Western Attitudes

What are we here to teach?

Should we see ourselves as missionaries for Western culture values?

4th April 2011

As foreigners teaching in a foreign country, what are the expectations and where are the boundaries?

Tall poppy syndrome

6th December 2006

The tone of the letters here is often such that if you’re qualified and want to teach in Thailand, there’s something wrong with you, because otherwise you’d be elsewhere accumulating capital.

Let’s unite

Sent in by JP Rob

1st December 2006

Life is easy here and that's why people want to stay. Most teachers here are here to enhance their career and stamp on the teachers below them.

A bit of culture part two

The concept of face and other things

2nd August 2005

If a waiter in a restaurant screws up your order and brings you fishballs instead of the fried pork-skin on rice you ordered, most people won’t send it back or make a fuss about it. The waiter might lose face. So what? Well, by embarrassing him this way, you too will be considered as having lost face. It’s really a lose-lose situation. You can either eat your smelly fishballs or lose face.

A bit of culture part one

Loud music and slouching

1st July 2005

Now let me first get one thing straight. I like Thailand and I like Thai people. They are very friendly and I usually don’t mind their strange behaviour and views. They say it’s culture. It’s not a problem for me, but the question is: can you handle it? With ‘you’, I mean the newly arrived farangs who are still in the so-called honeymoon period and think Thailand is heaven on earth

Ajarns of high couture

Introducing this week's guest columnist

3rd October 2001

A guest column - the vast majority of which wasn't written by myself. All about the cultural differences Thai ajarns face upon going to and then returning from a western country to study