Foreign Husbands Bring Big Changes To Isaan

[simro]

Sorry to be so not ''understanding"....

We eat what we are, so do not blame any one changing their culture to the west. Goverment is doing that on TV every day. I personally love my wife going to "another side" eating - that is when we are alone out without our toddler at 18 months...

Can eat burger, can eat you name it - as long as it tastes good RIGHT?

It would seem to me the article was about cultural changes!

[coldcrush]

I agree research has shown that billingual children have more advancements in the brain in most cases at a young age. My Wife and I were advise by a child worker in England to speak both languages in the home, so we both speak Thai and English to our son. I do not believe that learning both languages can affect a child as I speak four and have got on quite well in life...up till now!

"""However, the cross-cultural marriage weakened the children's language skills as parents spoke to them in a mix of Thai and English, which confused the kids and made them less fluent in the Thai language, she said.

> Not accepting that. It's up to the parents as to which language they want to be dominant in a mixed race household. Besides, the academic's statement is absolving the educators from ensuring the children reach the minimum standard requiored by academic testing. She's blaming the mixed marriages for the failures of her colleagues in the classroom.

The children's English skills were limited to basic daily communication due to the parents' limited educational background or a less stimulating social environment.

> Absolute twaddle and blame shifting from the teachers in the classroom - my parents didn't teach me my language - my teachers in school did that, and my own intelligence and aptitude then allowed me to expand on that teaching and refine my skills for speaking, listening, reading and writing, building my vocabulary based on those skills, not on what my parents said to me."""

Holly cow....

OK folks, this section really shows how dense this research is. (BTY is it really research?) Where are the numbers, how many interviews, what age groups.... and on and on?

Real research has shown time and time again children in bi-lingual families actually are at an advantage. My EDUCATED wife knows this. Even though, I really need to learn more Thai, she speaks to me in English, because she wants our boy to grow up in a bi-lingual environment. She does not want her child to grow up under some rock like this idiot researcher.

Uhhh I am going to print this, and give it to my wife to read. Yea, believe it or not, she even reads! What can I say, she is a rebel!!!!!!!!!!

Edited November 16, 2006 by lopburiguy

[legendarysurfer]

Hey legendary surfer......i am building a house right now in Village #1 Sokepradook,Nong Bua Raharw Chaiyaphum...will that make us neighbours in 2010?/

Lowerlakeside ~ Kinda. Our village is on the westside of Nong Bua Lamphu about 5KM out (Nong Soong Pleui, next to Don Noi).

[maccaroni man]

To summarize the article for me it read that average Thai women whom were divorced mothers decided that security is more important than love and in doing so adapted to that decision consequently their mothers and grandparents benefited financially as well.

I do not believe for one second that given the choice between papaya salad and a hamburger that the burger would be eaten. I watch my staff eat their salads and it appears to be a sensual experience.

The children may not be as strong in reading and writing Thai if the study in english but that is what schools are for.

My wife is a doctor hence she would have to be considered an educated Thai yet I am continually amazed at how little she knows about the meaning or reasons for most Thai holidays, world history or global issues.

Getting her out of Thailand and experiencing life as foreigners together was probably the best thing I have ever done for her. It opened her eyes to new worlds and allowed her to sit around and complain about the locals.

At the end of the day a melting pot of cultures can be a good thing if they are embraced as a positive rather than a negative.

[NovaBlue05]

My wife, from Nong Bua Lamphu has now been in the States 8 years . She has learned to cook western quite well. She will make a delicious western dinner for me but still sit on the kitchen floor pounding out somtam with a motar & pestle and having it with fish & rice. I love watching her eat...no waste..when she is finished with a fish, the bones are as clean as if they had been in the desert bleaching in the sun for a month.

[coldcrush]

My wife, from Nong Bua Lamphu has now been in the States 8 years . She has learned to cook western quite well. She will make a delicious western dinner for me but still sit on the kitchen floor pounding out somtam with a motar & pestle and having it with fish & rice. I love watching her eat...no waste..when she is finished with a fish, the bones are as clean as if they had been in the desert bleaching in the sun for a month.

rotfl! class!

[Belgarath]

My wife spent 6 months here in Sweden this summer, Thai food all the time and I very much prefer it to Swedish food in general. Her mother makes excellent pig foot soup! But I liked them before, like my farmer of a grandfather. My wife is not from Isaan but central Thailand - but somehow she has acquired a taste for som tam and is now eating it as much as possible in Thailand while waiting for a permanent residence permit to Sweden! And yes, she has here succeeded in getting a pestle and mortar of the right size - the Thai society here is growing, with appr. 1000 Thai girls a year, they have a web site in common, and are very active helping each other and discussing everything there in a mix of Thai and Swedish <link removed>

Talking about Isaan, I have always been fascinated by the books by Pira Sudham about life in Isaan - read them?

