Quote:
Originally Posted by HUMBLE.
For people who both speak english as their primary language and have stayed in Thailand for longer than 6 months, does it ever get to you that everyone does not speak english and that signs are not in english?
Haha, I know how arrogant this must come off to most people, but hear me out.
Since I assume none of you are fluent in Thai, isn't true that you never get to have any deeper or meaningful conversations with the people who don't speak fluent english?
It must drive you mad, no? All your thoughts are restricted by your limited knowledge of the Thai language and of course the nuances of the culture. So you are confined to superficial exchanges with one another... forever.
How do you deal with this?
If you are a bit more ambitious, work long hours in a job / on a business that requires smarts, did not get that work via corruption, actually make decent money from it, you got exactly zero in common with thais you will normally meet anywhere.
Thailand is a feudal peasant society, with the royals on top, then high level corrupt officials, then business people of chinese descent, then hereditary land owners, then the peasant masses that have next to no education of western standard. Neither of them has a concept of the world outside Thailand or an interest in it, save for middle class Bangkok girls that want you to finance their sex and the city life in NYC.
They mostly eat in dingy restaurants you wouldn't go to, live in ****ty apartments that are often worse than European prison cells etc.
It's not a place where you exactly should aspire to integrate.
Most younger western people living in Thailand long term either have a sufficient number of western acquaintances to talk to or live their life mostly on the internet.
Last edited by iLiveInAsia; 09-17-2017 at 11:52 PM.