Quote:
Originally Posted by Intltuk
Oops....just notice u've a saying in Thai........."I know it must hurt either ...
To know that it hurts ... But I was willing to be hurt because of love "
Think I need to shut up and listen
|
No la, it's good to have people share their experience too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lagonda
Bro,mind sharing the main/some of the cultural differences?
|
1) I'm not a bro.
2) I'm not an expert... There are many more experts here!! But I do have many friends who are attached/married to Thais and most of what I know is through my personal experience and the experiences of the people around me.
Thais in general love to have fun. Not saying us Singaporeans don't but as we all know working in Singapore is getting increasingly stressful... Everyday we work like dogs and at the end of the day are too tired to do anything except collapse on our beds and sleep. Thais on the other hand can go chiong everyday of the week until 3am, go home and sleep for a few hours and then get up for work in the morning. I have a group of Thai friends working in an MNC in Singapore. They're out partying almost everyday after work but still make it to work the next day... And they're all doing very well. Is that a cultural difference...? I'm not sure. But what I do know is that it IS a difference between us and the Thais - unless you are also the type who goes out everyday despite having to work the next day, or unless you are the very open-minded type of person who can tolerate your partner going out almost every night.
As most people here have already mentioned, Thais treasure their families very much and are mostly very filial. So if they were to find a foreign partner, they'll definitely find one who can support them as well as their family and allow them to lead a comfortable life. If not, they'd probably just settle for a fellow Thai. That said, it wouldn't be right to believe everything they say... Like when they say "I need to send money home to my parents" it may not necessarily be true. Especially if she's working in Singapore as a WL, FL, singer or PR, she definitely would have more than enough money to send home for her parents, dog, house, brother, sister etc. Most people get mind fucked because they're not sure when their Thai girl is speaking the truth... To me, the simplest test would be a) whether she's willing to stay with you or spends most of the time she's awake with you; b) whether you have to spend more than what your salary can afford on her OR incurring debts because of her; c) basically just the way she treats you. Most times, the signs are obvious if she only thinks of you as a customer or a carrothead... That is, IF at that point in time you can still think with your big head instead of the small one.
Relationships wise, I would say Thais tend to play a lot of mind games, especially those who have had proper education or those working in the nightlife industry (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, as mentioned these are all based on my personal experience as well as the experiences of the people around me). Having a gik (which translates to fling or fuck buddy in local context) is very common for them. They can have a stable bf or gf but still fuck around. In some cases, the bfs or gfs even know about it, but choose to close one eye... This is smth I initially found really unacceptable. Most of them who come to Singapore to work already have bfs/gfs/husbands/wives back in Thai. They sleep with their customers for money/flowers/LDs and most of the time their partners back in Thai don't even know about it. Their sisters/brothers working together with them will also help them to keep the secret... When the secret is exposed, their explanation is that they do it for the money. Unacceptable to us, but relatively acceptable to the Thais I suppose.
Some people would also have heard that over at Thailand, the Thai girls work to support their Thai bfs or husbands, who choose to stay home doing nothing all day long. This is true to a certain extent but recently I've seen quite a number of exceptions. My ex bf was Thai who worked to support himself. He didn't earn enough to support me though (his salary back in Thai was just about SGD 900 per month) which was fine by me because I didn't need his financial support. However when I flew over to find him he'd take care of all my expenses for me, and occasionally buying my air ticket for me as well. My current bf is also Thai, and he too doesn't rely on me for financial support. He also works to support himself and at times would give me money when he gets his salary. When we go out we take turns to foot the bill.
That said, my personal experience with Thais is that they're not very good at saving money. Since they love going out, socializing and having fun, they can spend almost all of their salary within the first one week after payday. Of course there are exceptions, but for some reason about 80% of the Thai friends I have are like this.
Can't think of any other points for now so I guess that's about it. Again I don't claim to be an expert... My knowledge of Thais and the Thai culture is not that deep yet. So if you would like, please take everything you read here with a pinch of salt
