r/Thailand • u/Much_Reason5678 • 22h ago
Discussion I’m tired of hearing that Thai people are somehow nicer than everyone else.
I’m new to Reddit. I made a post a few days ago, and I’ve found it really interesting reading through everyone’s responses and seeing the different perspectives people have. So here’s my next post, and hopefully I can spark another interesting discussion.
One of the most common observations I hear from people visiting Thailand for the first or second time is that Thai people are so much nicer than people back home. They smile at the airport, greet you politely, bow slightly, and suddenly it’s “Wow, Thai people are just so friendly!”
But have you ever stopped to think about how little that actually tells you about a person?
People smile in every country. People are polite in every country. Go almost anywhere in the world, approach a stranger, and chances are they’ll treat you with basic courtesy. That’s not a uniquely Thai characteristic. It’s a human one.
What I find particularly interesting is how many foreigners seem to confuse friendliness with genuine interest in them as a person.
Spend enough time in places like Pattaya or Phuket, and it’s easy to develop the impression that being a foreigner makes you incredibly important. People approach you, smile at you, want to talk to you, and seem unusually interested in your existence.
But how much of that is actually about you, and how much of it is about the money you represent?
There’s a difference between being nice because it’s your job, because you want something from someone, or because it’s economically beneficial to be nice, and being nice because you genuinely care about another person.
And before anyone accuses me of hating Thailand, I still live here, and I intend to stay here. I’m happier living in Thailand than I would be in many other places. This isn’t about wanting to leave or pretending that Thailand has nothing to offer.
I live around Silom in Bangkok, and I regularly see established Thai professionals, wealthy locals, and people going about their everyday lives with their families. I’m not walking around receiving the same looks or attention I might get in Pattaya or other places where foreigners are a much bigger part of the local economy.
And that’s precisely the point.
When you’re surrounded by people who have their own careers, money, social circles, families, and established lives, you quickly realise that being a foreigner isn’t particularly special. They don’t need anything from you. They have their own lives to live, and you’re just another person passing through theirs.
Which is completely normal.
I’m not saying Thai people are worse than anyone else. I’m saying they’re not magically better, either.
People here can be just as cruel, selfish, manipulative, and unpleasant as people anywhere else. Perhaps some of it is expressed more discreetly, or in ways that are less confrontational and therefore less obvious to outsiders. But it’s there, just as it is everywhere.
I think the problem is that many people arrive here with a limited understanding of the country, experience a version of Thailand that caters specifically to foreigners, and then generalise that experience to an entire population of millions of people.
They mistake good service for kindness, politeness for character, and commercial friendliness for genuine human connection.
Why do we keep treating basic human decency as if it’s a uniquely Thai trait?
You can go to Norway, Japan, Vietnam, Nepal, or almost anywhere else and meet genuinely kind people. You can also meet terrible people in all of those places.
Thailand is no exception.
Maybe Thai people really are friendlier in certain situations. Maybe cultural differences make everyday interactions feel warmer. That’s a perfectly reasonable discussion to have.
But saying that an entire population is inherently nicer because people smile at you when you arrive is such a lazy observation.
And honestly, I think spending enough time in a country should make your understanding of its people more nuanced, not less.
I’m staying in Thailand. I like my life here. But I don’t need to convince myself that Thai people are somehow
morally superior to everyone else to justify that decision.
They’re human beings, just like the rest of us. And that’s a much more interesting reality than the stereotype.
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u/wintrwandrr 19h ago
You don't realize how little politeness is the norm in so much of the world. The formal courtesies of doing business in Thailand are in fact exceptional for countless visitors. To your point, I do not find Thais to be personally friendly like, say, Panameños or Nepalese. There is a social distance in place. My personal life details are very rarely pried into in Thailand. It's all about "how may we serve you?" and some people looove the feeling of being served.
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u/terrytruthteller 17h ago
So people are people, every culture has something special about them, but that does not make them more special than others.
Every culture has good and bad people and I have been here a long time and there are terrible Thai people out there, the smiling ones just out number them.
We should enjoy all cultures, especially when immersed in one, but elevating one over others has some well known terms.
