PM Yingluck wants Thais living overseas to promote Thainess to the world

[trainman34014]

Most Thai's i have known who live abroad are mainly interested in linking up with more Thai's and avoiding speaking English instead of trying to integrate and learn more of the language they say they are there to learn. The quality of the Prime Ministers English would suggest she did the same whilst supposedly 'learning' abroad.

The real question here is...Who in any other country is interested in 'Thainess' anyway?

[pedro01]

I presume she warned them that their "get out of jail free" cards don't work outside of Thailand.,

[Kudel]

Most Thai's i have known who live abroad are mainly interested in linking up with more Thai's and avoiding speaking English instead of trying to integrate and learn more of the language they say they are there to learn. The quality of the Prime Ministers English would suggest she did the same whilst supposedly 'learning' abroad.

The real question here is...Who in any other country is interested in 'Thainess' anyway?

Why does this sound o so familiar.

Don't get me wrong ive met nice Thai ladies in my country but most of them are not exactly the creme de la creme to promote their country and value's abroud.

[belg]

everybody in the world knows what makes thailand famous, let's say it is not the temples and the culture....

[tomyumchai]

ive seen plenty of thai girls in the usa doing what thai girls do best on xhamster........meanwhile thai girls in the UK also demonstrate their other skills by divorcing the men who have brought them to the UK and then living off the state on benefits......theres half a dozen living in council flats near me already.

[rubl]

"Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra met with Thai exchange students from USA and Australia yesterday. During the meeting, Miss Yingluck told the students to be proud of Thai culture, tradition, and the country; she asked them to let others know of all these good things while studying abroad."

Being a foreigner may I respectfully ask PM Yingluck to describe "Thainess" and provide some details on "Thai culture, tradition". I surely hope that all Thais living abroad have the same understanding as she herself to ensure a consistent image, whatever that may be.

[anotheruser]

I think more practical advice would be more useful. Such as what to say when people ask why there are so many prostitutes in Thailand. And how is it that the Thai PM is the sister of a "self exiled" fugitive who is actually running the country. That sort of thing.

In my work I meet a lot of people who travel, family types included, not just sex tourists and sexpats. They usually think of Thailand by what they see. This includes sexpats and sex tourists. Very, very few of them would even go near any comment about Thai politics or politicians.

I have very clever Thai friends who know a lot about it and even then, really cannot understand.

If we have a predominantly negative attitude, we will see negatives everywhere. If we have a predominantly positive attitude we will see positives everywhere.

If we are looking for problems to solve or people we can assist we will find them.

I have quite good friends who support orphanages here and travel here twice a year from Australia to attend them.

The thing I have noticed most predominantly in Thai Visa Forum, apart from the excellent advice regarding visas to be found here, is an almost overwhelming community of Thai bashers.

Serious, dedicated bashers who appear to be waiting like vultures on a fence, for the

next piece of negative news to drop into their inbox, to pounce upon, to say, there, you see, what a terrible place this is and what idiots Thai people are.

If most of these people either live here or visit here often, it really makes me wonder why they come at all.

Can someone please explain?

Sometimes people go places because of the weather and cheap prices. Your question could be the same as why somebody goes into a jungle if they don't love mosquitoes. Many people come to the USA for example purely based on economic reasons and not because they love American people.

To assume everybody goes on holiday to fully immerse themselves in the people and culture is sort of a weird idea. Asians go to many places and do not integrate or even pretend to.

Thai people promoting Thainess in the west is the same as farang blathering on about how great the food etc is back home.

Edited July 11, 2013 by anotheruser

[tambok17]

Nothing wrong with that. Free promotion for tourism. Every country is tooting its own horn andthat's the way to do it. 24 million tourist a year and counting. It's not like they promote immigration. They promote Thai products and Thailand as a vacation destination. It works and brings big money into the country.

[Wombat6]

Promoting corruption, murder and alcohol abuse?!

And throwing away plastic bags full of rubbish, driving on the wrong side of streets etc.etc......

[chooka]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, please the world doesn't need Thainess. The agricultural business in the rest of the world is doing fine and doesn't need a Thai style rice scheme, the judicial system is fair and all classes treated equally, stray dogs are rounded up, garbage is collected and beaches are clean and uncluttered. Australia doesn't need J.J jetski franchises operating on it's beaches and the police are already paid a decent wage and tea money road blocks are not required.

Thai's can buy land and get citizenship and no 90 day bail reporting. Do you want to strip this from them? The developed world is fine so don't try and break it.

[chooka]

"Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra met with Thai exchange students from USA and Australia yesterday. During the meeting, Miss Yingluck told the students to be proud of Thai culture, tradition, and the country; she asked them to let others know of all these good things while studying abroad."

Being a foreigner may I respectfully ask PM Yingluck to describe "Thainess" and provide some details on "Thai culture, tradition". I surely hope that all Thais living abroad have the same understanding as she herself to ensure a consistent image, whatever that may be.

They can go home and tell people how they went on a school excursion and had to pay double or 3 times the price of the Thai peers to enter a zoo or national park. All simply because of the way they looked and that is the Thai way (Thainess)

Edited July 15, 2013 by chooka

[tonneke breda]

She meant, she want the Thais oversees to behave like her brother, but then steal abroad

[animatic]

If Thai exchange students go to USA

and try to use too much of their Thainess,

they just won't graduate.

[peterbkk9]

Thainess?

The country is totally messed up. But still they treat foreigners with contempt, thinking they are the best. Thainess is the last thing the world needs.

[pb1936]

Another no-brainer from the PM........The rest of the world is already only too aware of what Thainess means..........and the PM has added hugely to the fiasco.

