Thoughts on Thai Culture

Primarily due to the language barrier that I face daily, I have not been able to understand the intricacies of Thai culture to a degree that is satisfying. Because of the language barrier, I have relied mostly on observation to detect cultural differences.

One thing that I noticed relatively quickly was that more umbrellas were out during the sunny, clear days in Thailand than the rainy ones. In fact, many people walking around Bangkok and Lam Plai Mat walk under their umbrellas when there is no cloud in the sky. In Lam Plai Mat I asked a teacher about why many Thais do this (we were at a market and I saw someone walking around with an umbrella in the sun) and she responded that maybe the person felt hot. Upon further inspection and what must have felt like an interrogation to the teacher, I was able to discover that it actually is all about skin tone. A darker skin tone in Thailand is associated with farmers and other "low-class" jobs that require the person to be out in the sun all day doing manual labor. Therefore, people use umbrellas to hide from the sun and maintain a pale complexion.

Another interesting cultural difference occurred when I first began spending time with Thais at Lam Plai Mat. I would go out to eat with the teachers and headmaster and they would order 6-8 dishes for 4 people. While I thoroughly enjoyed the diversity and abundance of food, I always feel bad wasting food and thus would engorge myself by eating as much as was humanly possible. On one occasion, the headmaster took me out for dinner and ordered four dishes - a whole fish simmering in garlic and chillies, a deep fried fish, chicken with Thai basil stirfry, and shrimp with Chinese and Thai vegetables in an oyster sauce, and steamed rice (of course) - and he ate a spoonful of each dish and half of the deep fried fish, leaving a feast to me. I could barely finish half of the food in front of me and we ended up leaving a lot of food on the table. This happened at pretty much every meal I attended at a restaurant and I couldn't understand the reasoning. As it turns out, Thai culture dictates that the more food is left on the table, the more generous the host is. Also, one should never clean his or her plate because then it gives the perception that the host did not provide enough food to the guest. While I do wish I had known this before I stuffed myself to borderline sickness at every meal, I can't say that I didn't enjoy the feasts.

Finally, I have noticed that Karaoke is a very popular pastime in Thailand. While a majority of Thais are really surprisingly good at singing, one can always get the occasional dud that is quite painful to bear. Beer and karaoke also tend to go hand in hand. Just a note of caution to beer enthusiasts: the Thais serve their beer at room temperature (which in Thailand is 90 degrees Fahrenheit) and then put ice cubes in it, making an already light lager particularly watery. You have been warned.

I also would like to highlight a recent Economist article about Thai politics. While I am not near fluent in Thai politics (particularly the 17 coups in the last 37 years), I did prepare myself to be able to understand the general political scene of this nation. In Kenya ethnicity dominated politics, and the two combined dominated conversations and culture. In Thailand, I have yet to hear one person speak about politics (although if the conversation occurred in Thai I would completely miss it). I find the absence of political discourse around me surprising for a country that has seen so much political unrest in its recent and immediate past. I really would like to know more about what the average Thai thinks of politics, both past and present.