The Woht (from Roiet, Issan 'Eesaan') Last week I and others had the embarrassing experience of doing a 'Thai Cultural Course' at a nameless Bangkok University, as it is now a requisite for renewing your work permit.To begin, we were presented with a PowerPoint map which clearly showed Koh Chang in South Pattaya and a Thailand that was as wide as it was long (to fit nicely onto the slide...), we made paper dolls and paper planes and played Kindergarten English word games, and we were told that the cultural reason for not touching another person's head was that because someone might think you were something like a 'dirty old man'...Then there were the list of translations that we went through.  For example, we were informed that to put äËà mai at the end of the sentence meant 'or not?'  I would have thought that ÃÖà»ÅèÒ reu bplaao, or more formally, ËÃ×Ãà»ÅèÒ (reuu bplaao), or even ËÃ×Ã儤 reu yung or ËÃ×ÃäÃè reuu mai would have been a more accurate translation...  To hear this from a person with a doctorate in English language was more than I could believe.Oh, and then they asked us to sing along with the words to the Loy Kratong song.  The problem was that they had them all wrong and a lot of us knew them... At the end of the second line, the lecturer attempting to lead the singing stopped and asked why everyone was laughing. This is a picture of two of my Filipina colleagues fixing the slide for them from memory while the class AND the four lecturers sat and watched... and waited... and laughed...  Then the wonderful Filipinas took the microphone and we belted it out with full gusto. Then at the end we had to do presentations.  The farang participants in the course rose to the task with delight and made glowing presentations on Thai culture from their years of experience and travels here.  I am not sure what was the most embarrassing.  So when I got to do mine, the topic allocated to me was 'Music'.  It so happens I am a musician... I brought in a Woht from Roiet and played an Issan tune.  Then I asked if anyone knew what the instrument was, as there are not so many common instruments in Thailand (as we have in the West) and this one was popular enough. None of the farangs knew of course.  I turned to the four knowledgeable lecturers.  Desperate guesses.  More desperate expressions.  I saved them and told them.  Then I asked if they knew where in Thailand it came from.  No idea.  When I said that it came from Roiet, one of them thought they would save face and made a suggestion that it most likely came from the South. I said, "No, it is definitely an Issan instrument, and if you went to Muang Roiet, you could see huge statues of them around their beautiful central park in the city."  Below is one of the photos I took there. At the end, one of the lecturers was gracious enough to give credit to the presentations and admitted that he was humbled that he not only could name the instrument and its origin, but he had never heard one played before.  Full marks to the honesty that comes with being prepared to lose face gracefully.I hope that you all enjoyed my little Thai Culture lesson today. 

I've heard all sorts of crazy ass stories from farang friends who've had to take this "Thai Culture Course". Most have reported it to be one of the largest wastes of time they've ever had to experience. Some have started calling it "Dance for your work permit" (in reference to the 'Thai dancing' section.) I wonder who's palm is getting greased with the money they charge for this charade.

"Dance for your work permit" LOL.. that's too funny.

Very strange that they don't know woht, I can tell it's from Isaan. Looking forward to the next lesson.

None of the farangs I talked to thought it was too terribly funny. I had to sit in my living room, while my friend Andrew (with a bottle of scotch) regaled me with tales of how clueless the instructors/teachers were and how insulting the whole thing was. I don't think any of the people forced to take the course would mind so much if the courses being presented had at least SOME value.

I can't comment if the courses have SOME value or not, but if I have to attend the course and the lecturer can't tell me a simply thing such as "woht" I will be pissed. I can learn more about the culture by sitting in a local bar with a bottle of scotch, perhaps.

I didn't take any Danish culture course. The government didn't feel that's necessary. I took some Danish language courses and the government paid for it (in fact, the Dane paid for it). The Danish government is richer, what can I say.

The idea of Thai culture course is good but I don't know if they do it right. How much does it cost?, btw.

sorry Twice_shy, I'm off topic here.

A wonderful story..all credit to you and all shame to the people behind this ongoing farce of a culture course.

yet another joke from the Education Ministry and the Royal Thai Government who cant seem to organize a course with any value about a topic they know nothing about. oops. seems like that is actually logical.

they should just copy the Peace Corps course. They used to have a good cultural introduction course with language intro and so on for new Peace Corps recruits. I dont know what it is like now but 15 years ago it was very insightful and helped a lot of us gain insight into Thai organization culture and how to get along with Thais in bureaucracy and so on. I still use lots of things I learned in that course. I was not Peace Corps but just read the material.

I think they are supposed to teach you like they teach Thai children. That is to say, folk cultures is not represented into the course's curriculum. That 's why Ph.D. couldn't tell you about folk musical instrument.

The teachers can't sing Loy Kratong song correctly? They obviously didn't prepare for teaching!

How much do you pay for the course, though?

we have a similar scheme here in Scotland; after 2 years here immigrants have to attend a 3 hour course where they are forced to eat haggis and listen to 90 minutes of bagpipe music. At least 65% of these immigrants return home after attending the course...

My school did a 'deal' and got the course for 2500 baht per head. As there was about about 100 staff members who did the course, I considered that it was pretty good money...

We felt angry that these clowns had wasted our time, but I personally felt so pissed off that they had so poorly represented their country when such an interesting presentation could have been made. I didn't tell you all of it either, about the two worn out whiteboard markers and the PhD lecturer walking out sulking because someone told her that no one could read what she wrote... about the 2 hour som tum making, the constant pathetic penis jokes from the gay lecturer and the fact that they offered a diploma in English language where you could only get A or B. This was announced triumphantly and mention was made during the Kindergarten Origami session that it was taken from the English Masters Course...

I must stop...

My friend just gave me a Woht 2 days ago as a souvenir. My friend bought it from Loey province. I thought that it was just an applied Can (a kind of reed mouth organ in isaan). Thanks for the information. :-)

Khon Thai aint only like to smile but also like to laugh (at) for any situation.