How well do you know the Thais?

[GuestHouse]

I see we've won over some to the argument against gross and offensive generalizations.

Foot soldiers to be welcomed to the battle against such gross and offensive generalizations against western culture, westerners and in particular western women - when next they arise here on TVF..

[A1Str8]

I think it's never the environment but the individual. Great people and bad people can be found everywhere. Which one you are going to experience depends on which group you belong to.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[transam]

I think by now I know them very well, thats why l tread very carefully, and keep my eyes wide open......... .

[thailiketoo]

There is no such thing as knowing Thais. Or knowing Brits or Aussies or Americans. If you get beat up by a lot of Thais you probably won't like them. I was in a war with Vietnamese, Russians and Chinese. I didn't ask who they were before I shot. Some Vietnamese people were trying to kill me others washed my clothes and helped me in countless ways every day.

Ask a meaningful question. How well do you know the Thai government? Do they have Social Security? Employers are required to deduct 4% from their employees’ salary for monthly Social Security contributions, up to a maximum at 600 Baht per employee.

Now that is something we can measure. Silly generalizations about honesty or intelligence or energy are useless.

[transam]

There is no such thing as knowing Thais. Or knowing Brits or Aussies or Americans. If you get beat up by a lot of Thais you probably won't like them. I was in a war with Vietnamese, Russians and Chinese. I didn't ask who they were before I shot. Some Vietnamese people were trying to kill me others washed my clothes and helped me in countless ways every day.

Ask a meaningful question. How well do you know the Thai government? Do they have Social Security? Employers are required to deduct 4% from their employees’ salary for monthly Social Security contributions, up to a maximum at 600 Baht per employee.

Now that is something we can measure. Silly generalizations about honesty or intelligence or energy are useless.

For sure BUT "basic" stuff for living in LOS is a learning curve which takes a while.

As for your Nam stuff, the folk you were fighting for, well many were against you for financial gain..

[thailiketoo]

My wife is Thai and having problems at work. Her boss had a stroke and can no longer do his job but none of his employees are willing to tell him that because he hired them all and is older. Is that a Thai thing? Same thing happened to my father. I think we make too much if the differences.

Edited June 25, 2014 by thailiketoo

[Neeranam]

When I went to Greece, everyone had a relative called Nick and a brother or sister living in Melbourne. Good tzatziki though

I noticed in Melbourne that the best fish n chip shops were owned by Greeks. Seemingly the largest Greek population outside Athens.

But how do they determine the population? Do they still count after they get Australian residency or citizenship?

I heard Bangkok has a larger population of Scots than Aberchirder!

[Costas2008]

When I went to Greece, everyone had a relative called Nick and a brother or sister living in Melbourne. Good tzatziki though

I noticed in Melbourne that the best fish n chip shops were owned by Greeks. Seemingly the largest Greek population outside Athens.

But how do they determine the population? Do they still count after they get Australian residency or citizenship?

I heard Bangkok has a larger population of Scots than Aberchirder!

Greek Australians, are Australian citizens of either full or partial Greek ancestry. The 2011 census recorded 378,270 people of Greek ancestry, and 99,939 born in Greece.

Melbourne, having the largest Greek population outside Athens is a fallacy.

Melbourne has the largest Greek-speaking population outside of Europe, a population comparable to some larger Greek cities like Larissa and Volos.

[garrya]

Spent many years travelling back and forth to various parts of Greece on Holiday each year. Lovely people, very friendly.

That can also be said of the Thais I encounter on a daily basis. The only time I tend to have issues is when I go to the more touristy areas and larger cities such as Bangkok.

Agree Charlie,never have any problems out here in the country,people are friendly and very honest,all changes when you go to the tourist places.

Of course people are friendly. But honest?????

My Thai friends are laughing at these kind of comments.

[claffey]

IMHO - we are in their country, a country that doesn't, like some of the countries we come from, allow anyone in - we have to qualify to live here. I think one has to see that to start with, then by trying to perceive how they see us, move on to trying to understand them.

Personally (and I've lived in town and country) I love 'em and think that there is a huge amount to be learned from them, I mean about being a human being, stuff we've lost in our gaining of 'sophistication' and our individualistic approach to life and our obsession with achievement.

