Friends Don't say "Thank You"

My friend and interperter, Yen, and I hare working hard on this one. Yen is a wonderful person - she is beautiful, intelligent, friendly, compassionate and generally a GOOD person. She has been helping me with all sorts of thing, not just translation. The lesson that she is helping me with now is "friends don't say thank you"
It all started when Yen was helping me run an errand, for which I was very grateful. I kept saying "thank you" and she was almost in tears. Imagine my horror when she said

STOP SAYING THANK YOU. It makes me think that you are not my friend!

I was mortified and humbled. Things that friends do for each other hear are so commonplace and accepted that they do not feel or have the need to say thank you. It is just the way it is. Whereas in Western society, we are so used to the "what's in it for me" approach that we feel that we have to say thank you for everything.

Chalk that one up to one of the more humbling lessons of this trip.