Warning: lots of scrambles and generalizations here...
I've been having a lot of conversations about the two nations that live in Thailand. Thailand and Muang Thai. Thailand is the place that the farangs see, the tourist farangs and the foreigners who have lived here for years and years and never learned the language (or only know a tiny bit). That's the nation full of indoor rice shops with poorly translated menus. These restaurants vary in taste but usually don't compare to the restaurants that belong to Muang Thai--the Thailand that Thai speakers belong to.
I am in the middle, maybe the middle leaning towards the Thailand side, since I only know a minimal amount of Thai. So much goes on under the farang's noses, it's almost frightening. I've been able to see more than most farangs because of the music opportunities, because of P'Nui, etc. Because of friends. I've been into a Thai home and watched a soap opera with Amata. I've tried, assisted, to watch Thai news or read Thai newspapers. And of course, I have the Polling Center job around me. But seriously, I am still kept out of much that goes on here. I get glimpses, like when my boss told me that four years ago, the gov't instilled a no-tolerance drug policy which meant if you were caught selling drugs they'd shoot you, your wife, and your kids on the spot without trial. This policy is no longer in effect, but Good Lord. I never would have guessed that the "peaceful buddhist culture" they show the farangs would allow something like that.
And then there is the food on the street. Good food, found in places many farangs wouldn't be able to order at because there is no sign of the English language anywhere. This is a conscious decision, I think.
Do I have a desire to have people appreciate my home and culture? I guess I do. I tend to give lectures about Detroit music, history, etc. But I am not so sure that Thai pride is matched in any way by any american. Sometimes I think I wouldn't be surprised if a Thai rejected the gospel because Jesus wasn't Thai. Of course, Buddha wasn't either.
And then there's the hostility from the Farangs towards Thais. The Farangs that seem to look down on the Thais as if they are incompetant. I have heared the woman described as manipulative (though I would argue that the hundred dollar bill waved in front of Thai women is a type of manipulation). I have heard a critique that they keep their poor without money and the wealth is only handled by a select few (could this be universal?).
I've come across a man frustrated because his girlfriend's family won't meet him, because he's white. (After watching what white men have done to so many Thai women, is he surprised her parents don't want to meet him?) He says he wants to marry her, she's why he's here. The same man refuses to learn Thai, as it seems too feminine for him to produce those sounds. He has been here for two years, but says he has not really been in a situation where he heard the Thai language. And that is the best example of the two nations that exist here.
Is this the case with all farang men who marry Thai women? Do they fully expect the women to give up their language in their homes? If these men refuse to learn their lover's language, aren't they in some way refusing a part of their lover? Does "I love you," ever have the same effect from a person's second language that it does coming at them in their native tongue?