I have, as we speak, six of 'em staying here (in a town) working on my bungalow (building renovation) - I have had renovated, many properties over the years in the UK, almost always a nightmare experience whereas this two month job by comparison has been a dream.

It's true to say that I know the people: they traveled down to do this job from an Issan village where my partner and I had a house built; they are able to work and live together with very little conflict or 'issues' but they know they have my respect and I know I have theirs - we're very different but we know and accept a lot about each other and, like I said, we might have lost our countries but this is their country.

Sounds like you've got the bug.

Huge amount to learn from them about being human? Surely you jest, no?

What? How to eat, sleep and screw?

The warmest, most honest and friendly people I've ever met were in those sophisticated places which lost those being human aspects as you say.

Americans, for example, give more of their resources than any others on earth.

The French, despite their well known sophistication, were exceptionally warm-hearted when I lived in toulouse for a year a couple decades back.

When you talk to the average MEasterner, you get a sense of their honesty. They put their hand over their hearts to thank you for something you've done for them.

Ever been to any part of Africa? Maybe the warmest people on earth.

Thais are very polite. Very polite as their cultural rules dictate. But, they are far from honest on average and they are anything but warm or friendly. Don't confuse polite with friendly.

A culture that seems to value at its core lying and FACE could not possibly have much to teach the world about being human. Being truly human (selfless, honest, warm and friendly, ect.) is the exact opposite in fact of general Thai cultural traits.

please dont generalize about my family based on the quality of thais you know.

I know more types of quality Thais than most.

And, my comments are applicable to the full range of Thais.

General cultural traits. Every countrt has a set of these cultural leanings or preferences.

well perhaps they do but you sure dont have a clue about them

Wow. Perhaps. Perhaps it is you who knows nothing about them.

I suppose we'll never know.

What is clear, however, is that you have not expanded on anything or systematically refuted anything I claimed. You simply have said "I don't agree" which is quite easy to do.

Give me some intelligent replies and I'll give proper respect to those responses.

'Americans give more of their resources!!' Could yyou elaborate on this because its pretty obvious that America rapes and pillages most of the world to further their own imperialistic causes and corporate control...

[thailiketoo]

Spent many years travelling back and forth to various parts of Greece on Holiday each year. Lovely people, very friendly.

That can also be said of the Thais I encounter on a daily basis. The only time I tend to have issues is when I go to the more touristy areas and larger cities such as Bangkok.

Agree Charlie,never have any problems out here in the country,people are friendly and very honest,all changes when you go to the tourist places.

Of course people are friendly. But honest?????

My Thai friends are laughing at these kind of comments.

Surely not as dishonest as people from ___________ (Enter your own country)

[rgs2001uk]

Spent many years travelling back and forth to various parts of Greece on Holiday each year. Lovely people, very friendly.

That can also be said of the Thais I encounter on a daily basis. The only time I tend to have issues is when I go to the more touristy areas and larger cities such as Bangkok.

Agree Charlie,never have any problems out here in the country,people are friendly and very honest,all changes when you go to the tourist places.

Of course people are friendly. But honest?????

My Thai friends are laughing at these kind of comments.

I live amonst Thais, the only farang in my area, the stories and events I see are Thai/Thai scams.

One of my Thai friends is a lawyer, its always the same, show me the "sanyaa", doesnt exist, 90% of the time its either land or money.

To find out about greed knowing no bounds read of some of the land scams involving Thais, the last one I can think of was the "sea gypsies" being f****d over in Krabi.

Watch the Thai news, read about the Phuket Muslims being f****d over with their land, yes sign here and it will be upgraded to chanot.

And so it goes on, yes the majority of Thais are friendly and honest, thats one of the problems of living in the feudal/patronage caste system that exists within Thailand.

Dont question your betters, they know whats best for you.

[garrya]

Spent many years travelling back and forth to various parts of Greece on Holiday each year. Lovely people, very friendly.

That can also be said of the Thais I encounter on a daily basis. The only time I tend to have issues is when I go to the more touristy areas and larger cities such as Bangkok.

Agree Charlie,never have any problems out here in the country,people are friendly and very honest,all changes when you go to the tourist places.

Of course people are friendly. But honest?????

My Thai friends are laughing at these kind of comments.

