rene123 Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 Best thing I have ever seen with street vendors was with one of my previous bosses. The man had tons of money but loved to bargin and had the best tactic when it came to the Calculator game. He would first ask the price of the item he wanted the vendor would put in XXX. Then he would say no no and ask for the calculator. He would key in the price he was willing to pay bar none. The vendor would then take the calculator back and enter a price somewhere between the 2. My Ex Boss would pull the trick he would get the calculator and drop from his origonal price not go up to the inbetween he would lower it. This would provide the funniest expressions on said vendors face. And start the questions on why the price went down rather than up. He would mention he was going to pay the first price but this is now wasting his time and start to walk away. 8/10 times they would quickly agree to the first price he wanted to pay and send him on his way before anyone else observed how this was done. That is an old tactic, but a good one. It does help to know the value of the item BEFORE you start haggling. If someone starts off with a ridiculous price I just walk away and won't haggle at all. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSixpack Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 I once had a beer at a Pattaya beer bar for B50. Thirst quenched, I handed over a B100 note to a bar girl. She got out a calculator and subtraced 50 from 100 to arrive at the magic total of 50. On the other hand, at my local fresh market I've seen a hard-working vendor, nice lady, at a very busy vegetable stand weigh veggies for a mob of customers and do the sums in her head for each with amazing speed and total accuracy. Nobody's every complained, and my stuff has always been totalled correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Semper Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 When I was young, this was used in schools. slide rule.jpg You were young? I once had a beer at a Pattaya beer bar for B50. Thirst quenched, I handed over a B100 note to a bar girl. She got out a calculator and subtraced 50 from 100 to arrive at the magic total of 50. On the other hand, at my local fresh market I've seen a hard-working vendor, nice lady, at a very busy vegetable stand weigh veggies for a mob of customers and do the sums in her head for each with amazing speed and total accuracy. Nobody's every complained, and my stuff has always been totalled correctly. Different kind of breeds. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemoncake Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 When I was young, this was used in schools. slide rule.jpg is not it a tool from 19th century? lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthurwait Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 Didn't you know - Maths is the route of all evil... Indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phronesis Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 All of you are way off track... It has absolutely nothing to do with numbers or mathematical abilities... It is all about FACE... They use calculators...to show that they are savy with the technology. The middle aged cab driver fiddling with his new tablet is a relevant example... He has absolutely no idea what he is doing (with the exception of watching Youtube clips)...but it is all about BEING SEEN using his shiny new toy... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthurwait Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 Minimum wage staff and bar girls didn't have a good education shocker. Do you lot not know any educated Thai people ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemoncake Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 arthurwait, on 23 Feb 2013 - 12:48, said: Minimum wage staff and bar girls didn't have a good education shocker. Do you lot not know any educated Thai people ? Loan officer from Krungsi Bank, supposedly with bachelor and possibly masters, does not know how to calculate interest or repayments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooked Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 Years ago I knew a market lady in Switzerland that couldn't read or write, and noted prices using Roman numerals.Astonishing to see how she coordinated price per Kilo with actual weight, seemed somehow easier than the method we learnt at school. As a student I could add up bills in my head, while drunk, using pounds shillings and pence for any amount of orders at the bar where I worked, and so could all the other guys, never made a mistake. ('and one for yourself' was a surreptitious pour into an already full glass followed by 'cheers') Using a slide rule was interesting insofar as it made you conscious of the degree of accuracy of what you were doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthurwait Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 arthurwait, on 23 Feb 2013 - 12:48, said: Minimum wage staff and bar girls didn't have a good education shocker. Do you lot not know any educated Thai people ? Loan officer from Krungsi Bank, supposedly with bachelor and possibly masters, does not know how to calculate interest or repayments I said educated, not a bank worker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemoncake Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 arthurwait, on 23 Feb 2013 - 12:48, said: Minimum wage staff and bar girls didn't have a good education shocker. Do you lot not know any educated Thai people ? Loan officer from Krungsi Bank, supposedly with bachelor and possibly masters, does not know how to calculate interest or repayments I said educated, not a bank worker. lol, but to be a bank worker one must have bachelor degree Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthurwait Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 arthurwait, on 23 Feb 2013 - 12:48, said: Minimum wage staff and bar girls didn't have a good education shocker. Do you lot not know any educated Thai people ? Loan officer from Krungsi Bank, supposedly with bachelor and possibly masters, does not know how to calculate interest or repayments I said educated, not a bank worker. lol, but to be a bank worker one must have bachelor degree You were meant to bite. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemoncake Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 You were meant to bite. i only like to nibble Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David006 Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 good grief.......bash bash bash.....!!! most western retailers use computerised cash registers which calculate change etc .......sigh..!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Semper Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 arthurwait, on 23 Feb 2013 - 12:48, said: Minimum wage staff and bar girls didn't have a good education shocker. Do you lot not know any educated Thai people ? Loan officer from Krungsi Bank, supposedly with bachelor and possibly masters, does not know how to calculate interest or repayments Guess he/she has staff who handles this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemoncake Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 Semper, on 23 Feb 2013 - 16:05, said: lemoncake, on 23 Feb 2013 - 13:09, said: arthurwait, on 23 Feb 2013 - 12:48, said: arthurwait, on 23 Feb 2013 - 12:48, said: Minimum wage staff and bar girls didn't have a good education shocker. Do you lot not know any educated Thai people ? Loan officer from Krungsi Bank, supposedly with bachelor and possibly masters, does not know how to calculate interest or repayments Guess he/she has staff who handles this. haha You mean like having helper to help cook helper to help the cook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
