It's not the culture, it's you
Moving abroad doesn't fix the thing that was already stopping you. If you couldn't start conversations at home, you can't start them here either. The difference is that abroad you get a much better excuse.
There were girls I liked and did nothing about. The attraction was there on both sides. I just didn't know how to move.
That wasn't a Thailand problem. That gap goes back to school. I brought it with me on the plane.
This is what a new country does. It hands you a full set of reasons that all sound legitimate. Language barrier. Different customs. Indirect communication. Cultural signals you can't read. Every one of those is real. That's what makes them such good cover.
So you tell yourself the problem is the environment. And it's genuinely hard to tell the difference, because the excuse and the truth are wearing the same clothes.
The test I use is simple. Was this happening before I got on the plane? If yes, it isn't the culture.
Some of it really is cultural, and that part is learnable. But you have to sort the two piles first. Otherwise you spend years studying a country when the thing that needs work is closer to home.