, I am positive he is the guy sitting all alone at the end of every bar I ever went into simply because people avoid him .

I wonder why people dont like him, might it be his anti social behavior or simply because he spent to long with a shaved head and hob-nailed boots to learn social skills.

Might make a good thread... Why is Maigo6 such a misery a*se.??

Hi Dom,

Maybe his tie is too tight for him?

roy gsd

[G54]

Umhhh. get a Thai to listen to advice or talk about a problem???

That brick wall is there for Farang to bang their head against

Oh for a sensible discussion to resolve problems!!!!

One can keep hoping and keep banging your head into that wall in the hope it will hammer some sense into us Farang

[roygsd]

The OP asked What it takes to get them to listen? translation; Thais don't listen, well here is a good example. my 9 yr old son and I were in the states this summer and I asked him to tell the waitress we need something. He came back and said with great surprise and excitment in his voice: Dad she lsitened to me. I asked: So, what did you expect? He replied: "At home (koh samui) they don't look at me and just blow me off when I try to talk to them" from the mouth of babes!

And speaking Thai dosent help,! i have a very good friend thats a doctor here and is fluent, its even worse for him as they DO understand him and still do it wrong !,.Reading some posters comments here i think they are in a different Thailand to some of us,.and its to be expected that some members have come galloping in as Thai defenders and to you i say you are lucky if you have never expereinced some of the problems others are discussing,.but to say it dosent exist is a joke,.

maigo6 and his likes are SEXpats.

they stay in cheap furnished studios, and only hang around bar girls, waitress and food cart vendors

They speak thais because they dont have the funds to live the life of a farang/bkk thai/ in thailand so they try to be at the level of thai farmers, who are quite happy with 4 walls, a leaky roof and some colon meat.

don't worry, most of the normal farangs, just read this post.. sigh in approval and keep going on.

Normal? <deleted> is Normal?

Guys with gals is quite normal, guys who complain about farngs hanging around with Bar girls often bat for the other side or are either jelous or just liars,

roy gsd

[roygsd]

on a serious note, how do you expect these low class thai to mature and develop normal brain functioons of a 5 year old eating chicken feet/colon meat/cow's heart and other trash that has no decent nutriment add to that that most of them drink the 'cooking water' instead of bottled water...

Im pretty sure if they were fed decent parts of animals, things would be a lot better.. thais wouldnt have one of the 10 lowest iq's for children from all around the world

probably the same effect eating kfc on ghetto families in the usa has...

Probably one item that most Thais are not aware of let alone use , is iodized salt , lack of iodine in the body produces retardation of the brain , put that together with a diet that contains insufficient calories and you may have some answers . What i have seen is that they use mostly coarse salt of the variety and far too much sugar in most of what they consume .

The local clinic in the wifes village give out free bags of iodized salt to every household, I helped carry the last lot and asked what it was for and who payed for it. The government give it free.

they should start giving i-can-read broshures with pictuers only of animals circling legs and breast as good and rest as bad that would up the national iq by a lot probably

Do you really think thais are not eating sufficient calories with all the rice they eat? i know the girls aren't since all they eat is those dam_n weird tasting veggies in sauce but guys seem to eat rice all day long from what i see.

Last winter i fed my gf 3 daily meals of western food. lots of calories.. during that time she was more active, less stupidly emotiona and was more coherent at all time, now shes back on thai food.. she's often loopy(just gave birth so it doesnt help), tired and forgeting words that she definately knows. the thai diet is definately missing a LOT

which is why i forcefeed here 2 big glass of milk minimum everynightso that her brain doesnt deteriorate...

Didnt have that problem in bangkok though, no farmer's market close and street vendors sold more meat

Another "trust me, I'm a- Docter whoops I meant to say adopted" character, whatever happened to freedom of choice?

roy gsd

[ray23]

You know there are two exceptions that come to mind.

If I show my wife how to cook a farrang meal. I show her once and she not only can do it. But, do it better then I do.

Bike Mechanics, I have four places I will take a big bike to be worked on here in Udon. Each for thier own speciality. In all honesty one of the places if I dontl see the chief machanic's isn't there I wait. I explain the problem to them, they make thier recommendations. I pay them problem solved. I have found that most mechanics won't work on a big bike if they haev no experience at it.

