Happier Abroad Forum Community

No Language + Money= bliss
I was in a pool room in Angeles City when an African American gentleman walked in. One girl saw him and shouted,
"Bakulaw!"
"Bakulaw!"
He walked in with a smile, had a beer and walked out.
On another day, I was walking down the street, a man saw me, crossed the road, brushed by me and, from behind me, muttered, " unggoy".
I can't say I was happy hearing such things. Why? "Bakulaw" means " ape", and "unggoy" means "monkey".
A black dude was an ape to them and the white dude ( me) was a monkey. If the people knew what those words meant, there would be fights. But since they don't understand the language, they are happy. I see expats walking around, both white and black, grinning and being well, happy.
In Thailand, it's way worse. There, insults are piled on you daily. But they say them in Thai and with a smile. I studied Thai seriously for six months, and one of the reasons I left was because of all the verbal abuse and mockery.
People hissing at the girl you are with or even the driver you are with, "How much is he paying you?" with an evil smile. " What ? No Thai wants you?" And constant other things.
And then, I see expats there, again, grinning, spending money and living good lives. They just hear bla bla bla and it does not affect them.
A Thai smiled at me and said, " bla bla bla". Such a friendly person!
So, do the right thing. Have plenty of cash, travel in English only circles, don't study the language and be happy!

ladislav wrote: ↑

October 28th, 2021, 2:25 pm

No Language + Money= bliss
I was in a pool room in Angeles City when an African American gentleman walked in. One girl saw him and shouted,
"Bakulaw!"
"Bakulaw!"
He walked in with a smile, had a beer and walked out.
On another day, I was walking down the street, a man saw me, crossed the road, brushed by me and, from behind me, muttered, " unggoy".
I can't say I was happy hearing such things. Why? "Bakulaw" means " ape", and "unggoy" means "monkey".
A black dude was an ape to them and the white dude ( me) was a monkey. If the people knew what those words meant, there would be fights. But since they don't understand the language, they are happy. I see expats walking around, both white and black, grinning and being well, happy.
In Thailand, it's way worse. There, insults are piled on you daily. But they say them in Thai and with a smile. I studied Thai seriously for six months, and one of the reasons I left was because of all the verbal abuse and mockery.
People hissing at the girl you are with or even the driver you are with, "How much is he paying you?" with an evil smile. " What ? No Thai wants you?" And constant other things.
And then, I see expats there, again, grinning, spending money and living good lives. They just hear bla bla bla and it does not affect them.
A Thai smiled at me and said, " bla bla bla". Such a friendly person!
So, do the right thing. Have plenty of cash, travel in English only circles, don't study the language and be happy!

I would bet that the foreigners say monkey about them more so that could be a reason why they laugh too.

They hate bourne out of envy.

Their lives will always be hard, without resources and competitive - a bar girl calling me a monkey wouldn't be very nice but would I swap lives with someone whose life is beyond f***ed up without any chance of it returning to normal? No way, so she's wrong because I don't envy an actual ape in a zoo but Filipina bar girls envy our lives - one of us has been selling their arse from the age of 14 (three years after they left school) and it aint me...

If you asked grinning, racist tuk-tuk driver if he would like to go to America whenever he pleased and f**k 19 year old American girls - he would say YES! PLEASE! I WANT IT NOW! But of course he can't have that but you can have it in his country and he despises you on the back of it - life and the world isn't fair and you benefit and he does not and the only power he really has is to insult you in a language he hopes you don't understand.

We have many choices closed off to them for just being born in the developed, English speaking world and having a good passport - we don't have to wait for hours in some queue in some embassy just to go on holiday, if we want to go abroad we can afford to make it happen - how many Thai/Tagalog teachers as a second language are there outside of SE Asia.

It's the same in China and Korea - life is hard there too but they have it far better than the average Thai or Filipino but they still have to compete hard for the chances that they can get. Life is long work hours, micromanagement, bullying at work and stress. I don't have that and I doubt many of us do - we are lucky - that isn't to say that being insulted by these people is right or it isn't unpleasant but I know for a fact that's the only thing they've got - they will never ever have my life or my opportunities.

Yick, I agree.

deleted

ladislav wrote: ↑

October 28th, 2021, 2:25 pm

No Language + Money= bliss
I was in a pool room in Angeles City when an African American gentleman walked in. One girl saw him and shouted,
"Bakulaw!"
"Bakulaw!"
He walked in with a smile, had a beer and walked out.
On another day, I was walking down the street, a man saw me, crossed the road, brushed by me and, from behind me, muttered, " unggoy".
I can't say I was happy hearing such things. Why? "Bakulaw" means " ape", and "unggoy" means "monkey".
A black dude was an ape to them and the white dude ( me) was a monkey. If the people knew what those words meant, there would be fights. But since they don't understand the language, they are happy. I see expats walking around, both white and black, grinning and being well, happy.
In Thailand, it's way worse. There, insults are piled on you daily. But they say them in Thai and with a smile. I studied Thai seriously for six months, and one of the reasons I left was because of all the verbal abuse and mockery.
People hissing at the girl you are with or even the driver you are with, "How much is he paying you?" with an evil smile. " What ? No Thai wants you?" And constant other things.
And then, I see expats there, again, grinning, spending money and living good lives. They just hear bla bla bla and it does not affect them.
A Thai smiled at me and said, " bla bla bla". Such a friendly person!
So, do the right thing. Have plenty of cash, travel in English only circles, don't study the language and be happy!

These very same people are the ones who relied daily on the tourism industry for their families subsistence. I am hoping that when tourism returns to Thailand that these people will have changed somewhat and some/most of this will stop but I am not holding my breath.

^IF tourism returns to Thailand. Thailand is becoming a joke in the travel/expat community. Every time the government makes an announcement and the dumb news media parrots the line "Thailand is reopening!" it turns out that the red tape is all still there. You still need to quarantine (with or without proof of vax), you still need to have multiple covid tests done, you still need to stay in an expensive government-approved hotel, you still need medical insurance, you still need to go through an involved application procedure to even be admitted into the country, and after all that you still have to abide by local curfews and restrictions during your stay. Some vacation, huh!

Not to mention, Thai nationals are treated differently from foreigners with regards to protocol, as if the virus checks IDs and passports before deciding whether to jump to a new host. The tourists ain't going back to Thailand until they cut this bullshit out.