[stuck_in_WA]

Being an Asian myself, I suspect that the culture, religion and society that we interact with influenced our growth. I have no doubt about asian countries being conservative.

Singaporeans are becoming more selfish, always complaining and anti-social. I always wonder could it be due to the stress induced by the high rate of progression in the economy. Or maybe it's just me.

I think sparing a thought for others is a virtue. I had seen a thai couple screaming at each other along a street in front of a hawker stall. I guess everyone has their limits, don't try to push it.

[gardenerextraordinaire]

I don't agree with Wanna's perception of Singaporeans at all. I have many nice, kind and simply wonderful friends. However, I will say that there are some quite self-centered people that only do things for their own benfit. But I believe there are "ugly" people in every country. I believe there are also "ugly" people in Thailand as well.

I feel that it is wrong to stereo-type a whole nation of people based on a few black sheep. Every nation has their share of good and bad people.

[Fuerfsanv]

I don't set high standards for my countrymen, prehaps I have not met the kinder people around. Thanks for your compliment on us being perfect, delawang. You are most kind.

[WertyNtont]

I think Americans are just taught to be suspicious of strangers. We teach our young children to never talk to strangers, etc. It is a shame that we feel we have to be that way. I agree with Delawang that Thai people are much more open and willing to engage in conversation with a total stranger. For me, it is very liberating and I have opened up more to people since my trips to Thailand began. Being exposed to the openness made me want to be more open and I am much happier now that I am connecting more with the people around me.

[Caursedus]

I think that Thai people are open and friendly towards you, because of your celabrity statuse. When you enter into that small Thai village as a big time relatively wealthy American, it is the same comparision if I had "Queen Elizabeth ll" come to my house in Australia. In that situration I would be all smiles as well. But I think there is no difference between the reaction of Thai people to other Thai people as in the West to other westerners. I think people are very suspicious of there own kind in the west and in Thailand as every one has been stabbed in the back by a conmam some time and if you look at the crime statistics of Thailand on the net, it is not that much different to the crime statistic of most western countries. So most people have been a victom of crime they lose trust other people in the community. The only country where I have been to where I found genuine trust in the Community is Japan where the crime rate is exstreamly low.

[violetgorman]

It is true that Americans' fear is out of all proportion. It is not just fear of strangers, but fear of crime in general. Frightened people are easier to control and I think the power elite are more interested in contorlling the public in America. Anyone who examines the statistics and calculates the probabilities can see that the chances of being a victim of a violent crime are very slim. We talk about freedom a lot in America, but I feel much more free in Thailand, and I'm not even a Thai citizen.

It's a real shame. Americans will stand together on the street, or sit next to each other on a bus, and never exchange words. You can live next to people and not know their names or anything about them. The person who said, "No man is an island" didn't live in America. There are so many lonely people here who are surrounded by people every day.

[LomodiorCon]

I always think that it really is not such a big problem to be poor as long as we have people we can share our life with. It is really sad to hear visionchaser's description about lonely people. In my personal view , I feel that we also get lonely when we take too much credit or debit for things in our life or give too much credit or debit to others for their lives. (besides other practical reasons). I think we should allow the reason that a lot what happens is only partly in our control even when it maybe oneself who has made the maximum 'visible' efforts. That way we get more humble and ready to interact with all without much judgements. Else our ambitions become our private journey where we think only one person matters.

[Hedkffiz]

I never noticed any difference to Thai manners then people in Australia. When I was travelling around Samrong Samut Prakan going to the local shopping centre everday, at Imperial World, on the back of one of those utility pick up truck type busses, it was quite often full and I would stand on the back, No one offered me a seat and I was happy no one did, as I don't exspect any one to stand up for me and I don't stand up for any one unless there old or have a dissability. I was the only Ferang on these busses, and no one said a word every one was very quiet, I think they were very shy and not speak, apart from this I always travelled with a thai escort or my persional body gard.
Next time I will travelle into a small remote village area of Thailand and see if there is a diffence between the people in small village's and the ones from the big cities.
I have noticed that americans are very friendly when they come to Australia, so I find it stange by the above coments that they not talk in the USA but then again I have never been to The USA.
also about feeling fee in Thailand, that is true, In australia there are speed cameras that book your car for doing 3 klm over the speed limit, and many traffic light cameras that book you all the time. But when I was in thailand, The amout of time the Taxi drivers were speedin past the police at increable speed and they not get booked, It must be an increadable freedom to be able to drive on a road where you not have to look at your speedomiter every 5 seconds to make shore you not get booked.

[cheapphenonline]

I have been to Australia on many occasions as my aunt works as a nurse in a hospital in Sidney, not sure which one though. Sidney is very similar to Singapore in the sense that it is also a metropolitan city. The people also tend to keep to themselves and go about doing their own things. Nothing outstanding friendly. However, when I was in Tamworth town, an hours flight from Sidney, the people in the towns greeted each other even the tourists. Some even offered to take us on a tour of the town. Very very friendly indeed. I guess that's the difference between big city people and small town folks. Maybe it's the same for Thailand.

