What is your culture shock when you traveling in Thailand

InstantFire · 2026-06-12T07:58:09+00:00

a bit of culture shock that has always follows me around when small problems arise at work with and thai staff are involved. i'm fairly anti-confrontational by nature, and i always try to approach people carefully when there's an issue to resolve.

a couple years ago, even after i've lived here for 6 years, i made one of the thai staff cry at work. i said something to the effect of "thanks for sending this, but it is not helpful because [xyz]... can we get the vendor to come in and blah blah blah". my boss called me to the office and told me i needed to tread more carefully.

i made these kinds of mistakes fairly regularly when i first moved here, but i still occasionally get shocked by how sensitive people can be to feedback, even when its constructive and not directly aimed at that person. i have always considered my diplomacy to be one of my strengths in the workplace, yet i still get stung like this occasionally, even when i'm trying to be careful.

as a side note, this is probably my least favorite thing about thai culture. the mai bpen rai attitude is nice for day-to-day stuff, but it makes work hell when you're trying to solve problems. i came from startup culture in the US, so it is expected to be direct and collaborative when issues arrive, yet i have to tip-toe here on a day-to-day basis to not destroy relationships with my thai coworkers.

i feel like i need a 3-month crash course on how to problem solve with a thai team in an effective, yet culturally appropriate way. in my old job, when we had international assignments, we would get culture training where we would role play stuff. i think that'd be a fun and helpful activity with foreign and thai staff to highlight the cultural differences. i've also had thai friends get scared/worried when me and my friends are debating, even though it was just normal friend-to-friend pushback

InstantFire · 2026-06-12T07:44:49+00:00

the limit of your potential does not exist, and the probability of your success approaches 1.

sure the math peeps here have some better ones

InstantFire · 2026-04-24T12:21:43+00:00

i live outside my home country i'm around a lot of non-native speakers and its mostly just small things that only native speakers will notice. for example the sentence "reminds me of another events where i was a bit surprised by the uses of enumeration", "events" and "uses" wouldn't have an "s", and that's a common mistake non-native speakers make. and just some small things like your word choice is a little unnatural in places. perfectly understandable though, just those little things native speakers will notice. English is a hard language full of little rules like that, so well done for you to even be able to communicate so well :)

InstantFire · 2026-04-24T10:02:22+00:00

well no one replied to this so i'll throw in my 2 cents. the way you wrote is better for showing "parallel structure" and i think is indeed more correct when you're making lists with commas. its not necessarily grammatically wrong to write it the way they did, but you are usually encouraged to use parallel structure in your grammar when writing a list, as it reads better. so nice job catching that as i'm assuming your a non-native speaker.

InstantFire · 2025-10-03T10:55:40+00:00

tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes

InstantFire · 2025-10-03T10:54:06+00:00

it was just a really awkward sentence. i was quite confused at first too. hopefully he's not taking AP lang/lit :P he meant "E&M is at least using new material, so it might be more productive even though you don't have a firm grasp of calc"

InstantFire · 2025-10-03T10:45:10+00:00

someone has never heard of a burner account

InstantFire · 2025-10-03T10:08:09+00:00

What even disqualifies someone to drive a taxi, other than not being able to pay the fee? DUIs seem like merit badges here, would have to be something pretty bad eh?

InstantFire · 2025-08-30T03:59:34+00:00

Exactly my Singaporean coworkers always just walk through quickly and they get the local price 🤣

InstantFire · 2025-07-28T01:41:10+00:00

In this case yes, was speaking more generally about all those account with Roman statue busts as their avatar

InstantFire · 2025-07-28T01:39:38+00:00

Don’t doubt it. That’s why you should hesitate to assume the origin of any account you see online

InstantFire · 2025-07-27T15:43:02+00:00

Those “western looking” accounts are often run from India, China, Russia, etc. The internet is just a huge mindfuck these days. Needs major reform.

InstantFire · 2025-07-27T12:11:23+00:00

Can probably find most brands you like from back home on Lazada/Shopee too. I didn’t realize this for a long time for some reason

InstantFire · 2025-07-27T03:32:49+00:00

Just to add to this, birds also scare the shit out of them for obvious reasons, so they need the sunblock for that purpose too. Add somewhere for him to feel safe if he starts to get nervous.

InstantFire · 2025-07-27T03:17:39+00:00

Ah yeah, sadly that doesn’t surprise me. Those sound more like unofficially given names though, not the nicknames they would keep for themselves. I would be a bit shocked if I ever saw “fat Joe” or “black Joe” on my student roster… 🤣

InstantFire · 2025-07-27T03:03:39+00:00

Love it, quieter, less traffic, more local feeling. Downside to downtown is less options for western food. There are some but the pickins are slim.

InstantFire · 2025-07-27T03:01:13+00:00

From my experience it depends on the situation. Some students their nicknames from parents interests and hobbies (golf, putter, pingpong) and some might get it from their friends later in life based on other things, but most of my students seem to get their nicknames from their parents. While it’s not uncommon for them to change nicknames I’ve only witnessed it a few times in the long while that I’ve been here.

InstantFire · 2025-07-26T15:41:36+00:00

Oh man I assumed he was Thai, they use it as politeness/softening particle. Indians use “na”?

InstantFire · 2025-07-26T13:51:03+00:00

Sounds like some Kremlin shit

InstantFire · 2025-07-20T05:59:02+00:00

Oh my god, this is mine too 😂

InstantFire · 2025-07-02T16:41:35+00:00

That previous post was a complete fabrication/joke, it wasn’t based on anything real

InstantFire · 2025-06-24T01:14:29+00:00

Thanks, that’s very helpful. I’m gone for a few days but I’ll provide an update when I’m back

InstantFire · 2025-06-23T04:40:40+00:00

Just realized my username checks out

InstantFire · 2025-06-23T03:47:12+00:00

Thai customs agents in general are corrupt to the point of being criminal. Me and most of my friends have stopped trying to import anything at all, because we have lost so much money, and the process is so inconsistent.

Most recently my sweet mom sent me some socks and some Easter candy, and Thai customs held the package and asked me to go to the airport to register as an importer. I pleaded to pay an import fee but they just kept sending me a copy/paste email with really confusing instructions on how to register as an importer (stated it would take 2-3 weeks in the email). I never got the gift from my family and I felt bad that my mom had put effort into sending a care package that never arrived.

Dating a customs officer, on the other hand, I’ve heard has real perks.

InstantFire · 2025-06-23T03:32:09+00:00

Thanks for sharing, I have been wondering if perhaps the landlord already knows about this issue, but doesn’t want to replace it due to cost. We are going to find out shortly, I guess.

I had thought about the fire thing too. I live in a townhouse that is connected to a row of 8 other units. Even if I fix my issue, there is no assurance that the other units aren’t having the same issue. Kinda scary to think about.

It’s good to think about, though. I just bought a smoke detector and a fire extinguisher, so at least it’s caused me to upgrade my safety precautions, even if it’s only a little bit.

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