4 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Always!

 

That is a real smile, from the angle of his eyes one can see he is thinking here comes another sucker.

6 hours ago, HappyExpat57 said:

I've found generally  if you are genuinely nice to them, they will respond in like kind. If you p!ss one of them off, however, you better have your affairs in order.

Yeah, the go cannibal pretty quickly.

There are false and deceitful people everywhere. I've received so much unsolicited help from Thai people who have refused any sort of compensation in return throughout the years, that I'd say that the smiles are not fake. But that's just my personal experience.

If you live your life in a state of perpetual paranoia, possibly.

 

(Your first mistake was listening to the 'old, bitter' guys)

6 hours ago, 1FinickyOne said:

If you think that every smile means 'I am hot for you' - then yes, in your world the smile will often be fake..

So if someone smiles a genuine smile of being pleased to see someone, but that someone believes that the smile means the smiler is hot for them, it renders the smile fake, but only in the mind of the smile beholder?

 

The smile would still objectively be a genuine smile though, right?

Thais smile for many reasons.  They even have different names for the different types of smile.  If you think that a "real" smile is defined as involuntary and a sign of being happy or pleased to see someone, then yes, a lot of Thai smiles will be fake.

5 minutes ago, BangkokReady said:

So if someone smiles a genuine smile of being pleased to see someone, but that someone believes that the smile means the smiler is hot for them, it renders the smile fake, but only in the mind of the smile beholder?

 

The smile would still objectively be a genuine smile though, right?

yes.... 

3 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

yes.... 

So if a tree smiles in a wood, but no one is there to perceive that smile as meaning the tree is hot for them, does it make a sound?

https://www.rw-3.com/blog/the-cross-cultural-implications-of-smiling

 

1 hour ago, Lacessit said:

I operate on the premise any smile, real or fake, is preferable to an angry countenance.

 

7 hours ago, plus7 said:

Are you sure western/american smiles are really sincere ?

 

Westerners are more fake

First even if the smiles are not sincere, it sure beats the frowns I get in the US. 

 

And second, most are sincere. If you are kind and respectful, and approach most Thais with a light heart, the response is quite lovely. I often see the kind of smile that cannot be faked. 

 

Lastly, in the tourist areas like Phuket, Samui and Pattaya, many are jaded. At least they were two plus years ago. 

2 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

So if a tree smiles in a wood, but no one is there to perceive that smile as meaning the tree is hot for them, does it make a sound?

if a man speaks in the woods and there is no woman there to hear, is he still wrong? 

19 minutes ago, Sticky Rice Balls said:

A fool and his money are soon parted.....a weak mind is easily misled........MAGA

Try and forget and Donald Trump, Biden is POTUS these days 

The problem is not that smiles here are"fake". 

 

It is that smiles in this culture have a much, much wider range of meaning than in the West.  Including being a mechanism for controlling/concealing socially unacceptable emotions and simply  easing interpersonal interactions.

 

Only sometimes does it denote friendliness or  happiness. It can just as easily mean a mask to cover   boredom, anger, unhappiness or even rage and grief. Sort of like wearing clothing.  Within Asian culture this is seen as proper and correct not hypocritical.

 

 

3 hours ago, Sticky Rice Balls said:

King Baby demands the spotlight be on him at ALL times!!!!! you havent noticed this???

 

or you are in the Cult?....

What cult?  Did not vote for him.  

13 hours ago, 1FinickyOne said:

That is not a fake smile - it is a real smile that has a meaning - that is a smile that means i don't really want to be here... [and maybe - but I am trying to make the best of it to be polite to you ] nothing fake about it unless you have only one interpretation of what a smile is supposed to mean.. 

 

You know, if you don't recognize that there are different ways of communicating in different cultures, you are probably not going to get it... 

Well, if we are to use a word to describe something and its contrary, this will definitely make it difficult to 'get it'.

What emotions cause the behavior of smiling?

The behavior of smiling is usually associated with positive emotions like happiness, excitement, appeasement, and gratitude.

A smirk that means something else, like "mot wanting to be here", is simply not a smile. Described in this post as a "fake smile".