Two stand out in my mind one I was in Khon Kean had fuel hose leak, wanted to replace it, that is not the Thai way, they simply cut off the end and put back on. But the truth is it will get you where yuo want to go until you can make proper repairs. Once I got him tio udnerstand the problem he made emregeny repairs in five Mins. Didn't want to take money for it, so a big tip. Very kind of him. But, I don't beleive anyone working for nothing.

Another I had no idea where I was but outside an major city, Screw came out of headlight. Guy was dead set against even touching the bike. Until I got him to understand all I wanted was to put a new screw in. He fixed in in two mins. Cost 10 baht, yes he got a tip. Why, because it's not easy to deal with someone using a language you don't understand. He went eh extra step he deserved recognition.

I think my problem really centers in my home not all of Thailand why? My wife and I are together 24/7 what happens when people are around eachother that much you tune eachother out. So the workers see her not paying in attention to what I say they think that is normal and do the same thing. But that is a normal relationship situation not a Thai problem, until it goes to the workers.

My answer in the end was to handle the same way I would have with a famliy problem as I had done before. To sit down with everyone in a quiet converesation, letting them tell me what they saw the problems to be. Difficult for a Thai they are not use to talking to someone they percieve to be superior to them. In the end I explained to them what was expected. Did it work yes and it will for a awhile. But, they will make mistakes hel_l they are human.

We live in a very classes system, very hard for me to think that way. But that is what it is.

This how the project went and in the end I got exactly what I wanted. Shouldn't have mattered to the painter at all. All he did was paint we did the prep work ahead of him. It didn't matter to him his suggestions were to make it easier on me, I declined. We did the cleanup and he took care of the cleaning equipment after use. All that happened was we did exactly what I would have wanted done ahead of me so I could concentrate on my task. Now moving the large things to the center Thai idea worked fine, only lating damage to the car seat. So my cost are going to go up are going up for a upholstery job. I never saw that one coming

Somehow the the thread went to painting, trust me guy just example not the problem.

Edited August 28, 2008 by ray23

[tuky]

A typical conversation with my wife whilst sitting right next to her in the car...

me- where do you want to go today?

me- where do you want to go today?

me- where do you want to go today?

me- where do you want to go today?

me- where do you want to go today?

me- oh why do I even bother talking to you...

wife- huh?

me- I asked where do you want to go today?

wife- oooOOHHhh...

me- Well?

wife- huh?

me- oh god, lets just go home then.

wife- huh?

She understand what I am saying, she just can't be bothered listening.

I have fixed the whole situation now by leaving. Now I am the one to ignore her

[ray23]

The most effective thing I can do with my wife is not to talk to her. Then she is the one anking all the questions and I'm the one doing whatever I want to do

Then she wants to know and listens

[LivinLOS]

Bike Mechanics, I have four places I will take a big bike to be worked on here in Udon. Each for thier own speciality. In all honesty one of the places if I dontl see the chief machanic's isn't there I wait. I explain the problem to them, they make thier recommendations. I pay them problem solved. I have found that most mechanics won't work on a big bike if they haev no experience at it.

Two stand out in my mind one I was in Khon Kean had fuel hose leak, wanted to replace it, that is not the Thai way, they simply cut off the end and put back on. But the truth is it will get you where yuo want to go until you can make proper repairs. Once I got him tio udnerstand the problem he made emregeny repairs in five Mins. Didn't want to take money for it, so a big tip. Very kind of him. But, I don't beleive anyone working for nothing.

I have had totally the opposite experiences.. Every idiot and thier uncle will claim they can fix it or do the job, take it apart and ruin it.. I am waiting to get my now farang rebuilt engine back after a thai attempted to rebore one cylinder only !!! and then found out after honing it out that theres no oversize piston available (dont think you could have checked that first before wrecking my barrels.. And one cylinder ?? What was he thinking !!).. Once hed touched it it was 'new engine' time !! Of course not a hope he would even assist or bear any cost based on the wreckage he had left behind him, farang pays.

Countless times I have had them throw in 3l of oil instead of the required 2300ml cos, well, they have opened 3 1l packets..

Multiple times I have had them mess around with carbs in an attempt to 'tune' it and had them unable to get it back to running right.

Have you ever had a Thai put in a new gasket set ?? I mean a real gasket not that gunk in a tube stuff ?? Despite explicitly discussing it, explaining I will pay it, making it totally clear it was part of the job.. Every time I have had a head or barrel removed back it comes with the gunk.

Putting a screw in a headlight, if supervised.. OK sure.. But 'good mechanics' ?? I havent found any !! Every short cut, every bodge, etc. If its more complex than changing an inner tube, oil or bulb I now do it myself or have a local farang guy with an engineering shop do it.

