We can select the way we see the world

It has been a long again since I wrote the last post. Actually there has been quite a few things flashing in my mind in the past month, but I haven’t taken the opportunity to write them down. The primary reason is that I am devoting more and more time in pursuing my Thai language learning goal; in contrast, the time I spent on English is less, and now I find I am forgetting some English words, so I think it’s a good time to pick this up again.

Recently I had a quick chat with some Thai friends who are evaluating the Thai government bonds, then we had a brief chat about Thai society. They were curious what I like and I don’t like about Bangkok and Thailand from the perspective of a foreigner. I said the only one thing I don’t like is “weed”. At that time, people had to think twice what I meant. I think this is a situation of two reasons combined: one is the fact I am concerned with is a bit unexpected for many Thai people, and the second, in my hindsight, is the word that I chose is not quite right either. In the best version of myself, I would say cannabis, but I have been trying to use super simple English words in Thailand so as many people as possible could understand, considering English is not the primary language here. As I do this, my subconscious has started getting rid of some vocabularies, and this example is probably the case where it has gone a bit off.

When I thought I need to write something, I recalled several topics I have thought about recently. Those include time management, differences and similarities between Thai and Chinese, the new AI testing tool LambdaTest has introduced - KaneAI. Actually that KaneAI is quite interesting, I might write another blog after I dive into it more deeply, but today I am going to focus on one thing which is currently striking my mind: we can select the way we see the world.

I always believe the world is a kaleidoscope. It has so many aspects, and what you see is usually what has been presented in front of you, but recently I am thinking the way to see the world, to some extent, is a choice of ourselves too.

I have been deeply attached to two bands, Sodagreen (苏打绿) and Taitosmith (ไททศมิตร). I guess not so many people liking both of them at the same time because their languages are so different, and even for people who understand both Chinese and Thai, they may find their style quite different. Apparently Sodagreen tends to be more proper, literature and poetic, while Taitosmith apparently looks wilder, more rock and energetic. But to me, I saw their similarity from the very beginning. Initially I couldn’t articulate. Now when I think about it more and more, I think their cultural core is very similar.

One of the very famous quotes from Sodagreen is this:

请你一定要相信自己，一定要接受喜欢自己的样子

一定要让自己变成你真心会喜欢的样子

如果你想要做的不是长辈所控制你的样子

不是社会所规定的你的样子

请你一定要为自己勇敢地站出来

温柔地推翻这个世界，然后把世界变成我们的

Please be sure to believe in yourself. You must accept and like yourself

You must turn yourself into the way you truly like

If what you want to be is not the way that the elder dictates

Not the way that the society rules

Please make sure you bravely stand out for yourself

Gently turn over the world, and then turn the world ours

I recently went to Taitosmith’s concert as well. In that concert, they said

บางที่ที่ความเจริญเข้าไปไม่ถึง ไฟฟ้าเข้าไปไม่ถึง ความหวังก็เข้าไปไม่ถึง เราก็เลยแทนทุกคุณว่า"เสาไฟ"คือตัวถึงความหวัง

There are some places where the development does not reach, nor does the electricity, not does the hope. Thus we obligate everyone here as “the electricity pole”, which means the one who conveys hope.

Those two bands that I love really both represent their thinking about this world. Both of them see the inequity, corruption and people suffering. Their ways to approach those topics are slightly different. Sodagreen is very warm, and Taitosmith is very direct, but both, after seeing all the negative aspects, choose to see the positive side.

Taitosmith told their fans, who mostly are Thai people, that they do feel disappointed and hopeless about their country sometimes, but it’s not a big deal. No matter what happens, one should never die (no one should give up).

Actually, the more I think about this, the more I think it applies to everywhere. For example, one problem that Thai people want to resolve is probably their inequitable economy. This is not a problem for my country China, but is there any moment that I would feel hopeless about my country too? In fact, there is. There is a professional social network 脉脉 (Maimai) in China, which is a bit like LinkedIn but it’s more successful than LinkedIn in China. Recently I saw such a post on it discussing an internal post on the intranet of ByteDance. That internal post was posted by a female employee, complaining the very unequal gender distribution of the gym coach in their enterprise gyms. To my surprise, on the social network which is supposed to be professional, the comments were flooded with voices like “this is the outcome of eating the table; slashing would solve this problem” (in several decades past, it was common in some Chinese regions where women were not allowed to dine on the table with men in the same family, and domestic violence was also a norm). When I saw those comments, I was astonished. Different from LinkedIn, people can choose to be anonymous on Maimai. This is probably one of the reasons that such horrible statements could find their zones, but I am still shocked just imaging the programmers, business analysts, hiring managers who sit in the posh office building holding such disgusting beliefs at the bottom of their hearts. When I saw the number of such comments, I also felt my country has very little hope in my generation, but what can we do? Should we just acknowledge this world sucks and hate it? We have better choice to see this world in a better way, and change it to a better form.

One of the reasons at last for me to come to Thailand was to see the different parts of the world. The more I experience, the more I believe every place always has their own problem. The perfection never exists. Instead of holding the magnifier on the ugly, it would be more beneficial to focus on the hope, and pass the hope to others.