Hartmann suggests that we discuss the three questions in exercise D. on page 52 in small groups (2007), but I think it might give more varied, and retrievable, ideas if we do some quick response writing. So, what are your responses to question 2:
- What are some rules for gift exchange in your culture? For example, what is a typical gift to bring to a dinner party? Do government officials sometimes accept gifts in exchange for their influence? Do people discuss the difference between "gifts" and "bribes"?
__________
Hartmann, P. (2007).
Quest 2 Reading and Writing (2
nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
I believe that Thais give the gift when they want to say indirectly “thank you” or they want to ask someone to do something for them that can do without using influence. Thais give the bribe when they want to use someone influence. One in my belief is that there is no free thing in the world. People always want to exchange thing for thing. For Thais, I also believe the word gift and the word bribe give the significantly different feeling even though in my opinion, it’s is the same thing in some cases. Most Thai people think that giving a gift is positive, while giving bribe is strongly negative.
ReplyDeleteI think we have some rules, but not strictly use, for gift exchange in Thailand. For example, if someone gives you a birthday gift, you have to give him a gift in his birthday, too. And it should be almost the same price.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, all gift that is exchanged with government officials for the influence is a bribe. Government officials who received gifts or money is to be disciplinary punished, and transferred to anywhere else.
I think the "gift rules" in Thailand is not strict as in Japan, but there are some "gift tradition" that the foreigners should know. For example, when you are invited to a marry party. You should bring a couple of 500 bath bill with you, to give married couple because they are responsible to all financial burden form the party which always huge. It is Thai Tradition to give them some help.
ReplyDeleteMany Government official receive some "Gift",money or cars, and help the giver somethings. Wells , they know that it is a bribe and illegal but they still received it. Many Thais think that giving some cheap gift in a special day, such as New Year Day, to Officials that they known personally is OK but if it too much it will be is considered a bribe.
I agree with Ball's idea that giving gifts, in the eyes of Thai people, is one of the ways to say thank you. I think some Thai people give gifts in order to make receivers to feel obligated. Therefore, I think in some situations giving gifts might imply the same intention as bribery. For example, if you give your friend who has a high position in a company a basket of fruit every New Years day, he might offer you a quick and easy way to do business with the company when you want to.
ReplyDeleteThe gift giving rules are not strict in Thailand. When someone came to my house, I didn’t expect that they have a gift or not. In my opinion, small and thoughtful gifts are appreciated more than expensive one. Thais give gifts when they want influence from friends or peers, but Thais give bribes when they want influence from government. Sometime, gifts and bribes can be the same thing, it is depends on the giver’s purpose. However, people have different attitude toward gifts and bribes.
ReplyDeleteThere are some rules for gift exchange in Thailand, but they aren’t too strict like some other countries. We usually give a gift to other people when there is special occasion; for example, we should bring a gift in birthday party, or wedding party. But, we don’t mind if the guests don’t bring a gift to us when they come to a dinner party.
ReplyDeleteFor me, gifts and bribes are different. Gifts are given to somebody honestly. But, bribes are given because they want something back, and I think the government accepts bribes in exchange for their influence, not a gift.
In Thailand, we often give someone a gift when we ask for a favor or want to tighten up friendship.
ReplyDeleteFor a dinner party, we do not expect guests to bring a gift. But they may bring some food or liqueur to share in the party.
Most Thai government officials accept gifts in exchange for their influence. For example, traffic polices normally accept 40-100 Baht for not writing a ticket. Politicians accepts a lot larger amount of bribes. There are bribes in almost every government activity.
Thai people do not talk much about the difference between "gifts" and "bribes". We rather get used to a disgusting custom of the bribes. When we found someone take a bribe, we just complained to our friends and did nothing.
It is quite difficult to distinguish a gift and a bribe. One of their differences is intention. But intention is hard to prove.
If parents give an amount of money to a school that they applied for their kid, is it a gift or a bribe?
Thai people also give some gift to someone they respect like a teacher, older releative people. things given is various, such as, fruits, souveniers, maybe valueable things.