[Hawkup2000]

A typical conversation with my wife whilst sitting right next to her in the car...

me- where do you want to go today?

me- where do you want to go today?

me- where do you want to go today?

me- where do you want to go today?

me- where do you want to go today?

me- oh why do I even bother talking to you...

wife- huh?

me- I asked where do you want to go today?

wife- oooOOHHhh...

me- Well?

wife- huh?

me- oh god, lets just go home then.

wife- huh?

She understand what I am saying, she just can't be bothered listening.

I have fixed the whole situation now by leaving. Now I am the one to ignore her

I had exactly the same problem with my girlfriend. I also started doing the "no-answer-behavior", but then she got angry. -"Why are you never listening to me? I always listens to you!" Sure you are sweetheart...

[ray23]

Well it comes fom six years in one place and a fairly large city. I have seen the other as well. So now I know where to go and not. Interesting I want to bore my four hundred out to a six fifty. Standard pistons available. I would not even think about that in Udon. Don't know anyone that could do it properly here. Just had the shocks rebuilit. Didn't have to say a thing, he replaced the bushings as well. Standard thing around here change the oil and a new seal.

[t.s]

And I have an even worse day coming up tomorrow, Boy, retirement to the beach in Sihanoukville is looking more of a prospect every day.

Rant over.

yeah, i bet you will be much more successful with the khmers.

[a2396]

A typical conversation with my wife whilst sitting right next to her in the car...

me- where do you want to go today?

me- where do you want to go today?

me- where do you want to go today?

me- where do you want to go today?

me- where do you want to go today?

me- oh why do I even bother talking to you...

wife- huh?

me- I asked where do you want to go today?

wife- oooOOHHhh...

me- Well?

wife- huh?

me- oh god, lets just go home then.

wife- huh?

She understand what I am saying, she just can't be bothered listening.

I have fixed the whole situation now by leaving. Now I am the one to ignore her

I have also seen this many times with various ladies. My advice is to keep looking for one who has some interest in communication. Not an easy job, but it's possible. I would not put up with such a low-level dialog & lack of attention either. I am sure she has no clue why you left her. Compared to this, my latest lady has a Phd in English. Good luck.

[ozzydom]

And I have an even worse day coming up tomorrow, Boy, retirement to the beach in Sihanoukville is looking more of a prospect every day.

Rant over.

yeah, i bet you will be much more successful with the khmers.

Being the lovable , easy going guy that I am ,I get on very well with the Khmer ,as I do with Thais, its smart ar#e farang that get up my nose.

[Maizefarmer]

I don't want any confusion about this, this a definetly a RANT

Things have gotten so bad around the house with people not listening it resulting in major problems.

I'll just give two examples. We were having painting done to get drop cloths down masking tape to be used was five times a day reminder. It was like following kids around finger painting. Even with that one brillant individual climbs in the a new well kept pickup with paint on thier back of thier shirt, result one ruined car seat.

Still yet start another room they don't put the drop clothes down.

There are four of us in the house in the daytime, the wife and I, the aunt and the housekeeper who has worked fro is for three years. She is normally a jewel.

Ok I've had been having to follow people around like they are children. So I sit down with them Saturday count them that four days ago. I have a very Jai Yen talk with them all explaining that being ignored when I say something had gotten very old. As nicely as one could posssibly do asked to understand that when I tell them something I have reasons and want my directions followed.

About a month ago after Auntie had been told dozen of times not to let the dogs out to watch when she opens and closes the gate. She lets one out and he chews up a neighbors dog, fortunatley it was in the street, Honestly the dog is major pest and got what it had coming. So I'm up on my soap box with everyone for days watch the dam_n gate.

So what happens today house keeper lets the dog out, he heads right for the other dog who had been tormenting him for two years and this time he goes right into the peoples yard and chews him a new ass.

How do I find out wife comes in a panic and at the top of her lungs you got to go tell the neighbor sorry. After I recovered from the shock. I was real curious why I would be apologizing to neighbor, hadn't even been out of the office.

Then I get housekeeper let the dog out and he had a fight with the other dog. Lets see I didn't a dam_n thing wrong and I'm going to apologize. No something doesn't equate here, told her to tell the houskeeper to go apologize.

I got a shirt on went over and found out what happened and told the lady to take obnoxiuos asshol_e dog to the vet and bring me the bill.

