Project Thailand

The value of helping one another motivates cooperative behavior in the community and reinforces a sense of neighborhood… They bind their relationship through reciprocal services such as assistance and exchanges of food.

- From a study done by Dr. Suntaree Komin, a Thai psychologist and a Fulbright scholar, who wrote a publication entitled Psychology of the Thai People: Values and Behavioral Patterns.

Implications for a Missionary:

• Encourage this in the church!
• Since this is already respected, and because the Bible says it, let them see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.
• Get involved in community activities, outside the church, as Christians or in the name of the church.
• Have work days to help people.
• Be helpful.

Thailand has been known as the Land of smiles. Work and play must contain at least a little Sanuke (to have fun, to enjoy oneself and have a good time).

- From a study done by Dr. Suntaree Komin, a Thai psychologist and a Fulbright scholar, who wrote a publication entitled Psychology of the Thai People: Values and Behavioral Patterns.

Implications for a Missionary:

• Don’t be boring.
• Don’t be a killjoy.
• Don’t be a stick in the mud.
• Have a sense of humor.
• If you are naturally a stiff, learn how to relax and have some fun.
• Plan some times to do activities with friends. Just as friends.
• When teaching something serious, possibly illustrate it with humorous or ridiculous examples. Studies show that humor greatly increases retention anyway.
• Smile!

The findings of the study revealed that educational values and competence hold a medium level of importance…This finding can help missionaries adjust their focus.

The Thai people are not interested in the content of missionaries’ teaching. If being Christian enabled them to get benefits and helped in finding jobs, knowing English, and opening up chances for a better life, they might consider being Christians.

- From a study done by Dr. Suntaree Komin, a Thai psychologist and a Fulbright scholar, who wrote a publication entitled Psychology of the Thai People: Values and Behavioral Patterns.

Implications for a Missionary:

• Preach sermons that will help them.
• Use as many creative ways to teach as possible. Everything doesn’t have to be called a lesson.
• Activities of the church should demonstrate teaching.
• Create a curiosity, get them to ask questions, and you don’t have to tell them you are “educating” them.
• They are at least curious of your content, they probably just aren’t too interested in lectures, so find ways to teach line upon line, and precept upon precept.
• Show how not knowing the truth hurts their lives and how knowing the truth helps them avoid real heartache and pain.
• Maybe emphasize a series on Proverbs. The Lord does have some good advice.

The Thai are first and foremost ego oriented, characterized by the highest ego value of being independent, being one’s self (pen tua khong tua eng), and having high self-esteem. Thai people have big egos, a deep sense of independence, pride, and dignity. They cannot tolerate any violation of the “ego” self whether that be Buddhism, the king, the nation, or parents. Despite their cool and calm front, they can be easily provoked to strong emotional reactions if the “self” or anybody close to the “self” line, like one’s father or mother is insulted. Basically, it boils down to the question of “face” and “dignity”.

Since Thai culture values “ego” and “face”, straightforward, negative performance feedback, strong criticism, and face-to-face confrontation techniques and challenges should be avoided. “Face-saving” is a key criterion in handling all person-related decisions, particularly negative ones. Compromise is often used as an effective means to save face and to keep the “surface harmony” even at the expense of some task.

- From a study done by Dr. Suntaree Komin, a Thai psychologist and a Fulbright scholar, who wrote a publication entitled Psychology of the Thai People: Values and Behavioral Patterns.

Lessons for a Missionary:

• Work on church discipline/restoration. Confront sin lovingly from scripture.
• Be as nice as possible. They call it manners in the States.
• Develop relationships in which you can correct and train people in righteousness.
• Compromise your preferences when they are just your preferences.
• Encourage rather than criticize.

A rational or apologetic approach may not work well with the majority of the Thai people, but an intuitive, feeling, or affective approach, seeing Christ as the “Man for others” and the one who can deliver them from all fears, may be considered as a new way of meekness in Christian witnessing.

For the Thai, religion is felt emotionally, not rationalized cognitively.

- From a study done by Dr. Suntaree Komin, a Thai psychologist and a Fulbright scholar, who wrote a publication entitled Psychology of the Thai People: Values and Behavioral Patterns.

Implications for missionaries:

• Emphasize how the Gospel enlightens our minds, so that we can think clearly and not be dependent on emotions.
• Teach that emotions must be subject to facts
• Don’t deride emotions and feeling, but instruct them to be infused with passion for God!
• Develop a strong and effective music program in the church to give proper outlet of emotions of praise to God. Like the Psalms.
• Use instruction on music as a way to teach how our emotions should be stirred by and dependent on truth. Not vice versa.

