On the subject of Thai culture. After reading the part about Gordon Ramsay in the tuk-tuk, the first thing I did was to watch it on Youtube. I was expecting some kind of cultural faux-pas. But no!
The writer grossly exaggerated what Gordon did. He rested his feet behind the driver, but nowhere near his head. It was behind his back.
At the end of the day, if tuk-tuk drivers don’t want passengers to do that, then don’t put metal rails behind the driver.
The most important point is that the tuk-tuk driver is providing a service to a customer. It’s not up to the passenger to pay more respect to the driver. Some expats in Thailand are culturally constipated.
I totally disagree with the comments about never complaining about students or the school.
I’m not a moaner by nature, but in my experience, I have found it necessary to compalin about one or two things.
Many years ago, I was teaching 6 nurses at a language school. There was also a gay guy in the class who kept distracting other students and being over-camp when answering questions.
When it was getting unbearable, I stopped the class and told him that no-one was impressed with his behaviour and that he needed to stop annoying me and the other students.
I also reported this to the school director, who completely understood and told the student in question that if he heard one more complaint about him, that he should find somewhere else to study and that his Farang boyfriend would also be informed that he wasn’t taking his classes seriously.
We never had a problem with this student again.
Totally agree with Sir Heath. NEVER, EVER complain to the Thai Head about your students or the school in general. It WILL come back to haunt you! If u really need to let off steam then do it with another farang. In class, deal with things as best you can and if it is really that bad then start to look for another job. Simple as that I’m afraid…..
Read “Culture Shock thailand” one . It will give you great insight into thai culture and save you a lot of problems. Nobody is immune from culture shock. Educate yourself on the subject and be able to recognize the symptoms of culture shock so you can better deal with it. I have seen a great number of farangs here in Thailand who seem to never resolve these issues and have to live with culture shock indefinately it seems. Of course they may just be winging little snotheads, sometimes it is hard to tell…..........
“The writer grossly exaggerated what Gordon did. He rested his feet behind the driver, but nowhere near his head. It was behind his back”
The soles of the feet are still pointing at the driver. Ask the driver if he feels that’s acceptable? It might not be the point anyway - why not just rest your feet flat on the floor like I do? And that’s not being ‘culturally constipated’, that’s using good old fashioned common sense. Always put plenty of it in your suitcase when you’re doing your packing.
By philip on 2012-03-29