Why can't Thai's give/follow travel directions?

[hellodolly]

This topic amuses me because it is so true. It really surprised me when I showed a tuk-tuk driver a map written in Thai, and I knew exactly where I wanted to go, but didn't want to walk. The driver didn't have a clue how to read a simple map, even when written in Thai. Eventually I just had to tell him somewhere that I knew was close to where I wanted to go and I just walked from there.

I've drawn a simple map to show Thai friends where I live and they didn't understand. Obviously, rural Thais are not taught about maps in school and when they move to the city they still don't understand. That does not mean they are dumb. They just haven't learned the concept. It is like a farang raised in a city being put in the wilderness and expecting them to survive.

Maybe you should give them a geography lesson on where Vancouver island is first then a map to your city and then a map to your home.

[bangarang]

They'll give you directions even when they don't know where you want to go. My wife can read a map to my astonishment but I had to show her.

Haha, yeah my wife cant read a map either. Try to explain, "here is the (insert landmark here) so we just have to turn left at the soi after the next traffic light. ...whaaaaa?

She is always amazed though when I can find faster ways using Google Maps but she is always convinced its wrong because its not the same directions her Uncles give her. lol...

[toybits]

I have no problem with giving directions. I speak to them in Thai.

[Minnehaha]

The capacity to understand a map and see it in the abstract and apply it is learned in some cultures, and in others it is not learned. Why? Education largely, but also there is less need for it in some cultures.

In New York City one learns quickly from maps that avenues run north south and streets run east west, 5th avenue splits the city (at least until you get down to the village). Anyone can find an address because when you hear 400 East 38th street, you know you are east of 5th avenue, 4 blocks and if it is an odd number it is on the north side of the street.

Try that logic with Thai streets. We are fortunate to have Soi's numbered but try to drive anywhere on the tollway in Thailand (especially Bangkok) and you will quickly learn there are only a few destinations, and yet others are roads! Dao Kanong, Din Daeng, Suvarnabumi. 95% of these signs have no relevance to the person driving to Sathorn or Silom. Or Paragon for that matter. I like the Rama 9 Signs. Its a road. Its also a tollway road. The signage is so messed up I dont blame my wife who cant find anything. I mean she gets lost 200 meters from the home she grew up in for 26 years.

Its charming how excited many Thais get when they look for North so they can do feng shui at the home, but have no idea that Sukumvit in Bangkok essentially runs east - west. Its also charming when you see a company's map online - you can always tell if it was designed by a Thai. It is upside down - south is at the top and there is loads of useless info on the map with no sense of scale.

[mancub]

Reading through this thread it's like listening to some old ladies nattering over the fence about what's wrong with everyone else in the neighborhood in order to make their pathetic lives seem somehow superior. Of course to some extent that applies to many threads on TV.

I wonder why most farang, no matter how long they live here, can't read a sentence in Thai that any Thai child could?

Even more telling, why are ALL farang fat alcoholics? I know these things are true because if I put my blinkers on and walk along the bars west of 2nd Rd in Pattaya at 10:00 in the morning, all the farangs I see are fat alcoholics who can't read any Thai and therefore it must be true of ALL farangs. Golly now I really feel so much better about myself.

And that would make you the "curtain twitcher " then ... not liking what you hear , but listening all the same !

[Ratsima]

As has been noted, Thais navigate differently. Most Western men navigate by direction. Most Thais (and many Western women) navigate by landmark.

Have a look at the "maps" that accompany most Thai advertising, including brochures. These "maps" resemble a transport diagram more than they resemble a map: The scale is off and directions are arbitrary. All streets and roads go perfectly north and south or east and west. But, these diagrams do work with navigation by landmark because they show the absolute relationship between objects, even thought the distances and direction are way off.

Thais have been doing this forever. Look at an ancient Thai navigation chart and everything is in a straight line; as if you could sail from Bangkok to Taiwan without ever having to turn.

[BudRight]

I took a trip to a remote island last week with my Thai girlfriend. I had never been there before and found it from remembering maps and directions I found online. After the trip she asked me when I had been there the first time and who I went with. She still does not believe that my first time there was with her, last week.

I've also noticed also that no-one I've ever spoken to in Thailand is oriented properly, that is knowing which way is North. If I say 'walk East 200 meters' I might as well sweep my hand in a circle and say 'go that way.'

[user786895]

I turned up for Thai langauage class one morning and my teacher was sweeping outside and looking with some amusement at two tourists on a motorbike showing a Thai woman a map. "Two things you should know Nick, Thai people don't know how to use maps, and the other thing is they won't tell you that they don't know!" Hold on second here Teacher, I have seen Boy Scouts and Girlguides on many occasions out for walks on this island. "Ah, yes Nick. They do understand 'follow the leader' though!"

