You Don't Understand - Finally Understood!

[thailiketoo]

Lets se, in the last few days at local restaurants (guess that would be a thai business) no foreign staff. I get so used to these things that you could say i am desensitized.

experience 1; I enter, maybe 4 tables, no apparent customers however all the chairs at the apparently patron-less tables are occupied by shopping bags and/or pocketbooks/ backpacks. After standing and browsing for an available seat a woman emerges from the back (kitchen area?) and directs the 3 employees in my area to remove their stuff from the chairs. Lets analyze this scenario. 3 apparent staff members, no customers(based on my subsequent observation from eating there) and customer seats unavailable due to bags etc on them.

Exactly how much analytical thinking ability is required to realize customers need to sit so they can eat? Then the fact that it took an additional person to actually direct them to remove the objects since I was standing there looking for an empty seat. This is "mind boggling stuff" even though i am somewhat desensitized and accept reality.

example 2; also restaurant. woman comes to my table and takes my order, leaves. 20 minutes later another employee comes to my table wanting to take my order. i tell her already given to "that woman (pointing at her) at which point the second woman tells me "she is young" referring to the first waitress that i guess never gave the order to the kitchen. once again, how many functional brain cells are needed to conclude an order must be submitted to the kitchen in a restaurant?

example 3; kind of stands out since my thinking thai friends were also intrigued more than standard levels. At apple computer store, hi end shopping mall. here supposedly staff are uni students or grads.

i hold my hand to a monitor and ask the salesperson what is the price of this monitor. he answers "out of stock"

next i ask him what is the usual price/ normal price. answer; out of stock. next i ask him "imagine you have it in stock, what would the price be? he sighs "ohhhhhh" then gives me the price. even thai customers in the store are watching us and seem amazed at this guy.

after that as i was doubting my own sanity i met with one thai friend that did a masters in england after abac uni. i repeated my sentences to her and asked her if my thai was correct and understandable. she said very clearly understandable.

in my entire life have not experienced such mind boggling events at japanese, korean, taiwanese places of business nor anything close.

now i wonder if you have any thoughts/ comments that might shed some light on this? within the framework of the said societies; japan, korea, taiwan, thailand.

regarding us military performance in iraq and afganistan i honestly do not have the expertise or background to make objective critique.

I go to a Japanese restaurant chain owned and operated by Thai people. I have been to this restaurant 100 times. The food has only been delivered to my table in the correct order 2 times.

It is because they don't have an expediter or an automatic expediter computer order system. It saves money and is not a lack of critical thinking. I don't agree and think they should spend the money.

I have discovered an answer like this to every difference in the Thai way as opposed to the Western way when I encounter things that seem odd to me. I was a visitor to Taiwan and Japan 40 years ago and must say I found similar odd occurrences.

What I have observed is Thailand is about 50 years behind the other industrial nations in Asia in many things and still relies on the peasant system of family labor in many businesses where it is inappropriate.

It seems dairy queen may need an expediter system also. yesterday i am the only customer. i ask her what flavor ice cream do you have.

A; vanilla and chocolate

Q; how many scoops are in a banana split

A; 3

Q; please give 2 scoops vanilla krap.

employee delays....... then asks me what flavor for 3rd scoop

at this point i feel like a primary school teacher that just gave a homework assignment.

# if johnny goes to the ice cream shop and they only have vanilla and chocolate ice cream, and a banana split has 3 scoops, if johnny orders 2 scoops vanilla what flavor will the 3rd scoop be, likely be, probably be, possibly be.

A) vanilla

chocolate

ok, i didn't want to be a cruel unfair person so i told her the answer.

i then ask for hot fudge (sauce chocolate raun) is the way to say in thai. she becomes suddenly frozen. no reply. doesn't say if that have hot sauce or dont have it. or say she does not know. finally another employee heard my mind boggling question and said they dont have it. fair enough.

Now I recall that seeing mrt / bts passengers not uncommonly placing their personal belongings, plastic shopping bags, cardboard boxes on adjacent passenger seats thereby depriving other people a seat. i have seen this during busy hours also. one even really takes the cake. a woman probably in her mid 30-s giving her umbrella 2 seats. yes, laying it down laterally so it's long axis was parallel to the back of the seats.

the above with many people standing. how many functional neurons does it take to realize humans are more important than a shopping bag on the seat.

[jamhar]

"You are not Thai; you don't understand."

My thai friends have never made that statement to me.

maybe a case of ymmv?

You must be extremely agreeable.

So you accuse me of being aggreable

(if "accusable" is the right word for his situation)

becasue I DISAGREED with the OP?

[paz]

Iam a westerner and I do not understand what the hell you are dribbling about.

Don't worry, there's a lot like you in Thailand.. you're in good company.

[paz]

Never went back to school. But, I will never finished with my education.

By the way you write, it shows

[belg]

you mean brainwashed? what about those lovely ads on every possible tv channels, many times a day or an hour, to tell us what or who to love UNCONDITIONALLY ?

[Curt1591]

Never went back to school. But, I will never finished with my education.

By the way you write, it shows

Hopefully, we're being humorous - not pedantic. I hope it's not the latter … I don't wish to offend.

Are we citing " … will never finished … ", or my writing in general?

While on forums, I type on the fly. I don't use any grammar check and rarely spell check. Although I often do a proof read, I will miss things.

As far as "composition" is concerned, since I have not taken any English classes, since the 60s. Those were all in grade school. I have relied on whatever style/form has come to me.

Typos, misspelling and grammatical errors can often be humorous. But, trying to discredit an argument, based on these errors, is, in most cases, childish. It only serves to confuse the issue.

In any case, I think I have attained a useable knowledge of English. I will continue to concentrate on other areas.

Edited January 20, 2014 by Curt1591