I also made it very clear that the next time someone let the dog cause they are to lazy to look before they opened a gate they were going home including Auntie.

Now here it is guys no one wants to listen till there is a problem then they have ceated and then I'm expected to solve it IE: me aplogize.

Now if something happens, goes wrong cause you didn't know somehting that is a mistake.

But if you ahve been told a 100 times and you do it anyway, that my friends is stupid behavoir.

They are all consoling the the houskeeper cause she got yelled at this time, probably the first time in three years. She has got big tears running down the cheeks the whole nine yards Why becuase the lady who she apologized had not talked nice to her at some point.

Well so what nice people or not if your wrong your wrong and there is no doubt that she was wrong.

I have honestly hit me limit on picking up the peices for Thai's that assume because you are a farrang you don't know anything, Not one of them would have a darn thing without this stupid guys help.

I'm afraid I have reached my limit on this one.

Rant over wished I drank.

Hey Ray23

You have my deepest sympathy. Let me assure you your experiance is quite unique, I have never heard of such a comedy of errors ........... you have being landed with a bunch of fools ..........................

Thai's are by and large a highly organised and thoughtful folk, who anticipate and foresee problems and plan ahead for them ..............

[imaneggspurt]

[ozzydom]

Hey Ray23

You have my deepest sympathy. Let me assure you your experiance is quite unique, I have never heard of such a comedy of errors ........... you have being landed with a bunch of fools ..........................

Thai's are by and large a highly organised and thoughtful folk, who anticipate and foresee problems and plan ahead for them ..............

That last statement was a joke I take it MF. The rural ,poorly educated Thai that I mix with every day of the week dont even anticipate where their next meal is coming from until they get hunger pains.

[sgunn65]

I had forgotten (or supressed) my experience of having a bathroom built in my house in Bangkok.

I drew up a plan for a 12 by 12 room with a large picture window on one wall. I explained it all to the builder and my wife also explained in Thai. He had very clear drawings marking out everything from place ment of fittings to plugs.

When I returned my 12 by 12 room consisted of a 12 by 2 corridor with a large picture window. a 10 by 2 corridor with a toilet at the end and a bathroom with no natural light!!!

I had them tear down all the unwanted internal walls and start again. I loved the cheek of the foreman when he presented me with a bill for the extra labour and materials. But I loved more his face when he realised that he was getting nothing!!

[Maigo6]

The rural ,poorly educated Thai that I mix with every day of the week dont even anticipate where their next meal is coming from until they get hunger pains.

So you fit right in hey Ozzy ?

[roygsd]

A typical conversation with my wife whilst sitting right next to her in the car...

me- where do you want to go today?

me- where do you want to go today?

me- where do you want to go today?

me- where do you want to go today?

me- where do you want to go today?

me- oh why do I even bother talking to you...

wife- huh?

me- I asked where do you want to go today?

wife- oooOOHHhh...

me- Well?

wife- huh?

me- oh god, lets just go home then.

wife- huh?

She understand what I am saying, she just can't be bothered listening.

I have fixed the whole situation now by leaving. Now I am the one to ignore her

Hi,

Same -same my house, especially if the TV is on, Whoops what am I saying, if the telly is on? The bloody telly goes on within a minute of her getting out of bed usually, she may be in another room or in the garden but she still gets the right hump if I turn the tv off as I often do.

Got two remotes for the tv, took her a few days to realise it was me and not the tv on the blink! Not to be recomended, got the silent treatment for a few days, but I enjoyed it at the time.

roy gsd

[mrt273nva]

The rural ,poorly educated Thai that I mix with every day of the week dont even anticipate where their next meal is coming from until they get hunger pains.

after you finish your current meal do you honestly plan your next? when hunger sets in so does the natural instinct to decide what would be best to eat next. right now i'm munching on some peanuts along with my beer, but later i have no idea what i'm going to eat. does that make me poorly educated? i'm leaning towards a pizza, but that is fattening and not so good for my diet, so maybe I should go get a salad, but at this hour I'm going to have to make it myself. I guess I'll just starve because I can't figure it out due to my poor education (and intoxication). Actually due to the intoxication I will probably just grab everything in the fridge and through it together in the pan and fry it in oil and season it with my random seasonings. Maybe I am educated after all, I've planned for my next meal.

[dumball]

The rural ,poorly educated Thai that I mix with every day of the week dont even anticipate where their next meal is coming from until they get hunger pains.

