Thai Etequette

Big Boy · Legend Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 3192 Location: UK

On another thread, Vital Spark wrote:

lomuamart · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 7:38 am Post subject: Re: Thai Etequette

Big Boy · Legend Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 3192 Location: UK

lomuamart,

I had missed that section on the tourism page. You are right, it is a good start. Unfortunately, it is so nicely done people actually have to read the page to pick out the key bits - not a problem, but I know of many who can't actually read such a page on their PC - no criticism of their reading ability. I work with many people who would have to print that page to read it - how many of us bother to do that when they're surfing the net?

The type of thing I was thinking about was something similar to the etiquette guide I read about 100 years ago before my first visit to Thailand. It was a very basic set of Bullet Points in fairly large text - each bullet just a few words long with no explanation. If you wanted know why, you had to research a little further. The bullets basically listed the major don'ts during your visit in Thailand.
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lomuamart · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 2:45 pm Post subject:

Bullet points are not a bad idea. Let's see what the compilers think.
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DawnHRD · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 4:47 pm Post subject:

Just read that page, Lomu & I'd add the stuff about heads & feet - you know, don't point with feet, don't step over people, don't stand on a banknote (heaven forbid!), don't ruffle people's hair or touch their heads. Don't sit on a higher level than a Thai with your feet dangling inches from their heads (as I saw on a visa run boat a couple of weeks ago!) ....
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lomuamart · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 6:26 pm Post subject:

Yes, there's that and trying not to pass between people who are talking.
Suppose most of them are common sense anyway. I wouldn't indicate people by a gesture with my foot - at least not intentionally. Not a natural thing to do.
As the compilers said, there's two sacred cows not to mess around with. I've noticed others, like ruffling someone's hair, becoming much more common - but only to children. You wouldn't generally have done that here years ago.
Going out for a meal with Thai people. Quite often it can be a "big" mistake to offer to pay anything towards a bill. The "host" takes care of everything. Happened to me once when I slipped out of the restaurant and bought another bottle of JW. The Thais weren't impressed, but let me get away with it.
And language!!!!
Beach wear in the wrong places is just one aspect of the whole thing.
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prcscct · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 6:49 pm Post subject:

[quote="lomuamart"]Yes, there's that and trying not to pass between people who are talking.
quote]

Except......when a family meeting is taking place and an entire aisle in Tesco or Carrefore is blocked, they can kindly take that custom and shove it where the sun don't shine. Pete Shoot em up

STEVE G · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 7:32 pm Post subject:

Pete, I like the way those same family groups all block the bottom of a shopping mall escalator whilst they decide if they are going to go up it, and then when they get to the top they all stop again to decide why they are there.

lomuamart · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 7:34 pm Post subject:

[quote="prcscct"]

prcscct · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 8:10 pm Post subject:

We've touched on a good point here, which in a way goes along with the "Tin Shacks" thread.

Most of us now practice correct Thai etiquette as if we were born here.

However, I will be damned if I'll walk on egg shells or bow and scrape simply because I am a "guest" here if I see rude and inconsiderate behaviour from Thai's. I have and will continue to give them stares that would sink a ship, and they indeed get my meaning without a word being said.

Now, if that results in bad thoughts about farangs, so be it. I would hope it would be a signal that their behaviour is unacceptable to both farang and considerate, well bred and well educated Thai's alike. Pete Cheers

DawnHRD · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 8:45 pm Post subject:

prcscct · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 9:31 pm Post subject:

Dawn, there is another thing here no one has brought up. That is, many of these people doing construction work are NOT Thai's. They are legal (and sometimes illegal) imported labor from Burma, Laos and Cambodia.

These past two weeks over here we've been visiting many housing developments in the Rayong area. Neung stated that she did not understand one word the workers were speaking as they were working. No, it was not some strange Issan dialect and not even Lao from what she heard.

This fact is a whole new ingredient in the soup as we talk about tin shacks, etiquette and the entire Farang/Thai relationship. In the case of the above workers, we Farangs are more courtious to them than the Thai's themselves are...by far! Why?...because in most cases we don't know they are not Thai and treat them as we would anyone else. Pete

PS: My story on the "Beware!!!" thread. Pattaya was in a huge building boom before the 1997 crash. Migrant construction workers everywhere from neighboring countries. The crime rate went up, considerably. Don't be shocked if this is what you're seeing concerning B&E's and thefts in HH now with the all the development going on there.

DawnHRD · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:01 pm Post subject:

Point taken. I must admit, I have no knowledge of their nationalities, they looked like dark-skinned Thais to me, but they could have been from one of those countries. Don't they have the same cultural values as Thais, then?
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prcscct · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:48 pm Post subject:

STEVE G · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:27 pm Post subject:

Being from close to Cambodia, my partner speaks a bit of Kmer, and she tells me that many Cambodians are working all around Thailand on construction projects. They even work up in Issan in agriculture, making up for all the Thai youngsters that have headed into the cities to work. The ones I’ve met seem to be a bit rough and ready compared to Thais, but they are a cheerful and hardworking lot.