Surely not as dishonest as people from ___________ (Enter your own country)

My friend! I am not comparing countries, but try to put things straight. I am not bashing Thais, but state the facts. Do not try to incite a meaningless argument. Please, stick to the topic. Thank you

[thailiketoo]

Of course people are friendly. But honest?????

My Thai friends are laughing at these kind of comments.

Surely not as dishonest as people from ___________ (Enter your own country)

My friend! I am not comparing countries, but try to put things straight. I am not bashing Thais, but state the facts. Do not try to incite a meaningless argument. Please, stick to the topic. Thank you

You wrote, "Of course people are friendly. But honest?????" That is a stereotypic Thai bash that is not true. I wrote, "Surely not as dishonest as people from ___________ (Enter your own country)" to emphasize the rudeness of your comment when the Thai bash is applied to your own country.

You cannot know that Thais are dishonest the same as I cannot know that people from your country are dishonest.

Get it?

You implied that you know Thais (the topic) and they are dishonest. I disagree and as a statement of fact you cannot know if they are honest or dishonest. You can only relate your experiences and not generalize about all Thais.

[garrya]

Of course people are friendly. But honest?????

My Thai friends are laughing at these kind of comments.

Surely not as dishonest as people from ___________ (Enter your own country)

My friend! I am not comparing countries, but try to put things straight. I am not bashing Thais, but state the facts. Do not try to incite a meaningless argument. Please, stick to the topic. Thank you

You wrote, "Of course people are friendly. But honest?????" That is a stereotypic Thai bash that is not true. I wrote, "Surely not as dishonest as people from ___________ (Enter your own country)" to emphasize the rudeness of your comment when the Thai bash is applied to your own country.

You cannot know that Thais are dishonest the same as I cannot know that people from your country are dishonest.

Get it?

You implied that you know Thais (the topic) and they are dishonest. I disagree and as a statement of fact you cannot know if they are honest or dishonest. You can only relate your experiences and not generalize about all Thais.

Man, you should stop instigating here. Come back down to earth and get off your high horse. I have had experiences and they are opposite to what you have been stating. So what?? And once again, I have never ever compared countries, so why would you bring that into this?

You say I generalize, well, how about you?? Saying that Thais are honest is not a generalization??? Funny you are.

Last but not least, you should change your stubborn, disputatious attitude and start listening to others as well as respect their opinions when they are based on facts or experiences. Otherwise, if you just want to troll around, I will not be your partner in it.

[thailiketoo]

Surely not as dishonest as people from ___________ (Enter your own country)

My friend! I am not comparing countries, but try to put things straight. I am not bashing Thais, but state the facts. Do not try to incite a meaningless argument. Please, stick to the topic. Thank you

You wrote, "Of course people are friendly. But honest?????" That is a stereotypic Thai bash that is not true. I wrote, "Surely not as dishonest as people from ___________ (Enter your own country)" to emphasize the rudeness of your comment when the Thai bash is applied to your own country.

You cannot know that Thais are dishonest the same as I cannot know that people from your country are dishonest.

Get it?

You implied that you know Thais (the topic) and they are dishonest. I disagree and as a statement of fact you cannot know if they are honest or dishonest. You can only relate your experiences and not generalize about all Thais.

Man, you should stop instigating here. Come back down to earth and get off your high horse. I have had experiences and they are opposite to what you have been stating. So what?? And once again, I have never ever compared countries, so why would you bring that into this?

You say I generalize, well, how about you?? Saying that Thais are honest is not a generalization??? Funny you are.

Last but not least, you should change your stubborn, disputatious attitude and start listening to others as well as respect their opinions when they are based on facts or experiences. Otherwise, if you just want to troll around, I will not be your partner in it.

Fine with me if you will stop ;making untrue Thai bashing statements like, "Of course people are friendly. But honest????? My Thai friends are laughing at these kind of comments."

Take responsibility for your own actions. You have implied Thais people are not honest. Prove it or retract it or re state it.

Last but not least I didn't start it. You began by attacking Thai honesty I just responded to your false generalization.

Edited June 26, 2014 by thailiketoo

[CharlieH]

"Why is it OK to make generalisations if they are positive but not ok when they are negative? "

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[CharlieH]

Several threads have been removed commenting or discussing moderation, this is also against forum rules.

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Topic closed !