So you fit right in hey Ozzy ?

Wow , talk about other peoples intelligence , you come on like the village idiot , no offence meant , just an observation , this is a forum of CASUAL comments and you digress too often into inane , off the top of your head insults , have a good day .

[dumball]

The OP asked What it takes to get them to listen? translation; Thais don't listen, well here is a good example. my 9 yr old son and I were in the states this summer and I asked him to tell the waitress we need something. He came back and said with great surprise and excitment in his voice: Dad she lsitened to me. I asked: So, what did you expect? He replied: "At home (koh samui) they don't look at me and just blow me off when I try to talk to them" from the mouth of babes!

And speaking Thai dosent help,! i have a very good friend thats a doctor here and is fluent, its even worse for him as they DO understand him and still do it wrong !,.Reading some posters comments here i think they are in a different Thailand to some of us,.and its to be expected that some members have come galloping in as Thai defenders and to you i say you are lucky if you have never expereinced some of the problems others are discussing,.but to say it dosent exist is a joke,.

maigo6 and his likes are SEXpats.

they stay in cheap furnished studios, and only hang around bar girls, waitress and food cart vendors

They speak thais because they dont have the funds to live the life of a farang/bkk thai/ in thailand so they try to be at the level of thai farmers, who are quite happy with 4 walls, a leaky roof and some colon meat.

don't worry, most of the normal farangs, just read this post.. sigh in approval and keep going on.

Normal? <deleted> is Normal?

Guys with gals is quite normal, guys who complain about farngs hanging around with Bar girls often bat for the other side or are either jelous or just liars,

roy gsd

Jealous ? Most anybody with a few bhat in his jeans can procure a bar-lady , so what is your other excuse ?

[roygsd]

The rural ,poorly educated Thai that I mix with every day of the week dont even anticipate where their next meal is coming from until they get hunger pains.

after you finish your current meal do you honestly plan your next? when hunger sets in so does the natural instinct to decide what would be best to eat next. right now i'm munching on some peanuts along with my beer, but later i have no idea what i'm going to eat. does that make me poorly educated? i'm leaning towards a pizza, but that is fattening and not so good for my diet, so maybe I should go get a salad, but at this hour I'm going to have to make it myself. I guess I'll just starve because I can't figure it out due to my poor education (and intoxication).

Actually due to the intoxication I will probably just grab everything in the fridge and through it together in the pan and fry it in oil and season it with my random seasonings. Maybe I am educated after all, I've planned for my next meal.

Hi,

Not educated at all, just pissed!

There is a world of difference between "Knowing where your next meal is coming from ( which was what Dom said) and "planning your next meal after you have just finished your current meal" which Dom did not say anything like that.

Perhaps you should get in a takeaway rather than risk burning the house own? Dont want you getting your fingers as well as your ears burnt all on the same day do we?

roy gsd

[ray23]

Don't suppose Dom was saying not doing anything after that meal to earn money to buy or purchase the ingredients for that next meal do you?

[G54]

Where do you want to go today??

Reminds me :-

The girlfriend wanted to take her mother to market. No problem except there are several markets and town is also known as "The Market". Some for clothes, some for food and some for other items.

Easy solved. I asked her to tell me left, right, straight as she had done many times before when she wanted to go somewhere either not specific or that I did not know the way to.

After driving round in a circle for about 20 minutes and many prompts as to which way to go I gave up waiting and set off on a country drive. 60 kilometres later, I stopped the car and got out, walked around, lit a ciggie and waited.

Took 2 minutes for the wife to get out of the car and ask why we were not going to the market!!!

Needless to say, I had my ciggie, said nothing, got in the car and drove her and her mother back home. I dropped them off there and they still never got to the market that day and they still did not understand why we did not go.

Next day same thing. They want to goto the market. This time I got the directions to the market they wanted to go to. Maybe the penny dropped in their dream state as to why we did not get there in the first place the day before!

[ray23]

Thats a sneaky way to tour Thailand.

That like the conversation that starts at home when out of the blue I get that man Blah Blah, like I really know who she is talking about. I knew I should have finished that mind reading class.

[ozzydom]

The rural ,poorly educated Thai that I mix with every day of the week dont even anticipate where their next meal is coming from until they get hunger pains.

So you fit right in hey Ozzy ?

Actually magoo, your insult is not really insulting to me because I do come from a rural background and by probably ,your standards, am poorly educated having left grade school at 14 to help support the family. Yep, I fit right in here in the village .