pf-flyer wrote:I second that agreement and I did alot of these things also when I was growing up. If you are going to live in Thailand and do not embrace the Thai culture and the Thai way of life you will be a very miserable person. I am over 60 and Me and my wife are fed up with the disenfranchisement, intolerance and unaceptance that me and my thai wife and our adult children have endured from my mother and my imediate family over the last 35 years. Udon Thani here we come.
trubrit wrote:You are coming with the right frame of mind pf. Not to say you won't find intolerance here though, or it might just be curiosity . I went to a society wedding last week with over 800 guests, most of whom I didn't know because the groom was from Bangkok and the bride worked in Sakhon Nakhon, so all the friends and relations were from out of town .I was the only Farang .As the father of the bride was a good friend of ours we were sat on the VIP table.Now without exception everyone that came to that table , not knowing I understand Thai, asked who's the farang ?Not in a pleasant but demanding way, especially from the older women, some who couldn't even bring themselves to mention the word farang but simply nodded in my direction with , who's that? Now I have been here long enough not to worry about it, possibly even expect it, but it does exist, so you must be prepared for it.I feel more sorry for my wife who takes the implications of those questions. Me I just grin and say goodbye in Thai when I depart . Can a Thai face go red? You bet .
You are right. I have seen it myself. I have seen it in the social attitude with the Thais in Bangkok when interacting with a the Thais from Issan. I myself have had the satisfaction of responding in Thai also.
I rather enjoy just listening and not responding. ( My wife tells me Ji Yen Yen ). I spent 30 years working at a univeristy in the College of Sciences and I have had the experience of being shouted at with the most eliquent profanity that PHDs could utter. I learnt not to take it personally. It is a choice of choosing to react or to respond under control. There is a difference. The response most of the time would be no response. I discovered over the years that no response would take the wind out of their sails most of the time. They would just walk away muttering to themselves.
