Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Humor for the Sake of Culture

Venn ist das nurnstuck git und slotermeyer?
Ya! Beigerhund das oder die flipperwaldt gersput!
- Monty Python’s funniest joke in the world

Greetings All! I apologize for having to inform you of the funniest joke in the world in another language, but if I told you in English you would surely die from laughter. ^_^ And this brings me right into the body of my post. No lollygagging today, I’m getting right down to business. As I told you in the last post I plan on informing you of some of Thai culture. I believe this is just as necessary for you to know as it is for me. If you are to truly grasp where it is that I am and what it is that I am experiencing, we must meet on a similar ground of understanding. No small tidbit shall be left out, all will be laid bare. So, on with it I say!

R.E.C.K.
An acronym imparted to me by Gregg during our first meeting, which ended up happening is his car of all places (if there had been a W at the beginning of that acronym, I’d have been a bit scared). The acronym was his way of informing me of four of the principal values of the Thai people. Naturally these values are far different than our own in America, or even the west for that matter, but they came as no great surprise to me.

R – Religion The Thai people are all about their religion. It is one of the parts of their culture which binds them together, and many if not most attribute their religion to the fact that their country has never been colonized and managed to fend off the spread of communism. Approximately 93% of Thai people are Buddhist, about 5% are Muslim, and the last two percent make up various other religions including Christianity which constitutes a little less than 1% of the Thai populace. Like many “Christians” in America, the average Thai person on the street does not practice a pure form of Buddhism and does not do so with terrible conviction. It is simply a cultural standard. Many of their beliefs are also a bit animistic. They believe there are spirits everywhere inhabiting most everything. They believe there is a spirit protecting their country, their province, their city, their neighborhood, their house, and even themselves. They put “spirit houses” all over the place, in front of businesses, homes, and even the dashboards of cars. These spirit houses are meant to appease the spirit residing in the place where they live. As you can see, this isn’t Buddhist at all, yet it is a major aspect of their belief. This belief also translates into some social conventions including not touching other people’s heads and never showing another person the bottom of your foot. They believe the soul or the spirit resides on the head and the bottom of the foot, being the part of one’s body furthest from the soul, is the dirtiest part of the body. To do either of those things would be an insult.

E – Elders The Thai, like many other east Asian cultures, believe that one’s elders are to be revered. This does not pertain to just one’s relatives, but to all elders of any sort. The practice of referring to people as Pee or Nong is exemplary of this fact. Even if a person is one second older than you, he is still your elder and should be referred to as Pee. This value also helps to bind their families together. Not only are you to revere your elders, but you are to be loyal to them as well. So, to go against your family would be to go against your elders and would be frowned upon to say the least. The extent to which people will go to help their families is amazing and unfortunately helps to support the rather large prostitution industry. Often families in the more rural areas of Thailand will send their daughters or sons to the bigger cities to make money to send back to the family. Being good children, they go. But, the people in these villages often don’t have higher than a 3rd grade education and can’t read or write their own language. It’s hard to get a job if you don’t even have that ability, so after looking around a while and not wanting to disappoint their family, they get jobs in the bars and start prostituting. They do not do this because they want to, they do it because they physically have no other choice. It’s sad, but true. That is the extent to which these values hold sway in this society.

C – Country & K – King The Thai people are very proud of their country, and are thus very proud and loyal to their king. This pride stems from their ability to fend of communism, to be one of the bright spots of modern culture and capitalism in east Asia, and their intense loyalty (if not worship of) their king. Every day at 8 AM and 6 PM every television and radio station plays the Thai national anthem. Before every public social gathering, such as at a concert or in a movie theater, they all stand for the national anthem or/and a tribute to the king. The king’s flag and the flag of Thailand fly outside every home and business. And as I said in the previous post, they wear king shirts on Monday in honor of their king and country. The king of Thailand currently holds the record as being the longest reigning monarch. The man is well into his 80s. To insult the king or speak badly of him is not only socially unacceptable, but it can also land you jail time or get you killed. The day I arrived in Thailand I was introduced to this on the front page of the Bangkok Post. An Australian journalist in Thailand wrote something offensive about the king and has been sentence to two years jail time. So, during my stay in Thailand, I am going to do my best to keep any possibly negative opinions of their country to myself. I don’t wish to insult anyone and I certainly don’t want to risk my life.

