Why Do Thais Talk At The Same Time

[jaideeguy]

This is not a rant or not to bash, but I've always wondered why Thais [mostly] interupt each other?? I'm not a newby....having lived here 8+ yrs, but it has always perplexed me and I do get irritated with my own family interupting conversations when I'm involved, especially when children interupt.

I was always taught not to interupt adults, but aparently Thai culture doesn't teach this as my children are always interupting. I've at least taught them to say 'excuse me'....before interupting.

It's like they don't like pauses in conversation. When my wife and her sister are talking, it's non stop...both talking 500KPH at the same time and not pausing to even take a breath.

Just wondering if I'm the only one that notices this???

[DaveTheThaiGuy]

talk in supersonic speed? only people from the south do that!

[samuibeachcomber]

same as fox news!

[Mali1964]

talk in supersonic speed? only people from the south do that!

No issarn talk supersonic too, the miss's can go on for hours without seeming to ever take a break for oxygen

[noahvail]

"No issarn talk supersonic too, the miss's can go on for hours without seeming to ever take a break for oxygen "

oh, you got that right! my Issan wife and I often go out with another farange/Issan couple. We'll be driving in the car, and the two ladies are both talking rapid-fire, and my mate and I try to carry on a conversation over the top... meh, worthless. So the first time I hear this happen, I think, cool, they can communicate really well. But when the *hit hits the fan, the excuse I hear is: 'But I didn't hear her say that.'

I tease my lovely wife about this. Sometimes it's helpful that she translate something for me. Once I said something like, the doctor says I'm fine, and she translates this non-stop for five minutes. Gets me into trouble sometimes, but she's a fine lady, wouldn't want to be without her. :-)

[dee123]

..excellent observation!,.....perhaps they talk for oxegen levels to remain stable

[jaideeguy]

With all their yacking, they are making the phone companies rich!!

and, put my couple of kids in a room and they can sound like a classroom of 20.

Maybe Thai is such an inefficient language that it tkes 10 minutes to say what we can say in one minute....not to say that English is better, but maybe a little more effecient in communication.

Ya gotta love um.....

Edited January 12, 2009 by jaideeguy

[BygonKeaw]

Talking about thais talking on telephones.

Next time your missus chats to her mate on the phone try and see if she actually stops talking for more than 2 seconds. If anything like my missus she constantly talks. I can only imagine her mate on the other end is doing the same.

It takes a special talent for that i would say.

[jaideeguy]

And the VOLUME that they speak with is amazing. Wife can speak with neighbours a few doors down that could hear her voice w/o cel phone. Same same to family in the provence......

[yabaaaa]

..excellent observation!,.....perhaps they talk for oxegen levels to remain stable

Thais are the cause of global warming then all that C02 spewing out!!

[yabaaaa]

With all their yacking, they are making the phone companies rich!!

and, put my couple of kids in a room and they can sound like a classroom of 20.

Maybe Thai is such an inefficient language that it tkes 10 minutes to say what we can say in one minute....not to say that English is better, but maybe a little more effecient in communication.

Ya gotta love um.....

This always gets me when I tell her to ask someone soemthing and all i need is a "yes or no" but like u says it goes on for 10 minutes or more........ god only knows what they have asked??

[F1fanatic]

With all their yacking, they are making the phone companies rich!!

and, put my couple of kids in a room and they can sound like a classroom of 20.

Maybe Thai is such an inefficient language that it tkes 10 minutes to say what we can say in one minute....not to say that English is better, but maybe a little more effecient in communication.

Ya gotta love um.....

This always gets me when I tell her to ask someone soemthing and all i need is a "yes or no" but like u says it goes on for 10 minutes or more........ god only knows what they have asked??

Yes, it's so wonderful to hear someone talking about nothing for ages. Ya gotta love um!

[MSingh]

This is not a rant or not to bash, but I've always wondered why Thais [mostly] interupt each other?? I'm not a newby....having lived here 8+ yrs, but it has always perplexed me and I do get irritated with my own family interupting conversations when I'm involved, especially when children interupt.

I was always taught not to interupt adults, but aparently Thai culture doesn't teach this as my children are always interupting. I've at least taught them to say 'excuse me'....before interupting.

It's like they don't like pauses in conversation. When my wife and her sister are talking, it's non stop...both talking 500KPH at the same time and not pausing to even take a breath.

Just wondering if I'm the only one that notices this???

It infuriates me big time, especially when Kids interupt, with the Adults, you can tell them to " Stop, i'm talking, don't be so rude ", & they'll nervously laugh their complete & utter rudeness off, with Kids of course you have to too but how are they going to be any different when the Adults that they look up to are like it ??

