A short while back my wife told her friends that I was interested in going to Chiangmai because I've never seen it. Her friends, one from down South, two from Bangkok and an Issan girl all agreed that it was a bad idea because women from Chiangmai are well known for stealing Husbands apparently they had many stories to support this and my wife is very against me going there even if she comes along maybe this is how stories manafest themselves and become fact. I'm sure many of you on this Forum have been there and would tell me how rediculous it was. Maybe the Clown from Stickman had been talking to too many Girls from Chiangmai

I found most of what this guy says is bollox. He is obviously very anti- Issan.

However, he did have this to say, which I found interesting..

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Men who marry Isaan women and live with them in Thailand are looked down on as low class citizens by most Thais. Foreigners, or perhaps more specifically, white foreigners e.g. farangs, are considered more sophisticated and worldly than the average Thai. We are also considered to be richer and these assumptions are fair. So why oh why is the farang with a woman from Isaan the neighbours and colleagues, wonder. A Western man with a low class woman from Isaan will lose the automatic respect he had just for having white skin! Why didn’t he marry a nice Bangkok office girl from a nice family people will rightfully wonder. With so many single Thai women, it is inexplicable.
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I have heard this before from Thai's when they see a farang with an Issan girl. They think we are high class and should be with a 'higher class' of Thai, and not the lower class girls that he is talking about.

HIGH CLASS the poor bugger obviously has'nt seen me

Class may have some resonance with Thais, but it doesn't with me - so I really don't give a stuff what they think

I reckon when my dog breaks wind he's got more class than me!

I see class war far is catching
well I was always low class
I would not know how to conduct my self in high class society
but I can claim this when my head hit the pillow at night I can look up at my GOD and tell him I did not cheat lie or rob any one today
and I am married to isaan girl from sung dow
I have a saying I would rather be a rich man living among the poor
then a poor man living among the rich
you know I like myself even with all my character defeacts

aznyron wrote:I see class war far is catching
well I was always low class
I would not know how to conduct my self in high class society
but I can claim this when my head hit the pillow at night I can look up at my GOD and tell him I did not cheat lie or rob any one today
and I am married to isaan girl from sung dow
I have a saying I would rather be a rich man living among the poor
then a poor man living among the rich
you know I like myself even with all my character defeacts

Food for thought

It looks like you have a wise head that rest on that pillow

i only work for a living, no need for high class, just honest (sometimes too honest) and hard working

i didnt come from a high class background, i am Blue Collar so is my TG , she is working class , so we are same same but Different

On the subject of Stickman and Isaan, there is a story in Stick Mark 11. The latest post, on venturing into the Isaan. It is quite a complimentary story on the Isaan region, pointing out some of the attractions and generally giving the locals a good rap.

Check out some of the spelling he uses for some of the places, obviously spelt the way they sounded to him. But at least a good story anyway.

I would not know how to conduct my self in high class society

I do.
But most every word I use starts with "F", so when I attend these functions with nothing but hi-so's around, I'm usually back in the corner, burbon in hand and kept outta sight.
I'm there to remind them on who is "buying and paying" for thier style of life and if they don't bother to ask after a few more JD's or Wild Turkey's I'm more than happy to inform them.
Then the Sargent Major ( wife ) tells me to go home.

Yep...working class guy 100%

oldfield wrote:I have heard this before from Thai's when they see a farang with an Issan girl. They think we are high class and should be with a 'higher class' of Thai, and not the lower class girls that he is talking about.

I was born into an upper middle class family, unfortunately on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain - which put me in an environmnet that would be considered below the powerty level by most Western standards. I left the place the first chance I got heading to "greener pastures" in The Netherlands. There I started my journey "UP" from the complete bottom of the society being homeless, pennyless and speachless. What followed next was 15 years of frantic and fanatic effort to succeed and move myself UP on the ladder. At the end, I ended up in the hedge fund industry running money for some of the richest people on both sides of the Atlantic, where my job not only enabled me but required me to become a part of their lifestyle as they insisted on me being as close to them as possible (so they could keep a close eye on their money and the poeple who run them). 15 years slipped between my fingers without any memorable joy and when I finally reached my goal, I found myself in a pretentious, lonely, cold and paranoid world that had no appeal to me.

So, whatever I do now, it bears no consideration for the class status as this is a complete nonsense, non-rewarding bullsh.t and waste of time. If I were to be looked down by the upper Thai class for marrying an Issan girl, well then be it. Their opinion has no value for me and given my background their high-class awarness makes me laugh to tears. I will not have my life run by the expectations of those people, especially when they lose their status the second they cross the Thai border.

The guy that wrote the original post needs to come to Isaan for a good tar and feathering, when that's finished, we let loose a pack of crazed Katoy's on him.
That should straighten him up and send him home with his tail between his legs...
To hell with this political correctness crap, just take care of business.

My close and dear friend has told me not to speak Lao (issan) around any Thais or Lao-speakers in Udon or anywhere in Thailand. The reason is because she will lose face as she will be considered to be a bar girl who taught me a low-class language (Actually what Lao I know I picked up on my own from listening to her and others). Her view has been confirmed to me by additional respondents in Udon Thani.

On the other hand, at a hospital in Yangtalad, the doctors and nurses were all for encouraging me to speak Lao and they taught me a number of phrases: 'you are in Issan now, you must learn Lao!'

The point is there is a class system in Thailand. As a wealthy Thai told me, 'we can identify Lao/Issan people as soon as they speak'. Which is why that Issan taxi driver scolded my friend for saying, 'Klung Thep' instead of 'Khrung Thep', when we were in Bangkok (mentioned on another thread) as it would immediately identify her as Lao.

She is proud to be Lao and is especially pleased when she wins a competitition against better known and better connected Bangkok people (small girl from Udon, no name, speaks Lao, gets the trophy - priceless')

Well it looks like we're all agreed on this subject and the fool in Bangkok had better stay there, unless he wants a damn good face to face Tongue lashing from the Udon Falang community. Its actually quite good to vent the spleen occasionally dont you think