I noticed how the lovely Thai teachers on Thaipod 101 seem to have a smile as their basic expression. I knew a farang man once who tried to do the same, it was a sinister looking thing, never seeming genuine. I am not sure whether Thai men have the Thai smile or not. Has anyone tried practising their Thai with a mirror and maintaining the Thai smile, if so how scary was it? 

How do I look ? ????

I going to pass on looking in the mirror like that, I know I won't like it and will probably lose my motivation to speak Thai.

 

But there's a maintenance man in my building that talks to me with a giant smile forever plastered onto his face. While I enjoy the friendliness, my Thai is intermediate at best and because of the smile he doesn't move his lips around enough to enunciate clearly. Words filtered through his teeth are hell to understand, but I still like him.

 

A smile can mean many things in Thailand

a human smile, in any country, is absolutely no indication of the feelings of the person doing the smiling. Indeed, in some cases , it is a prelude to something that is not nice at all. I never could trust anyone who always has a smile plastered on their face.