How Would You Rate Your Thai Cultural Assimilation? [S4, E59]

Greg and Ed dive into a great question for expats in Thailand: to what extent are you actually integrated into mainstream Thai culture? Greg posted a quick survey on our Facebook page and uses some responses as a jumping-off point for discussion.  Ed begins by guessing he’s probably a 5 on a scale of 1-10. He never socializes with only Thai people, but has good enough Thai language that he can handle himself on his own in the city. He does note though that Thailand may be different than some Western countries, in that there may be a level of assimilation that Thai people don’t really want foreigners to achieve. Greg states he’s probably a 5 or 6. His Thai is getting better and he sometimes attends family events that are 100% Thai, but still...by this point he should be busting out soliloquies in the park!  Greg then reads a number of quotes from listeners about their relative absorption into Thai society with a variety of answers, but most long-timers seem to come at the 4-6 range.  Don’t forget that Patrons get the ad-free version of the show as well as swag and other perks. And we’ll keep our Facebook, Twitter, and LINE accounts active so you can send us comments, questions, or whatever you want to share.