I have a Thai cat and she's extremely vocal. If I say hello she'll meow in the same tone back to me and if she's annoyed with me she tells me so.
However, up until recently she didn't have any other cat-like qualities. I'd never seen her raise her hackles, hiss, or heard her purr very loudly. She was afraid of her own shadow, let alone another cat. However, since we've moved house there are now about 7 neighbourhood cats that all can come in and out of our house. She suddenly had to learn how to fight, defend her territory and play with other cats! I think she's quite happy now although for the first 2 weeks of being in the new house she used to hide in the washing machine - haha