midas

Yesterday afternoon a Thai person I have known for some time kindly referred me to his own bank so they could help me
regarding something. It was not my own bank and I have never dealt with the Thai persons bank before but because he
seems to be doing a lot of business with them at the moment in terms of property development, it was obvious that
he could pull a few strings within the organisation. After he made one phone call to some senior executive, it was like a knife through butter as far as dealing with me and the quality of service I received was astounding .

I then went in person to the bank to meet a lady who seemed to be quite a senior bank officer and she in turn delegated
various tasks to a young guy to do the paperwork but was coming in and out all the time and chatting with me.
While chatting we just happened to touch on the subject that the bank of Thailand
had increased interest rates yet again this week. But then quite indignantly she replied “no they reduced them “.
But I could clearly remember  reading this announcement on the TV site and I said to her “ I thought I read they had been increased ? “

“ Oh no , lowered “ she said again quite indignantly. Just to make double sure I then said   “ I'm not talking about bank rates  within this bank, I am talking about the bank of Thailand interest rates” but she replied  “ yes that's right ,lowered “.

By now I thought it's not worth arguing because it is not my bank anyway and particularly while she was standing
alongside her subordinate so I thought just to make sure there hadn't been a misunderstanding between us I thought a good exit
tactic would be to remark that “ so the Thai baht would have fallen a bit in strength   “ ? And she replied “ yes a little bit “  

When I returned home and checked the computer I saw that I was correct and the Bank of Thailand made this announcement last Wednesday. So how could a senior bank official possibly have confused the difference between bank rates going up or down- I mean this is a pretty significant piece of information for a bank ?

I also thought about the young male subordinate who could speak excellent English and I would imagine was
University educated and I wondered whether he was aware that what she told  me was incorrect? Or perhaps   he just kept quiet because that was the most appropriate thing to do with his boss standing next to him.

Did I miss something about this movement in interest rates and how could she possibly have the impression that interest rates came down?

Has anyone else experienced something like this before?

I know there have probably been huge numbers of threads discussing driving habits in Thailand as to whether Thais are considerate or inconsiderate drivers.I should say these observations are about city drivers and I would hope that people show a far more tolerance and patience in rural communities.

The other day I watched an ambulance driver anxiously trying to get through traffic with his horns blaring away and desperately trying to squeeze past a tuk tuk driver who didn't budge an inch.   I believe not pulling over for emergency vehicles in USA for example is an offence . I have also watched ambulances trying to cross the flow of traffic which has the green light and again very rarely does anyone give way.

Then there is the subject of Monks who are so highly revered and meant to be such an important part of society. And yet you never seem to see anyone stopping to offer to give a ride to a solitary Monk who happens to be walking along the roadside. They don't even seem to stop to allow a group of Monks to cross the road and I've often seen a group of novice Monks look very anxiously and wait for ages until it is safe for them to cross. Can't drivers make an exception in this one case involving people that are so important to their society?

And then of course there is the motorists who want to turn left before an intersection and move over to the extreme side of the left lane thereby blocking off access to motorbikes.

Is this attitude by many drivers here yet again a symptom of poor driver training in Thailand?

I would appreciate the feedback from one of the more proficient Thai language speakers that may be on this forum.

Why is it that as a novice I experience such difficulty getting the other person to understand my spoken word sometimes?
It seems to me that most of the time there is absolutely no room for tolerance in the actual pronunciation of Thai words.
For example when a Russian or a French person or a German person is speaking beginners English I believe regarding most native English speakers,
our brain will constantly have regard to the context of what is being spoken so that if the pronunciation happens to be below par here and there, we automatically search very quickly in our minds as to what could be the closest correct pronunciation within the context of the discussion.

In other words spoken English can still be very much below standard when spoken by foreigners and yet we are able to give them considerable
latitude for poor pronunciation and still be able to understand quite well.

In Thailand there seems to be absolutely no tolerance for this substandard pronunciation? I have found this quite frustrating. I can find myself repeating the word or phrase over and over again trying desperately to vary the tone but they still stare at me with a blank expression!
Don’t they ever think in their minds now what is this person trying to say within the context of our discussion?

I must admit this has had a drastic effect on my confidence in being able to speak Thai and my willingness to try and persevere.

Would anyone know the correct way to address the Head Monk at the temple ?  

For example you address a bishop as "Your excellency" or "Bishop". Is there something equivalent in the Thai Buddhist religion for the head Monk?.

  Is there also a formal title for the head Monk-is it correct that he is known as Abbot?

  

Yesterday for lunch I had a Mexican omelette at a restaurant which included a generous serving of avocado pear. What a treat it was  ! I had never seen avocado in Thailand and when I asked the restauranteur where he purchased it he said he imports of them from California through an agent because even though they've tried growing them in Thailand apparently they don't taste so good.
Does anyone here know why this is and is it true that no one in Thailand grows avocados?