Being polite to foriegners in Thailand

General chat about life in the Land Of Smiles. Discuss expat life, relationship issues and all things generally Thailand and Asia related.
Frank La Rue
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Re: Being polite to foriegners in Thailand

Post by Frank La Rue »

Spitfire wrote:Being polite and interacting in a default fashion also gets you into conversations with lots of nut-jobs and types of people who you would probably never associate yourself with in your country of origin.
That is a distinct possibility, and in Hua Hin you re very possibly meeting tourists who are there for a week or two.

When I meet farangs in Kanchanaburi in a local Tesco store they are likely to be local residents with a thai wife, I do consider the setting - likely for tourists or not.

Anyone may be a nutter but I may have more in common with the local expats. And who knows. maybe the nutter is me at times
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dozer
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Re: Being polite to foriegners in Thailand

Post by dozer »

Don’t tend to go out of my way to greet every Farang I come across, but when I’m out cycling I do make an effort to acknowledge fellow cyclists both Farang and Thai and the same when I’m out on the motorbike.
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Re: Being polite to foriegners in Thailand

Post by Stargeezer »

Never give up on being friendly to anyone. There will always be people who
will give you a blank look or glare, or confusion. I found out one time that the couple didn't speak English very much, as they were from Eastern Europe, and I thought they were from England.
Appearances are deceiving. Even had some German who greeted me back in German, and again I thought they were from America. Maybe I should get my glasses updated.
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margaretcarnes
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Re: Being polite to foriegners in Thailand

Post by margaretcarnes »

TingTongJohn wrote:Is it a waste of time trying to be polite when in Thailand? An example would be at the market and see some one who is not Thai(Tourist/farang what ever) And as you pass by you say Morning/good morning/Just nod hello and you get the glare like your wrecking my holiday what are you selling or even worse the blank stare. :roll: Is it just me? (It must be) Yes maybe I should just ignore everyone and not try to connect with other human beings. What say yee?
No it certainly isn't just you, and you mustn't ever give up on being polite to everyone. There is nothing wrong with it and nothing to lose. Maybe I've been spoilt - coming from Hull where people do still dare to talk to each other in the street or on the buses. It is our nature in these parts!
Even when I've been in Denmark, Canada and Germany people have been very friendly and chatty.
Sadly on one trip to HH about 5 years ago I did encounter the 'blank stare' from a farang on a baht bus, and that was the first time I realised that HH was changing farang wise. Up to them. You carry on doing whatt you feel is right.
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usual suspect
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Re: Being polite to foriegners in Thailand

Post by usual suspect »

The 'Land of Smiles'..? Yeah right.
All tourists please take note..all Thai people you come into contact with are smiling & giving you a wai because they are gonna get money from you..be it the waitress, room-maid..(tips), or market-trader (a sale) etc.
If you want to try dealing with 'real' Thai folk go to Tesco in Market Village..wait for your wai & smile from the check-out women there..they must practice at home being surley to farangs..I hate shopping there & stopped saying thank you at the check-out a long time ago! :tsk:
Big C on the Pala U Rd..great girls on checkout..always smiling & happy..guess who gets my money..? :thumb:
BUT..I do realise that %age-wise they may feel we are taking over here in town..It's only the same feeling as the locals in my home-town where 100's of Polish migrant workers now live.
Yes there's many Thai folk who can scrape a living from us..be-it the taxi-men, ice-cream sellers, etc, but way to many may resent us living here..so those folk may be the ones giving us that stare.

Changing the subject slightly..do many Thais feel they've no need to say hello any more..the 'other' HH tourists are Bangkonians, & Hi-So Thai/Chinese..who feel so 'up there' status-wise that they would never be polite to say a market trader, in fact are happy to talk 'down' to them all the time..if I was a trader then I'd be in a mood to skip the 'hello, how are you today' banter.
"What you want?".."No..no-have..f*** o**, try buy somewhere else" (just practicing to be an M.V. Tesco girl :naughty: )
But never mind..All of you keep smiling, & keep saying hello
to our hosts..they WILL remember you for it... :cheers:
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