We'd be naive to thik they'd be any different unfortuantely..

You can say it's " Thai culture " which always seems to be used to get away from the facts of certain thing like in thios ecase, the lack of manners & absolute rudeness & ignorance with regards to the OP points...

Manners & discipline for Kids in Thailand do appear to be virtually non existence from my eperience of the last 5 years & heaven forbid trying to give them any or attempt to teach them manners, that will cause more problems than it's actually worth !!!

[pnustedt]

Manners & discipline for Kids in Thailand do appear to be virtually non existence from my eperience of the last 5 years & heaven forbid trying to give them any or attempt to teach them manners, that will cause more problems than it's actually worth !!!

This post does surprise me. In my experience the kids would never interrupt a conversation between adults and their manners and discipline do appear exemplary.

[BygonKeaw]

This is not a rant or not to bash, but I've always wondered why Thais [mostly] interupt each other?? I'm not a newby....having lived here 8+ yrs, but it has always perplexed me and I do get irritated with my own family interupting conversations when I'm involved, especially when children interupt.

I was always taught not to interupt adults, but aparently Thai culture doesn't teach this as my children are always interupting. I've at least taught them to say 'excuse me'....before interupting.

It's like they don't like pauses in conversation. When my wife and her sister are talking, it's non stop...both talking 500KPH at the same time and not pausing to even take a breath.

Just wondering if I'm the only one that notices this???

It infuriates me big time, especially when Kids interupt, with the Adults, you can tell them to " Stop, i'm talking, don't be so rude ", & they'll nervously laugh their complete & utter rudeness off, with Kids of course you have to too but how are they going to be any different when the Adults that they look up to are like it ??

We'd be naive to thik they'd be any different unfortuantely..

You can say it's " Thai culture " which always seems to be used to get away from the facts of certain thing like in thios ecase, the lack of manners & absolute rudeness & ignorance with regards to the OP points...

Manners & discipline for Kids in Thailand do appear to be virtually non existence from my eperience of the last 5 years & heaven forbid trying to give them any or attempt to teach them manners, that will cause more problems than it's actually worth !!!

I guess u hang around with the wrong sort of thai people. The average thai i know has respect. Especially the kids for that matter. They automatically show me respect because im an adult.

Anyway thats another topic.

[MSingh]

I live on Samui...

I talk to Samui ( & Surat/Nakhon Sri Thammarat ) people & Isaan people only...

I can honestly hand on heart, say that the Kid's here have the worse manners i have ever experienced in my life living in both the UK & USA..

Maybe that says a lot as i'm pretty sure Samui ( Surat/Nakhon Sri Thamammarat ) people have a pretty bad Rep amongst the rest of the nation ??

Edit : In fact thinking about it, that might not be the case as the OP is saying virtually the same thing i'm saying if not as strong, i wonder where he's from in Thailand ??

Edited January 12, 2009 by MSingh

[dumball]

Manners & discipline for Kids in Thailand do appear to be virtually non existence from my eperience of the last 5 years & heaven forbid trying to give them any or attempt to teach them manners, that will cause more problems than it's actually worth !!!

This post does surprise me. In my experience the kids would never interrupt a conversation between adults and their manners and discipline do appear exemplary.

Are you living in some kind of insular bubble ? This kind of behaviour goes on practially anywhere I have been in Asia , they seem to have a very short attention span , should they not espouse what they are thinking(?) at any particulat second , the next second they forget what it was they had to say . The children have become very disrespectfull of age , and parents allow them to rule over what ever they tell them to do , I asked a Thai once why she had to go out in the soi and shout into the phone , she said "I in Korat , they in Bangkok " . Go figure .

[JetsetBkk]

...It's like they don't like pauses in conversation. When my wife and her sister are talking, it's non stop...both talking 500KPH at the same time and not pausing to even take a breath.

Just wondering if I'm the only one that notices this???

It's a highly efficient way of communicating - both transmitting and receiving at the same time. It's called "full duplex".

[phoolish]

This is the funniest thread I have read so far in this forum.

Yep... I just realised that they do talk at the same time. hahahahaha

Also, what I've noticed too is when I was with this Thai lady, she talks very softly when buying food and same as some people.

:D :D

[endure]

Why do people half a world away from me not behave in the way that I would expect them to back in my home country?

The question provides its own answer.

[jaideeguy]

It seems that the western concept that 'children should be seen, but not heard' is unheard of here....total undicipline that extends into adulthood.

