... but for cultural differences ...
... but for cultural differences ...
you are right... 'face' however it may be referred to is Asian not Thai... I learnt that over many years in international businessOriginally Posted by homintern
You think it's purely a Thai issue? A friend of mine (ethnic Chinese, born and raised in Canada) makes an interesting comparison between the Singaporean Chinese and the Malaysian Chinese, with both of whom she has worked as a consultant for one of the Fat Four accounting firms). She says the Singaporeans are much, much more conformist and interested in saving face than the Malaysians and believes it has to do with majority/minority ethnic status. Isn't "face" after all an Asian value, not just a Thai one? http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/face/
[url]http://thaidiamondstories.moonfruit.com/[/url]
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A relationship I cherished and a balance to the no doubt true generalisations about losing face among Thai teachers of English.
Two years ago I spent 3 months in Bangkok taking daily individual lessons in Thai at a language school. My teacher was a charming lady in her late 30s, whose English vocabulary and grammar were good, but whose pronunciation was very poor. We could not hide the fact and save her face, because, as a beginner, I needed to be told the English word quite frequently, and usually I had no idea what she was saying. She apologised again and again for her pronunciation, explaining that although she knew English speakers in Bangkok she had never had enough money to visit an English-speaking country. After a couple of weeks, when we got to know each other better, I started to help her - that is, for example, I explained some matters of sound production, use of mouth muscles, etc. I was amazed that nobody had ever told an English student that 'v's and 'w's involve a quite different use of the lips. We soon got rid of 'wowels'! In fact, lessons became much more mutual and I very much enjoyed the fact that, for a quarter of an hour of the two-hour lesson, I was able to reciprocate the scrupulous work she was doing with me.
By the third month I was really putting her to the test - with proper school-masterly threats. I threatened not to leave Thailand until I could hear all the consonants in 'wasps' and 'wisps', and eventually 'vastnesses' - and she made the grade! I think it was a tribute to her strength of character and unusual individuality that, far from defending herself with the loss of face reaction, she could hardly wait to learn something new.
When I left Bangkok, not only was there 'an apple for the teacher', but a Thai music disk for the pupil - presented with floods of tears. I suspect the one thing I had forgotten to improve was the dear lady's gaydar!
what a sweat and interestingf story. It make me believe that interracial "relationship" is possible ;-)
Piston10,
use of mouth muscles
use of the lips
lessons became much more mutual
I was able to reciprocate
By the third month I was really putting her to the test - with proper school-masterly threats.
she made the grade
she could hardly wait to learn something new
It sounds like either this was the result of a creative writing exercise or your mind was confusing events!
If you burn your neighbors house down, it doesn't make your house look any better. - Lou Holtz
A few years ago, I went to the language school of a boy I was involved with to see his teacher and school.
I couldn't understand the English teacher as his command of English was terrible and it appears to me that
the lessons were conducted in Thai with English writing on the blackboard.
Frankly, the lessons were quite cheap but useless for pronounciation and comprehension. Probably adequate for
studying irregular verbs and such. This was a tiny school behind a travel agency on Soi PostOffice as I recall. :cat:
Pattaya Male .. Can't say I did'nt warn you (anyone ) in a previous post about
the taxi journey from Phnom Penh to Siem Riep ...........
Might also be because Khmer is not a tonal language, is not related to Thai and has consonant clusters that make English words easier to pronounce for Cambodians.Colonised by the French and forced to learn a language structured that way has had long-term spillover effects into the Cambodian education system
The trip was even more frightening than you described. My Thai friend said he prayed to Buddha the entire drive. He said I can no longer complain about his driving.
I will listen better to your advice next time!
A cheaper & potentially slightly safer route to Siem Reap is to take the train from BKK to Aranya Prathet (48 bht, 6 hours), followed by a Tuk Tuk to the border (80 bht), then share a taxi with some other tourist to Siem Reap (say 50% of $40).
At the moment, the road is un-made most of the way, so this keeps speeds down, which must be a good thing.
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