This is characterized by the achievement need emphasizing the internal drive toward achievement through hard work… Because of this Thai value, missionaries and Thai Christians who are work-oriented and perceive Christian missions as something they have to strive to do by their own efforts, and who evaluate their success by the number of saved souls, may be disappointed and discouraged constantly in their Christian witness to the Thai. (Mejudhon 2005, 159)

Komin’s research data indicates the achievement value of being ambitious and hard working to attain one’s goals has been consistently ranked as least important. All Thais, without exception, ranked the hardworking achievement value much lower than the group of social relationship values. A closer look reveals that 64.9 percent of the Bangkok Thai and 55.2 percent of the rural Thai perceive maintenance of good relationships as more important than work. A good relationship, not tasks, wins all.

- From a study done by Dr. Suntaree Komin, a Thai psychologist and a Fulbright scholar, who wrote a publication entitled Psychology of the Thai People: Values and Behavioral Patterns.

In general for the Thai, there is nothing as serious as being rigid or unchangeable.

Because of this value, it is not surprising to find a “decision-shifting” behavior pattern quite common for the Thai, such as denying or postponing decisions to accept Christ, baptism, or appointment even though they said “yes” weeks prior.

They might even switch their principles…The Thai view the missionaries and what they do in various situations as more important in their conversion to Christianity than dogma or doctrines. If the doctrines can radiate through missionaries’ lives, it helps the Thai come to Christ. This also helps missionaries in developing the meekness approach to the Thai.

- From a study done by Dr. Suntaree Komin, a Thai psychologist and a Fulbright scholar, who wrote a publication entitled Psychology of the Thai People: Values and Behavioral Patterns.

Unlike American’s top values which tend to focus on self-actualization, ambition, and achievement, the Thai also place high value on a group of “other-directed” social interaction values, designed to project a picture of smooth, kind, pleasant, no-conflict interpersonal interactions, in short, the surface harmony observed by many.

This orientation is characterized by the preference for a non-assertive, polite, and humble type of personality (expressed through appearance, manners, and interpersonal approach), as well as the preference for relaxed, and pleasant interaction which accounts for the smiling and friendly aspects of the Thai people that fascinates most foreign visitors.

The persons demonstrating these are caring and considerate; kind and helpful; responsive to situations and opportunities; self-controlled, tolerant, and restrained; polite and humble; calm and cautious; contented; and socially-related.

This group of values is significant for three reasons:

First, five out of about eight interpersonal related values emerged on the Thai value list but not on the American value list.They are: caring and considerate, responsive to situations and opportunities, calm and cautious, contented, and socially-related.

Second, some of the “social smoothing” values have consistently secured the Thai significantly high rankings in the Thai value system.

Third, this finding means these values are deeply internalized and functional in the everyday life of the Thai.

By knowing these five values, missionaries and Thai Christians are able to learn how to manage the interaction stage in intercultural communication because the Thai are intuitive at observing and practicing these subtle social rules.

- From a study done by Dr. Suntaree Komin, a Thai psychologist and a Fulbright scholar, who wrote a publication entitled Psychology of the Thai People: Values and Behavioral Patterns.

Reciprocity of kindness, particularly the practice of being grateful, is a highly valued characteristic in Thai society. The Thai have been socialized to value this grateful (Katanyu) quality in a person. A person should be grateful to persons who render Bunkhun (goodness, helps, favors) to him or her. Bunkhun must be returned, often on a continuous basis and in a variety of ways, because Bunkhun should not and cannot be measured quantitatively in material terms.

- From a study done by Dr. Suntaree Komin, a Thai psychologist and a Fulbright scholar, who wrote a publication entitled Psychology of the Thai People: Values and Behavioral Patterns.

Implications for a missionary:

• Your generosity should not be outdone by a Buddhist. Generosity is one of the best displays of the Gospel!
• Don’t keep strict tabs on what people owe you. You will be richer than the vast majority, and if you demand payment for small things, you will be looked at like the unjust ruler.
• Be generous in the same ways as the culture around you is generous. Don’t buy friends, but find other ways that you can show kindness and care as well.
• Develop principles of what you will and will not give to before opportunities arise so that you don’t set precedents that will come back to bite you once there are more people asking for help.
• Don’t say, “I don’t have any money.” You would be lying. If you have determined that you aren’t going to help in a certain situation, say, “I don’t have money for that.”
• Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, because He has said a lot about ignoring the poor and being stingy, so He may very well lead you to give.

Many cultures separate work and play… From the Thai standpoint, if something is not sanuke (fun), it is scarcely worth doing… Thais have the expectation that all of their activities will contain sanuke. Work, study, and even religious service must have at least an element of sanuke if they are to retain the Thai’s interest. (Mejudhon 2005, 162)

Taken from the work of Dr. Nantachai Mejudhon who summarized Fieg’s work in an article that was published in Sharing Jesus Effectively with the Buddhist World.

Implications for a missionary:

• Make the Gospel alive in your preaching and services
• Have a good sense of humor!
• Smile
• Preach Jesus, not religion
• Plan fun activities, just like you would in America, to spend time with people and get them connected to each other.
• Work on your humor. It probably isn’t very funny in Thailand. Just make sure your humor is understood correctly by the culture.
• Plan to eat with the people that you work with the most. This is a great way to develop friendships.