ReplyDeleteAs a dinner party, I would bring some little things like souvenier to give to their friend. Sometimes, my friends ask for sharing food together if they are close friend. However, in business dinner party, i don't bring anything if i am a guest.
By the way, I didn't agree that government official can receive some gifts in exchange for influence. If someone want to give some gift to the official, they should do ti frankly that mean everyone who involved know about it.
By the way, gift means things are given away to someone, but Bribes means things are given for exchange something back.
I think it's not a rule that people must do, but it's like manners that we often do. For example, when we receive a meal or dessert from our neighbor, we will not return the empty dishes to them. We always make a meal or dessert, or buy some food back with their dishes. It shows our kindness. Anyway, your neighbors don't expect you to give something back to them.
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ReplyDeleteI think that there is no rules for gift exchange in Thailand somehow. we know by ourselves what to do. For example, when going to birthday party, I would sometimes bring a gift for host; However, If there are no gifts, it is totally okay. Government often accepts a gift in exchange to do something. For example, if someone parks illegally, it is very easy to get rid of policemen by using some money. For me, gifts and bribes are totally different. We always discuss about it that the gifts must be quite positive things. In contrast, bribe must be negative things. People around here are quite open-minded. They mostly say what the see.
ReplyDeleteI think there are not exactly rules for gift exchange in my culture. Take my experience as an example, last 4 months, I researched a lot to find some appropriate gift to thank my professor who wrote a recommendation letter to me. Some people told that is some sweets, food, card or so on. Finally, I decided to give him organic herbal teas. He did not accept because of the considerateness. I said ‘thank you’ for many times instead; this was only one thing that I can do.
ReplyDeleteActually, it is hard to define the different words between gifts and bribes. Everyone knows that bribes are harmful and gifts are pleasureful. But sometimes, when people give gifts to someone. Not only make friends, but also desire something back such as a privilege. For this reason, gifts become bribe too.
giving gift is usual, but giving too expensive gift in the office may be a bribery such as in journalist career, It's journalist law that you can't receive money or things more than 3,000 Baht from the politician or the government because it'll be a bribery. But for the other career giving gifts are very popular because Thai people are kind and we also give a food basket or sweets to the other family when there's any celebration.
ReplyDeleteI think gift and bribe has a little different; gifts are given for goodwill but bribe is for personal advantage
I think all bribes are gifts, but that not all gifts are bribes. And perhaps there are also bribes that are not gifts, such a promise of some future reward, or not acting on a threat.
ReplyDeleteI like the way everyone has been using concrete examples to clarify and support their ideas about the distinctions here, both of definition and of appropriateness. There are some good ideas on when a gift becomes a bribe.
It seems to me that if, for example, someone makes a gift to someone they don't know with an expectation of good will or favour as a result, that is a bribe. So giving a "donation" to a school before your child is accepted is a bribe, whereas giving it afterwards to improve the school she is at might really be a generous gift.
Perhaps schools should be free to admit who they want, and if they want to make a non-refundable deposit in advance a condition, that would seem fine to me: it would be honest and clear to all. It would also mean the poor people might not get in to the school, which might also have consequences for the academic standards of the school. But I'm not sure that this is something the government should be interfering in. I guess one important question here is: should private schools operate under free market conditions, or be forced to comply with government controls when deciding who to admit as students, and everything else?
I've just realised that my first sentence is contradicted by the second sentence in my first paragraph above. This is what can happen when you are writing down your ideas as you think them.
DeleteOn reflection. I'm going to support the idea stated in the second sentence: there are also bribes that are not gifts.
So I need to revise the idea in the first sentence to make it logically consistent. The revised first sentence is now: I think that all bribes are actual gifts given or promises of gifts to come in the future. And what all bribes have in common, as others have already said, is that there is an expectation of getting something in exchange for the pleasure given to the recipient, in contrast with a non-bribe gift, where the expectation is only to give pleasure to the receiver.
But if I think about it more, I might revise my ideas again.
Of course, when we are writing an essay, we do think in advance and clarify both our ideas and their organization before we start writing - very different to what we do in response writing.
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