It looks like my little stories on competition have sparked a few comments from both Thai and Americans. I'm glad to see it. One of the most interesting posts came from a Thai person, who said:
Perhaps like most Thais, I always laugh at my bad performances or failure. That is why Thailand is a so-so country. Not so poor but not so rich. Not so bad but not so good. By the same token, that is probably why life here is easy and quite OK.There is a lot of truth in that statement. I remember as a teacher, when I would point out a Thai student's mistake, they would often laugh. This drives western teachers absolutely crazy. We expect to see solemnness, or at least something along the lines of "I understand my mistake and I will try to do better next time." Laughing (to us) just means that the mistake is unimportant and trivial.
I think that in general, Americans are not very good at laughing at our mistakes. I think our initial response is more along the lines of embarrassment, or anger. And that anger is either directed at ourselves if we are honest, or at other people if we like to shift the blame.
So maybe us Americans can learn to lighten up a bit? On the other hand, as the Thai commenter said, this cultural quirk (one way or the other) has much larger ramifications for the development of the country. On the third hand (heh) it also has ramifications for the stress level and seriousness of a popluation. A very insightful comment indeed.
Hmm, yeah that is an interesting discussion. I read about that before I got here, re: the Thai smile and how teaching them can prove frustrating for that reason. I wonder though, if they laugh/smile when they make the mistake, if they're focusing on their reaction to the teacher's confrontation or focusing on what their mistake was and learning from it. I'm glad to have met at least one or two Thais that seem to take their job/education seriously enough to enrich themselves with life's lessons. On the other hand I've seen a friend's Thai employees drive him nuts because "THEY NEVER LEARN". (then he drinks some more)
On the flip side, though, striving for perfection, and being on the top --- winning all the time -- go forth and conquer, etc. can lead to a shift in focus from the human element that makes man unique, causing us not to embrace our flaws and mistakes, and recognize people for who they are, not what they can do.