Those are four of the core values of the Thai people. Though there are a few other social values that will take some getting used to:

Fun The Thai people are a fun loving group. They don’t like to do anything that isn’t fun and therefore try to make everything fun. I was talking with P’Nu yesterday and he was telling me how during meetings (business meetings, mind you) if the talk is getting too serious, they will find funny videos online, tell jokes or funny stories, or even sing karaoke to lighten the mood, then it’s back to the grind. Games are very popular, during lunch a couple days ago a couple people sat down for a game of dutch blitz before returning to work. Thai people also don’t do many things alone. To go in groups is more fun. Malls are very popular and so is eating out. That’s where social interaction seems to happen. This love of fun is also why I am going to purposely begin putting jokes in my posts and using funny videos. I was shown an EXTREMELY funny video yesterday that you can see right here. It’s off a Japanese television show and it’s funnier than about anything I’ve seen in a very long time. Enjoy!

Moving on…

Relationships The Thai are a very friendly folk. They are warm and inviting and are full of smiles. Thailand is referred to as “the land of smiles” which speaks directly to this fact. Building a good relationship is very important to them. This is one reason why finding friends has been so easy. It’s certainly not my doing, it’s the fact that ever since I arrived the people around me have constantly been wanting to spend time with me, to get to know me, to be my friend. This value is such a part of their social culture that it has led to the bottling up of emotions. The Thai are not very honest about their true feelings. This has made it very hard for me at work. I can’t ask for any criticism or feedback, because I will never get an honest opinion. In order to be nice, they will tell me they love whatever I create or will find some roundabout way to let me know how they truly feel.

This bottling of emotions has also helped to lead to two other unfortunate parts of Thai culture, drinking and transsexuals. If you can’t express your true emotions, it can lead to depression and even that can’t be expressed. So, how do they deal with these emotions? They drink. Liver disease and alcoholism is very common. The Thai men also do not generally show their love and affection to their children. Their love is expressed through their financial support. Without this paternal love, many young men are driven into the transsexual lifestyle to find any form of affection. And they can pull it off too. There are models who are transsexuals, they appear on television and in mainstream culture, and at a university fair I attended this past week (I’ll get to that later in the post) there was a drag show during dinner. Everybody loved it.

Time Isn’t Valued Though I wish it was. Americans are all about time. We’re all about schedules. We’re all about keeping ourselves busy all the time. This is just not so for the Thai people. It is not uncommon for them to arrive late to things. The first Sunday here, I noticed people arriving up to an hour late to church. This was not seen as rude at all. It just happens. The same is true for university classes. They are gene

Well, that’s everything that I have learned so far. As more information comes my way I will send it yours. It’s amazing how quickly I picked up this information. Even if Gregg had not told me in person my second week here, I would have figured it out in the next few days anyway because P’Nu has confirmed everything that Gregg has said, not only through his telling me about it, but also in the way he acted. He told me a Thai proverb once which was “Whatever my friend has, I have too” which really illustrates the Thai concept of personal property and privacy… there is none. It’s a communal culture. When they order food, they order many different dishes and everybody takes from everything. It’s the Thai way. So... and everything Thai is going to take some getting used to for me. I’m doing pretty well so far I think, but again, I ask you to keep me in your prayers.

Tourism… Or Something Like It
To tell ya the real truth, I haven’t done much touring since I’ve been here. The most I’ve done was that very first week with that group of Americans when we went on a boat ride through some of the river dwellings. The next time I did any touring at all was a week and a half ago when I went with that group of students from church. Of course, explaining why I was out with them on a Saturday evening takes a bit of explanation. We went to a concert. There was an “inspirational” concert at one of the universities downtown, Tammasat University. There were eight different musicians, all Christian, all wildly popular with both Christians and non-Christians. One in specific, a guy who calls himself ToR+, was very popular and received fangirlish screams from the entire audience, not just girls. My ears were ringing after that scream. It was a great concert, and I have all of the music from it even though I can’t understand a single word.

