How do foreigners perceive Thai culture?

[Richard]

As part of an internationalisation project, I'm planning to run a quiz to raise students' awareness of their own culture. To this end, I have collected responses from 5 newly arrived Westerners concerning what they find annoying in Thai culture and analysed these for recurring themes. 4 points appear at least twice, and I have made these into a quiz with 4 more distractors. For interest you might want to try the quiz (I won't give out the correct answers since the real quiz will have a prize).

THE QUIZ

Below are 8 Thai behaviours. 4 of these have been identified by foreigners as aspects of Thai culture which annoy them. Can you identify which 4?

1. Thais' lack of concern for punctuality
2. Bins full of used toilet paper in toilets
3. Shops putting everything you buy, no matter how small, in a plastic bag
4. Thais smiling and agreeing when they don't understand
5. Having to take off your shoes when you enter a house
6. Lack of adherence to laws
7. Thais walking very slowly
being ignored when you want service in a department store

[Harris]

Here is my answer:

1. lack of concern for punctuality. 6. Lack of adherence to laws . 7. Thais walking very slowly ( it can be understandable, considering the weather here.)

I fail to identify the fourth behavior. ( some of them are commonly seen in my country)

[sgtowns]

Based on what I hear foreigners complain about the most, I would agree with Harris on 1 (punctuality), 6 (adherence to laws), 7 (walking slowly) and I would add 3 (plastic bags).

It would be interesting to do this survey with those who just moved here and those who have been here a long time. Some cultural differences are easier to get used to and deal with than others...

Stuart

[daronloo]

1, 2, 4, 6

Some of the behaviors are prevalent in Malaysia too, such as taking off one's shoes when entering someone's house.

#2 is something I really cannot understand why it is done in Thailand... but in Malaysia toilets would be flooded because they don't use toilet paper (lots of water is used instead) Lol

[Eric Ambele]

1, 4, 6
Some of them are undertandably cultural practices, like 5, but others, I don't undertand.

The idea of a survey, like P' Stuart suggests, could help.

[punjaporn]

From what Harris and Daron said, some behaviors are also common in China and Malaysia.
I'm interested to know which items are very Thai.
(Sorry, this is not really relevant to your question.)