I remember my first trip to Thailand. I traveled with Thai friends, but I didn\u2019t speak any of the language so I hadn\u2019t a clue to what they were talking about. (I suspect it was about me!)<\/p>\n
But like watching a foreign film, you can somewhat guess what\u2019s going on by just knowing the context, facial expressions, tone of voice, and general body language. But just like spoken language, body language isn\u2019t universal. I repeat: Thai body language doesn\u2019t always match western body language.<\/p>\n
Keep in mind that as you read this, it\u2019s being written from the perspective of American body language.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Waving<\/strong><\/p>\n Waving has the same meaning in Thailand, but it isn\u2019t very common. You\u2019re more likely to see it among the younger crowd that is slowly adopting \u2018western\u2019 culture. It\u2019s perfectly fine waving to your friend, although it might come off as a bit strange to some people. There is however a caveat in that waving is considered informal, ie don\u2019t do it to people much older than you or of higher social status. Anything but a wai to them is rude. It reminds me once when a car stopped to let me cross the street. I waved as a gesture of \u2018thanks\u2019. Only later I realized the mistake, and wondered how I got out alive =P<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lowering your head shows respect<\/strong><\/p>\n Have you ever gone to a Thai temple and noticed people bent over slightly when walking past monks? Ever see two adults talking, and then some children slightly bowed down as they walked passed? It\u2019s a gesture of showing respect, and apologizing for disturbing the elders.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shrugging shoulders is meaningless<\/strong><\/p>\n In western culture, if someone asks you something and you shrug your shoulders, it means \u2018I don\u2019t know\u2019. How do you say \u2018apocalypse\u2019 in the Thai language? *shrugs shoulders*<\/p>\n In Thailand, shrugging shoulders is meaningless. I can\u2019t count the times I\u2019ve shrugged my shoulders to be met with the why-did-you-do-that-awkward-body-poise-at-me look. To this day I still do it, not intentionally, but just because I can\u2019t control the natural habit. The Thai way to \u2018shrug shoulders\u2019 is by shaking the head as if to say \u2018no\u2019, but to do it slowly and with a somewhat blank stare. You can also make a slight humming sound while doing it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Raising an eyebrow<\/strong><\/p>\n Another habit I can\u2019t seem to break is raising just one eyebrow when someone says something that perplexes me. In western culture, raising just one eyebrow is almost like saying \u2018huh?\u2019 I don\u2019t know if all Thais feel this way, but a Thai friend of mine would get angry (in a bad way) every time I did it, insisting it\u2019s the look you give to dogs and people you despise. Sorry!!! The funny thing is, when she told me that, I immediately did it again because I was like, \u2018huh?\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Touching the head<\/strong><\/p>\n You\u2019ve probably read all those do\u2019s and don\u2019ts lists about Thailand, and saw \u2018Do not touch the head\u2019 in the list. Well, guess what, Thais break this rule. I was surprised the first time I saw it, like the first time I saw a monk smoking a cigarette. Thai comedy for years would show people hitting each other in the head non-stop \u2013 they thought it was funny. Haha I hit you in the head it\u2019s sooooo funny! It\u2019s like watching the Three Stooges, really. If you want to annoy (and maybe piss off) your friend, rub his hair in \u2013 but make sure you are good friends with that person first. It\u2019s funny, from a Thai perspective . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Learn about Thai body language.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[49696],"class_list":["post-559","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","tag-body-language"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":562,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions\/562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}