[SpeakeasyThai]

In my experiences when I am looking to get to a location they just do not know where it is. To get somewhere I usually ask about 3-5 Thais and try work it out by myself. Part of the problem is if they do not know they will still give you directions! You never get a response 'I don't know'.

[fwheby]

#5 cooked

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Posted Yesterday, 11:01

They'll give you directions even when they don't know where you want to go. My wife can read a map to my astonishment but I had to show her.

It is practically inconceivable that a Thai person wil ever respond to your question with the words "I don't know", as doing so would constitute a huge loss of face. Better for them to make up a fairytale of the location than to utter those three simple words.

[fwheby]

COOKED said "They'll give you directions even when they don't know where you want to go. My wife can read a map to my astonishment but I had to show her."

It is practically inconceivable that a Thai person wil ever respond to your question with the words "I don't know", as doing so would constitute a huge loss of face. Better for them to make up a fairytale of the location than to utter those three simple words.

[dennisgb45]

To Tiger7...I've has a simalair experience as your last one with ex Thai wife...except when I asked turn right or left....Her answer was "Yes".

[fwheby]

I've never understood this either. When we are upcountry and ask for directions, locals always just point and say that way. When I ask the missus how far?? she says "you know these are country people, they don't know distance"

In Southern rural United States, we often used to say, in regard to distance, "its a fur piece". That means anything from a couple of hundred feet to a dozen miles, or more. Why is it so difficult for Thais to learn to be as specific as we are???

[BeachGuySamui]

After more than twenty years of living and traveling here, I have to agree 100%. But I wish to add that it's not just the local people who can't either give or take directions, it's the professionals. And, it doesn't only involve maps. I used to come for business and stay at the Sheraton on Sukhumvit. I would have the bellman tell the taxi driver where I was going -- the directions were to get on Suk, make a U-Turn, Turn right, and go about 1 KM. EVERY morning, the bellhop spoke to the taxi driver for what seemed like 15 min, explaining this! Every Morning!

[fvw53]

This is very funny

I am married now 25 years to an educated (university level) Thai lady and since more than 10 years we have agree that she drives the car in Thailand and I drive the car in my home country.

The only..but really the only and few... times there has been tension between us, is when she is driving on a long distance and I have a map on my lap showing more recent and probably better ways (roads) to return to Bangkok.

It always takes me a while to convince her that we should try the new roads.... and probably the reason is - as somebody pointed out - that Thai people drive according to buildings and other landmarks they know from earlier days.

[Gerrit]

When I was new in Jomtien I wanted to do some shopping at Big C South. Armed with a tourist map of Jomtien/Pattaya I approached a bart bus driver and showed him exactly where I wanted to go and off we went. I soon realised he was going in the direction of Pattaya Second street. I was eventually dropped at Big C Central on Second road.

I can only say thanks to Google maps and street view to find places. And yes, store directions in advertisements and web sites seems to cater for the Thai mind. I do not find them usefull.

[GuyL]

As already pointed out by KhunBENQ, the local house numbering system does not help.

Anyway, according to my own experience in Thailand, when I am looking for a place, if possible, I will ask my way in a shop (for instance a jeweller's or a pharmacy) that is owned by a Thai-Chinese person (that's usually the case when you can notice that the name of the shop is also written with Chinese characters). Most of the time, you will find there someone who can draw a map and even speak decent English.

[Suradit69]

Poll: 37% of Americans Unable to Locate America on Map of America

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-shehori/poll-37-of-americans-unab_b_150933.html

If you are lost, don't ask a young person for directions - that is the message coming out of an international survey of 18-24 year olds conducted by America's National Geographic Society.

Britain came a disappointing fourth from the bottom and Mexico trailed into last place with an average score of just 21 out of 56.

Perhaps even more worrying - when confronted with the same map, only 89% of Americans could find their own country!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2496427.stm

[thaikahuna]

Not surprising since the average Thai seldom goes more than 5Km from their home. Most could not tell you how to find Victory Monument if they had a food stall there.

[finnomick]

When asking or giving directions to a Thai person I find one good rule is to look closely at their eyes -- in most cases the light's on but there's no-one home.....

[Filipplenoir]

The answer is simple !!!!!!!!Thai language speaking habits

If words aren’t needed in a sentence they are usually omitted, this makes speaking Thai easier but harder to understand others. In Thai a lot of the meaning of a sentence comes from the context of the conversation. This means you have to pay attention to follow what a Thai speaker says or you might not have some crucial information they mentioned in a sentence or two before to understand them right.

[pattayadingo]

Took my wife back home and she was amazed that I could drive across the country without getting lost while relying solely on road signs or the odd question about direction from a local, which was invariably accurately answered. She lost sleep when she discovered we were going to areas that I had never been to before, or where there were no friends or relatives to call on for directions.