When in Thailand I hear lots of Scandinavian uneducated men with bad English - what language will their kids speak if they settle there with a Thai wife?

Hoping I can go to Thailand in 2 weeks or so - hate this weather.

Edited November 16, 2006 by Totster

[Zoltan]

Never saw a survey that wasn't skewed in some way. Note this one was done in some of the major cities in the Isaan. I'm sure the results would be different if it had been conducted in the countryside.

Great now they are going to be fat like us americans !

Not just Americans!

[Cpt_M0ney_Sh0t]

Yeah I have to agree, I don’t think that survey was entirety fair either. They make it seem like every woman married to a foreigner was a worn out old X-Bar Girl from Issan who blew her first marriage a Thai man who knocked her up. So they headed down to Pattaya or were ever to sell “toot” to support mama and the baby until they found some old European pensioner who’s standards were low enough to accept them and settle in a cheap part of Thailand to live out the rest of their days in more comfort then they could get in their native countries with their meager pensions.

I think it would have been a more insightful survey if they separated X-Bar girls from women who didn’t meet their husbands for the first time on their back. I’m sure you would find allot more differences with couples who met out side of the prostitution game then those that got together for a “short time” and decided to extend.

I personally have found, after 5 years in Thailand, that you can almost always spot the “Bargirl/Looser” couple right away, and their stories are almost inevitably the same, “We met at the bar but, it was her first time, or she worked cashier, or she only danced, or she only did it to support her family ect” However, the other Thai Foreigner couples are different, they are of every race and nationality, and they have stories as diverse as any other kind…. “We met at a restaurant….” “I saw her online and we started to chat….” “She worked at Asia Books and I couldn’t stop smiling when I saw her with that Hello Kitty pin on her shirt..” ect ect.

I would love to see such a survey that separated on the hoe factor. I think it would prove to be much more interesting and cast a more positive light on Thai/Foreigner couples.

[Cpt_M0ney_Sh0t]

Oh and speaking about food I am soooooooo Blessed. Mine introduced me to Kuppa's and Sirrocco (Damm nice Italian spot in BKK,and a awsome resturant/bar lounge). She also loves Jappanese and Indian food. And at KFC she can scarf down fried chicken like she grew up in the ghetto with me! I do so love her At the same time you can see me at her family dinners at home and in Thai resturants tearing up plates of Moo Crop, with more chilies than her father can stand!

Culture Mixing is totaly were it's at, I have never been more fully happy with another woman in my life. I hope everyone here gets to experiance that as well.

[pap]

Sad - I preferred it the way it was.

I completely agree with you.

[pap]

However, the cross-cultural marriage weakened the children's language skills as parents spoke to them in a mix of Thai and English, which confused the kids and made them less fluent in the Thai language, she said.

The findings are generally a little sad. But, the above quote is highly questionable. It's a fact that young children don't have a problem with learning not two but even more languages similtaneously. Those of you who live in a bilingual society will be able to understand.

Mainland European's are routinely able to speak multiple languages. Children are sponges and will learn whatever languages are spoken around them. Even if the English speaker is not speaking technically correct the children will learn English much better than most Thais simply by virtue of being exposed to it at a formative age.

[dogeater]

Frankly, I don't believe it. In my family we only eat Issan food.

[pap]

Frankly, I don't believe it. In my family we only eat Issan food.

Why would a Thai or westerner give up better food for worse food? Excluding the fish balls.

I tend to agree with you. The researchers probably found exactly what they expected to find. Funny how that usually works.

[Neeranam]

The foreign husbands had an average income of Bt60,000 a month, but most of their wives didn't know their husband's work or educational background. The wives were mainly interested in whether their husbands had enough money to support the family, she said.

> I'm trying to stay off the gold-digger cliches, but it's getting difficult.

It's very difficult.

They don't realise that they are giving 10 times what the WHOLE family used to earn, unless the girl went to work in Pattaya. Imagine a poor family in Scotland earning 300 pounds a week between them.Morag goes off and finds herself a Middle Eastern husband who buys the father a new Jag and gices them 3000 pounds a week. Would they care what the "foriegner" did in his previous life? OF course not, and neither do these girls.

