Tippaporn

andrewbkk, on 2010-08-12 12:26:30, said:

I thought of 7 couples I knew of that met this requirtement before I finished reading this post, and have thought of another 10 while waiting for the reply page to load. And yes, the thai ladies are stunningly beautiful too.
This seems it might reflect different social spheres if there are none of the example type couples to be seen that I personally encounter quite often.

Edited for spelling error, and to add:

Poker joe seems to have hit the nail on the head as sbk notes

Tippaporn: you sound so sweet there, if I wasn't crazily in love with my crazy fella I would blow you a big kiss from across the ocean right now

Another wonderfully good read of a thread for the most part - very interesting again, yay!

SBK said it best, it's all about compromising
My husband is from the South and a Buddhist. When I met him he had never eaten Western food or been exposed to anything Western until 4 months before we met. He was (and very much still is) a rural man through and through.
He only ever pictured his life in his village, with a wife who cooked and cleaned, a couple of kids and a cow.
Then he met me :)And to give an example of how western I am one of my degrees is in Women and Gender studeies..yes thats right a full blown feminazi  
I was always very respectful of his culture. I quit smoking (woman do not smoke in his home town, although that is changing), I went from not eating any spice to being able to eat anything his mom cooked for me, I never stepped over the curry bowls , I dressed appropriately (as in no skimpy tank tops or low cut shirts etc). But this was mainly my choice. He never asked me to do any of the above. We did, in the beginning, have big problems with his friends. He is a man's man and they would always stop by but slowly they got the hint as I have a very hard time hiding what I am feeling, which of course is breaking the number one rule in Thailand...I still can't "save face" and that is something my hubby has had to deal with.
The biggest compromise is when my husband moved to Canada a year ago. Which he never wanted to do but I spent 6 years in his home so now it is his turn. Everyone finds him to be very polite and respectful. It took a while to get used to Western food and he still has rice once a day but he has done a 360 with what he will eat now. He has a hard time at work though because he works with other immigrants all over the world and all these cultures come together and it can cause some serious misunderstandings.
Neither of us have compromised on our principals however and not changed who we are. From time to time we still run into misunderstandings due to culture or language but overall we have both changed and grown so much in the past 6 years and this is largely due to each other and better understanding of each others cultures.
I can not grasp the concept of being with someone from another country/culture and not wanting to learn and experience what has made your partner who they are.