endure Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 Pre decimalisation, the shop assistants could do 4 or 5 items in their head without breaking sweat. Pre-decimalisation I had a Saturday job in a TV shop. We used to both sell and rent them. Renters used to come in and pay their monthly rent and it was written down in a ledger with 40 lines to the page. At the end of the day the amount we'd taken had to be added up. We didn't have calculators. Everybody in the shop could whip down a page of £.s.p and write the correct answer at the bottom without any trouble at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mca Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 When I was young, this was used in schools. slide rule.jpg When I was young, I listened to the radio..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
endure Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loong Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 That's not Carol Vorderman Only British viewers of countdown will understand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayroo Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 If you're going to post a topic putting down Thais and their maths, you should start by not making simple mistakes in your topic title. Their, not there. He's probably an x-akkowntent, then his exkuzed 2 mayking engrish misstaykz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post sirineou Posted February 23, 2013 Popular Post Share Posted February 23, 2013 an other "why Thais cant be as smart as as " Thread as if the store clerks in the west are mathematical geniuses. Thais are not as stupid as they you think, and the Op is not as smart as he thinks. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utalkin2me Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Maybe they are compensating for calculators not being allowed in schools here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaullyW Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 an other "why Thais cant be as smart as as " Thread as if the store clerks in the west are mathematical geniuses. Thais are not as stupid as they you think, and the Op is not as smart as he thinks. Well, yes, but I think it's helpful for us to continue to make the distinction between Thais and the Thai-Chinese who brought from China with them their great culture of work ethic and respect for education. Many of them are indeed smart. Dragged down by much of Thai culture, yes, but still intelligent despite it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiangmaikelly Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 an other "why Thais cant be as smart as as " Thread as if the store clerks in the west are mathematical geniuses. Thais are not as stupid as they you think, and the Op is not as smart as he thinks. Well, yes, but I think it's helpful for us to continue to make the distinction between Thais and the Thai-Chinese who brought from China with them their great culture of work ethic and respect for education. Many of them are indeed smart. Dragged down by much of Thai culture, yes, but still intelligent despite it. A racist by any other name is still a racist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaullyW Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 It's an observation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiangmaikelly Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 It's an observation. The largest gene pool in the world is the one started by Genghis Kahn. Now, is he Chinese? Do you know all Chinese people? Do you know all Thai people? The Japanese were proud of their many accomplishments and resented racial slurs they met with in some Western nations. Their attempt to establish a statement of racial equality in the Covenant of the League of Nations was vetoed by the United States (because of opposition in California) and Great Britain (Australian resistance) so they started WW II in Asia. Your personal observations that Thai Chinese are smarter than Thai people is racist. It is in poor taste and totally unsupported by any evidence except the comments of the uneducated and misinformed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaullyW Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 It's an observation. The largest gene pool in the world is the one started by Genghis Kahn. Now, is he Chinese? Do you know all Chinese people? Do you know all Thai people? The Japanese were proud of their many accomplishments and resented racial slurs they met with in some Western nations. Their attempt to establish a statement of racial equality in the Covenant of the League of Nations was vetoed by the United States (because of opposition in California) and Great Britain (Australian resistance) so they started WW II in Asia. Your personal observations that Thai Chinese are smarter than Thai people is racist. It is in poor taste and totally unsupported by any evidence except the comments of the uneducated and misinformed. Take it easy. I'm not saying non- ethnic Chinese Thais are incapable. That would be ridiculous, but I'm sure you would not deny that ethnic Chinese Thais are very obviously more successful and educated as a percentage of their numbers in Thailand. I am only calling attention to a reality. Look around us. Everywhere you look in Thailand, the highest achieving Thais are Thai-Chinese, and my point now is that it's not a mistake. It is cultural. And, there's nothing wrong with saying as much, in my opinion. Just as many of us Westerners typically state that on average we are richer, have better standards of living, etc. Or that Nigerians down on Soi 3 are often drug dealers. Don't be so sensitive. I know that any group of people can achieve, but not all groups achieve equally at a given time. Who knows what the future holds for ethnic Thais. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welsh1 Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 If you're going to post a topic putting down Thais and their maths, you should start by not making simple mistakes in your topic title. Their, not there. Look out, look out grammar police about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiangmaikelly Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 It's an observation. The largest gene pool in the world is the one started by Genghis Kahn. Now, is he Chinese? Do you know all Chinese people? Do you know all Thai people? The Japanese were proud of their many accomplishments and resented racial slurs they met with in some Western nations. Their attempt to establish a statement of racial equality in the Covenant of the League of Nations was vetoed by the United States (because of opposition in California) and Great Britain (Australian resistance) so they started WW II in Asia. Your personal observations that Thai Chinese are smarter than Thai people is racist. It is in poor taste and totally unsupported by any evidence except the comments of the uneducated and misinformed. Take it easy. I'm not saying non- ethnic Chinese Thais are incapable. That would be ridiculous, but I'm sure you would not deny that ethnic Chinese Thais are very obviously more successful and educated as a percentage of their numbers in Thailand. I am only calling attention to a reality. Look around us. Everywhere you look in Thailand, the highest achieving Thais are Thai-Chinese, and my point now is that it's not a mistake. It is cultural. And, there's nothing wrong with saying as much, in my opinion. Just as many of us Westerners typically state that on average we are richer, have better standards of living, etc. Or that Nigerians down on Soi 3 are often drug dealers. Don't be so sensitive. I know that any group of people can achieve, but not all groups achieve equally at a given time. Who knows what the future holds for ethnic Thais. The Thais have enough problems with racism. I don't feel we help the issue by agreeing with them especially the Thai/Chinese ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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