By now, I’ve spent more time in Thailand than some young Dopers have spent in their native country. In many ways I understand Thai culture better than American culture. :smack: Learning Thai with little formal instruction has been a challenge and has spurred my layman’s interest in linguistics.
I don’t play the “I’ve been pissing in Thailand longer than you” game. On one of my trips I met a foreigner who said he’d first come to Thailand 40 years earlier. After I mentioned that Thailand was under Japanese control then, he started reminiscing about the march from Changi to Kanchanburi. :smack: I’ve met American bar owners in Pattaya who brag that they’ve spent years in the Kingdom without learning any Thai beyond “Thank you” and “Good Morning.” So I don’t play the “I’ve been pissing in Thailand longer than you” game.
Maybe Siam Sam has been pissing in Thailand for 60 years. There’s certainly plenty evidence to suggest his brain’s best days were in the distant past.
Sam has some need to correct me whenever I post something about Thailand. Since I’m usually correct, he makes a fool of himself. Using the search facility, I may have found when this started:
Here’s two of my early posts on this board, both in a thread titled “Foreign language Dopers–What is your word for “fart”?”
Was my post rude? Perhaps I should have stripped away the “Originally Posted by Siam Sam” since we’re here to fight ignorance, not fellow Dopers.
Sam didn’t return to that thread to defend his incorrect post. Methinks he did let it fester inside though, and now repeatedly lashes out at me.
Cool it, Sam. You’re just exposing yourself as a fool.
I should have been clearer. Sam’s ignorance about the Thai word for “fart” is irrelevant – it just showed up in a search when I got curious why he has such a hard-on.
What’s annoying are recent snarky posts, defending incorrect “facts”, like
I know Sam is the SDMB’s Resident Expert on Thailand, but his ignorance is astounding. (I’m waiting to see if he’ll accept my offer of a money bet on Thai banking rules.)
In more than one thread that touched on prostitution in Thailand, he discussed the Western trade in places like Pattaya, as though that covered the subject. :smack:
I don’t think he was trying to give an exhaustive overview of prostitution in Thailand, just relaying his knowledge of one small part that he actually knows of.
So you admit bureaucrats in Thailand often are capricious in their treatment of different people? Sounds like Sam’s story is pretty reasonable then, he never claimed it was a law.
According to the law of sociolinguistic homeopathy, my week in Thailand in the mid-90’s trumps all of you. Now unless we get another poster who had a brief layover at the Bangkok airport or who recently tried Pad Thai for the first time…
Gotta say, knowing nothing of the history of this beef and even less about the substance of it (I barely speak English)… the tone of this response didn’t exactly help your case, if you’re claiming that you’re being unfairly targeted or picked on.
If you’re that quick to escalate the snippy antagonism, then I have to theorize that part of the problem could be you — specifically, that you provoke your purported attacker(s). Perhaps without even intending/realizing, but if this is your usual tone then I guarantee it works against you.
shrug Just an objective reading based on the example provided.
I don’t know anything about the issue between Septimus and Siam Sam. As a member of the Siam Sam fan club though, need to take this opportunity to pipe up and say “hey Siam Sam! you’re alright, man!” One of my favorite posters, Sam is.
(I don’t have any interest in any pigeon eggs. But so what, big deal. I just don’t click on that particular thread. And it’s a great thread to poke fun at and make jokes about.)
