Land of smiles . Ha ha

"The (Thai) smile is perceived as being just about the most appropriate “answer” to any possible situation. It’s used to show happiness, embarrassment, fear, tension, resignation, remorse. Just imagine how many different smiles there are in Thailand! For foreigners they look all the same, but for Thais their smiles offer an amazing array of shadows and tones:

- yim tak tai: The polite smile, used for strangers

- feun yim: The “I-am-forced-to-smile-even-I-do-not-want-to” smile

- yim cheuat cheuan: The winner’s smile over a rival

- yim tang nam dtah: The truly happy smile

- yim tak tan: The “sorry-you-are-wrong-again” smile

- yim sao: The smile masking sadness or unhappiness

- yim mee lay-nai: The evil smile

- yim cheun chom: The admiring smile

- yim yor: The arrogant smile

- yim mai ork: The forced smile

- yim yair-yair: The smile to apologize and take the heat out of an awkward, embarrassing situation

- yim hairng: The nervous, apologetic smile

- yim soo: The “it-cannot-get-any-worse-therefore-I-better-smile” smile

Source and Full Article: http://absolutelybangkok.com/the-thai-smile"


Shado, Good on you!

This smile thing in Thailand is 180 deg out from most western cultures... And, very difficult for a westerner to stay aware of...

For example, we had a pump fail here at the house. The wife comes to tell me, a great big grin on her face, like she really enjoyed reporting bad news to me... From my western perspective.

From her Thai perspective, it was a smile of irritation and resignation... I started to take her head off, and then realized... Had to apologize sincerely...

This is sort of facial expression communication different than western, is not peculiar to Thailand. It is common throughout Asia... In the PI, reputable sources reckon that up to 40% of communication between folks in da boonies is by non-verbal facial expression... I can't tell you how many times I witnessed Filipinos miscommunicate over the telephone, because they could not see each others' faces...