One of the concepts that we Thai people value is called “greng jai” or “kreng jai”. This concept can be easily explained by an example in my office.

My boss (who is a farang and makes me work overtime for no extra salary and now makes me work on Saturdays) tries very hard to make our office more like a western office in terms of how the staff and their superiors interact with each other. He really wants us to talk to him or our superior if we have a problem or have an idea/suggestion about how to improve the way we work. He has been getting quite annoyed because of what he sees as a lack of interest from the Thai staff in making these kinds of comments and suggestions. But the truth is we are interested but it’s really against out nature to speak up and make these kind of comments. This is not because we feel like our ideas are not good or anything silly like that. This is because we feel grateful to our superiors and our boss for (a) giving us the job and (b) the help and teaching and guidance etc that they give to us as our superiors. In turn, with the staff who work below me, I also teach and guide and help. This is how everyone can improve. If I start to criticise, even in a nice way, the system or process that my superior put in place, how can this possibly not be impolite? Criticism is never nice.

But my boss gets frustrated about this and sometimes rants about how farang workers are better than Thai workers. Actually this is not true, because if farang workers always criticise, even in a nice way, then how can they be concentrating on doing their best job? Their superiors are there usually because of a system of meritocracy (although I sometimes wonder with my Boss) and only when I know everything my boss knows can I legitimately make a suggestion for improvement on his way of working. Thai workers get blamed of playing a political game by not contructively criticising things (”She just wants to protect her job and be everyone’s friend) but actually a Farang worker who makes all sorts of suggestions is doing the political game herself! She is hoping to be noticed or have a great idea which unfairly promotes her before her skills actually match the position she is interested in.

I’m just fed up of hearing that farang work ethics are better, more developed, more advanced, more modern etc than Thai work ethics. Yes they’re different but clearly the Thai harmony in an all Thai office is more condusive to work and therefore, much better. Why do farang countries make more money? That’s a historical question and nothing to do with work ethic!

This way of thinking goes right through everything beyond the workplace. Farangs think they are better and don’t hesitate to tell a Thai person how a particular thing in our country is better someplace else. But did the farangs ever consider that they might not be helping, trying to force their farang ways onto Thai people? Farangs think they are so good at everything, but compared to what? Maybe if Thai people could work in a Thai way then you could actually create some synergy rather than the constant conflict (at least there’s constant conflict in my office) and everyone could make more money. My boss seems to think he can personally alter centuries of national character traits. The arrogance is amazing. My boss doesnt even make much money, I’ve seen his car and house.

When coming home from work I often have to take the Bangkok Skytrain system and frequently have to go past a station called Nana. Nana station is on upper Sukhumvit road and many people live around there, work around there and go to meet their friends. However, it also has one of the cities most popular farang hangout areas known as Nana Plaza. In the evenings when everyone is leaving work, the skytrain gets pretty busy but is made worse by the fact that you get a bunch of smelly, fat drunk farangs piling onto the train just so they can get to Nana.

They do this because it means they don’t have to walk much to get from their bedroom to their next sexual encounter with a girl from a farm.  Unfortunately even this miniscule amount of exercise proves too much for most of them and they begin to leak all over the skytrain. This would be OK if we had some sort of holding pen at the far end, preferably near the driver, where you could sit the farangs until Nana station and then the driver can just press a button and have them ejected, via projectile, directly into the plaza. But unfortunately as it is, you have to rub up against them, and most insist on holding the higher rail above my head so I am forced to have line of sight with multiple wet armpits which emit an odour not entirely unlike a nasty huamark klong.

Next time you are on the skytrain at early evening, make a note of counting how many ugly farangs are waiting for Nana station. You don’t need to listen for the announcement of your station because basically the closer you get to Nana, the more they perspire. Then they waddle off down the stairs, get a taxi up the road and my farming family sisters hopefully gouge their pockets for all they are worth.

Ok, so I haven’t posted for a long time. I’m going to blame the farangs. Basically, some farang at work (my boss) decided that not only would it be better for me to arrive at work an hour earlier in the morning but that I should also work on saturdays too. This particularly sucks because I only earn about 20 000 baht as it is, and I will not be getting any more money despite working more hours.

Anyway, we’ve had some great news today. Immigration is going to make it harder for farangs to stay here without proper visas. Hopefully this will put an end to the eternal tourist problem where they just hop across the Cambodia border every month to get a new visa. This will mean that we might actually be able to use Sukhimvit between sois 4 - 40 after 5pm without feeling embarassed or like whores! Woohoo! I am used to taking the BTS that extra station just to avoid getting off at Nana!

So does this mean the end of the depressing sight of Esarn girls walking hand in hand with fat, bald men who are three times their age? Probably not - but it might mean the guy is wearing a nicer shirt than before rather than the hawaii travel shirts and sandals that seem to be the uniform of the farang sexpat community.

Expect more ranting about farangs very soon.