Over the last year I have been to Thailand several times for work, and every time I am struck by how Thai people seem to be exceptionally respectful and helpful.
In my experience they would generally acknowledge your arrival into a room with a large smile and either a nod or with their hands joined together in front of their face and head slightly bowed, welcoming you with a 'sawadee-ka(p)'.
They would always make you feel like they are at your service, and they will be truly pleased to help you if you ask them any favour.
I am in awe of their patience and their confident humility to 'serve' you as an honoured guest while you are in their country.
I am even aware of an email written in English by a Thai person trying to be very polite and helpful to a customer by finishing their message with something along the lines of 'I am at your service to satisfy your heart's desire'...
I chuckled but I am touched by the innocent spirit of service behind it.
I can't help but contrast this with my experience to-date working in the UK where one tends to resist doing anything too remotely distant from one's job spec.
I am also guilty of this.
I feel that in the western professional world, I often have the need to prove my rank or my expert skills and therefore would feel offended if I were asked to do anything below my perceived worth. ('You will never guess what So-And-So asked me to do the other day, the cheek! Doesn't he know I am a qualified accountant? What does he think I am, his secretary?').
I have been concerned that if I do not 'stand up for myself' I will be taken advantage of, what with being a really nice and helpful person and all that...
I have had to balance my endeavour to be a good team player and volunteer to do thankless jobs to improve my team's performance with the need to assert my position and credibility with my seniors as well as people I managed.
My Thai experience also heavily contrasts with my experience working with some large companies in the UK where the culture is one of antagonism and unspoken battle for power and the upper-hand in all situations. Different departments would struggle for power, trying to push for work to be done by others, trying to prove who is more important, and whose time is more precious...
Don't get me wrong, I am a real advocate of getting the right people with the right skills to do the right jobs that suit their competency. This is the efficient way of getting things done as a team.
I recently talked my boyfriend into getting a cleaner by discussing the 'opportunity cost' of him spending half a day cleaning his flat himself at weekends when he works 70 hours a week. What else could he be doing in his precious free time instead of scrubbing his bathtub? Or another way of looking at it: how much would he pay himself to clean his flat? (this one didn't work: he is clearly too humble to think that his cleaning skills are worth much).
But I digress.
Clearly this power struggle also exists in Thailand, but I am unaware of it in my own experience, owing to the blissful ignorance provided by the language barrier.
I can't say that I understand much about what goes on when I am at work in Thailand, since people seem very busy running around to do things for you that you didn't even know you needed, therefore in the absence of words to assess my environment, I rely on feelings. And those are very warm and welcoming.
I am learning a lesson of patience and tolerance with this experience, and wish I had the confidence to have the humility to be always that helpful.
Who said language barriers were a bad thing!
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