Thai think, therefore Thai am (not!)

Posted by admin on January 15th, 2008 filed in the locals, expat life

If you’re planning to come and live here, you needn’t bother bringing your brain – you won’t be needing it! 

No seriously, that wasn’t meant as a derrogatory joke, but ‘thinking’ takes on a whole new meaning here. Thinking here isn’t quite something you ‘do’ – in the same sense that we would expect in the West. In fact, in a vague way, you are encouraged not to think too much in Thailand. Perhaps the locals have a point, for they don’t get too deeply into any complex riddles, philosophy is lightly touched on, simplified (though not always acceptable) solutions are usually considered the best and wisdom is something you borrow from your parents or older neighbour. As my house keeper says, ‘thinking too much gives me a headache”. Tips for visiting Samui. 

 

Just the other day I was receiving a massage from a sweet, smiling lady who gave me the impression, just from here expressions alone, that her mind was usually blank. She looked at me and said ‘you’re thinking too much, just relax’. Perhaps she was right. Or maybe her yarstick of comparison was a little too short. 

 

In Thailand it’s fairly accurate to assume that not enough thought goes into many actions and decisions. True you can see all around you examples of competence and professionalism – doctors who would be equally respected anywhere in the world, executives who are very capable of organising international events or hotel staff who uphold five-star service. But these are highly trained people. On the whole however people here have less of an ability to think about solutions to problems. The system has taught them otherwise. Traditionally in Asia the system does the thinking for you, the solution can be found by following instructions. And if it’s not covered in the instructions then there is no immediate solution.

 

There are cultural influences to bear here of course. Respect for your elders is paramount here and it maintains the order among the rank and file. By thinking too much you might end up challenging the system and your elders (whom should always be assumed to be wiser than you) and that would mean a loss of face. So, regardless of the outcome you simply do as everyone else does and not think too much about a possible better way to appraoch the task. Thai cultural etiquette

 

By now I can imagine the cultural anthropologist among my readers are howling with objection, but the truth is; if you are used a highly organised society where important decisions that affect lots of people are carefully considered for the optimum outcome, then you’re in for some head shaking here. Sure Thailand does things ‘differently’, but if you are from Stuttgard, say, you will find it quite frustrating here sometimes.

 

Allow me to recount one simple example; recently a new highway was built either side of a canal in the west of the city and it’s immediately become busy with plenty of speeding traffic (so safety markings on the road ought to be correct). It’s wide enough for three lanes. The kerbside lane in Thailand is always used for parking, or riding motorcycles against the flow of traffic. There also needs to obviously be a solid yellow line about 30cms from the dangerous concrete barriers on the canal side, but the project engineer (who should be senior and apparently knowledgeable enough to oversee a multi-million baht civils project) allowed the markings to be 2m from the barrier – making it big enough to be another lane. This means that the slow lane becomes the parking lane, the fast or overtaking lane becomes the slow lane and the typically reckless drivers here think nothing of using the danger lane for overtaking – barrelling down the road at 120kph with their right fender inches from the concrete barriers. Needless to say there have been some nasty accidents.  A little bit of thought regarding safety, before marking the lanes, would’ve saved lives. But it doesn’t mean much here.

 

And so, all around you are plenty of mindless lemmings who go about their daily jobs habitually as they were taught (or following everyone else if they can’t remember) without ever stopping sufficiently to consider if what they are doing is correct. It could be a restaurant cashier using a calculator to find out how much change to give you from 100 baht when the bill is 87 baht. When you go to pick up your serviced printer you get home to discover that it’s now more broken than when you sent it in – the shop forgot to test it when it came back from the supplier. The carpenter working on your newly built house will put the doors on the wrong way so they obstruct the light switches when they open, despite the fact that he’s been fitting doors for years. And so it goes on.

 

Most people here have a rather simplistic approach to problem solving or building. Longevity and quality are lesser considerations to cutting costs and effort. Few people give much though to the problems that are likely to arise in due course. Everyone simply ‘does’ without ‘thinking’ first. Forward planning isn’t a strong trait here. This of course means an enormous amount of wasted time and energy rectifying things that are done wrong or insufficiently.

 

The result, as a foreigner, is to get used to the whole mai pen rai approach. Expect things to break or not work out as per your expectations. Be prepared to have to try several times to achieve a satisfactory result. Pay more attention to the end product and ask for changes to be made. Make sure your requests are explicit or get your Thai friend to explain clearly to them exactly how you want it. Even after the communication barrier has been removed, there is still often a misunderstanding of the ‘concept’ as a whole, resulting in disappointment and second attempt. In short, you often have to do the all the thinking yourself. 

 

Thailand has produced few ‘rocket scientests’ over the years but there again, it’s a good example of how harmonious and less stressed a society can be when we all think a little less. 

 

Guide to Thailand