Do Thai people have and/or feel a sense of embarrassment?

[Name Taken]

It seems like Thailand just continues to shoot itself in the foot over and over again. I am not going to list all of the times that Thailand has shot itself in the foot because that would make this post at least 100 paragraphs long.
My question is: Do Thai people have and/or feel a sense of embarrassment? or are Thai people devoid of the embarrassment emotion/feeling?

[JD]

My question is: Do Thai people have and/or feel a sense of embarrassment? or are Thai people devoid of the embarrassment emotion/feeling?

I'm sure Thai people do feel embarrassed when they do something silly and petty. When it comes to work or business it is more a loss of 'face'. This is when lies become not lies, as the lie is acceptable to 'save face'. Can be hard for westerners to understand, embarrassment can be a bit of fun, loosing face and continuing to wind that up has ended up with shots being fired.

I've worked with Thai staff for over 13 years and it took me a while to work out how to 'explain' instead of 'complain' when things went wrong.

[Name Taken]

My question is: Do Thai people have and/or feel a sense of embarrassment? or are Thai people devoid of the embarrassment emotion/feeling?

I'm sure Thai people do feel embarrassed when they do something silly and petty. When it comes to work or business it is more a loss of 'face'. This is when lies become not lies, as the lie is acceptable to 'save face'. Can be hard for westerners to understand, embarrassment can be a bit of fun, loosing face and continuing to wind that up has ended up with shots being fired.

I've worked with Thai staff for over 13 years and it took me a while to work out how to 'explain' instead of 'complain' when things went wrong.

You're absolutely right JD, I don't understand the 'face' concept. I think it's extremely immature.

[crazy88]

https://translate.google.com/#auto/th/embarrassed

Ask a Thai person. JD is right about the loss of face thing. Just get used to it because you are not going to get "I'm sorry I messed up I will sort it out" if you start accusing and shouting. Also avoid why did or why didn't you do that? In a loud angry voice in front of others

Crazy 88

[Gregjam]

They certainly do but you don't want to be near them if it shows as they are not able to express it calmly. When it comes out and is visible it usually takes the form of violence. They generally keep it bottled up until it explodes.

[Name Taken]

They certainly do but you don't want to be near them if it shows as they are not able to express it calmly. When it comes out and is visible it usually takes the form of violence. They generally keep it bottled up until it explodes.

Like a Barbarian or The Incredible Hulk? Do they turn green before they explode?
Look out he's gonna BLOW!!

[Gregjam]

Unfortunately very few signs. Not just a Thai thing but more an Asian cultural aspect. The Hulk is just a pussycat compared to my missus if she loses it. Resistance is futile, just run away because heavy or sharp objects are the tools of choice!
But seriously though, I have had personnel try to stab someone due to a build up of tension over time and not having an effective way to release it. This was partly due to the work environment but it is something to be careful of.

[oakdale160]

Yes, there is embarrassment and loss of face, but what is lacking isa determination, --I'm going to fix this so I am never embarrassed again.
If things go wrong there is much pain but there is never a meeting where you all sit together and say--What went wrong, how can we change things so this never happens again.
It is a nice management tool that when things go wrong you start by saying--OK, we screwed up, lets take this as a learning experience and improve things. That never seems to happen in Thai. many things just don't work in Thai and the fact that many things don't work is just taken as part of life, not a problem to be solved.

[ExpatJohn]

I would say saving face is way more important to a Thai person then anything and if embarrassed that is connected to the whole saving Face issue. Lost of status perceived or not from what I have seen is an embarrassment and the whole face saving reaction starts. I guess an example of this is the floods where the Thai government will not ask for help as it is embarrassing to admit fault in the system.

[U.Kvarme]

This topic is very interesting. I agree that saving face is more important but mostly it is all about pride. The difference is when most Thai do something wrong, they actually perceive what the mistake is but they are ashamed to tell the world what they have done. It's easy like that!

Westerners like to make a joke about themselves while Thai people like to make a joke about the others.

Hope to get more ideas from you guys.

[gerryha]

I must admit the whole face thing took me and my wife by surpise. My wife is Malaysian Chinese and while 'face' is part of her psyche, the Chinese seem to be able to mix it with pragmatism often taking theattitude ' ok I will lose face this once, learn from it and make sure it never happens again". She often says that Chinese kids act like Thai adults but are taught that learning from your mistakes means you lose face once not many times over and just cant understand why Thais cant see that

[ExpatJohn]

From what I have seen be it political or personal its more about saving face and being in the position of strength then admitting fault or weakness. That goes from the Hi so student who is failing but will get a passing grade as to not embarrass him or his family to the government rejecting help during the floods. So for a Thai to say I do not no I doubt is in the Thai vocabulary. A good example of this is shopping where if you ask where something is the staff will say they do not have rather then they do not know. This is a good a prime example of Face in my opinion.

[U.Kvarme]

Saying "No" is the first word they know how to speak. My housemaid always makes me pissed everytime when I cannot find my stuff. She always says she doesnt know, havent seen, didnt move...even she definitely did:-((((

[oakdale160]

Working in an International country mostly staffed by Thai people they are taught to admit their mistakes but find it very difficult to do. When a westerner makes a mistake, admits to it freely, apologises to all and then makes a joke about it and everybody laughs then shakes hands and everybody goes for coffee together they are totally shaken how ever many times they see this happen.
I remember one night after dinner we went around the table and told of the biggest mistake we had ever made, the westerners admitted to huge errors the Thais to tiny trivialities.

[PeteC]

We should expand this further. My feeling is that not being held accountable for your actions, and most assuredly not even admitting to yourself or anyone else that you made a mistake, leads to recklessness and irresponsibility. How many thousands of times have we talked about that in relation to driving habits and a whole host of other things. Pete