Mc Donalds

 McDonald's

I like to eat Thai/Esan food.

"Pad grapao lae kai daew" (rice topped with basil leaves and minced meat and a fried egg on top), "Som Tam thalae" (Spicy salad with seafood), and my favorite "Sen lek tom yam moo" (fine noodles soup with pork and very spicy).
But every once in a while, I liked to eat Western food too,
In Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat) were not many Western food restaurants and one of the best places at that time was Mc Donalds in The Mall.

One day, I went to The Mall to buy some IT stuff and I wanted to try the hamburgers of Mc Donalds.

On the door of Mc Donalds was a flyer (in English) that they were recruiting people and the minimum requirement was an University degree (that's maybe why the flyer was in English as most Thais who didn't had an university degree were illiterate in English).

I went inside and looked at the menu.
Arrived at the cashiere, I ordered a "Big Mac menu but with 2 Big Mac's".
The cassier started to look at her menu selection keyboard, but could not find my order.

Sir, you want 2 Big Mac menu's, she asked.
I responded that I wanted a Big Mack menu, but with 2 Big Mack's, but with only 1 pack of French Fries and 1 soda drink.

She looked again at her keyboard and decided to ask help from the guy at the cash register next to her.
He asked me again what I had ordered and upon receiving my order he said: 1 soda, 1 French Fries and 2 Big Mac's. But inputing everything separate was a lot more expensive than 1 Big Mac menu with 2 burgers.

No problem!
He excused himself and went to the General Manager.
The general manager came to the me and told me that he was very sorry but the cassiers can only input the orders which are on the keyboard and my order was not possible.
By that time, the queue was already reaching the "Exit" door.

I told the manager to give a Big Mack menu.
When the Big Mack menu arrived at my table, I asked him to bring me a single Big Mack without soda or French Fries.

After receiving my order, I said to him that I have now a Big Mack menu with 2 Big Mack's.
So, where is the problem?

He shook his head, looked at the food on my table and left with his head between his legs.

When I returned to Mc Donalds a few weeks later, they had added a key on the keyboard with a "Big Mack menu with 2 Big Mac's".
Thai logic.

After 25 years living in Thailand, no or little improvement on that matter was done.

Thai school system is primary based on cultivating obedient people to their superiors and not to try to think out of the book.
ROOT LEARNING.

Most of the school time is spend on learning the Buddhist religion and showing respect to the Buddhist monks by cleaning the temples, cut the grass, and many other activities. 

The regular subjects are learned by the book without asking any questions or given any examples. By the end of the school, the students have memorized a lot of subjects without knowing how to use them in real life.

Students are not to blame for this as the teachers themselves are illiterate and have done the same school as their students.

Anutin, the minister of health declared to the Thai people that Thai was a first "World language" and the Thai people should be proud of their language.

I witnessed the same incident at Mc Donalds in almost every situation.
When dealing with civil servants (most of them have higher degree), they don't know how to deal with a problem that is not in their list of tasks.

On top of that, people who leave school and want to have a position as teacher, civil servant, or any high-end position are required to pay very dear for that position. Get a heavy loan to pay for that position and pay-off the loan with their meager earnings.

Many foreigners will say that Buddhism is not a religion, but for the Thais Buddhism is a religion.
On their passport, ID-Card and many other official documents is marked "Religion: Buddhism".
And on most banners, including the military banner, it is marked: "For the country, the people and the RELIGION".