So… onto the touring. I went to the concert with a group from church and afterwards they all decided to go out to eat and “drink.” I met one girl that evening for the first time, a girl named Kim, who spoke practically perfect English. She and I talked for most of the evening while we were walking through the crowds of downtown Bangkok. They wanted to find food that I hadn’t had before, so when Kim asked me what I had had, I was unable to really give a straight answer. I’m not really sure what any of the food is that I’ve had so far. It’s all pretty much the same. It’s all been meat and veggies in a sauce of some sort on top of rice. That’s pretty much what they eat here. I told Kim that, so they took me somewhere that didn’t serve meat and veggies on rice as a principal dish. We went to a fairly well-known restaurant called Roti-Mataba. The place didn’t look like much, in fact it looked like every other restaurant I’d been to in Thailand, but this place is so well-known that Fodor’s actually reviewed it. I didn’t know that at the time I went, I discovered this fact as I was writing this post. But, it makes sense. The food was excellent, I enjoyed the matabas and the rotis (look ‘em up, cuz I’m not explaining the dishes). From there we walked through an area of Bangkok that probably had more tourists than foreigners. It was crazy. I can understand why though. It was exactly the sort of atmosphere I expected Bangkok to have. Due to the amount of tourists, the area felt a bit contrived and fake, but nevertheless it was fun to walk through. Our destination was a place called Mort. This is where the “drinking” is explained. When somebody says they’re going to go out drinking, I assume alcohol. But they were just using the word to describe the action of consuming a liquid. We in fact did not drink alcohol at all, though I could have gone for a pint of beer. Mort exclusively serves sweetened milk. It was like hell for the lactose intolerant. They have all different flavors and kinds, but I had the regular. They also do sweet toast. That is, they toast bread and put any sort of sweet sauce on it you could dream up. This place clearly had a reputation because it was packed. But, leave it to Thai people to find sitting space for a group of nine in a room that was already at twice capacity. I was impressed. The picture in the previous post was me standing with this same group of people right before we went to Mort. That was taken in front of the monument to democracy in downtown. On our way out of Mort we tried to catch a cab at that intersection, but traffic was blocked due to a protest put on by the red shirts. We found a cab elsewhere.

To Market, To Market
Last week the university across the street, Kasetsart University, held their yearly market fair. It’s such a big deal that the entire university is shut down for the entire week, including classes. The market was set up on the ring road that circles campus, and it was incredible. They were selling all sorts of stuff, but most of it was plants and food. Kasetsart is famous for its agricultur program, so the amount of greenery vendors makes sense. Other stuff on sale included herbal medications, touristy trinkets, furniture, artwork, cushions, and even pets. The dogs were really cute. I ended up going to the fair three times and I still don’t think I saw the whole thing. I didn’t buy anything other than food, though a couple of those puppies gave me looks that I almost couldn’t resist.

I had planned on going to do some more touring this past Saturday, but ended up sleeping instead. I needed the sleep badly, so I’m not that bummed about it. I still have plenty of time to see everything I want to see and then some. In fact, I just got my stay here extended another three weeks. So, yeah, I’ve got time. So, instead of embarking on some grand tourist excursion, I went to the weekend market. It’s not terribly far from where I’m living and is set up every weekend, thus the name. It’s probably a few acres in area and is packed tight with all sorts of vendors. I went looking for slip-on shoes because I’m tired of having to sit down and tie my shoes every time I leave a building. I had no success with finding slip-on shoes, though I did find the most awesome pair of Converse All-Stars I’ve ever seen. I didn’t but them on that particular trip because I don’t want to dirty them up commuting through dirty Bangkok, but I will buy them before I leave. They’re just $4 after all. This particular market was much more touristy than the one at Kasetsart. There were a lot of junk vendors and such. Probably three quarters of the stuff there I would never in my life think of buying. But, I got lucky. On one corner of the market they were throwing a contemporary art fair. There were probably 80 booths set up with original pieces of art by local artists. I’m not talking yer run-of-the-mill Buddha painting you see on the street corners, this was quality artwork. I probably spent half of my time at the market walking through this one section. There were a good 8 pieces there that I would have purchased if I could. I was there a bit early actually, the art fair didn’t technically start for an hour or so, so not all of the artists were standing with their work yet so I didn’t get to ask about prices. Not that I could have afforded any of it anyway. But it was beautiful.