[chooka]

She meant, she want the Thais oversees to behave like her brother, but then steal abroad

Do they need to run scams abroad on citizens, aren't the 28 million visiting enough for them?

[Theoutsider]

Unreal

[90dayz]

A citation from chiangmaicitynews

If anyone desires to meditate on the true and unique nature of Thainess, I suggest they go to Pattaya and sit on Walking Street for a few hours on a Friday or Saturday night between the hours of midnite and 3am. It's all there, spread out in technicolor with full Surround Sound, the police, the girls, the drug dealers, food vendors, bouncers, doormen, rent boys and ladyboys, hustling the whole world for every dollar they can get. The social structure, the tragedy, the poignancy, the desperation, darwinsim and horror. Thainess without any layers of silk or royalist pomp to disguise and hide its true nature.

[Deranged Soonatic]

is she supplying the bombs or do they have to get their own?

[MAJIC]

"Thai culture, tradition, and the country; she asked them to let others know of all these good things while studying abroad."

"Culture,tradition,and country,and good things"do not equate a good Education!

[Tomtomtom69]

Los Angeles is home to the largest Thai diaspora outside of Thailand, and is also home to the worlds only "Thai Town." It is on Hollywood Blvd, between Normandie and Western ave, on a 6 block stretch of shops, restaurants, and massage parlors. Each year, they host the LA Songkran festival, and have a Muay Thai ring in the center of Hollywood Blvd, along with BKK style food vendors, beauty pageants, and Thai pop stars. Historically, East Hollywood has been an economically undernourished area, and a gateway for immigrants. Now it is home to over 120,000 Thais, who come to LA for work, school, etc. Most of the Thais that make it to the States are from BKK and are of middle class or hi-so origins. Not many Isaan girls, except for the ones who made it over on a fiance visa.

Thai Town LA has become a major tourist draw to East Hollywood, and every night, the restaurants are packed. There is also the largest Thai Buddhist temple in the USA in North Hollywood. The Wat Thai of LA has a school attached and offers Thai language courses to anyone who wants to learn. There are a sizable number of Muay Thai gyms in the LA area that are run by retired Thai boxers from Bangkok. These things greatly contribute to spreading the Thai cultural meme in the USA.

This idea of promoting "Thainess" is a major event every year in LA during the Songkran festival. The Thai consulate sets up a large tent replete with info on Thai-US partnership and history. It is a fun time and it is one of the things I appreciate about LA--that I can have a simulacrum of Bangkok even when I come home.

In addition, former first lady Laura Bush designated Thai Town LA as part of the "Preserve America" program, which entitled it to special grants worth up to 250,000 USD for decorations like Thai style street lamps adorned with angels and gold leaf (instead of street lamps that don't always work--which would be more authentic). There is definitely a sense of neighborhood pride in Thai Town and you should pay it a visit if you ever come to LA.

Missing from Thai town are tuk tuks,and air that smells like diesel fumes and fish sauce--but if you go to the right bars, you will find a few packs of ladyboys--which almost makes Thai town LA seem like the real thing.

Thai town isn't the only Thai town outside of Thailand. There's a Thai town in Sydney, Australia too (although it's rather small but is expanding slowly over time) and there are arguably just as many Thais living in Sydney as in Los Angeles as you claim (indeed Sydney's universities are home to more international students than any other city in the world). In any case, I have seen Mexicans working in Thai restaurants in Thai Town, LA, unlike in Sydney where there are only Thais. Thai Songkran is also heavily promoted in Sydney and other Australian cities and I recall Songkran being held in Darling Harbour which I attended a few years ago (I think it's actually held every year).

Thai immigrants in foreign countries generally aren't very prominent compared to the Chinese, Filipinos or Vietnamese etc. and in many cases consider themselves to be rather impermanent, always talking about moving back home. I have some Thai friends living in Los Angeles, one of whom has spent 40+ years in America and is basically more American than Thai, yet the couple are planning on moving back to Thailand within the next couple of years for their retirement where they plan to possibly start a business like they have been doing in LA. I also have plenty of Thai friends living in Australia, mainly in Sydney. Some have spent years there to the point of obtaining citizenship but 3 of whom having obtained Aussie citizenship have ended up leaving...one came back to Thailand (don't know why, but probably for family reasons) while the other two, a recently married couple, went to the states because the woman ended up getting an even higher paying job in Seattle, while her husband hasn't found a job in the states yet.

[dwcrist]

So promote smiling, politeness, respect for elders, patience, and greng jai, along with tardiness, terrible driving habits, jealousy, cheating and corruption, moral detachment, and selfishness?

[chonburimaster]

PM wants Thais living overseas to promote Thainess to the world

BANGKOK, 10 July 2013 (NNT) – Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has told Thai students studying overseas to help promote and propagate “Thainess” to the world, while expressing her concerns over the well-being of Thais living abroad.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra met with Thai exchange students from USA and Australia yesterday. During the meeting, Miss Yingluck told the students to be proud of Thai culture, tradition, and the country; she asked them to let others know of all these good things while studying abroad.

She also said she was happy to know that wherever they lived, Thais would always love and help one another out in all circumstances.

She also expressed her concerns over the well-being of Thais living overseas, adding that she has instructed the Interior and Foreign Ministries to look after them and assist them when necessary.

Furthermore, Miss Yingluck assured Thais who live abroad that they would be able to renew their identification cards at all Thai embassies or consulates around the world next year.

-- NNT 2013-07-10

Don't worry... They are doing it one way or the other...

[3NUMBAS]

Promoting corruption, murder and alcohol abuse?!

And throwing away plastic bags full of rubbish, driving on the wrong side of streets etc.etc......

and vice , vice and more vice ,with a little extra vice on the side ...............

[maccaroni man]

If they did that they would most likely be put in jail.