I had a similar thing with the g/f could not sleep while I was driving from Pattaya to a place maybe 700 kims away. I'm sure she felt some disaster would befall us or we would end up in a foreign country.

I had a new satnav that worked wonders until you made a mistake but a decent map soon corrected that.

She was amazed at the machine on my dashboard talking to me and me answering it back, saying, 'Yes darling'

Another time, years ago, went to BKK with the family from a village up north and they were almost constantly on the phone getting directions. Must have gone through 3 batteries.

[Skytrain2hell]

Today i asked someone to meet me at MRT Asoke in Thai..she said she knew where it was..later she called me and said she was waiting for me at McDonalds at Robinsons, about 200 meters away..it took forever to get her to find MRT Asoke..it turns out that she did not know where MRT Asoke was even though she had told me she did..Thais just dont seem to know the most basic phrase "I dont know"

FYI: It's MRT Sukhumvit. I know it should make sense regardless, but sometimes those things will fly over peoples' heads.

[toybits]

Showing a map (that is probably printed in English) to a Thai and concluding that Thais don't know how to read maps is unfair. If you were given a map printed in Thai, I would be sure you would also be at a loss trying to figure out where things are located. Map are not something locals would be needing so there is no need for them to use one. Don't be to quick in putting blame on the locals.

I turned up for Thai langauage class one morning and my teacher was sweeping outside and looking with some amusement at two tourists on a motorbike showing a Thai woman a map. "Two things you should know Nick, Thai people don't know how to use maps, and the other thing is they won't tell you that they don't know!" Hold on second here Teacher, I have seen Boy Scouts and Girlguides on many occasions out for walks on this island. "Ah, yes Nick. They do understand 'follow the leader' though!"

[charlieboz]

Got told years ago (and from my own observation since it seems to be right) that thai's will lose face if they say they don't know where something is when you ask them for directions. Ties back into the village mindset of you are from your village and you should know where everything is (even if they are living in BKK and are from Isaan say or vice versa). So instead of just saying they don't know they will make anything up and try to exit as fast as possible.

[MickGC]

Poll: 37% of Americans Unable to Locate America on Map of America

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-shehori/poll-37-of-americans-unab_b_150933.html

If you are lost, don't ask a young person for directions - that is the message coming out of an international survey of 18-24 year olds conducted by America's National Geographic Society.

Britain came a disappointing fourth from the bottom and Mexico trailed into last place with an average score of just 21 out of 56.

Perhaps even more worrying - when confronted with the same map, only 89% of Americans could find their own country!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2496427.stm

555. Nice one. But seems nobody here is listening to you.

First time my wife drove to Rayong (without me) from up here on the Laos border, she told me she won't need a map as all she has to do is pull up and ask a local for directions. Arrived safely and in good time.

[retell]

"You go about 5 minutes past where Somcahi's family used to grow melons, then turn."

Follow the sugarcane truck for about 20 minutes then after 3 ricefields turn right

[JulesMad]

Thai and Farang use different landmarks, which adds to the confusion.

Just prepare yourself with some maps and hope that you do not have to ask too many locals

On the other hand, following their directions brings you to completely new places, this is a free bonus

[rene123]

This topic amuses me because it is so true. It really surprised me when I showed a tuk-tuk driver a map written in Thai, and I knew exactly where I wanted to go, but didn't want to walk. The driver didn't have a clue how to read a simple map, even when written in Thai. Eventually I just had to tell him somewhere that I knew was close to where I wanted to go and I just walked from there.

I've drawn a simple map to show Thai friends where I live and they didn't understand. Obviously, rural Thais are not taught about maps in school and when they move to the city they still don't understand. That does not mean they are dumb. They just haven't learned the concept. It is like a farang raised in a city being put in the wilderness and expecting them to survive.

Maybe you should give them a geography lesson on where Vancouver island is first then a map to your city and then a map to your home.

The map was of Chiang Mai in Thailand and not anywhere in Canada. Maps are a simple concept, but unless you are taught as a child then it's not going to be important as an adult.

I've been all over Canada and I've yet to meet an educated Canadian who could not read a map. The key word is "educated". I've never asked a Thai if they know where Canada is and would not expect them to. However, I have met Canadians who mix up Taiwan with Thailand. I've also met Americans who mix up Australia and Austria, and think they are one and the same.

But, this topic would not even have been mentioned if it wasn't so common for the average not to understand the concept of a map. To deny it shows a lack of understanding of the average Thai.

But, as I said before, it has nothing to do with intelligence or street smarts. It has everything to do with the Thai education system which is lacking in many things the rest of the world takes for granted.

[harsh4]

no or little training in reading maps ? Or thinking on those lines... locations and places are in relation to other places or landmarks... thinking of a location witout the help of another known landmark might be hard for them... nobody knows which way is north or east or south or west... cities are unplanned...