Edited November 17, 2006 by Totster

[ski_jump]

What a load of crap!

Money & time could be better spent by the university than on the survey that produced all this drivel.

[Johnny Dee Rock]

More nonsense disguised as research!

My wife and I lived in Khon Kaen for 7 years

Her face would light up if I asked her to go eat at the Sofitel(which has its ups and downs)

She would never eat a burger in Issan with its overabundance of gravel fed beef

But she occasionally must have a burger,fries, and onion rings here in the States

She must have linguine in some form at least once a week

She ate som tam about once per month when we lived in Thailand

Gwaitiow is a different story

She makes great Slovak style stuffed cabbage rolls

and pizza, and pad thai, and pad ma-ma, and curries

We eat what we are in thr mood for

We left Thailand because we didn't want our 2 an 1/2 year old to be indoctrinated into the Thai "culture"

It was my wfes decision as much as mine

She was never a bg

She was in fact an uneducated virgin when we married

She hates the village and its filth and lack of privacy

And would never live there given a choice

My little girl speaks Thai, English, and Lao equally well

and that means she can chat it up!

I eat hotter and spicier food than my wife

My wife likes ice cream more tham me

She will kill for crispy creme donuts

My green curry is much too hat for her

In Florida she can wear shorts when it's hot and not be called a whore

Nobody here asks her where she found me or how much money I have

People love to stereotype

[manta]

CROSS-CULTURAL MARRIAGES

Foreign husbands bring big changes to Isaan

The foreign husbands had an average income of Bt60,000 a month, but most of their wives didn't know their husband's work or educational background.

[Virgil]

Gaz,

My sentiments in bold below.

Cheers,

Virgil, Out!

Many Thai women in the Northeast who have married foreigners are now keener on eating pizzas and hamburgers than somtam

> Most can't afford it unless a farang is paying agreed ... KFC, Pizza and McDonalds are all considered to be a good night out in Issan

and prefer celebrating Western holidays like Christmas and Valentine's Day to traditional Thai holidays

> farang holidays are about being given gifts instead of paying penance to make merit agreed ... my wife thinks these holidays are happier and luckier (luck is so important to Thai) than the Thai holidays. After last Christmas my wife had a new blender, food processor and microwave oven ... she'd never had such a lucky Thai holiday!!!

The head of the study, Asst Prof Supawatanakorn Wongtha-nawasu

> Now there's a real immigrant Chinese-Thai name if ever i saw one (more than 13 characters in the spelling means Chinese immigrant a reliable source once told me) .... leads to the validity of their entitlement to discuss westerners changing the cultural traditions in Thailand - Chinese have done their fair share of that too ..... think noodles - first made in China and brought here by the Chinese. Ditto for fireworks at Loy Kratong time - adopted from the Chinese New Year practise. Hmm ... I had actually heard a lot of conflicting argument about the length of someone's name indicating where they might be from. I've heard the longer names are from the south/north/east or Issan/Cambodia/Lao/Burma/Chinese-in-disguise. So I tend to ignore that stuff.

found that foreign son-in-laws had caused the community-oriented Northeasterners to become the more individualistic and give less attention to social interaction.

> More accurate would be that the spouses chose to more closely associate with their husband and the spouses believed their husband did not want to join in with community events due to language issues and feeling awkward when they didn't know what to do at events. I would say that Thai people often just go with the flow. Suddenly they have a husband who doesn't want to go to the temple to make merit ... and he doesn't "talk bad" about it either ... they no longer have the social pressure to comply with the norm ... I would say that the sons-in-law had been USED as an excuse by the Northeasterners to become more individualistic.

Cross-cultural couples had less interaction with neighbours because foreign husbands faced language and cultural obstacles, while the wives tried to adjust by becoming "farang" rather than helping their husbands to be more 'Thai', Supawatanakorn said.

> More accurate than the preceding statement? Blimey, we have the whole ###### town in our place sometimes. I would say that in some instances cross-cultural couples stimulate social interaction within the community

Thai culture in these families was thus overshadowed by Western culture, with the families' own consent, due to the pride of having foreign sons-in-law, she said.

The researchers also found most wives interviewed were either not interested or less enthusiastic about traditional Thai holidays - such as Buddhist Lent and Makha Bucha Day - compared with Western holidays like Christmas Day or Valentine's Day.

"In some Khon Kaen villages, with dozens of women marrying farangs, Christmas Day is no different from the movies with real traditional Christmas celebrations, while many Northeastern festivals were forgotten," the academic said.

