What does your gf or wife think about Falang land?

My wife often makes positive comments about my country,but Iam wondering what Thai people think in general about the "west".

Most of the Thais that have not been there know very little about other countries.The education sysstem doesn't really teach about other countries and the news media doesn't help much either.I doubt if many Thais could find Canada on a map It is kind of like,''this is Thailand and that is the rest of the World

They watch too much TV (thinking it's like what they see there) and have very little knowledge of the realities of living in the West. We don't discuss it much at all.

My wife and I were in the US for 30+ years. We lived in a number of places and in general, no matter where we were, my wife had never felt a true sense of community as she does here at home. She felt that people were generally less friendly and hard to get to know. And along the way she had run into a bit of racism. But she handled that and tried to focus on the good things. For example, the breathtaking scenery she enjoyed when we traveled, the cooler climate, and the good food.

My wife and I have spent many hours comparing countries over the years, talking about the good and bad points of living here or there. So far we cannot make a stronger case for one country or the other.

The "West" is a big place. Hope to read what others have to say. This is an interesting subject, Doug.

stans right , although my wife did know the other countries of S E asia . guess i married a smart one as i now have a world map on my office wall , if and when she asks of somewhere shes seen on the news , i show her . i think its a policy here to keep the masses as ignorant of the outside world as much as possible . but i do feel times are changing , with the internet generation .

she has not been there, so has to go by what i express. am honest, tell her the world is the same everywhere. usa has corruption/crime/gov't/police scams also. not as blatant, but also they 'protect and serve' so if needed, they are there to help, or at least keep order. things actually work, and when you buy something, you are not renting it. men and woman are the same, tho the thai lasses have scamming down to a science. men are just as dumb there as here, how many have their mid life crisis, or too much money and marry a younger lass to be taken, legally.

also live with an smart one, must paid attention in school, as i'm amazed at some things she knows, location of places, then amazed at things she doesn't know, science and physics. she is curious about the states, and i would love to take her there if we ever get married , as i wish to continue to be a blight on usa economics even after i die, though not sure if i could do 3 yrs of time there. would love her to see how an organized country runs, simply driving would be an eye opener. thought the condescending stares at the mall may upset her, and i'll probably get in a fight once in a while, a nice change, as i don't have that right here...........WTF you looking at a-hole, yea, she's 20 yrs younger and i didn't buy her....... :frying pan: :frying pan: which embarrassing enough, was my perception when i saw younger asian woman with men in usa, as my ignorance abounded. now i'm a better person for being so 'worldly' yea, right.

just my drifting thoughts w/my coffee. oh yea, she thinks she would love the winter time and snow, that would work for one season, maybe, before she hates the cold.

My wife now lives with me in Australia, has done for 2 years.

She is quite settled and says she would like to stay in Australia for the rest of her live. Typical, the original plan was for me to retire in Udon in 10 years time. Now that's out the window. I can not afford to retire now for 25 year due so no chance of a retirement in Udon away .

But as for the differences. She has taken very well to the West food. She can find all the Thai products needs. We have an excellent Asian Grocer near us. We also have an excellent Thai Take Away were the cook is from Issan, so he makes just the way she likes it. That being said, I find we are eating more and more West style food because that is what she wants to eat.

The TW knowledge of the world is very poor. I have traveled quite extensively and have the places I have visited she has never heard of. I have freinds in France who I would like to visit soon and she said is that near where my Uncle lives in Florida!!!! Errrr, no dear!

But she is very smart I other area's! Math for example. She just rattled off the sum of 9*16 the other day of the top of her head. And the at the restaurant the other night divided 165/7 to the nearest dollar. I was still getting my Mobile phone to sort it all out. This of course all in perfect English. Which has also improved since living here.

So as for the rant by Mike C. You may educate and move in higher educated circles to other. I don't think Stan was generalizing, it read to me it was from his experiences. I have also experienced from the Thais I have meet have, all been to school, but non of them know much outside of Asia. And then that is limited to the surrounding countries.

