How Do Thais Learn Not To Do Someting?

[Loz]

If it is indeed down to this "X" apptitude, how do you explain the massive proportion of the population that share it here compared to back home. The X adventurer gene may be the answer, but if that is so, how come so few Thais ever venture beyond their nations boarders. WHile back home the British pu$$ie gene pool produce a force of adventures who colonised vast tracts of the whole flaming planet!!

No, I don't think its a bravery gene that accounts for it. More a lack of understanding or awareness of concequences. And I'm not sure if this is a right or wrong debate. I just think its different and thus interesting. I feel genuinely sorry for people who think the BEST way to learn fire is dangerous is to play with it. I'd bet these same people lack compassion for single mums who's bravery gene made her feel it was better to learn first hand the perils of unprotected sex. I doubt they applaud her "survival instinct" and genine ingenuity evidenced by her seeking financial aid from the understanding do gooders at the benfits office who exist to craddle these avid adventures with the resources largely collected in tax revenues from a more conservative (relatively) segment of society. The WOrking segment. But thats back home, here they find the expat benfit office is open for business 24/7. And there are a truck load less forms to fill in before you get a payment. In fact, the expat tends to do most of the filling in.

food for thought?

Edited February 14, 2010 by Loz

[Pakboong]

If it is indeed down to this "X" apptitude, how do you explain the massive proportion of the population that share it here compared to back home. The X adventurer gene may be the answer, but if that is so, how come so few Thais ever venture beyond their nations boarders. WHile back home the British pu$$ie gene pool produce a force of adventures who colonised vast tracts of the whole flaming planet!!

No, I don't think its a bravery gene that accounts for it. More a lack of understanding or awareness of concequences. And I'm not sure if this is a right or wrong debate. I just think its different and thus interesting. I feel genuinely sorry for people who think the BEST way to learn fire is dangerous is to play with it. I'd bet these same people lack compassion for single mums who's bravery gene made her feel it was better to learn first hand the perils of unprotected sex. I doubt they applaud her "survival instinct" and genine ingenuity evidenced by her seeking financial aid from the understanding do gooders at the benfits office who exist to craddle these avid adventures with the resources largely collected in tax revenues from a more conservative (relatively) segment of society. The WOrking segment. But thats back home, here they find the expat benfit office is open for business 24/7. And there are a truck load less forms to fill in before you get a payment. In fact, the expat tends to do most of the filling in.

food for thought?

I am not calling it bravery. It is somehow connected to a thrill sensation. Might explain why a group of Thais will take 8 hours to play a round of golf but try and break the sound barrier on the drive home. No other way to explain it. Blacks for example do not excel at the X sports but they are the best athletes in the world at the Y sports. I have no explanation. Few ski, few don't ride skate boards, few bungi jumps, you seldom see them on the high diving board, etc... Not many black figure skaters. There is a cultural factor on a large scale but on an individual scale, it is simply an aptitude for the thrill.

[gpdjohn]

How they learn...

[Tonto21]

I would agree that the Thai education doesn’t really cater for “out of the box thinking” it would appear to just go thought the motions, especially in a Childs early years anyway.

However, I think the dye is cast long before the kids gets into the education system. There seems to be very little early learning here, especially the further down the social scale you go in Thailand. It all starts at home, pre-school, this is where the first lessons where “action and conscience” take place.

Just look at the West, by that I mean for want of a better word, farang land. The money spent on pre-school educational toys is staggering, and it works, just not for everyone, we still have our shear of boneheads!

If the basic theory, “action and conscience” have not been established by the time the kid goes to school, say 4 or 5 years old, he/she will never grasp the whole concept; it will remain elusive to them. In some extreme cases where this early learning process has been totally negated, the individual will need to be shown each individual possible outcome for a given action, and they will be unable to cross reference a mental database, basically, unable to apply one situation to another.

[IanForbes]

How they learn...

I still have the two forks that I used that way when I was about 5 years old. Thankfully, I wasn't grounded at the time and our electricity is only 110 and not 220 like Asia and the UK. Both forks have melted tips. I kept them to show my children and grandkids.

Tonto21 brings some VERY important data into the discussion. There have been studies that have shown that children between the ages of one and six learn more in that period of their life by comparison to everything else they learn afterwards.

Just think how quickly young kids pick up several languages in comparison to adults struggling with the same thing. Kids around the age of 6 are little sponges who absorb everything.

[Pakboong]

How they learn...

I still have the two forks that I used that way when I was about 5 years old. Thankfully, I wasn't grounded at the time and our electricity is only 110 and not 220 like Asia and the UK. Both forks have melted tips. I kept them to show my children and grandkids.

Tonto21 brings some VERY important data into the discussion. There have been studies that have shown that children between the ages of one and six learn more in that period of their life by comparison to everything else they learn afterwards.

Just think how quickly young kids pick up several languages in comparison to adults struggling with the same thing. Kids around the age of 6 are little sponges who absorb everything.

So I guess you are saying that many Thais drive too fast and recklessly due to something their parents forgot to tell them between the ages of 1 and 6. Kids from the same family will show completely different results when it comes to such matters. All Thais do not drive recklessly but enough do to cause many to consider it a cultural trait. I think risk taking during play by young kids is simply a gateway drug to later thrill seeking. A few of the kids of course, will be tag alongs and not really into it. Thrill seeking is big business and is not necessarily bad. It is a part of civilized society on a much more sophisticated level. It is not plausible to me that this trait is more a result of their parents not having told them it was dangerous.

The guys who base jump from the Empire State building need to do it for reasons that most of us consider stupid; but I am positive that they reason the choose to do such things has nothing to do with their parents having failed to tell them it was dangerous.