Because it is difficult to make a facial expression 'lie', And people can see the conflict between the true emotion and what is shown in a facial expression, trying to hide this true emotion. So the word 'smile', is used, but adding the word 'fake' to it, to distinguish between what facial expression they see, and what emotion they perceive.

 

1 hour ago, Andre0720 said:

Well, if we are to use a word to describe something and its contrary, this will definitely make it difficult to 'get it'.

What emotions cause the behavior of smiling?

The behavior of smiling is usually associated with positive emotions like happiness, excitement, appeasement, and gratitude.

A smirk that means something else, like "mot wanting to be here", is simply not a smile. Described in this post as a "fake smile".

Because it is difficult to make a facial expression 'lie', And people can see the conflict between the true emotion and what is shown in a facial expression, trying to hide this true emotion. So the word 'smile', is used, but adding the word 'fake' to it, to distinguish between what facial expression they see, and what emotion they perceive.

 

probably true in your culture... not necessarily in another culture. 

I remember one of the hottest coyotes I ever met in a strip club in Pattaya. She and I BOTH knew exactly what the score was, and as I was a big tipper, her smiles. laughs and antics were VERY genuine. Absolutely lovely time!

19 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

probably true in your culture... not necessarily in another culture. 

Are basic emotions cross cultural?

Conclusion. In this study we show that a number of emotions are cross-culturally recognized from vocal signals, which are perceived as communicating specific affective states. The emotions found to be recognized from vocal signals correspond to those universally inferred from facial expressions of emotions (11).

6 hours ago, sqwakvfr said:

What cult?  Did not vote for him.  

You're all crazy if you didn't vote for this man.

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/jY5Y6jwEVQM?feature=share

Thais have 13 ways in the way they smile. Each one has a name and meaning. Hence why Thailand is known as the land of smiles.

 

https://www.thethailandlife.com/whats-behind-a-thai-smile

12 hours ago, 1FinickyOne said:

if a man speaks in the woods and there is no woman there to hear, is he still wrong? 

Yes 100%

Their smiles are a whole repertoire of SIGNALS. Our western smiles tend to signal 'I like' and not much more and that's what we tend to instinctively think when we're smiled at by a Thai. However their smiles have a whole range of meanings, all of which are GENUINE, not fake.

 

The real question is: can you decode the signal correctly?

Thais are still good, decent people. They have had decades of nothing much to smile about. Where's your smile? Judge much?

 

Atrocious govt since 2006

 

Two coups

 

Inflation, wages not kept up

 

Economic disaster ongoing for decades

 

Millions using their homes (condos) as hotels

 

Choking their airports.

 

Tens of millions of foreigners descending in their country, their roads, mass transportation.

Most smiles I take as politely replying to my smile, doesn't need any further over thinking ????

22 hours ago, Photoguy21 said:

Often it hides embarrassment

If they don't have it or don't know where they look for it in the shop, it's "Mai me" ( not have) and a smile.  In my local hardware shop the staff basically if they did not know me, and couldn't be bothered dealing with a falang. So they give me the my.me. So I lead them to the product I want and point to it.  Yes, oil-based white undercoat a number of times.!!!!!!  Then "Aye 

mark mark" takes over, and occasionally a surly glance for catching them out.

33 minutes ago, The Deerhunter said:

If they don't have it or don't know where they look for it in the shop, it's "Mai me" ( not have) and a smile.  In my local hardware shop the staff basically if they did not know me, and couldn't be bothered dealing with a falang. So they give me the my.me. So I lead them to the product I want and point to it.  Yes, oil-based white undercoat a number of times.!!!!!!  Then "Aye 

mark mark" takes over, and occasionally a surly glance for catching them out.

Never experienced that but I am sure it happens here just like it does in our home countries.

23 hours ago, plus7 said:

Are you sure western/american smiles are really sincere ?

 

Most of the time they are not but you wont know unless you know the person quite well.

No more or less so than the USA's universal wish of "Have a nice day". Both are simple gestures of courtesy, and courtesy is one of the lubricants of society.