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How To Make Friends In Thailand

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    How To Make Friends In Thailand: Whether you have been traveling around for some time or have recently moved to Thailand, one question that you may find yourself asking at the back of your mind is how to build a friendship group in a foreign country? This leads us to today’s ultimate question of how to make friends in Thailand.

    Many steps will need to be accomplished on the journey to making friends in Thailand. It may seem like a simple question, but as we age, building friendships become more challenging. Therefore, you need to dig deep and show courage to build your social life; this is especially true when looking to make friends in Thailand as a foreigner.

    How To Make Friends In Thailand

    In this section, we will be going through seven simple but highly effective tips and tricks on how to make friends in Thailand.

    Start To Get Involved In The Local Meetups

    One of the first and most important steps when looking at making friends in Thailand is to start with the basics, including getting involved with local meetup groups in your area.

    Suppose you are situated in Bangkok, for example. In that case, you will find that meetups are everywhere. one of the main reasons I decided to move to Bangkok from another part of Thailand was to improve my social life, and Bangkok did not disappoint! There are tonnes of options if you are looking to make more friends living in Thailand.

    You may be interested in an app called meetup. This is a well-known application popular across Thailand and is a great way to make friends when living in Thailand. Alternatively, other similar applications are available, and also social media, especially Facebook, is a massive platform for advertising meetups and get-togethers.

    There are many different groups, and you may need to try and test different groups to see which one works. For example, some groups are made up of older people, some are a mixture of age, and some are made up of people just looking to practice their English. There are lots of opportunities to make friends in Bangkok or any other city in Thailand.

    Learn The Thai Language If This Creates A Barrier

    This may not apply to you if you are fluent in the Thai language, but not speaking conversational Thai does create a barrier when building friendships with Thai locals.

    According to How Widely Spoken, English speakers in Thailand are around 27%. Just under 1/3. Meaning that if you met 100 people, then statistically, only 27 of them speak fluent English, meaning that you may have difficulty communicating with the other 73 people. That is a lot of people who could potentially be friends.

    But the good news is learning the Thai language is not a difficult task. It can be quite enjoyable when you get stuck in it as it becomes a challenge to learn more and communicate effectively. A great idea is to create a small language group if you cannot find one in your area as it gives you the chance to meet new people, practice the language, and help others learn.

    Help Locals Learn English And Make Friends

    This next section is slightly carrying on from our previous point. We mentioned starting a language group, which is often a great idea if you want to meet people from Thailand and other neighboring countries.

    If you are slightly shy, then fear not because it is indeed possible to help locals learn English on a one-to-one basis and build a friendship group that way rather than a big group of people.

    One thing in demand across Thailand, especially in certain areas, is the high demand for conversational English. Many locals speak basic levels of English but have a desire to learn more but do not have the opportunity as they do not have foreign friends to practice with.

    A great idea is to ask your current friends to see if they know anybody who wishes to learn some English. Alternatively, hop on to Facebook and write on a few group pages. This works well when you are also looking to learn a language as you can exchange languages effectively.

    Become Friendly And Approachable

    You may notice that hidden in the word friendly is the word friend. Looking back at my life, I have to be honest and say that I’ve never met anybody who is friendly and does not have friends. The key to making friends in Thailand is to be friendly and approachable, whether you are at the coffee shop or the mall.

    There is a stereotype that some locals are shy. This is not always true; however, just like every country, some people are naturally shy. You may find that you meet many shy people on your journey to make more friends in Thailand; thus, it’s crucial to always be friendly and approachable.

    Unfortunately, many people struggle to build friends not because they’re bad people or not because they don’t want to make friends but simply because they’re giving away subconscious signals. For example, you may have known very kind people, but you may have thought the opposite when you first saw them. Again, this may have been because of some signals they were giving off.

    It’s best to present yourself well, be open with your body language, smile, and avoid doing anything that may seem inappropriate, such as staring or looking up and down at a person. Of course, we all do this from time to time, but it is not the best practice if you are looking to make friends in Thailand.

    Make Friendship A Priority In Thailand

    We all have priorities in life for many of us. One of the biggest priorities is money. Of course, we are wired to get as many resources as possible for the future, so our time may be spent on other areas such as starting a business or our career. So…. where does friendship come into your list of priorities?

    If you are looking to increase your network of friendships in Thailand, the first inner system is prioritizing. Even though friendship is an integral part of human happiness, it is not the only element, and some people live for many years without friendship. If you want to make friends in Thailand, this needs to change, and friendship needs to be high on your list.

    If you are a very busy individual, you may find some use in creating one or two days a week spent building connections with individuals. When we try to create new habits, having a specific time and a date often makes building habits easier to stick to and leads to more success.

    Volunteer In Your Neighbourhood

    Before we dive in to talk about volunteering in Thailand and the positive effects that it can have when you are looking to make more friends, it’s important to note that to volunteer in Thailand legally, you will need to have the correct visa. You can find more about the Thailand volunteer visa on the reference above.

    Thailand is a fascinating country when you take a step back and look at the country as a whole, including the economy, wealth distribution, opportunities, equalities, societal pressures, and many other factors. Thailand is a beautiful and fantastic country; however, there are indeed areas and groups that would benefit from support.

    Volunteering is very rewarding, but it is also an excellent opportunity to meet new people. Not only can you make new friends with the people you are helping, but you can also build real genuine connections with other volunteers, and many volunteering networks in Thailand have weekly, monthly, and annual meetups allowing volunteers to meet others and enhance their network.

    I’ve included a few references, which I’ve added as hyperlinks above on the following text for those looking For more information about volunteering in Thailand.

    Have The Courage To Make Friends In Thailand

    The last entry is perhaps one of the most important, and that is to have real courage when embarking on a journey to make friends in Thailand.

    Do you need to have the courage to make new friends in Thailand? Actually yes. Making friends as an adult is challenging, and the older you are, the more difficult it can be, especially if you have not attempted to increase your social circle in many years.

    There may be situations where you have been invited to a meetup, and you do not know anyone there, or perhaps you are late, so you may need to walk into a roomful of people and introduce yourself. This is a notion that can need some to start sweating by just the idea of it.

    But by getting yourself into a winner’s mindset, knowing that everybody else is just in the same position as you. Understanding the truth that even if you mess up or miss pronounce your words or look a little bit silly, it won’t be the end of the world. This new situation doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of your life.

    For those suffering from anxiety or looking for some extra information, I have included some references in this paragraph for some techniques and further support.

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