Agree Or Disagree

[canuckamuck]

My wife fails on four of the original list items, and she was born here.

[asiasurfer]

An expat is someone who will experience culture shock if they move back to their home country.

Oh man that’s so true! Best reply on here!!

[buffalobob]

A real expat is a different category, in between of the two above. I consider myself being a "real" expat. But after half a dozen years spent here, I only scored 1 out of 10

1) NO - I can't order a dish in Thai, except for tom yam kung and tom yam talay pet pet. Many expats stay in Bangkok where menu is available in English or with pictures.

How someone could live in a country for half a dozen years and not even be able to order food is beyond belief. Simple curiosity and a desire to explore would take care of that in a few months for most people.

I swear, some people seem to take a perverse pride in being the most far removed from Thailand while living here.

I can order Thai food, I can't order food in Thai. I can cook more thai dishes than some of my Thai colleagues. But I don't care about their names in Thai language.

When I place orders, I am interested only in getting food done as soon as possible.

What curiosity are you talking about???

I come to a restaurant, I take a menu, I see two columns - smth like fried chicken with cashew nuts on one side and smth unreadable in thai characters on the other side.

Of course I can take time and ask about the names of dishes in thai. Of course it will make my food delayed at least by 15 min. Of course some of my kids will be sleeping by that time, others will be crying. No, it's not because they are starving, but because they had been sitting idle at the table (not easy to keep kids at the table even when food is there) while I was trying to satisfy my simple curiosity and a desire to explore.

Of course I can take thai lessons and study thai characters. But I would rather use that time to teach my kids literacy/numeracy.

I do understand however young and not so young men who can afford spending ten minutes before ordering food to build up their thai vocabulary - they may have noreasons to hurry. Also, that works like a good excuse to start talking to a nice waitress.

My god the ignorance just gets worse.

[clausewitz]

Jeez guys, do some of you not take the blindest bit of notice of the country you are living in? and some of you don't seem to care either. Its your loss.

How on earth some of you don't know why people wear Yellow on a Monday and Blue on a Friday is beyond me. Try actually talking to some Thai people sometime, they don't bite you know.

Jeez, buffalobob, why don't you just tell us?

Go on, please enlighten me

The Thai friends I have would rather pee in their pants than wear yellow, been that way since last year. Don't know why.

[Soutpeel]

Not talking about the actual definition of tourist or expat here. Just for fun: if you have experienced (or are able to do) the following 10 things you are a real expat. If not you're still in the tourist category:

1) You can order a dish in Thai other than the most common dishes (:pad thai, sweet n sour, fried rice, etc)

2) You know why Thai people where yellow shirts on Monday and Light blue on Friday

3) You've tried the bugs, snake, frogs (or something alike) more than once

4) You have at least 5 CD's of Thai karaoke music

5) You wear Thai gold

6) More than once you were the only farang at a party

7) You eat more barbequed food here than anywhere you've ever been

8) More than one chilli pepper in your dish does not make you run to the toilet anymore

9) You've been here during the good old times: 3 big bottles of chang = 100 baht

10) There was a time you've not wore shoes for more than 2 months and went everywhere on slippers

again it is not too serious, just for fun. just motivate your answer: agree of disagree?

Glad to see this is intended as a bit of fun, as after being here for 8 years on a work permit and paying taxes by this listing it would appear I am still a tourist then:

1.Yes can do

2. Yes, but not the light blue one on Fridays ??

3. No

4. No fukcnig way

5. No way, far too gay, certainly Expats with "big" baht Chains and big Medallions..

6. Yes

7. No.... eat less BBQ food

8 Can do

9 Not that old to remember 3 X big bottles of Chang for THB 100. but then again dont drink the cr*p

10. Never wear slippers...

Think this list is geared more ar the OAPS than anything else.... not real or imaginary expats..

[qwertz]

It's a moot point anyway - to the Thai we're all just farangs - makes no difference if you're there for a holiday or a resident.

However, only an expat would stand in a shop and read his newspaper of choice before putting it back on the rack and leave without

buying anything.

[Newbee]

My god the ignorance just gets worse.

I demand your apologies

[mauGR1]

It's a moot point anyway - to the Thai we're all just farangs - makes no difference if you're there for a holiday or a resident.

However, only an expat would stand in a shop and read his newspaper of choice before putting it back on the rack and leave without

buying anything.