[Caursedus]

About my spelling, well some are because I not have any where to put my key board and I hit the wrong Key. and the other reasion is the english dictionary is not fenetically spelt so I spell the way things should be spelt that is the way there pronounced becides Australian english and americans have a slightly different way of spelling many words. Go to an australian dictionary and you will find a differnt spelling to what you learn in Thailand which is closest to American spelling

[cheapphenonline]

Dear paul_au, I know this is off-topic and I really don't mean to offend you. But I was just wondering if your first language is English? Following several of your posts, I noted a trend of bad spelling, for example on your last post on this thread:

Quote[/b] ]cercumstances

Quote[/b] ]equall

Quote[/b] ] patients

Quote[/b] ]idear

Quote[/b] ]intelegence

Quote[/b] ]Tecknology

Quote[/b] ]eccerlerating

There are others but I attributed those to typos while some of the above were repeated too many times to be typos while others are just too far off. I really don't mean to offend you. Just curious to what is your native language.

[cheapphenonline]

I can add to Jerome's list: programme vs program, honour vs honor, visualise vs visualize......no, no that's not the point.... I think what paul_au said was that he spelled the words according to how he felt they are pronounced, right Paul?

Quote[/b] ]the english dictionary is not fenetically spelt so I spell the way things should be spelt that is the way there pronounced

[Caursedus]

It is well known that asian's do better academictly in western univeristies, and this is not only due to a culture of hard work but they have a genetic advantage in a cognitive area or the brain that helps in processing solving information in a mathamatical cence, this helps them in university as it is a repedative learning process of solving learnt problems, that requires no inavation. Westerners have a better cognative skill in another part of the brain that is not as usefull in an accademic sence, This part of the brain is to do with immagination, thats why most of the poets, writers and inventors come from the west. Westerns are more inavative and inventive like most inventions from the basic inventions to the most safisticated electonics where invented by westerners where the Japanes do not invent any thing, they just improve and develop on other people's inventions by there diligent perfection.
And you can also see the western inovation in a business as most of the worlds top wester self made billionaires do not have a degree, Look at Bill Gates he dropped out of University because he was to imaginative and thought that repetative learning was a waist of time.

[Caursedus]

I used to work in the Emergency department in a major Sydney Hospital near the international airport. I remember an asian man who came in who had badly cut his leg with a chain saw, he bandaged his own leg at home and came into the hospital and sat quietly in the waiting room patiently waiting his turn, it was not until we removed his bandage we realized how bad his injuries were. This man was to polite to tell the triage nurse that he was badly injured and needed amediate attention, instead some middle eastern persion who had a minor graze to her knee that should not be waisting the time of a major emergency department was screeming and shouting for help. From working in an emergency department I have concluded that in general, the asians are polite patient and well mannered, the westerners are more assertive get strait to the point and give precise details of there condition and do not complain, But the people from the middle eastern background are so rude, get very pushy complain and grosely exaggerate there condition. Just about every time we needed to call security it was because of a middle eastern persion had lost control of there temper over how they perceived there relatives were to be treated. There was so many times where middlestern people were charged by police for causing trouble in my hopital.

[LomodiorCon]

Hi Paul. I think this theory/study works when restricted to the last few 100s years or so till recently.

[LomodiorCon]

Quote[/b] (paul_au @ July 18 2003,19:41)]Yes I spell in a way depending on what kind of mood

Besides typing errors, it takes effort to misspell words once you know how to spell them!

[cheapphenonline]

My take on this is that Asians especially the more conservative nations tend to hold back negative comments even when they feel adversely to a particular topic.

Whereas Westerners are more frank and direct about their feelings even when it's at the expense of others. While Asians value tactfulness, I suppose Westerners value frankness...I may be wrong though. I guess Thais are brought up to be more mild-mannered.

[cheapphenonline]

I found this article on a website I chanced upon:

Losing Face

Part of the Thai non-confrontational cultures is never to lose face, something Westerners find difficult to accomplish. Although the Thais are getting more used to Western forms of expression, you will lose their respect if you ever exhibit strong emotional scenes. A Thai will never show anger, disappointment or disgust to another person except in the most extreme situations.

You should never raise your voice, lose you patience or get angry as it is seen as a weakness and lack of control and this behavior will get you nowhere. The Thais strive for harmony between all people and things, Jai yen is the term that means cool heart and is a term a compliment hard to beat. For this reason, the Thai smile can mean an assortment of emotions from happiness through to anger.

[violetgorman]

herptos- It's great to have you aboard. You are the real deal, and, with net trolls lurking about, that's refreshing.

Some people post things, pretending to be something they are not. When they get busted, they make feeble attempts to hold to their stories or disappear altogether. It's really kind of sad.

I'd be interested in reading that book. Is it listed with Amazon, or one of the other internet booksellers?

Peace!

[textarchive]

Trisket, I agree with the "three circle" theory that you wrote about... and I also think that the American definition of "friend" is a rather loose one. People here call me their friends who I would just call buddies.

Your most interesting point for me was

Quote[/b] ]The inner circle would be family - close relationships, which I believe for a farang in thai cultire are few and far between.

What does everyone think about that? Do you think it is true that Thai-Farang relationships are rarely brought up to the third, most intimate level?
There are a number of people here with Thai girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse - they are excellent examples showing that such intimate relationships are indeed possible.

But is it difficult to create these relationships? If so, why? Is it because of the deep cultural differences, or because of the physical distance? Perhaps because of the mutual bad reputation that permeates both Thai and Farang societies about each other?

Quote[/b] ]Following several of your posts, I noted a trend of bad spelling, for example on your last post on this thread

wow Makiyo, you actually read that stuff? I am impressed, because usually I just skip through...gotta keep my sanity, you know.

Quote[/b] ]Hasn’t anyone explained to you that god put the fossils in the rocks to test our faith in the bible?

Haha, that's a new one on me! It is the funniest stuff I heard since "Intelligent Design"!