Thai Culture Dimension

Sponsel focuses her article on how American cultural values differ from Thailand culture. A strong sense of ethos is important when creating an article with a

Over the course of history, South Asians have been mistreated and undermined within American society. This is especially evident after the terror attacks of 9/11 in which Americans shunned its South Asian Population, and reduced them to devastating stereotypes. This has created tension and hostility within the South Asian community, thus pressuring them to being more Americanized, and further creating a fixation towards becoming more white. The obsession with American culture has caused many to conform, leaving behind cultural and religious parts of their identities. It is necessary to explore the history behind the mistreatment of South Asians to understand why the change in identity such as those portrayed with Changez in The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Amir in Disgraced have occurred. These main characters of South Asian descent make it is clear that the American dream for immigrants creates a constant struggle between national and transnational identities as racism and hostility are being thrust upon them by American society.

For this paper I will examine Vietnamese culture according to the five essential questions all cultures must answer (according to Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck). I will then take those answers and compare then to out culture here in America. I realize that some might argue that using North American culture as a starting point is an attempt to simplify this writing, but I believe that any initial examination of something new is most effectively done in comparison to what one already knows.

1 Main: First, Collectivism-Individualism. Thai people defined themselves as a group by use “We” while the United States give value to a person more than a group or community.

According to Kashima (2010), defining what culture means is a difficult task. Culture can be considered the individual differences of identity. Culture is established by numerous things such as ideology and beliefs. While categories of culture are not limited to only country, a common classification of culture is that of different countries. Vietnam’s culture is diverse, influences from many countries have played a role in shaping Vietnam’s culture. Years of Chinese rule, French imperialism, social conflicts and war have given Vietnamese culture a unique richness of language, music and history.

In this paper I will begin by defining personal culture and national culture. After, I will then elaborate my own personal and national culture. I will continue to talk about the subject with the person that I have chosen for my cultural group, my mother, and I will identify her personal and national culture. Lastly, I will talk about my own personality and how it has a connection with my own natural culture; knowing this is important, it lets us know who we are, and how we act with people who are from different cultures.

Individualism is a habit of being self- reliant. A cultural value is a persons desired and preferred way of acting. Every culture has their own cultural values and individualism but whether individualism is their cultural value is up to the person entirely. This could pose a conflict when persuading the wrong culture especially a culture as diverse as the American culture. Poranee Sponsel is a born and raised Thai who is now a professor at a university in Hawaii and gives us the outsider’s perspective of the American culture. In Sponsel’s article “The Young, the Rich, and the Famous: Individualism as an American Cultural value” Sponsel

Considering the specific characteristics of Asian culture, the explanations can be drawn from two perspectives: what decreases the risk and what hides the risk. From general perspective to specific perspective, the following sections will compose the whole

important characteristic in the overall makeup of the culture. Status is a key element in the success of a person in the region.

Ethical universalism is the theory that there is a universal ethic that applies to all people, no matter the individual's history, preferences, traits or

Indians are the group of people who receive a lot of stereotypes in Thailand. Ranging from public places like shopping centers, parties house, hall way, to university campus, we can notice that many Thai people try to avoid staying close to or interact with Indians. One of the stereotype Thai people have toward Indians include viewing Indians as a snake charmer, which give images of ancient and exotic group of people. There is a famous joke in Thai circles that, "If a snake and an Indian come after to attack you, you should hit the Indian first, then snake." This reflects that some Thais view Indian as more tricky and dangerous than a snake. Another reason why Thai people like to think of Indian people negatively is due to the not so good reputation of their county, India. Many still view India as a country full of poverty and chaos. Some Thai even get into thinking that Indians are from another world with different culture, and mind set, thus, are not acceptable and tend to isolate them from Thai sociality. In my own experience, there was a day when I was trying to get a cab to home, it was a long line of people waiting for a cab, and there were two passengers standing at the head of the line, one was Thai and another is an Indian person. One of the cab arrive already riding Indians passengers, but when the Thai women saw the cab was previously sat by other Indians, the Thai person refuse to sit that cab. The second passage on the line, who is an Indian woman she was

"Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are nuisance at best and often a disaster." - Dr. Geert Hofstede

It is not easy to define culture because culture is too broad a concept, can be both abstract and specific. However, what is agreed is culture covers all faces of our life as well as direct the way we behave, interact and communicate. (Liu et al., 2011). One popular definition is that “Culture is the total way of life of a group of people, comprising of the deposit of knowledge, experience, belief, values, traditions, religion, and notion of time, roles, spatial relations, worldviews, material objects and geographic territory”. (Liu et al., 2011, p.57). In this essay, I will analyse components and characteristics of culture, and based on that grounds, I will reflect on my own culture-being a Vietnamese. Dodd (1998) considered that culture is made up by three layers which consist of the core layer, the intermediate layer and the outer layer. I will examine what values and beliefs are considered important in my culture. Those are components of the inner core. Then, I will take some examples of the intermediate layer (expression of cultural activities by manifestation) such as communication patterns, customs and festivals.

     According to traditional concepts, time is considered to be a two-dimensional phenomenon, with a long past, a present, and virtually no future. The linear concept of time is western thought, with an indefinite past, present, and future, is practically nonexistent to African thinking. The future is absent because the events that lie in it have not taken place, they have not been realized, and therefore, they cannot constitute time.

With regard to the Thai culture, it can mention that Thai culture has influenced by various religion-based practices because the 95% of the country are following the “Theravada Buddhist” religious practices. These religious values and social believes has a greater impact over the day to day activities of the Thai people. Some of the major