Well,he must be a quite unpolite guy to do that,in any country,even in his country.IMO an expat who lives in Thailand refrains from offending the Thais,knowing what can happen if you pull their legs too much.

[Birdman]

It's a moot point anyway - to the Thai we're all just farangs - makes no difference if you're there for a holiday or a resident.

However, only an expat would stand in a shop and read his newspaper of choice before putting it back on the rack and leave without

buying anything.

You certainly are a once in a while budget tourist in Thailand bound by female solution to loneliness. Because you know nothing a bit deeper.

[richard_smith237]

1) You can order a dish in Thai other than the most common dishes (:pad thai, sweet n sour, fried rice, etc) Yep.

2) You know why Thai people where yellow shirts on Monday and Light blue on Friday. As I understand it, its to do with the specific day of the week the King and Queen were born. i.e. The King was born on a Monday and Mondays colour is Yellow. The Queen on a Friday and Fridays colour is light blue, Other days are associated with other colours (i.e. Violet for Saturdays is Crown Princess' colour).

3) You've tried the bugs, snake, frogs (or something alike) more than once No Once was enough, what's the point in trying something more if I don't like it?.

4) You have at least 5 CD's of Thai karaoke music. No, I have no Karaoke CD's. I do have a couple of normal Thai Music CD's.

5) You wear Thai gold. Never, The only jewelry I wear is a watch. And I'm not Buddist, so I wont wear a pendant.

6) More than once you were the only farang at a party. Many many times, with friends and girlfriends family, also holidays with groups of couples.

7) You eat more barbequed food here than anywhere you've ever been. Not sure about that one, Possibly, Korean BBQ etc !

8) More than one chilli pepper in your dish does not make you run to the toilet anymore. Yes, I've grown to enjoy spicy food.

9) You've been here during the good old times: 3 big bottles of chang = 100 baht. I never liked Chang, but I remember cheaper beer and cigarettes at 43 Baht per pack.

10) There was a time you've not wore shoes for more than 2 months and went everywhere on slippers. Never, I live in Bangkok and it would seem inappropriate to wear flip-flops in many places.

again it is not too serious, just for fun. just motivate your answer: agree of disagree?

I'd still consider myself an ex-pat. I'm not sure much of the critera above can outline an e-pat. But it does seem to fit someone who has lived here for many years and perhaps assimilated into or adopted a more Thai way of life outside of Bangkok.

Edited July 14, 2009 by richard_smith237

[JemJem]

Not talking about the actual definition of tourist or expat here. Just for fun: if you have experienced (or are able to do) the following 10 things you are a real expat. If not you're still in the tourist category:

1) You can order a dish in Thai other than the most common dishes (:pad thai, sweet n sour, fried rice, etc)

2) You know why Thai people where yellow shirts on Monday and Light blue on Friday

3) You've tried the bugs, snake, frogs (or something alike) more than once

4) You have at least 5 CD's of Thai karaoke music

5) You wear Thai gold

6) More than once you were the only farang at a party

7) You eat more barbequed food here than anywhere you've ever been

8) More than one chilli pepper in your dish does not make you run to the toilet anymore

9) You've been here during the good old times: 3 big bottles of chang = 100 baht

10) There was a time you've not wore shoes for more than 2 months and went everywhere on slippers

again it is not too serious, just for fun. just motivate your answer: agree of disagree?

1. Agree. However, I have to say that I prefer Indian, Middle Eastern and most European cuisine to Thai cuisine.

2. Agree.

3. Disagree. Even when I have been extremely drunk, I didn't/wouldn't think about having those.

4. Disagree....I have never been a fan of karaoke

5. Agree. Well, I always have my Thai-gold earring on one ear. I don't like wearing a gold necklace though.

6. Agree.

7. Not sure. I guess I disagree here.

8. Agree.

9. Agree.

10. Agree. But initially, I almost always wore shoes. Only in recent years, I have gotten used to and started to enjoy the comfort of flip-flops, etc.

Cheers,

Jem

[ThaiBasil]

Just been to Laos (Non- and am now in Bangkok, so had no time to check up on Thaivisa for a couple of days. For the people who do not understand this topic, I just placed some things in here which I thought expats can relate a bit more too than tourists. I didn't give it too much thought as it was just for fun, speaking about fun, I totally understand all the points in the "newbie" list too. This guy gets my thread!!

[rinpoche]

A tourist when stuck behind an elephant in traffic thinks how cute.

An expat when stuck behind an elephant in traffic curses at how he is being delayed.

This one definitely seals it.