It’s important to note that many of the expat accounts have been closed down due to the laxity of individual bank branches in enforcing their own policies, which were taken advantage of by nefarious actors. Many expats attempt to open bank accounts on tourist visas (which include the recently popular Destination Thailand Visa for digital nomads) without proper identification, and though allowed in the past, is now being restricted. One can argue about the classification of visas and the dissonance between economic goals and immigration policy, but for Thais, this is a long overdue enforcement action especially as it regards to scams targeting an older generation. Yes, it significantly impacts honest expats looking to stay beyond the short-term, but there is a way to doing things in Thailand that requires guests to adapt to their hosts, of which accepting the reality of Thailand’s political situations is an important part.
Foreigners on DTVs are allowed to stay for five years. To prohibit someone living in Thailand for such a long period from opening a bank account - often necessary for paying rent and other necessities - is insane. And sanctimony about "guests adapting to their hosts" doesn't make it any less so.
While your point is certainly valid, the parent's experience lines up with mine. There is a disconnect for rideshare/delivery drivers even between getting instructions from Google Maps vs. me reading out instructions straight from Google Maps. If I say exactly what Google Maps, then we're able to get to where I need to go.
I will say that it is changing, though. For younger rideshare drivers, there is a greater reliance on and ability to use Google Maps. In my experience, it is older drivers that have an interesting time adapting. This makes me think that there is certainly some ostensibly unrelated cultural norms at play: for example, Thailand exhibits a high degree of social hierarchy dependent on age, and a priority on saving face. Totally ignoring Google Maps, if I know the best way to get somewhere in Bangkok, and I know that most taxi drivers don't, me communicating it in Thai as respectful as is culturally appropriate can and does get shut down or ignored. In these instances, we invariably get lost and/or stuck in traffic.
Is a dislike for Google Maps in navigation completely a function of cultural values? Probably not, but this kind of technology isn't thought to be by default an amazing convenience in many parts of the world.
When gluten-free diets began to become popular, I had a similar question as to why a food that had been a staple of multiple civilisations for hundreds of years had suddenly become "bad for you". Dan Barber has a book on this called The Third Plate, which served as a great introduction for me on nutrition, but from a culinary perspective. He's also one of the chefs profiled in the first season of Netflix's Chef's Table.
The answer to this question is that we don't make bread like we used to. There's a wonderful documentary on Netflix about this, called "Cooked" (the episode entitled "Air" is about bread). Short answer: bread used to be fermented, and consisted of three ingredients. Today's regular supermarket bread is bad for you, unless you take the time to go to your local bakery and buy their sourdough.
My wife couldn't eat bread without falling asleep on the couch a couple of hours afterwards. But she can eat sourdough - which costs about the same as the gluten-free variety we used to buy. Also, it's beyond delicious.
>Short answer: bread used to be fermented, and consisted of three ingredients. Today's regular supermarket bread is bad for you, unless you take the time to go to your local bakery and buy their sourdough
Can you outline how the additional ingredients in "Today's regular supermarket bread" make them "bad for you"?
Here in Germany even local bakeries put stuff in their bread which doesn't belong there. A good chunk of population (including me) has switched to make their own bread. With a bit of routine (and patience) it's pretty easy (I am not talking about these machines which make your bread). I just finished two loaves where I even didn't add any yeast besides what's contained in the sourdough.
We have some high-end bakeries who sell real bread but you have to know them. Sourcing proper food in Germany is pretty difficult if you don't live in a big city.
Without reading the book, did you ever reach an answer? In my understanding, wheats and carbs were never optimal for us but if you are a starving medieval peasant on a bread or rice diet, you have worse things to worry about.
Agreed, and furthermore, I think it’s easy for most of us to take for granted the influence of our domains of work and study. In general, many of us have backgrounds which pride themselves in their methodology, consistency and pursuit of understanding (whether or not we actually work in line with these values is another matter.) A lot of people outside of these circles aren’t privy to that sort of training (self-taught or otherwise), so adequately analysing the news that shows up on news feeds and timelines is difficult. Any news on the pandemic and the varying responses of the general public are a fine example of this. There’s always room for differences in opinion, but the intense variability highlights the race across the internet between access to all sorts of information and educational material that was previously unavailable, and the ill-intended trash like the link you shared.
Don't pat yourself on the back too much. "We" are just as susceptible to propaganda, it's just that different mindsets require different approaches to manufacturing consent.
My first inclination is that the individualism has turned from (admittedly, rosy nostalgia follows here) a propensity towards creative expression and unique identity amongst the whole, into an assertion of control that serves my needs at the expense of others. In my experience, while HOAs can be well-intentioned, they provide easy opportunity for people to build small kingdoms, and for most, being a king is quite tempting.
A lot of people have already commented on the part of not speaking being virtually useless at the beginning. I tend to agree with the criticisms listed there, but I submit another reason: muscle memory.
Practicing making the sounds of the target language as soon as possible with the correction of a native speaker, in my opinion, is absolutely essential. For many languages, there are unique sounds that are just close enough to one’s primary language, that our muscle memory causes us to make the familiar, incorrect sound instead of the proper one. Because it’s more a matter of physical exercise alongside the rewiring of our brains to recognise said phonemes, the more time spent working on it, the better on the path to fluency.
Having said all that, everyone’s language acquisition ability and language goals will be different, so I can see where this piece of advice does not have universal application.
