Thai's Say The Darndest Things ;)

This morning La and I are walking to work, when our neighbor putters by on his little 3-wheel motorbike. He says to La, "dek(child) dun(walk) gahp(with) phoo-yai(adult). Which basically meant that he called her short because it looked like she was a child walking next to me since I'm like 9 inches taller than her. She laughed at him and then said to me, "he is always joking." It made me laugh too. Later on I had one of those moments where I reflected how different my culture is from the Thai culture and how I have grown accustomed to things that would raise eyebrows at home.
This is just one example, but in general it is not impolite to talk about a person's appearance to their face here. Almost all people use a nickname that usually reflects personality or appearance. These nicknames include pig, fatty, chicken, good heart, little, egg, cat, pinkie, red, etc. Talking about a person's weight, fat, height, age, ethnicity, or skin color can be inserted into a conversation with as much ease as a comment on the weather. When I first came here, I was in a bit of shock the first several times I saw or experienced this, and I wondered how people could be so mean openly ridiculing others. Eventually one of my teachers explained to me that these things aren't factors in determining a person's value or worth in the eyes of Thai like it so often is in western culture, so they can talk about it and it doesn't make a difference. They're going to like you the way you come, so why worry about it.