Geert--Cultural Dimensions

The biggest difference I see in cultural dimensions in Thailand is probably dealing with what Geert (http://www.geert-hofstede.com/) refers to as "masculinity", what we called "quantity" in class. On the other end of this spectrum is "femininity" or "quality". It is obvious to me that Thailand leans much more toward the quality side of the spectrum. For quantity-oriented countries, competition and assertiveness are important, where as quality-oriented countries are more modest and caring, and they place less emphasis on competition.

I think the lack of competitiveness can easily be seen just walking down the street. Local business have their own hours which are often not the most convenient for those who would be their customers, losing them business but not imposing on their lives. At times, when we are walking around, looking for lunch or dinner, or we see a shop we would like to go into, although the hours on the door may say that the shop should be open, in reality, the owners have taken a day off, or they left early. This can be frustrating when we are getting impatient trying to find something, and everywhere we look, shops are closed for the day or for a few hours.

I can also see this type of mindset at my placement. When the artists do their work, they work until they are tired or bored, and then they take a break. It is not about how much they get done during a day. It is more about doing some work and enjoying it than competing for an income. It would seem unnatural for the artists to spend the entire day working at the looms without a break, and it would, in a sense, destroy what they are doing because a competitive need to get the most done would remove the art from the work.

Even when I'm in PIH, I have had occasions where the idea of quantity versus quality has come close to changing my plans for the evening. Once, several friends and I wanted to order food, but the restaurant we planned on ordering from closed at 8:30, and it was about 8:25. To me, it seemed a bit strange for a restaurant to close so early to begin with. Most places where I live are open until at least 10. We decided to try calling anyway. At first they said it was too late. Then they called back and said that since there were still people in the building, they would fill the order. It seemed to be more about convenience than getting money.

Back home, I have friends who work in restaurants who get very angry when people call five minutes before they close. This is because they are required to fill all of the orders until the restaurant is actually closed--even if it's a minute before and they will be working past the actual restaurant hours.(Actually, sometimes we purposely call because we know that our friends are working until the restaurant closes.. knowing that they'll be stuck a bit longer..) There, it is definitely more important to fill as many orders as possible than to have a convenient situation for the workers. Of course, this does not mean that you're going to get the best quality food calling in a minute before the restaurant closes. It's possible you might ingest a bit of spit or something.. The idea of having a set number of hours that one works and then being done until the next shift is very different from working when one wants until when thinks a sufficient amount of work has been done.