The statements provided by both Trubrit and Merchant Seaman are unfortunately both errant. Merchant Seaman has regrettably neglected to be specific of place. However, Trubrit is being inordinately specific and unwittingly verbose with an abstruse interpretation of the term 'Expat Community'. I am unsure of the dictionary reference he quotes as no citation is provided.
Merchant Seaman would have certainly been wise to include a place name as a specific locality in the term. Hence, 'Expat Community of North East Thailand', 'Expat Community of the Isan (Isaan, Isarn, Issan or Esarn are also acceptable names) Region or 'Expat Community of the Province of Udon Thani' are all relevant terms to give a more defined narrative.
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definitio ... =communityCommunity
noun (plural Communities)
1a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common:
Montreal’s Italian community
the gay community in London
the scientific community
a group of people living together and practising common ownership:
a community of nuns
a particular area or place considered together with its inhabitants:
a rural community
local communities
a body of nations or states unified by common interests:
[in names]:
the European Community
(the community) the people of a district or country considered collectively, especially in the context of social values and responsibilities; society:
preparing prisoners for life back in the community
[as modifier] denoting a worker or resource designed to serve the people of a particular area:
community health services
An appropriate result for this brouhaha is most likely a nil all draw though I am still trying to elucidate the term 'historical history'trubrit wrote: 1.
a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.
Well there is no specific locality in which we all reside, as for sharing government . I don't think so .Common cultural or historical history . Definitely not, we have mostly been at war with each other in the last century .
2.
a locality inhabited by such a group.
Suppose you could call D&N or Nutty Park such a locality but as a group only a very small percentage of us go there '
3.
a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists (usually preceded by the ): the business community; the community of scholars.
Certainly no common characteristics there apart from our own perception of distinction , which divides some from the larger society in which we exist .
So I come to the conclusion there is no such thing as an expat community. A reasoning that is reinforced when reading another forum where even just a handful cannot exist in harmony. So the community must be the surrounding one we live in on a daily basis, consisting mainly of Thai people of course . So to say I don't care what "they" do is to divorce yourself from the only community available to you .Now that doesn't mean you have to get involved in it to the extent I do, but there is no way you can opt out entirely. It is where you have, presumably ,of your own free will, chosen to live. Amongst the people you have chosen to call your neighbours and sometimes are your family and friends . That is your community, make the best of it.