Cinematically Speaking…
By now you’re all aware that I love movies. So, when I heard that I could go to movies here for just $4 a pop, I was elated. Since arriving I have seen two movies. P’Nu took me to see Underworld: Rise of the Lycans last Thursday. I went because he invited me. I honestly didn’t expect the film to be any good, but it actually was. I really enjoyed it. Sure, it’s no masterpiece, but for a pop culture film about vampires and werewolves, it ranked fairly high in my book. The other film I went to see is The Reader. I’ve wanted to see this film since the first time I saw an advertisement for it. Then, when it got nominated for best picture at the Oscars, I knew I had no choice. So, last Saturday after walking around the weekend market for three hours, I saw it. And, I have to say, it was phenomenal. The acting was brilliant! Kate Winslet really proved she’s got the gift. Now, it was a bit explicit on the sexuality at the beginning, and the time frame of the movie was all screwed up for me due to what I think was a translation error in the Thai subtitles, but the second half of the film made up for the shortcomings. It was a sad film, but I left it in a happier mood than I went in. Good movies do that to me, even if they’re sad. If you’re a fan of a good drama, I highly suggest this movie. Honestly, it’s no best picture winner, but it certainly deserved its nomination.

On the subject of the Oscars, it appears I will actually get to watch them. I’ve seen multiple advertisements for them on one of the television channels that P’Tote and Arm regularly watch. I’m not sure when it comes on, but if I can swing it, I plan on watching them. I’ll let you know how things unfold.

Project 2: My Hope Logo
The second project I have been assigned is the visual identity for a conference being held in December called My Hope Thailand. With all identities, logo creation comes first. So, that’s what I’ve been doing all this week. This project is going much better than the previous one. I’ve been given my own freedom so far. Most of the office is gone on a trip up to the north of Thailand, so I have the room to myself and nobody looking over my shoulder. I’ve completed three logo designs and am planning on finishing two more before the end of the week. On Monday, when the office repopulates, I’ll present my logo ideas and hopefully one of them will be acceptable. I have no doubt that there will be changes required no matter what happens, so I’m trying not to attach myself to any one design.

But, so far I would be happy with any of the logos I’ve created. I have my favorite of course, and I will do my best to steer them that way, but I will be happy with any of them. They are all good quality logos. And I’ve learned in this process as well. It’s nice to actually have time to sit and be creative. In school I always had short deadlines and competition from four other classes for my time, so to actually have the time to sit for eight hours straight during the day and put all my effort towards one task has been creatively liberating. In fact, just today I went into a fit of jubilation when I discovered how to create a convincing 3D drop of water in Adobe Illustrator. I had to sit back and really think about it, a task that took me the whole of an hour, but I figured it out. I never would have had the time to do that in school. So, yeah, I’m enjoying myself right now. This has been a good week and I hope it stays this way.

And now for something completely different.

Type to ya later!

Caesar1280's Anime Ticker

.hack//Legend of the Twilight, Air, Air: The Movie, Akira, The Animatrix, Appleseed, Aquatic Language, Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror, Beck, Black Lagoon, Blame!, Blood the Last Vampire, Bokurano, Burst Angel, Castle in the Sky, Cowboy Bebop, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express, Egao, FLCL, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala, Gankutsuou, Gatekeepers, Genshiken, Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society, Gin-iro no Kami no Agito, Grave of the Fireflies, Grenadier, Haibane Renmei, Hellsing, Highlander: The Search for Vengeance, Hikaru no Go, Howl?s Moving Castle, Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade, Jyu Oh Sei, Karas: The Prophecy, Last Exile, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, Midori?s Days, Milennium Actress, Mushi-shi, My Neighbor Totoro, Naruto, Naruto: The Movie, Nausicaa, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death And Rebirth, Ninja Scroll: The Movie, Other Worlds, Paprika, Perfect Blue, Pet Shop of Horrors, The Place Promised In Our Early Days, Prétear, Princess Mononoke, Read Or Die, Read Or Die: The TV, Samurai Champloo, Samurai Seven, Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal, She and Her Cat, Spirited Away, Steamboy, Tide-Line Blue, Tokyo Babylon, Tokyo Godfathers, Trigun, Voices of a Distant Star, Witch Hunter Robin, Wonderful Days, Wrath of the Ninja, X

