Being polite and rude

“Being polite and rude”


First of all, I have to tell you about background in Thailand. 95% of Thai people believe in Buddhism, so our culture and the way of life are relative with it. Also, we have 3 levels which are our King and Queen are the highest level, the monk is the second level and Thai people are the last level. Finally, We don’t like to talk about our religion and the king’s family in the public.

Thai culture has a lot of strict rules; however, Thai people are very flexible and friendly. What doest it mean to be polite in my culture? (I can give some example and main points). First, about greeting, If you know how to greeting in Thailand that called Wai sound like Why. It’s very polite especially older people. Thai people will respect you and happy. But if you are tourism, it’s not a big deal, they can understand you. Second, show how to do polite in the pubic. Every day at 8.00 am and 6.00 pm, all of the public place, mall, and at the theater are tune on the Thai anthem. What you should do is stop talking and stand up. If you don’t know how to do, just follow Thai people are nearby you. Third, not all Thai people are friendly with you, so you should be polite with the shopkeeper. \You can ask the shopkeeper to get discount, but if they said last price they can give it to you. You should trust them. If you think it still expensive, you tell them the true, give them the respect, show your money do you have, and let them know you really like but you don’t have enough money to buy. Then you can leave without get kick out or abused.

What is consider rude in your culture? For example, Talking loud, Eating and talking in the same time, gossiping in the public, touch another person head ( I can remember now) are very rude in my culture because we consider those kind of person are low education and no culture.

I have been more than one yr in America. I really like American culture which is about on time. In my culture you can be late 15- 30 minutes, it’s ok. On the other hand, it is considered rude and no one respect you. For me, if I think I will be late I will tell them and let’s them know. If I think I will be very late on the plan. I will let them know and tell them the true I couldn’t make the plan because I don’t like any people wait for me (I feel bad).