Thai people have no concept of personal space. Even my aa-jaan (teachers) say so. I mean when you order food they hand you the menu then stand right behind you or beside you and stare at you...I'm like okay okay I'm sorry I'll have *closes eyes and points at random thing on menu* "THIS ONE!" which is always met with the reply of "ummm we no have." crap. The market (especially the Sunday one) jeez there is no space between you and anything. No wiggle room at all. In traditional Thai homes the home is one big room so there is no doing anything in privacy. Learning the Thai language is difficult. The words are one syllable so they are pretty easy but the tones! It's so hard to remember which words are which tone and then when you have all 5 tones in one sentence. Yikes! Then sometimes I say things in Japanese or German and I think 'nope that's not right well...um...next person...'. But the teachers are all really nice and understanding. At lunch I always go to the lake and walk around. Sometimes I even get some moments of meditation. When people walk by they look down and see what I'm doing and they'll either A) stop talking or B) whisper. The culture here may have no concept of personal space but they are very respectful and kind. No matter who you are or what you look like they respect you. The only type of discrimination they have phom/di-chan or khrop/kha (how to distinguish between genders when speaking about yourself and how to end sentences depending on gender). Even with these though they have phoan/hap which is how a transgender person would say it. It's really quite interesting.
Minds open, hearts close, bellies full
-The Foodie and Nature Enthusiast
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