Video; "There is no such word as 'Yes' in Thai by Stuart Jay Raj"

[Tod-Daniels]

I thought this was a really interesting video by Stuart Jay Raj. In fact I think all his videos about Thai are really good..

His explanation is clear, and shows the ambiguity in the single word answer you get from a Thai like ครับ. .



Anyway, thought you might be interested. .. .

[ian71]

Interesting post, but only really makes life more difficult, as you only need to follow whats the norm, and the norm is krap or chai for yes, but to be honest is the same for no, many words meaning the same thing. but cheers for the post will have a look at this guys other stuff.

[Joshua]

That video explains the concept very accurately and is the best way I have ever seen it put into words. Lao is the same way. It's one of those things that many of us understand but don't know how (or didn't know how before this) to put it into words.

This guy clearly is coming from a business perspective and I think this is where it would have the most problems. The level of frustration foreigners have expressed in doing business in Thailand or with Thai people is found all over the internet and most issues are due to communication, or lack of. The video uploader points out that communication itself is not always the problem, but rather it is understanding and comprehension of what those words mean at the very core to the society using them. I like this man's approach, rather than complaining for the rest of his days about how terrible the experience was he dug deeper to find the problem's source. This is the type of representative any consulting firm would want, a man who looks for a solution!

Many times a speaker of one language when asked for a translation will respond with "I don't know how to say", or "no word in English". It is because the thoughts or emotions conveyed in the native language is too difficult to put into mere words. You can take any dictionary and find faults, inaccuracies or even total omissions, there are some words and concepts that you just won't get until you are fluent, and in some cases there are some things you may never FULLY REALIZE if it is not your mother tongue and I am not speaking of Thai specifically, but many second languages.

Thank you for sharing the video!

[Tod-Daniels]

Interesting post “Joshua”, and one that runs exactly along the lines of what I hear foreign students of Thai say every single day I’ve been to a Thai language class.

Over and over they say; "My teacher said word-x in Thai means word-y in English." They then can't work out why when it's used in another sentence it doesn't mean that. This “mother language interference” or what ever you wanna call it, gets in the way with us actually learning how a particular Thai words meaning can change from construct to construct.

We seem to get so caught up on what it means in English that we lose sight of what it can or might mean in Thai. This is especially so if an alternate meaning doesn't match the "pre-programmed" one we've been "spoon-fed" in a Thai school, or by using a dictionary.

I finally tossed out my English-Thai dictionary (really I gave it to a Thai person, but knowing them it’s probably just used as a coaster to put glasses on at their house, because I'm sure they've NEVER opened it). As soon as I was able to start reading Thai I bought a Thai-English dictionary. I've found they provide much better value in terms of usage for words. They almost all have the related compound words associated with what ever word you look up and far more example sentences than English-Thai dictionaries do too.

Stu Jay Raj is definitely dialed into "how Thai works". All of his videos are pretty darned good ones.

Glad you liked it. . .

[mikeheart]

And just when I thought I was getting I thought I was gett ing somewhere with my Thai speech I have to reconstruct my thinking. Again LOL . Yes I will! Pom chai ja or chai pom ja ORRR chai ja pom. Finaly JA..... Krap as politeness. For me it helps what you have said because I have often been in the situation that I needed a direct answer only to get what seems a vague response. I will continue to learn more and speak as often as I can in Thai

[Marie]

I think related to this is the way Thais respond to questions (in English) phrased on the negative. If I remember right, for example, if you ask them "Don't you like this?" To mean that they don't like it, they may say "Yes", instead of "No" or "No, I don't" as you would in English.

[Tod-Daniels]

Those answers that Thais throw out to negative questions when they'll say yes for no and vice versa still throw me for a loop. I try NOT to use constructs like that if I can help it.

Still in talking to people who speak Korean and Japanese they say that's how it's done there too, so I think it's pretty much an "Asian Language" thing. Answering a negative question like "Don't you want to go?" with "Yes", to them means "yes, they don't want to go".

It's kinda close to the negative question tag in Thai ไม่ใช่หรือ or "Isn't that right?"

[Rori]

I think it is something to do with the Thai way (or Asian) of life..kind of compromising and subtle. When you ask a negative question, the way we answer is to respond to the questioner..not ourselves!..dont you like it...(no we don't) but then answer..'yes' you are right..we dont like it. I am a scientist and I found writing a sci article in Thai is so difficult..clumsy..and most of the times cant find exact words I want.

[Marie]

I am a scientist and I found writing a sci article in Thai is so difficult..clumsy..and most of the times cant find exact words I want.

I understand this problem of not having exact scientific or technical terms in the native language. I was in a project involving the translation of technical articles into 3 native languages in the Philippines and we struck a compromise to use the exact scientific terms in English (written in Italics) accompanied by a short but clear explanation in the vernacular. That's a way to avoid sounding awkward by forcing the issue of writing everything in the native language.

[Chai]

To make it even more confusing, there are some instances when the word ใช่ can be translated as "it's not." (e.g. ใช่ว่าไม่อยากมีแฟน แต่ผมกลัวอกหัก)