The Helpless Farang...
We've been back in Thailand for just over a month now and it seems the initial post-holiday blues have subsided and we've settled back into the normal routine, or as normal as it can be!
Returning to Thailand after even just a very short break almost feels like starting again. There are things that I now notice that perhaps weren't quite so obvious before, maybe I'd become desensitized?
One thing I have noticed a bit more is how Farangs are sometimes treated by Thais at work. This doesn't happen all the time, but quite often I find that Thai colleagues go so over the top in terms of being nice to me, I can only describe it as being fawned over.
If I look back through my time so far in Thailand, I initially saw this behaviour as a way of making me feel welcome in a new and unfamiliar country. Making sure I knew where I was going, had everything I needed etc. But now nine months in, it does seem strange that I still attract this level of attention.
And in fact, it goes beyond making sure I'm ok, on occasions I actually feel like I'm being treated as a minor celebrity. Recently we had a 'Driver Day' at work where managers spent the day out on the road with a driver, seeing first hand what happens. Obviously, the day began with posing for many photographs, me presenting the driver with a t-shirt to mark the occasion and then doing all the vehicle checks. Then we hit the open road, fortunately, in my case, we were only going about 25km to Pattaya as my very limited Thai was not going to sustain any conversation with my driver.
Upon arrival at the delivery point, it was clear that there was going to be a bit of a wait to get unloaded, which the driver would spend in his cab. But this clearly wasn't good enough for the Farang! I was led into an air-conditioned office, found a chair and brought a chilled bottle of water.
I do actually take issue with the assumption that I must be constantly cooled down with air conditioning, it's as if they think something very bad might happen to me if I'm not kept at a constant 23 degrees Celsius. But most of the time I find being blasted with cold air quite unpleasant and get chilly!
And then there's lunch! If I'm a bit busy and lunch is a bit of a hassle to obtain, I'm quite happy not to bother. Well, I'm not happy, but I know nothing bad will happen if I miss one meal. This is an alien concept to Thai people so cue frantic phone calls inquiring as to whether I've had lunch, and the driver being dispatched on a random motorcycle to find me some food.
Although I'm not actually helpless in daily life, I can't really protest for fear of insulting people so I just lap it up!
This particular day was a bit of a special case and it isn't normally as awkward as that, but I do wonder whether I could deal with these situations a bit better if I was able to communicate more effectively in Thai.
When I arrived in Thailand, I was quite strongly advised that learning Thai was not necessary, and a waste of time as it was too difficult to attain any sort of useful proficiency. I was actually told that as soon as I showed any signs of understanding Thai, it would be assumed that I understood everything so nobody would speak English and I would then have no idea what was going on.
As I mentioned before, in my daily working life there are few English speakers, so knowing even a bit of Thai would help me a lot. And then the apparent impossibility of becoming barely competent in the Thai language seems to be complete nonsense. I've recently met quite a few Farangs who are able to speak Thai. They're probably not perfect, but they make themselves understood effectively and can understand what others are saying. And in fact, at work, I can understand quite a lot already, mainly because there is so much industry jargon that happens to be the same in English and Thai and I can sort of piece it together.
And thinking about it, why would I think it's acceptable to live in a country and not make a real attempt to learn the language - and I mean doing more than ordering a drink and haggling with a tuk-tuk driver. We don't think it's acceptable in the UK, we accuse people of not integrating. So why do I think it's ok to live here and expect other people to order my lunch for me?
So let's do it, let's learn some Thai.... What's the worse that could happen?
A Fresh Perspective
Returning to Thailand after even just a very short break almost feels like starting again. There are things that I now notice that perhaps weren't quite so obvious before, maybe I'd become desensitized?
One thing I have noticed a bit more is how Farangs are sometimes treated by Thais at work. This doesn't happen all the time, but quite often I find that Thai colleagues go so over the top in terms of being nice to me, I can only describe it as being fawned over.
If I look back through my time so far in Thailand, I initially saw this behaviour as a way of making me feel welcome in a new and unfamiliar country. Making sure I knew where I was going, had everything I needed etc. But now nine months in, it does seem strange that I still attract this level of attention.
Special Treatment
And in fact, it goes beyond making sure I'm ok, on occasions I actually feel like I'm being treated as a minor celebrity. Recently we had a 'Driver Day' at work where managers spent the day out on the road with a driver, seeing first hand what happens. Obviously, the day began with posing for many photographs, me presenting the driver with a t-shirt to mark the occasion and then doing all the vehicle checks. Then we hit the open road, fortunately, in my case, we were only going about 25km to Pattaya as my very limited Thai was not going to sustain any conversation with my driver.
Upon arrival at the delivery point, it was clear that there was going to be a bit of a wait to get unloaded, which the driver would spend in his cab. But this clearly wasn't good enough for the Farang! I was led into an air-conditioned office, found a chair and brought a chilled bottle of water.
I do actually take issue with the assumption that I must be constantly cooled down with air conditioning, it's as if they think something very bad might happen to me if I'm not kept at a constant 23 degrees Celsius. But most of the time I find being blasted with cold air quite unpleasant and get chilly!
And then there's lunch! If I'm a bit busy and lunch is a bit of a hassle to obtain, I'm quite happy not to bother. Well, I'm not happy, but I know nothing bad will happen if I miss one meal. This is an alien concept to Thai people so cue frantic phone calls inquiring as to whether I've had lunch, and the driver being dispatched on a random motorcycle to find me some food.
Although I'm not actually helpless in daily life, I can't really protest for fear of insulting people so I just lap it up!
Lost in Translation
This particular day was a bit of a special case and it isn't normally as awkward as that, but I do wonder whether I could deal with these situations a bit better if I was able to communicate more effectively in Thai.
When I arrived in Thailand, I was quite strongly advised that learning Thai was not necessary, and a waste of time as it was too difficult to attain any sort of useful proficiency. I was actually told that as soon as I showed any signs of understanding Thai, it would be assumed that I understood everything so nobody would speak English and I would then have no idea what was going on.
As I mentioned before, in my daily working life there are few English speakers, so knowing even a bit of Thai would help me a lot. And then the apparent impossibility of becoming barely competent in the Thai language seems to be complete nonsense. I've recently met quite a few Farangs who are able to speak Thai. They're probably not perfect, but they make themselves understood effectively and can understand what others are saying. And in fact, at work, I can understand quite a lot already, mainly because there is so much industry jargon that happens to be the same in English and Thai and I can sort of piece it together.
And thinking about it, why would I think it's acceptable to live in a country and not make a real attempt to learn the language - and I mean doing more than ordering a drink and haggling with a tuk-tuk driver. We don't think it's acceptable in the UK, we accuse people of not integrating. So why do I think it's ok to live here and expect other people to order my lunch for me?
So let's do it, let's learn some Thai.... What's the worse that could happen?
[…] talked about my embarrassment at being ‘fawned over’ as a Farang in The Helpless Farang… So I really should not have been surprised that two Farangs who turned up late and didn’t […]
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