#thaitraditions

On Tuesday, we had our first "Thai Survival" class, which was designed to give us an introduction to Thai customs, history, and, most importantly, the language. We had this amazing professor who guided us as we struggled to break the habits we held in America that are considered disrespectful in Thailand. Also, throughout this post, I'm just going to interpose some of the pictures I've taken of the beautiful Mahidol Campus!

Some of the traditions that we learned were the wai, which is the way that Thai people greet one another; it involves bowing and the phrase Sawatdi, meaning hello. The wai is a very important part of Thai culture, and there are several rules that come along with Wai-ing. First, the younger person must initiate the wai, and you must bow when you wai. However, there are different levels of bowing that you must observe based on whom you are wai-ing to. If they are a member of the royal family or a monk, you would do a deep bow and touch your hands to your forehead. If you were wai-ing to an elder, it would be a mid-level bow and your hands would be in your facial region. But, if the person was around your age or your equal, you would do a more casual form of the wai. 

Then, there are also little things we learned that are frowned upon in Thai culture. First, never touch someone's head. EVER. It is considered disrespectful, like you are looking down on that person because, in the Thai culture, the head is revered as the most important part of the body. Next is that you are supposed to keep your feet on the ground. Thai people consider the feet to be the dirtiest part of the body, and, when people cross their legs, as they often do in America, it is considered disrespectful. This also means that you are not allowed to point your feet at people if you do cross your legs. You must point your feet down at the ground.