I am going to talk here about my experiences with Thai culture shock. This is something that does seem to hit people after a few years living here; some individuals may even experience it after just a few months. My intention here is not to judge what people are feeling. I just want to talk about what happened to me and how I coped with it. These feelings almost caused me to pack up my bags and leave; I’m so glad I didn’t.
The Story of My Culture Shock in Thailand
When I first arrived in Thailand in 2001 I fell in love with the place immediately; it impressed me so much I decided to stay. It seemed to me at the time that making a life here would mean the end to all my problems. The Thais around me seemed to have all those personality traits that I admired; they seemed to have all the answers. I had been interested in Buddhism since my teens and my first impression of Thailand was that it was some type of Buddhist Utopia. It also seemed like a place where I could get drunk day or night and nobody would bat an eyelid. Maybe I could remain a drunk but still soak up the spirituality? It is embarrassing to think how naïve I was back then.
I was here about five years when culture shock really hit me. It was subtle at first. I had gone from thinking it was paradise to complaining all the time. The ‘mai pen rai’ attitude, that I so admired when first arriving, started to bug the shit out of me. The famous Thai smile began to look to me like a sneer. After a while almost everything about Thailand started to irritate me. Worst of all the fact that I was on the final death-run with a booze addiction meant that I felt completely trapped. The utopia had turned into by prison.
My period of Thailand culture shock lasted nearly a whole year. It wasn’t bad all the time, but there was a lot of negativity and self-pity – I’m sure you can imagine. It is probably at this stage that most people would leave. I stuck with it though, and I’m really glad that I did. It took me a while to understand that this was culture shock that was causing the problem; once I identified this fact things got a lot easier. These feelings slowly turned into something a lot more manageable. Eventually it all turned to acceptance and a new appreciation of Thailand developed in its place – a more realistic appreciation.
Dealing with Culture Shock
I think the secret to dealing with culture shock is understanding what it is. The problem was never with Thailand but with me. I had allowed my thinking to trick me into believing that Thailand was something it wasn’t. It should have been no surprise that Thailand didn’t live up to my expectations; nowhere could have lived up to these expectations. The fact that I had put the place on such a pedestal meant that it was going to hit the ground with a bang.
I stayed in Thailand, and I’m really glad that I did. I have now built a great life here that suits me perfectly. The obsession with the place is gone but that does not mean that I can’t enjoy the nice things about the country and the culture. I just now see this is a place where I live and not as a solution to my problems in life; only I can fix my life and no place can do that for me.
Culture shock is not something that only happens to foreigners living in Thailand; it can happen to ex-pats anywhere. I had experienced culture shock before arriving in Thailand, but it was even harder to deal with the second time it hit. When I hear ex-pats constantly complaining about Thailand I wonder if they are going through the same thing that I did – only they can know if this is the cause.
Have you experienced culture shock in Thailand or elsewhere?