So to the OP. My wife likes the West and all I have to show her. But her mother who just went home after 5 weeks in Australia much preferred Thailand and did not want to know much about anything else. She had no real desire to see much more than where we lived and her daughter.

When I met my wife in Udon,we spotted a Thai language travel guide in the bookstore near the shopping complex.Since then I have brought over a couple of photograph books on Canada.My wife enjoys wildlife shows,so she has a understanding of my countries geography.She used to have a map of the world on the wall for her nephew.But I think in general that most Thais viewpoint of the "west" is through tv and movies.I also have been thinking about tourists whose only perception of Thailand is thier beach resort or sex tourists who never venture beyond Bangkok or Pattaya.

My wife first moved to Perth, Australia when we married 14 years ago and became an Australian citizen in 2000.
We have been back to Udon for holidays probably only 6 or so times in that period. She loves her home here and also the lifestyle and friendships she has gained (both Thai & Aussie). She has developed a huge passion for Australian rules football (much to my delight) and as a family we go to every West Coast Eagles home game. We have a son & daughter who are doing particularly well at school with our son starting high school next year in a gifted student programme. My wife is extremely proud of the childrens academic abilities and would never consider moving them to Thailand even if something was to happen to me (neither of the kids speak Thai anyway). I'm sure that at some time in the future once the kids are off our hands we will spend more of our time in Udon (just not during the footy season).

My missus has lived in Europe for a couple of years and knows how much cleaner the place is, the variety of food available and the percentage of stupidity is far, far lower (she complains about the idiots here as much as I do). She still couldn't point out any country on a map though - that's my job.

My wife surprised me the other night when she asked me why Thai people were disliked in the UK. I must admit I was a bit stumped, because I don't have any experience of bad feeling towards Thais the the UK. Where and from whom she got this impression I don't know.
The only answer I could give was that 1 bad experience of a Thai in the UK will be talked about more than 100 good experiences. The same as when a falang has a bad experience in Thailand.

rick wrote:... most Thai only have an experience of their own country, and do not expect to leave it, so why bother?

I think that is why some say that if you like asian women and would like to marry one, you should look more in Philippines than in Thailand because philipinos are more use to the idea of living in a different country (because lots of them already do). And also because lots of them are christian and would therefore have a more closer "culture/way of life" to the european/usa/australian judeo-christian one (but that is an all together different subject.. or is it ?).

For the moment, you tell me if I am wrong, I understood that the most important things for a thai women to be happy living in a farlangland would be to : 1) have a nice married life with her husband and 2) have a good social network where she lives (if possible including some other thai). After all, they are often -not always yes- use to live near all their familly and friends all their life. Us in Farlangland we often end up living and working lots of miles away from other members of our familly and neighborhood/school friends.

rick wrote:The children growing up today will have a much more international outlook

Because of better and better education, internet and other medias, moving more often to other places for work, etc ; yes you most probably right about that

rick wrote: Rome was not built in a day.

Yep. Rome, which is on the Nil on the border of Belgium and Ohio isn't it ?

DeNuit wrote: 2) have a good social network where she lives (if possible including some other thai).

I've found that my wife tends to avoid other Thais. Because of the social expectations in Thai society, the last thing she wants is to have a bunch of gold-draped "friends" telling her how she should live, who she should know, how much she should make and how big a house she should live in. Her closest friend is a Filipina who is her mothers age.

dbriggins wrote:

DeNuit wrote: 2) have a good social network where she lives (if possible including some other thai).

I've found that my wife tends to avoid other Thais. Because of the social expectations in Thai society, the last thing she wants is to have a bunch of gold-draped "friends" telling her how she should live, who she should know, how much she should make and how big a house she should live in. Her closest friend is a Filipina who is her mothers age.

Same for me dbriggins...its very common for this to happen too, she is not interested in other thai's too much, she prefers to keep herself to herself,does'nt have to listen to a load of bullsh!t involving money mainly, no tittle tattle, no card games etc and not uncommon for them to be friendly with filipinas also. (uk side)