Many foreigners coming to Thailand are under the mistaken impression that they are open minded enough to tackle anything that a new culture such as Thailand can throw at them. They don't realize how wrong they are until they fall flat on their nose.
As a rule of thumb, whenever you visit a new culture and have hopes of dating a member of it, cultural chock is quite simply inevitable. Your best defense against this is learning as much as you can before you actually start dating Thai ladies so that you are not appalled and disillusioned by their expectations and actions. There are a (real) lot of mistaken conceptions about Thailand in the minds of western men and you had best to get over these.
For instance, it is common practice in Thailand for the guy to provide for not only the girl but also for her family. In fact guys in Thailand consider this as an opportunity to show of their independence and financial status to both the girl and her family. However when John, who just thought about visiting Thailand, fell in love with a local then decided to marry her is asked by his beautiful Thai girlfriend to aid her family and send some gifts home, the only thing that comes to his mind is that "is she using me???" This is quite natural as this is what his cultural upbringing has taught him to believe. At the other end, when he says he won't his girlfriend can only think this guy must be a real miser, otherwise why wont he help my parents. Again this is quite natural as she arrived at this decision by referencing his behavior with her culture.
It will be rather unfair to expect John to do all the adapting and changing and a common understanding must be reached between himself and his girlfriend. This is a reciprocal give and take which is common in relationship, and which becomes all too common in cross cultural dating.
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