Many western men come to Thailand looking for a Thai girlfriend or Thai wife. When they get here, they meet a Thai woman, try to get to know her and then ask her out on a date. And that’s often when the trouble starts, as the man realizes he doesn’t know how to talk to a Thai girl.
In Thailand, if you are out with a Thai girl, certain topics are acceptable and some are not. But how do you know which is which?
You Can Talk About Food – Probably the most important topic for any Thai woman is food. Westerners joke often that it’s easy to talk to a Thai if you like to talk about food, as Thais love food more than anything. So, if you’re out on a date with a Thai girl, talking about food is an easy and fun topic.
Thai girls love to discuss the food on the menu, talk about their favorite food, the restaurants that sell their favorite food, which food stalls to buy food at and which stalls not to, and basically anything else connected to the purchasing and eating of food.
Related: Dos and Don’ts you should know about when dating a Thai girl
Learn a little bit about Thai food and you should have at least the first 30 minutes of the conversation wrapped up – no problem.
You Can Talk About Shopping – Next to food, Thai girls love to talk about shopping the most. Shopping in Thailand is pretty much a national pastime and almost every Thai woman does it – daily. So figure out where the best shopping malls are and take her there.
Then do some window shopping, all the time talking about clothes, shoes, bags, DVDs, CDs, – where you buy things, where you don’t buy things, how much you pay for things and on and on.
You Can Talk About Family – Thai women love their families more than anything. Their families will also come first and, in fact, they may even bring a family member on their first few dates with you. If you are thinking you might be serious about your Thai girl, tell her about your family, what they’re like, what they like to do, what their jobs are and then ask about hers.
She will probably even have some photos with her that she will be more than happy to pull out and show you, so you can see exactly what her family looks like. Thai girls like men who think family is important so, if you talk about family, that will let her know you understand why she’s so close to her family.
You Can Joke With Her – Thai women love to joke and love to laugh. If you tease her about how much food she eats she’ll love it. Even the tiniest Thai girls are proud that they can remain a size 0, and still chow down four bowls of noodles.
Related reading: Thai girls may just be the world’s sweetest women
Joke about her excessive shopping habits or her cute clothes and don’t forget to laugh at yourself, especially if you’re struggling to learn Thai. Thais love that you learn their language, but they think it’s really funny when you get the words screwed up.
Make her laugh a lot and your Thai girl will like you even more.
Don’t Talk Too Much About Your Job – Overall, even though most Thai women will love to gossip about people at their job, when it comes to the actual job itself, they are really not that interested in talking about it.
Even the very ambitious, quite high-powered Thai women I know don’t seem to want to talk about work much, and most Thai women certainly don’t want to know about your job.
It’s fine to mention what you do but, after that safe piece of information, forget about it and talk about food or shopping instead.
Don’t Talk About Money – If you’re with a respectable Thai girl, money is usually the last thing on her mind. She really doesn’t want to know how much money you make and when the more crass guys talk about it, I’ve even seen Thai girls noses almost physically go up as if to say “how low-class”.
If she is interested enough to date you more, if the relationship gets a lot more serious you can talk about money then. But on the first few dates, buy her a nice dinner and she will be perfectly happy, without expecting to know exactly how big your pay check is.
Don’t Talk About Sex – Unless you are dating a bar girl, talking about sex is just about the last thing you want to do. For western women, it’s perfectly acceptable to talk about sex and I’ve talked about sex (in an innocent way) in many of my adult classes. For western men though, it’s a lot more dangerous to talk about sex as it usually comes off as sleazy, low-class and desperate.
Avoid the subject of sex altogether, even cute jokes about sex. Joking with a good Thai girl about sex often makes her think you’re looking for a different type of relationship than she is, and she’ll probably dump you pretty fast.
Related: Why Thai girls don’t talk about sex — it’s not polite or acceptable
Of course, there are Thai women who love to talk about politics, social issues and international news, but these women are few and far between and you’re very unlikely to meet one. The average Thai girl likes to talk about more casual things. After all, life is too short. Why spoil it talking about depressing things.
Really though, it’s not that difficult to talk to Thai women. Be friendly, polite and respectful, tease her a lot, laugh and make jokes and just look like you’re enjoying spending the time with her.
Don’t push her too much and you’ll be surprised how quickly a lot of Thai women will open up and really want to get to know you better.
Special Note: Of course, much of this article is written tongue in cheek. But…it will hopefully give you a starting off point if you are a little unsure 🙂