> It's the gifts I tell you !!! agreed ... money talks! Ask a Thai girl what her bf or friend's bf is like and you will get either "He is good ... he always gives her money" or "So bad ... he kin-yao man!! ... agreed agreed agreed

On the other hand, many foreign husbands enjoyed celebrating the Songkran festival but did not understand the tradition and meaning behind it, she said.

> Might be true in Issaan, but not in Chiangmai - many farangs living here despise Songkran and even leave the country for a holiday to escape it ..... 10-12 days of it is way too long. If it is the gifts for Thai then it is the booze for us westerners ... of course I enjoy Songkran! Songkran = beer, whisky, girls in wet t-shirts ... um .... am I the only one????

The wives still ate somtam, which they grew up eating, but also ate pizza, hamburgers or fried chicken as a symbol of their adjustment to Western culture.

> No, not as a symbol of adjustment, but to show off the status of being able to afford it, in the same way that low paid government servants put themselves in debt for life to own a Mercedes. Same paradigm, different price tag. exactly

Many ended up eating both local and Western dishes, while their husbands found it harder to adjust to local food and stuck more to Western food.

> Yup - the longer you're here, the more you want an increase in western food in your diet - even if it's what you'd class as junk food back home. Well!? It's their fault for buggering up a good dish with that stinking shrimp paste and sour mangos ... I mean ... my underarm smells better ... and let the bloody mangos ripen for heaven's sake!!!!

Supawatanakorn said that since the wives found it more convenient to cook once for all family members including their husbands, Northeastern food - especially somtam with fermented fish - had gradually disappeared from their meals, she said.

> Not in my household - the wife BUYS her Somtam 4-5 times a week. She ONLY cooks Thai food and all western food is bought in rather than made. My wife thrives on cooking western food. She collects western cookbooks - in English - and I am spoilt rotton .... thanks Jamie Oliver ... thankyou!!!

The study found that most Northeastern Thai women married to foreigners were over 30, with an average age of 35, and had education below secondary level. More than 70 per cent had previously wed and divorced Thai husbands and most had one child from the first marriage.

> Can't help feeling the survey sample was biased in order to reinforce social stereotyping here - education below secondary level ..... meaning they never finished High School? Exactly whose fault was that? And why were the parents not punished for permitting the truancy? I've always found a very high percentage who marry farang have not only finishjed high school, but have also finished college or university, and many of the college students have also returned as adults and done vocational courses as well. Regardless of the qualifications, Thais married to westerners quickly acquire a much wider knowledge of global history, geography, and current affairs than their peers, and they get their eyes opened wide about the same topics related to Thailand itself. They quickly become "Pee" even to their own elders simply because of the wealth of knowledge transferred from being married to someone with a different perspective. This could start a whole new debate - my wife has a degree ... she's a dentist ... most of her friends are similarly educated and I would say that 4/5 of her girlfriends that I know are all hoping to meet a "han-sum farung". 5 of her friends aren't even practicing dentistry ... 3 went to work in luxury hotels and 2 at the airport ... all in the hope of meeting the right farung!!!

Supawatanakorn said most wives saw their cross-cultural marriage as turning over a new leaf.

> See my comments immediately above ..... trying to be positive here - I'll ignore the stereotyping about money digging. Supawatanakorn's comment is very superficial here

The average age of farang husbands was 50, and most came from Germany, Britain and Scandinavia. A fourth of those over 60 had brought their retirement funds to settle down with Thai wives who took care of them, Supawatanakorn said.

> Again - very different results in Chiangmai where the average must be nearer to 38-40 for the husbands. I'm in my 30's but most farang I see in Isaan are old enough to be my father ... and have wives young enough to be my daughter !!!

The foreign husbands had an average income of Bt60,000 a month, but most of their wives didn't know their husband's work or educational background. The wives were mainly interested in whether their husbands had enough money to support the family, she said.

> I'm trying to stay off the gold-digger cliches, but it's getting difficult. I don't provide for the family ... at all! They have no idea what I earn and it is loads more than Bt60,000.

The study also found that Isaan families whose members had married foreigners had changed their views on choosing spouses. From the traditional practice of parents choosing spouses for their children, the decision is now made by the individual and is based mainly on economic security. Some women agreed to marry foreigners they had never met before the wedding day as they felt that if the man had money, the villagers would eventually accept and respect them.

