This should most certainly be made a sticky
Stickman's guide to Bangkok
Readers' Submissions
Why I Never Married A Thai
By Arthur
Original link
http://www.stickmanbangkok.com/Reader/reader1803.htm
Some of you (very) long-time readers of this site may remember that a few years ago Stick provided a section on his website that listed forthcoming articles. One of these was entitled “Why I Wouldn’t Marry a Thai,” or something similar. I awaited this article of his for some time, but realized after his marriage that it would not likely ever be published. As a result of this omission, I decided to discuss the reasons why I didn’t marry a Thai. Please note that these are my observations, I don’t expect you to necessarily have had similar experiences or opinions.
Because this is a rather long submission, the links below will let you jump to the 5 issues that highlight the main differences between Thai and Western culture and which undermined the relationships with my Thai girlfriends.
· Honesty-Integrity
· Intellectualism-Style v. Substance
· Value of a husband
· Accommodation, Compromise, Gratitude
· Sex
Some background about myself may help provide context to this submission. I first arrived in Thailand as a foreign exchange student, in the 1970s. I can’t remember all the reasons why I decided on Thailand (Bangkok region) as a place for a year of high school, but some factors were that it seemed to be as out-of-the-way place as you could find in the world, that no one I knew was really familiar with the country (although my father had been stationed nearby during the Vietnam War), and that I like to explore. I had almost no knowledge of the country back then and I certainly didn’t know anything about the Vietnam Era R&R thing that was going on and for which the country would become infamous.
I later taught English in the country for a time, and also returned to study at one of the (supposedly) top universities in the country, again living with a middle-class Bangkok family. Since then, I’ve also worked at several jobs in the country, including international organizations and Thai employers (government and non-governmental). In my current work I now visit the country about once a year (sometimes residing for several months) and at one time wished that I could find acceptable long-term employment there, but not with a Thai employer (Stick has pointed out several of these frustrations in his columns). Over the years, I’ve worked closely with about 80 Thai colleagues, and have had @20+ Thai acquaintances that I would get together with for social occasions. Today, I keep in regular contact with about eight Thais and count three of them as close friends (not including spouses and kids).