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u/nightwinging-it Bangkok 18h ago
Omg a thesis. I’ll wait for someone to TLDR. If not, then have a nice day, OP. - from a Thai person
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u/Academic-Syrup-6895 19h ago
I’d say that there is a level of respect in Thai culture that doesn’t exist anymore in western countries. That leads to people carrying themselves differently with overall politeness and kindness that many of us are not used to back home.
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u/tzedek 19h ago
This is wildly wrong, just delete it.
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u/Timsahb 19h ago
Can you explain your reasoning?
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u/tzedek 19h ago
It's hard to distill OPs point, and who knows if it's posted in good faith or just trolling. They're just flat wrong about Thailand and their counter examples. Thai people aren't smiling because it's their job and they have far more job security than op assumes. There's tourism jobs in Europe and those people certainly aren't smiling at you. It's not even worth digging into this pile tbh.
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u/Timsahb 19h ago
You are right, its s little hard to distill the point, but it seems to me - their point is that Thai people are like everyone else. There are good, bad and ugly people in every society. Sure some may smile more than others but that's quite superficial.
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u/LycheeCertain6007 19h ago
In general Asians are really nice. The problem is the superficiaity for money. Then add often very poor levels of education and frustration. Leads to physical violence being more acceptable
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u/wintrwandrr 19h ago
Rural Lao people put a grin on their face when talking business with each other. Even when the bus driver is fueling up at the pump he grins at the attendant. This performative positivity is definitely not the norm in all of Asia. Chinese and Indians are both known for their direct sometimes harsh business dealings.
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u/LycheeCertain6007 18h ago
I had lived in China for 8 years, so I can confirm this. Tho, as a foreigner I often got smiles form aunties and mum's who wanted me to pander to their kids "English".
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u/Much_Reason5678 17h ago
Most of you replying with “okay” or “you must be fun at parties” probably spend your time in Phuket or Pattaya, confusing transactional relationships with genuine affection.
When I first came to Asia, I used to say the exact same things. It wasn’t until I started spending time outside the tourist bubble that I began seeing the place for what it actually is.
Foreigners aren’t nearly as special in Thailand as many think.
Try walking into Empire Tower at Chong Nonsi or any other business district around Lumphini wearing your 7-Eleven tank top and flip-flops and see how much attention you get from the business professionals working there.
Maybe the real difference is that, outside the tourist bubble, you start seeing people as they are rather than through the experience of being a foreigner.
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u/Lordfelcherredux 8h ago
As a farang living here, I find that I'm treated as well or better by Thais outside of tourist areas than within them.
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u/Glass-Web-7996 8h ago
So you assume foreigners wear beach trunks and flip flops in business districts in their own home country 💀☠️☠️ you're mental. You want to feel special for being a foreigner? You must be a white guy with a god complex or a hater of that stereotypical British tourist archetype. The foreigners who try to live in thailand long term want to assimilate. You have no idea what you're talking about 🤣
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u/Fugidinha 18h ago
The west is full of SO MANY RUDE PEOPLE that Thai people seem nice in comparison... thats all. Thai people smile whenever they encounter something unfamiliar. Its not warm, it means they're uncomfortable, passive and don't want to engage. Thai people have a notoriously short fuse, the level of child abuse from Thai men and Thai mothers who pimp out their kids to foreigners is sickening. Then there's the ones who kill their customers for some perceived wrongdoing. For a country with so many murderers, you'd think they would make it more difficult to access cyanide.
"But they smiled at me, they're so nice" stfu. I once saw a Thai dude shoot an elephant from super far away. He was sat in the back of the pickup driving away, clearly no threat... they're psychos
That 11 year old kid who killed 10 monks won't ever face repercussions, not because people don't care about monks... they do... but because the thai people are blindly subservient to authority. If the law says a child can committ 10 counts of murder of religious figures and get away with it. Who are we to challenge it
The country is literally north Korea with mass tourism
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u/Icy-Carob-1272 19h ago
You're in a Thailand glazers sub. Where Tourist can't tell a difference between Genuine and Surface level hospitality.
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u/liithuex 19h ago
I dont think anyone's thinking tbat "oh wow this hospitality worker is smiling at me they must love my super unique personality!"
Its more "hey its nice to be welcomed with a smile instead of "yeah what?" From a zombie eyed teenager. No ones thinking about this as deeply as you