> Or, to put it another way - if the man had no money, the villagers would never ...... ? Why is the study blaming farangs? Many of these families have had to live on Bt5000 per month or less for decades. I don't blame them for being tired of dirt floors, rats in the ceiling, chickens wandering everywhere. Give them all a foreigner ... farang = golden goose ... jing-jing

With the obvious increase in wealth of wives married to farang, due to their husbands' financial support, some 90 per cent of residents surveyed said they wanted their daughters to marry foreigners, Supawatanakorn said.

> More fool the husbands for letting the wives be obvious about the wealth - fastest way I know to empty a wallet is to give the wive carte blanche on buying - in ANY country. I would say ALL parents want their children to be happy. I sure don't want my daughter marrying a Thai farmer without careful consideration. Geez!

Some girls told the researchers they were prepared to fly overseas to marry a foreigner when they grew up.

> But some of them never do grow up, even after having kids and a string of different husbands. agreed ... and Pat-Pong is a lot closer too!!!

Cross-cultural marriages were also supported by the older generation as these couples took care of their own children instead of placing the burden on the grandparents, or could afford nannies.

> I'm also trying to stay away from stereotyping about laziness. However, this is maybe the only genuine positive thing said about farangs as spouses for Thais in the whole articvle. Why should retired grandparents get lumbered with their grandkids day-in-day-out ? But then, that's farang thinking for you. agreed

However, the cross-cultural marriage weakened the children's language skills as parents spoke to them in a mix of Thai and English, which confused the kids and made them less fluent in the Thai language, she said.

> Not accepting that. It's up to the parents as to which language they want to be dominant in a mixed race household. Besides, the academic's statement is absolving the educators from ensuring the children reach the minimum standard requiored by academic testing. She's blaming the mixed marriages for the failures of her colleagues in the classroom. Yup

The children's English skills were limited to basic daily communication due to the parents' limited educational background or a less stimulating social environment.

> Absolute twaddle and blame shifting from the teachers in the classroom - my parents didn't teach me my language - my teachers in school did that, and my own intelligence and aptitude then allowed me to expand on that teaching and refine my skills for speaking, listening, reading and writing, building my vocabulary based on those skills, not on what my parents said to me. agreed ... and I've never seen those elementry teachers actually doing much teaching either ...

In areas with many farang residents there was the phenomenon of shops putting up signs for their goods in Thai and English and of English being spoken between vendors and husbands, Supawatanakorn said.

> And so they should if they want non-mixed race kids to learn enough English to allow Thailand to compete in the global marketplace - everywhere in Thailand should be doing it, just as they do in Malaysia, Singapore and China.

Ever seen an interesting TAT promotional banner, but the whole thing is in Thai? Really makes you feel wanted, doesn't it?

Is it just me, or does the write up of this study not sound just a tad more xenophobic and condemning of foreigners than similar ones over recent years? Yes it is just more of the same.

Gaz

[manta]

CROSS-CULTURAL MARRIAGES

Foreign husbands bring big changes to Isaan

The foreign husbands had an average income of Bt60,000 a month, but most of their wives didn't know their husband's work or educational background.

60.000 my wife would have been gone a long time ago

[Dakhar]

I get a kick out of the statedment that kids do not develop strong English skills.

Who tested the kids, what type of testing was used? Whate were the testers qualifications? Did the tester have "Native" English skills? Was the test based on verbal or receptive skills? Did the test have a portion on written English and grammar skills?

As a person with a Doctorate degree in Audiology, which covers language aquisition, I can not help but to be curious.

Further, maybe the wife does know the husband did before. This is probably what really happened.

Survey Question: "What did you husband do before he retired in Thailand?"

Answer from Thai spouse: "My husband was an Industrial Hygienist."

Survey/Research analyst Response: "Hmmmm what the Pud is a Industrial Hygenist?".... "I for darn sure ain't going to ask some farm girl hick to explain...." So's I'll just say she don't know......" Yep, all better now, I save face, appear smarter, and the survey results look great!

Idiots

[guns482]

Well maybe, thre is some element of truth in this survey, but it is only survey, most Thai/Western marriages I know accept the Thai Social interaction as their wives need and they ( the husbands) build their own social group which ctars for their need.

The comment about all the wives know if wether their husbands have enought to support them and their children do not forget their parents as well, is something we farangs have known for a long time.

Any country that endorses materialistic wealth to replace deep feelings and emotional strength as a good reason for marriage, is on a downhill slope.

Wioth that comment I will say no more, other than when the money runs out so does the wife.

[Jay jones]

I feel bad commenting in an area I have no knowledge of., being Stateside - having never been to Thailand!

