Note: The opinions expressed in this blog are mostly based on casual observation and are probably stereotypes that are not accurately reflective of the Thai people. Never the less, the observations have been made. I’ve been in Thailand for some time now and I’ve found some thoughts about Thailand drifting in my head, so I thought I’d write them down.
Thailand is disorganized: My number one thought is how disorganized Thailand really is. It honestly amazes me when buses and planes take off near the time they’re supposed to. Even our university, which is supposed to be modeled in Western-style, is incredibly disorganized. No one ever seems to know where anyone is or where you’re supposed to go for something. You’ll often receive differing instructions on things from the same people. Businesses and roads seem haphazardly placed with necessity often overriding practicality, with frequently poor results. All in all, it seems like everyone has a general idea of how things are supposed to work, but they lack the abilities to execute on those general ideas.
No matter how much Thai you speak, every Thai person thinks they can sucker you: One thing I always figured was that, for the first few months, Thai people would try to abuse me and my wallet, scamming me (or at least attempting to), until they recognized that I have been here for a while and they’d back off. Not so. Despite being able to carry out most transactions in Thai and being capable of carrying on broken-Thai conversations with Thai people, I find that most people still assume that I’m fresh off the plane and ready to be scammed. I’m still finding taxi drivers harassing me despite being able to tell them that I don’t need rides. The stall owners in markets still try to overcharge me for everything even though I can negotiate prices in Thai to them. It was pretty fun for a while, but I wish lately that they’d just let me be. I recently took a survey in school for some kid’s class that asked me “how should tour companies improve” and I said “stop trying to get me to buy shit, I don’t have money either.” That should show you how frequently this problem occurs.
In MUIC, the school is mostly a joke: despite the prestige that surrounds MUIC, my college here, school is a silly distraction in Thailand. I’m doing well in my class despite poor attendance, as shown by my typically exemplary marks that I earned on all my midterms. Thai kids seem to struggle more, but I think the language barrier (all classes are taught in English) is the biggest cause of their problems. I don’t have any books for any of my classes. I barely go to one of them since the teacher never takes attendance and the midterm was easy enough that I honestly laughed out loud when I read the questions over. Thai kids are especially terrible. They’ll frequently talk while the teacher is talking and many of them never seem to do readings. Teachers never discipline the Thai kids either, which discourages me from putting in any effort, which is something new that I don’t really like. I honestly wish that I had gone to a different university here in the hopes of actually learning something, but with 2 weeks of classes left, it’s unlikely that can happen.
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