Integrating into the Thai culture

[thailiketoo]

A farang can never integrate in Thailand. Learn the language, eat the food, read the newspapers etc etc - but you will always be a farang. Many like playing the farang card anyway, gives some a feeling of superiority.

And money. Thai gets 9000 for the same job a Farang gets 30,000 for. I guess that's a feeling of superiority but I just looked on it as cash in the bank and what the market was willing to pay.

[mrfaroukh]

In the end you are Falang and you have to pay for everything no matter what. No money No honey. This rule will never break.

[ARISTIDE]

A farang wants to be Thai but most Thais want to be farang!

[heybuz]

I find most people in my village are happy if you can speak a bit of the language,smile and say hello,and are polite,i would not call this intergration,but it makes for an easy life,i will always be a Falang to them, but i lived 15 years in Australia and was still called a pom.

"my old man lived in australia for 75 years fought with the australian army in the middle east and the pacific in ww2 and was still called an old pommy bastard,but to understand australian culture it is a term of endearment,which he understood and embraced it"

Edited May 11, 2014 by heybuz

[AhanFan]

As farangs on Thai discussion boards we tend to think Thai's don't have opinions about us. Of course they do, they laugh at our habits, they criticise our behaviour much the same as we do to them. The only difference is we do it on the internet they do it face to face.

You obliviously haven't read pantip.

What or where is Pantip?

You mean the Plaza?

[AhanFan]

You're a guest. Behave as you would hope a guest of yours would behave. But integration? Thais are even more insular than Brits (and that's saying something), so by all means try but don't be disappointed with the results.

Well, there had to be one! Brits insular? It is one of the most integrated of societies. Please tell us where you're from so we can all have a laugh and do remove that chip from your shoulder.

Actually, he is correct. There are very few countries today which so welcome foreigners to come in and be with them, like the Brits.

It is maybe not enough insular for its own good.

The Thai society I do not find insular, at all.

I have lived in insular places, and Japan is certainly one.

I could not live in Japan for long, it is just too insular.

I am going to try to make myself at home here and enjoy the people, but not get stressed out about what degree to which I am accepted.

Maybe I will wear my hair in one of those knots on the top of my head.

Who knows?

Edited May 12, 2014 by AhanFan

[thailiketoo]

In the end you are Falang and you have to pay for everything no matter what. No money No honey. This rule will never break.

The rule breaks every day. Thai women get conned just like any other women. If you read facebook it is full of warnings from Thai women who have given their money to men only to be left at the alter and or other places.

I know of many instances where Thai wives have lost everything trying to support a husband of another nationality through sickness or other problems.

[thailiketoo]

A farang wants to be Thai but most Thais want to be farang!

A Thai who wants to change nationality? Happens but not frequently. In appearance maybe but not in soul. Thais are not the most ethnocentric people in the world but they are in the top ten.

[ARISTIDE]

My 2 cents..

You will never be 'accepted' in thai culture/society

So...don't waste your time..

I tried and failed spectacularly.

May be because they dont understand why you want to be like them. Like I said most Thai admire fatang culture and want to be like farang. Check out hello magazine youll get my point

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[benalibina]

My 2 cents..

You will never be 'accepted' in thai culture/society

So...don't waste your time..

I tried and failed spectacularly.

May be because they dont understand why you want to be like them. Like I said most Thai admire fatang culture and want to be like farang. Check out hello magazine youll get my point

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Hmmmm...i guess you really believe what u wrote above........THEY WANT TO LOOK WHITE.....so people think they are not poor dam dam riceworkers.....so only LOOK and not BE.

[AhanFan]

A farang wants to be Thai but most Thais want to be farang!

A Thai who wants to change nationality? Happens but not frequently. In appearance maybe but not in soul. Thais are not the most ethnocentric people in the world but they are in the top ten.

This is not ethnocentrism which causes Kon Thai to stay in Thailand.

It is a justified liking for their own country and home.

[thailiketoo]

A farang wants to be Thai but most Thais want to be farang!

A Thai who wants to change nationality? Happens but not frequently. In appearance maybe but not in soul. Thais are not the most ethnocentric people in the world but they are in the top ten.

This is not ethnocentrism which causes Kon Thai to stay in Thailand.

It is a justified liking for their own country and home.

Ethnocentrism is the evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture. Like I said Thais are not the most ethnocentric people in the world but they are in the top ten.

Don't believe me? Ask a Thai about Khmer's or Burmese?

[jpeg]

There is acceptance of some aspects of the culture and of integrating such social behaviours so as to be respectful and decent, and then there is being a fool. It is common sense. Thais are not willing to accept foreigners especially those who do not share Thai physical features. Thailand is an inherently racist country.

It should be pointed out that Thais from all ranks in society marry foreigners and that Thai/foreigner children are the models of beauty not only in beauty pageants but TV and movies as well. I believe Edward VIII had to abdicate the throne because he married an American so Thailand is not alone in odd laws about foreigners.

It's not because she was American, it was because she was a divorcee

[thailiketoo]

There is acceptance of some aspects of the culture and of integrating such social behaviours so as to be respectful and decent, and then there is being a fool. It is common sense. Thais are not willing to accept foreigners especially those who do not share Thai physical features. Thailand is an inherently racist country.

It should be pointed out that Thais from all ranks in society marry foreigners and that Thai/foreigner children are the models of beauty not only in beauty pageants but TV and movies as well. I believe Edward VIII had to abdicate the throne because he married an American so Thailand is not alone in odd laws about foreigners.

It's not because she was American, it was because she was a divorcee

Even odder.

[SoiBiker]

That was a religious rather than legal matter, surely?

[susan d]

Some Thai culture you should integrate such as wai, say Sawasdee, etc. But you also can be yourself. I saw do and don't video for newbies in another topic. It has good information.

[AhanFan]

Some Thai culture you should integrate such as wai, say Sawasdee, etc. But you also can be yourself. I saw do and don't video for newbies in another topic. It has good information.

Do not eat with your mouth open.

Do not talk and eat at the same time.

Very good advice.

Just use your common sense, if you have any.

Then all will be OK.

[thailiketoo]

That was a religious rather than legal matter, surely?

He could have married her but the government would have resigned. It was clear that Edward was not prepared to give up Simpson, and he knew that if he married against the advice of his ministers, he would cause the government to resign, prompting a constitutional crisis. He chose to abdicate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VIII

[ableguy]

...but also dressing like them..

So how do you dress now?

here I am almost the only one barefoot, while the Thais walk with shoes

Yeah... but they always get a bit tight when you go to a wedding like that ....right????

I never go on weddings...don't know why no one invites me...

Cheap Charlie.