But after reading these replies and many prior replies on other subjects. Why are you in Thailand.?

When you are living in a foreign country you could make more effort to adjust to THEIR culture and not be hel_l bent on changing or belittling their customs. Their customs have been in existence for thousand of years , the "UGLY AMERICAN" having got so self rightest in a mear 400 years.. Not much different for many other nationalities.

This may not apply to everyone, (Since I don't want to make several thousand enemies in one reply)

I feel many of you who have their income of $1,200 to 1,500 dollars a month, couldn't live in their home country. They would not have the forum they have in Thailand. Not many people earning or having only saved or accumulated an income of $!500.00 a month would not be listen to in Britain, Aust., USA.

Here in Thailand many people who had no status - at home can now lord over the poor ,stupid Thais. It may make you feel good, probably for the first time in your life, to feel Superior over the proud citizens of Thailand. I hope the feeling of being Superior,- is not doing the damage to all visitors to the proud nation you are only visiting.

I would take no pride in bring our morals and our culture to any other nation. The ignorance and contempt and smugness it detected in many of the replies I read ,- required me to write this.

I have no need to hear your replies on how much money you have, save your time I AM NOT A BIT INTERESTED!! Go tell a Thai what a great country they have and how much you appreciate being able to live in their country.

Not real Happy to be associated.. Jay Jones

[Scott]

To be fair, I think everyone needs to understand that this is a study--it's not research. Many of the things that have been surveyed are attitudes and beliefs about things. It doesn't site, for example, how often these wives tend to eat western food. It doesn't compare that trend with the overall trend of people eating more western (fast) food.

When two cultures meet, this will always happen. Michael Jackson came to Thailand in 1992(?) and introduced a blend of western and Thai dancing into a few of his videos. Now you see quite a lot of this and you see actors wai and bow--something that years ago was unknown.

As for the language issue, again, this needs hard data. These kids may be slightly delayed in either language, but as long as their is an effort by the parents to teach them to speak, they will be fine with no negative affect on their Thai. A lot of people (grandparents, neighbors etc) may THINK they are worse. If children are neglected, two languages are a detriment, but with a stimulating environment, it is fine.

[farang2002]

I have the opposite experience. My wife has zero interest in farang food, although she will eat it if she has too. Not from Isaan, but that shouldn't make a different.

My wife's the same...would be completely happy if she never had to eat ahaan farang.

[Galong]

Never saw a survey that wasn't skewed in some way. Note this one was done in some of the major cities in the Isaan. I'm sure the results would be different if it had been conducted in the countryside.

Great now they are going to be fat like us americans !

Well at least they probably still won't understand most of what we're saying, so they won't likely interogate us about everything we say....

[Neeranam]

When two cultures meet, this will always happen. Michael Jackson came to Thailand in 1992(?) and introduced a blend of western and Thai dancing into a few of his videos

It wasn't 92, must have been later as I was working at the Shangrila Hotel, where he stayed.

[dsfbrit]

So what Western 'delicacies' does your Issan wife enjoy?

Mine enjoys a roast dinner, mince and mash, fish and chips, Spaghetti bolognese, hot dogs with loads of fried onions and British breakfast (sausage, fried eggs, mushrooms, fried bread, baked beans etc).

What is annoying is she doesn't put any weight on at all.

My wife is from Issan. We lived in the UK for a year before coming to live in Thailand. I took her to see the major attractions in London and elsewhere.

I asked her recently what she remembered and liked about the UK. I thought perhaps the London Eye, maybe Buckingham Palace, or perhaps even Brighton beach.

Fish and chips is all she said. Anything else I asked - she thought a while and said no!

Neither of us eat 'farang' food - sadly I think the Thais may become cholestrol ridden unhealthy food eaters like so many in the West - hope not!

[dvk1951]

The only thing wrong with this 'study' is that is so slanted and bias that it has fallen all over itself as a result of literary obesity.

All it does is denegrate all mentioned (farangs, thai women, thai families, entire villages, isaan) with no basis in fact and I find it very difficult to find anything credible in the article.

If it was published in The Nation I sure hope it was in the "Letters" section with a disclaimer about separating fact from fiction.

What a slam on NE Thailand and its occupants.

[yankee]

I strongly disagree with the part about the kids being confused by two different languages.

A friend's son is 7 years old, he speaks 5 languages:

German from his father

Malay from his mother

Thai from their maid

English from school

Chinese from grand parents

How?

It's not confusing for the kid if each person sticks to one language