On Monday in our class, we talked about birthday parties. After reading an entire conversation about a surprise birthday party, I gave my class four questions to answer about their experiences. After a few minutes of silence though they were supposed to be discussing their answers in pairs, I asked if they had questions. I found out, they didn't even know what a surprise party was!! Then I thought back to their culture's way of celebrating birthdays and understood.
Thai people don't really celebrate birthdays too much after childhood. If they do have a party, the person having the birthday must organize it, host it, and pay for everyone! So it makes no sense to them for someone else to organize a party for them, especially by surprise! As I explained to them about how Americans usually pay for the birthday girl/boy, they smiled and really liked our custom...and warmed up to the idea of a surprise party.
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