Anime I've Seen - .hack//Legend of the Twilight - .hack//Sign - 5 Centimeters per Second - Air - Air: The Movie - Akira - The Animatrix - Appleseed - Aquatic Language - Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror - Baby Blue - Beck - Black Lagoon - Blame! - Blood the Last Vampire - Bokurano - Burst Angel - Castle in the Sky - Cowboy Bebop - Cowboy Bebop: The Movie - Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express - Doorbell - Egao - FLCL - Fullmetal Alchemist - Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala - Gankutsuou - Gatekeepers - Genius Party - Genshiken - Genshiken OAV - Ghost in the Shell - Ghost in the Shell: Innocence - Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society - Gin-iro no Kami no Agito - The Gokusen - Grave of the Fireflies - Grenadier - Haibane Renmei - Happy Machine - Hellsing - Highlander: The Search for Vengeance - Hikaru no Go - Howl's Moving Castle - Innocent Venus - Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade - Jyu Oh Sei - Karas: The Prophecy - Karas: The Revelation - Last Exile - Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi - Midori?s Days - Milennium Actress - Mushi-shi - My Neighbor Totoro - Naruto - Naruto: The Movie - Nausicaa - Neon Genesis Evangelion - Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death And Rebirth - Ninja Scroll: The Movie - Other Worlds - Ouran High School Host Club - Paprika - Perfect Blue - Pet Shop of Horrors - The Place Promised In Our Early Days - Prétear - Princess Mononoke - Read Or Die - Read Or Die: The TV - Samurai Champloo - Samurai Seven - Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal - Serial Experiments Lain - Shanghai Dragon - She and Her Cat - Spirited Away - Steamboy - Tekkonkinkreet - Tide-Line Blue - Tokyo Babylon - Tokyo Godfathers - Trigun - Trinity Blood - Vampire Hunter D - Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust - Voices of a Distant Star - Witch Hunter Robin - Wolf's Rain - Wonderful Days - Wrath of the Ninja - X Total: 93

Anime I Haven't Completed - .hack//Roots - Ah! My Goddess - Angelic Layer - Avenger - Baccano! - Bamboo Blade - Basilisk - Binchou-tan - Black Cat - Bleach - Blood+ - Boogiepop Phantom - Case Closed - Le Chevalier d'Eon - Chobits - Chrono Crusade - Code Geass - Coyote Ragtime Show - D.Gray-Man - D.N.Angel - DearS - Death Note - Dennou Coil - Desert Punk - Digimon - Dragon Ball Z - Ergo Proxy - Eureka Seven - Excel Saga - Fighting Beauty Wulong - Final Fantasy Unlimited - Flag - Freedom - Full Moon - Gantz - Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Gintama - Glass Fleet - Great Teacher Onizuka - Gundam Seed - Gundam Wing - Hayate the Combat Butler - Hellsing OVA - Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - Ikki Tousen - InuYasha - Jigoku Shojo - Kage Kara Mamoru - Karin - Kino's Journey - Love Hina - Loveless - Lovely Complex - Lucky Star - Makai Senki Disgaea - Marchen Awakens Romance - Meine Liebe - The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Mononoke - Monster - Moon Phase - Mr Stain on Junk Alley - Naruto Shippuuden - Negima?! - Negima! - Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion - Nerima Daikon Brothers - NHK ni Youkoso - Night Walker - Ninja Nonsense - Noir - Peacemaker Kurogane - Pokemon - Prince of Tennis - R.G. Veda - Ragnarok - Rec - Red Garden - Robotech - Romeo x Juliet - Rosen Maiden - Rurouni Kenshin - Saikano - Sailor Moon - Samurai Deeper Kyo - Sci-fi Harry - School Rumble - Scrapped Princess - Shin-chan - Shingu - Shion no Oh - Shuffle! - Shrine of the Morning Mist - So Long, Mr. Despair - Solty Rei - Sousei no Aquarion - Speed Grapher - Spice and Wolf - Super Milk Chan - Tales of Phantasia - Tenchi Muyo - Tenjhou Tenge - Texnolyze - The Third - Tsubasa Chronicles - Urusei Yatsura - Venus Versus Virus - Welcome to the N.H.K. - Winter Cicada - X-1999 - Xenosaga - XxxHolic - Yu Yu Hakushou - Yume Tsukai - Zero no Tsukaima - Zipang Total: 116