Try listening to any Thai soap opera or game show on TV and you hear several people speaking [yelling] at each other all at the same time.

I just wonder how they can understand what's going on.....or does it really matter what's going on??

And to be fair, they do speak slowly and softly when talking to strangers, vendors, etc. I just wish that my family gave me the same respect as they give strangers.......

So, can one assume that the closser they are with each other, the louder and faster thay speak????

[tartempion]

What I like most is the "two reporters method" on Thai TV news:

One says something and the other goes 'krap" or 'kaaaa" all the time.

Very interesting that is

[pnustedt]

Are you living in some kind of insular bubble ? This kind of behaviour goes on practially anywhere I have been in Asia , they seem to have a very short attention span , should they not espouse what they are thinking(?) at any particulat second , the next second they forget what it was they had to say . The children have become very disrespectfull of age , and parents allow them to rule over what ever they tell them to do , I asked a Thai once why she had to go out in the soi and shout into the phone , she said "I in Korat , they in Bangkok " . Go figure .

No, I live amongst Thai families in rural Thailand and I have lived in other parts of Asia. In particular age is most respected. Must be the type of people I associate with.

[Jimjim]

Are you talking about your own children? So they're half Thai and half whatever you are. Yet you seem to see them as some kind of foreigner. They're your children, man, you can discipline them how you like if you are good at it and put some effort into it. Embarrassing. I know some Thai families that are loving yet full of discipline, and don't tolerate if their children interrupt them or speak rudely to them. Yes, Thais in general may have a different style of raising children, but not everyone has to follow along the same path and neither do you.

[jadran]

" my Issan wife "

I always thought that all thaivisa forum members have thai-chinese wives

[PeaceBlondie]

Maybe you grew up in some farang paradise sixty years ago, but nowadays most Westerners talk too much and talk over each other. Lousy listeners. Go down to the pub tonight, shut your mouth, and just listen to the lousy listening skills of farang. We may let the other guy talk for 44 seconds, and we take our turn whilst he waits to start again. But we forget to listen.

I was teaching 12 and 13 year old Thais one day who simply would not shut up, all 31 of them. Finally I lost my cool and shouted REALLY LOUD, and they shut up. I told them they were bad students, bad Thai citizens, and bad Buddhists. I told my boss the same thing about them. Next day, they got a tongue-lashing in Thai from their Thai home room teacher and were better for a day or two. But they learned to all talk at the same time in class, before they had a foreign teacher. The culture teaches them that.

I love them, but sometimes they talk even more than my sisters and me.

OTOH, my Thai boyfriend can be the most talkative when he is with Thais, a real chatterbox and comedian. Then he hardly speaks a word in English for an hour or more when we are alone. They sometimes act as if questions asked in English, ending on a rising tone and expecting a spoken reply, never were uttered. It is selective. I got used to it. I am not leavng Thailand.

[G54]

With all their yacking, they are making the phone companies rich!!

and, put my couple of kids in a room and they can sound like a classroom of 20.

Maybe Thai is such an inefficient language that it tkes 10 minutes to say what we can say in one minute....not to say that English is better, but maybe a little more effecient in communication.

Ya gotta love um.....

This always gets me when I tell her to ask someone soemthing and all i need is a "yes or no" but like u says it goes on for 10 minutes or more........ god only knows what they have asked??

Yes, it's so wonderful to hear someone talking about nothing for ages. Ya gotta love um!

Aggravating at times, to say the least - as they are saying the most, so to speak

Happens so often. I had this yesterday. Simply wanted the g/f to confirm the mechanic had the engine I wanted. Took 10 minutes to get a 'Yes'. Now I know why my phone bill is so high.

[Samuian]

no mannerism, rude, ignorant!

have a friend who sometimes comes along with his gf, we are talking, she gets up walks over to him and starts whispering in his ear, amidst our conversation, repeats it several times, as innocent as anything.

got the impression that she does it for fear of being neglected, competitive thinking...however, it seems to e a very common behavior, as there no privacy as we understand it in the "west".

But then never witnessed it in the BTS, everyone is quiet, so in the buses or on the "Ruea Duean"....

[Koo82]

With all their yacking, they are making the phone companies rich!!

Not really. They have Work and Work More package that you talk for an hour and you pay the charge of 3 minutes. I've heard there is the choice to talk for free during day time. If you choose couple numbers (2 #), you call each other for free.

[Koo82]

I've always wondered why Thais [mostly] interupt each other??

I hate it a lot if someone interrupts me when I speak. I've read about farang cultures so I know they don't like that.

If someone likes to talk that much, I'll let them talk and I just shut up.