I learned a new expression in Thai today: “Hong Kong Foot”. Yes, that’s the Thai; it refers to what we call in English, “Athlete’s Foot”, the fungus that grows between your toes. Apparently Athlete’s Foot is a major problem in Thailand because practically everyone wears open rubber flip-flops, and there’s water everywhere. But I never knew this was called “Hong Kong Foot” in Thai until today.
Hong Kong Foot
February 15, 2007 at 10:33 am (Athlete's Foot, Hong Kong Foot, Thailand, fungus, medical problems)
Loving by the rules
February 11, 2007 at 9:55 pm (Thai Culture, Valentine's Day)
The Culture Ministry [of Thailand] has launched the ‘10 Commandments of Love’ in an attempt to prevent teenagers getting too carried away on Valentine’s Day. They are:
1. Love with patience, so as not to become a premature parent
2. Truly love only one person
3. Love with mercy, trying not to hurt the one you love
4. Carefully love to avoid taking risks that might lead to contracting sexual diseases
5. Love with honour, waiting until the proper time to have sex
6. Love in accordance with custom
7. Love reasonably, not taking sexual advantage of your lover
8. Love permanently, without defaming the one you love
9. Love honestly, believing in your partner
10. Love with understanding, forgiveness and without anger
Culture Minister Khunying Khaisri Sri-aroon said the initiative followed research suggesting that teenagers have premature sex, more than one partner and live together without commitment. “The commandments remind them that real love does not mean sex,” she said.
Dr Amornwit Nakhonthap, director of Ramjitti Institute, said society should allow teenagers the space to learn about loving, and the best way to persuade them to be morally upright was to rely on sensible pressure from their peers.
–The Nation 2007-02-12
I read elsewhere that some Thai people are upset that Valentine’s Day is observed at all, because it is a western concept, not a part of Thai culture. But I personally have noticed that many Thais, both male and female, think it’s a great idea, and do give gifts and/or flowers to their honey and to their boss and friends. It seems to be more of a “day of honour and respect” than a “day of love”.
A Frustrating Buddy
February 11, 2007 at 12:23 pm (Thai, call center, call centre, service quality)
I have Buddy Broadband at my room, which requires a monthly top-up of 650 baht. I called their telephone line, and got a recording that gave several menu options. Eventually, I got to the Payment Options section, one of which is credit card. However, they don’t actually allow you to enter a credit card number, they just tell you that you can do it. Not exactly useful.
They also say you can pay via the TV set (they offer IP TV) or the web site.
My IP-enabled TV just showed a screen with the words “Buddy Broadband”, but would not do anything at all.
The web site did not respond, although every other site I tried did.
So I figured their web server was down and called their call centre. After a very long wait, a Thai girl who sounded like she was in her twenties, answered and asked me what my problem was.
I told her that I could not connect to the Buddy Broadband web site to pay my bill, but had no problem connecting to all other sites, like the BBC and CNN. I asked her if their web site was down.
She didn’t give me a straight answer. Instead, she said, “Click on toon”.
“What?” I asked.
“Click on toon.”
“What’s that?”
She said, “At de top of de skene, you haff fine, edit, few, favorite, and toon. Click on toon.”
“Oh,” I said, suddenly understanding, “you mean in Internet Explorer?”
“Yes,” she said, “click on toon.”
So I started up IE7, then clicked on Tools.
“Then click on Internet option.”
Anyway, to make this shaggy dog story shorter, she walked me through clearing the Internet Explorer cache, cookies, etc. I told her I was using Firefox, and that I could access all web sites except Buddy’s, but it seems she only knew how to do one thing. She obviously had very limited training.
Of course, after going through her gyrations, I still could not access the web site. I told her to tell her boss that the web server was down and someone should fix it, and then said goodbye.
Eight hours later, I tried again, the web site was back up, and I paid my bill.
I have had a similar experience with another Thai company, Thai Epay, which processes orders by credit card for Thai Culture Publishing. Poor training, little knowledge of anything, and relatively poor English skills or understanding of actual problems. It’s frustrating for the customer, and gives a very poor impression of Thai expertise; it must also be frustrating for the poor call centre people, who must realise that they are giving poor service.
All Lies
February 11, 2007 at 12:18 pm (English pronunciation, Thai)
From ThaiVisa.com:
How does a Thai person pronounce the following English words?
Q: right, rice, light, lie, like, lice, life, ripe, rhyme, line, ride, rite, rife, rise, wry, lime, rye
A: lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie …. stiwpid langwit!!
Wrapping Presents the Thai Way
February 9, 2007 at 4:19 am (Thai way, wrapping presents)
Yesterday Thai Culture Publishing got a big order for the Speak Easy Thai CD-ROM from a large distributor. They had been working on this for four months, so were pretty happy when the order arrived by e-mail.
However, there were 92 separate purchase orders, and each order had to be packaged separately, with a delivery page and invoice attached. So the girls started wrapping the orders. I just happened to be there at the time.
The company is small and doesn’t have a table, but this doesn’t faze the girls there, they just spread everything over the floor: CDs, wrapping paper, and string were spread everywhere.
Each order was for 3 to 5 CD-ROMs, which are packaged individually in DVD cases. One of the girls stacked 5 cases, then wrapped brown paper around them, then put Scotch tape along the join. Then she sort of bunched up the overhanging paper at the ends, and stuck more tape on the two lumps. I looked at the other girl, and she was doing exactly the same thing.
Now one girl is 29 and the other 21, and yet it was obvious that neither knew how to wrap a present. So I called a halt and showed them how to cut the paper so it was less than the height of the stack, then tuck the ends in neatly, making a triangle, then folding down both sides and taping the triangle.
Neither had seen this before and thought it was a good trick. Another case of Western culture overwhelming Thai culture, eh?