Manga I've Completed - Cowboy Bebop - FLCL - Manga Messiah - Manga Metamorphosis - Q*Ko-chan - Saiyuki - Shirahime-Syo Total: 7 Manga I Haven't Completed - .hack//Legend of the Twilight - Black Cat - Blame! - Chobits - D.Gray-man - Darkside Blues - Death Note - The Demon Ororon - Desert Coral - Disgaea - Eureka Seven: Gravity Boys and Lifting Girl - Fruits Basket - Getbackers - Hayate the Combat Butler - Kamunagara - Legal Drug - Love Hina - Loveless - Megatokyo - Naruto - Negima - Read Or Die - Rurouni Kenshin - Tactics - Trigun Maximum - XXXHolic Total: 26

Anime I'm Currently Watching
Samurai 7, InuYasha, Samurai Deeper Kyo,
Boogiepop Phantom, and Shrine of the Morning Mist

Manga I'm Currently Reading
Read Or Die, Hayate the Combat Butler, and Megatokyo.hack//Roots, .hack//Sign, 5 cm per Second, Ah! My Goddess, Angelic Layer, Avenger, Basilisk, Binchou-tan, Black Cat, Bleach, Blood+, Boogiepop Phantom, Case Closed, Le Chevalier d'Eon, Chobits, Chrono Crusade, Coyote Ragtime Show, D.Gray-Man, D.N.Angel, DearS, Death Note, Dennou Coil, Desert Punk, Digimon, Dragon Ball Z, Ergo Proxy, Eureka 7, Excel Saga, Fighting Beauty Wulong, Final Fantasy Unlimited, Flag, Full Moon, Gantz, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Gintama, Great Teacher Onizuka, Gundam Seed, Gundam Wing, Hayate the Combat Butler, Hellsing Ultimate, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Innocent Venus, InuYasha, Jigoku Shojo, Kage Kara Mamoru, Karin, Kino?s Journey, Love Hina, Loveless, Lovely Complex, Lucky Star, Makai Senki Disgaea, Marchen Awakens Romance, Meine Liebe, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Mononoke, Monster, Naruto Shippuuden, Negima?!, Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion, Nerima Daikon Brothers, NHK ni Youkoso, Night Walker, Ninja Nonsense, Noir, Ouran High School Host Club, Peacemaker Kurogane, Pokemon, Prince of Tennis, R.G. Veda, Ragnarok, Rec, Red Garden, Robotech, Romeo x Juliet, Rosen Maiden, Rurouni Kenshin, Saikano, Sailor Moon, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Sci-fi Harry, School Rumble, Scrapped Princess, Serial Experiments Lain, Shingu, Shuffle!, Shrine of the Morning Mist, So Long Mr. Despair, Solty Rei, Sousei no Aquarion, Speed Grapher, Super Milk Chan, Tales of Phantasia, Tenchi Muyo, Tenjhou Tenge, Texnolyze, The Third. Trinity Blood, Tsubasa Chronicles, Urusei Yatsura, Welcome to the N.H.K., Winter Cicada, X-1999, Xenosaga, XxxHolic, Yu Yu Hakushou, Yume Tsukai, Zero no Tsukaima, Zipang

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