In what seems to be a consistent effort to reawaken the golden era attitudes of Western Colonialisation, many farangs in Thailand today go under the impression that Thai people are ‘strange’.
Well I’ve got news for you. There’s a little term that clever people like me call ‘ethnocentricity’. In farang form this word means ‘we is better dan u’. You’re not, by the way. Therefore, thinking you are really doesn’t help you.
My use of this term means to imply that you have no logical reason to think that just because something I do is different to something you do, that thing is ‘weird’ or ‘strange’ or ‘odd’ or ‘not normal’. Normality is an essentially contested concept at the best of times, you idiot, but please don’t make it worse by trying to claim you have the ‘normal’ way of doing things.
One complaint I often hear from farangs in restaurants who think I am too stupid to understand them is that Thai people do everything too slowly. They say it’s as if we don’t like living – as if we don’t grasp the splendour and beauty of life like farangs do. As if we, somehow enveloped by our own latent hegemony, we ‘cannot look beyond ourselves’.
Cannot look beyond ourselves? You imbeciles! Firstly, it’s a hot country (you know, all that sweat dripping from your eyes..) and secondly, Buddha didn’t reach enlightenment by flapping his arms all day, wearing neck ties and running to catch taxis/buses/friends/nothing. What has running about the place done for your cultures? Hmm.. we’ve got higher rates of heart disease, we’ve got increased levels of worl-related stress, we’ve got higher suicide rates..need I go on.
I was in Orielly’s pub the other day and put on my usual ‘I can’t understand English’ face to lull the unsuspecting farangs around me into a false sense of security. Minutes into my fried rice and the fat German to the left of me had decided it was safe to begin what is commonly known as ‘Moaning like a little baby’. The poor girl sitting next to him, a 5ft Esarn girl carrying an expression not dissimilar to someone who has just been forced to read Satre’s ‘Being and Nothing’ against their will, had to listen to why her people and her country had not quite yet ‘developed’ enough to be called a ‘democracy’.
I wanted to educate the guy but I expect I would only have had an invitation to the next annual shit-on-a-bargirl competition that those Germans seem so keen on.
When Thai people forgive you for royally cocking up some perfectly simple custom of ours, we do so because we do not think our culture is somehow above or better than yours. More often than not we seek to emulate Western culture. Frankly, I have no idea why.
March 28th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Talking to yourself, yet again Fon? Tut tut.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:00 am
Either you are to most highly Educated Thai person in Thailand, due to your command of the English language or you are nothing more than an imposter.
You know very little about European People – do not paint all Europeans with the same brush -Thai people can be just as bad and rude as anyone else – not to mention – grasping, deceitful, cheaters and corrupt.
I have been married to a wonderful Thai lady for the past 21 yrs,(yes – the same lady for all that time)
I respect her and her family – and yet her family will still lie and attempt to cheat me – my wife fortunately stops it before they succede – perhaps it is a little bit of Western Values that she saw, observed and learned during her 14yr.stay in England.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
if you left Nana plaza for more than five minutes you would meet plenty of Thai people with as good if nor better commanding of the English language than I.
April 29th, 2008 at 12:18 am
As the old English saying goes – “Empty containers make the the most noise” – you fit the description.
Do not be so presumptuous to think you know my habits.:-
1) Neither my wife or myself have ever visited Nana Plaza or any other dubious “Entertainment” areas of Bangkok
April 29th, 2008 at 12:21 am
whilst you on the other hand appear to know the Locale and the surrounding area intimately – make one wonder what true type of person you are.
April 30th, 2008 at 12:19 am
How could you possably tarnish all Farangs with the same brush? maybe its you that needs to get out of Nana for a while and meet some other farangs.????
June 17th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
I have been in Thailand, mostly Ubon Ratchathani and I see respect for Thais from Farangs and visa versa. I am ashamed, as an American from the USA, to hear of my fellow countrymen’s behavior.Please accept my apology for them. You have a wonderful country with much beauty and tradition,thanks for allowing me to visit for 90 days.
Glenn
August 9th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Wow, you have got some issues there, darlin.
Whether farang or Thai, you seem to be just as deranged as all these sad morons you deride in your little blog here.
By the way, do you really believe that farangs have created the culture of prostitution in Thailand? You sound literate enough to be able to read a history book, and there are quite a few on the history of the sex trade in Asia, sooo, um, quite a little mystery you’ve presented here, fella.
Oh, and on the subject of Thai democracy referenced above, an edifying morsel for one bitter, internet cockroach-
A Special Relationship: The United States and Military Government in Thailand, 1947-1958
http://books.google.com/books?hl=th&lr=&id=ALp3JfHefG8C&oi=fnd&pg=PP11&dq=history+cia+thailand+king&ots=VElU_ut8tW&sig=3FA3wolEWEM4nNAdnSiTmSMMAn0#PPA297,M1
Instead of writing so much,clacking away on those keys,
you awful fool, maybe you should read something…
September 5th, 2009 at 4:52 am
I am curious. I am an anthropologist and I have to remove ethnocentric thought from my work. For example, if I were to go to Aghanistan and a father was going to perform an honor killing on his daughter, there is nothing I could do except probably get shot by the brother holding a weapon to ensure the killing happened to save their honor. What does this have to do with your blogs? You constantly speak of ethnocentric issues, but it seems to be at the heart of your arguments.
Yes, foreigners are probably ignorant of Thai culture. This is mainly due to people taking a lack of interest in the classical and traditional Thai culture. Most westerners, men or women, generally go to Thailand because it is inexpensive and exotic. Sure, alot of men go there for the night life. We can’t change that, except through stricter law enforcement. I saw that you started bashing people about their fetishes. FYI, if an American, Brit or Australian have sex with a minor in Thailand and it gets reported, their native country can prosecute them for such a heinous crime.
But, if I were to go to Thailand on a trip of academia, would all of the educated Thais that I talk to be so ethnocentric that it would be a waste of time? I have been to Thailand twice for university study and met highly intelligent people that were open to cultural exchanges with people (mostly different farangs). I know alot of things have happened in Thailand lately and I am sorry for the issues that it causes your country. But, the reasons Thailand is having the issues it is having is because the Thai government allows it. After all, laws make prostitution illegal in Thailand, they are just not enforced. Unless this law was changed recently?