Language Of Economics

[DavidHouston]

"ความเจริญทางเศรษฐกิจที่จะเกิดขึ้นเพราะผลิตสินค้าขายให้ประชาชนอุปโภคบริโภคภายในประเทศได้มากนี้ จะมีอัตราสูงและจะทำให้ประชาชนมีระดับการครอบชีพสูงขึ้นมากจึงจะมีเสถียรภาพมากกว่าความเจริญเพราะการส่งออกเพียงอย่างเดียวอย่างที่แล้วมา"

[from an opinion piece in Matichon daily newspaper]

"Economic prosperty will occur at an increasing rate because the economy will produce more goods for internal consumption. This will result in the people having a higher standard of living which will result in [economic] stability rather than [economic] growth which in the past arose from a sole [concentration] on exports."

This is an attempt at understanding the Thai paragraph; the syntax in the sentence is causing me difficulty. In addtition to which I have these specific questions:

1. การครอบชีพ - I cannot find this term in the Thai-English dictionaries that I have. The new Matichon dictionary seems to indicate that this term means "standard of living", like the term ค่าครอบชีพ means "cost of living." Is this correct?

2. อย่างที่แล้วมา - does this mean "as in the past"?

3. Finally, I would like an opinion regarding my parsing the Thai sentences to render English. One of my greatest challenges in understanding written Thai is figuring out the syntactical flow of sentences and paragraphs.

BTW, I do this for fun; I am not a commercial translator; your assistance is not being used for my financial profit.

Thanks.

[DurianChips]

"ความเจริญทางเศรษฐกิจที่จะเกิดขึ้นเพราะผลิตสินค้าขายให้ประชาชนอุปโภคบริโภคภายในประเทศได้มากนี้ จะมีอัตราสูงและจะทำให้ประชาชนมีระดับการครอบชีพสูงขึ้นมากจึงจะมีเสถียรภาพมากกว่าความเจริญเพราะการส่งออกเพียงอย่างเดียวอย่างที่แล้วมา"

[from an opinion piece in Matichon daily newspaper]

1. การครอบชีพ - I cannot find this term in the Thai-English dictionaries that I have. The new Matichon dictionary seems to indicate that this term means "standard of living", like the term ค่าครอบชีพ means "cost of living." Is this correct?

Although we haven't seen the original article, my wife believes it should be การครองชีพ.

Is it possible it got mistyped, or perhaps there was a misprint in the original?

Either way, she translates the entire phrase ระดับการครองชีพ as 'standard of living'.

Also, regarding your question #2, you are correct that อย่างที่แล้วมา means either 'in the past', or 'up until now'.

[meadish_sweetball]

I think a typo is possible too, seeing as how "ระดับการครอบชีพ" renders only 2 Google hits (one of which is the article itself) as opposed to "ระดับการครองชีพ" which yields over 300. The article is here http://www.matichon.co.th/matichon/maticho...;day=2007/07/31 ... as for the rest, I have no specific knowledge of economic terms so I will leave that to people who actually know what they are talking about.

My general impression is that the translation is very good.

[DavidHouston]

Thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Chips. Apparently the terms "ครองชีพ" and "ครอบชีพ " is easily confused. On the website of the "Cooperative Promotion Department", for example, a certain law is variously titled "พระราชบัญญัติ จัดที่ดินเพื่อการครองชีพ พศ 2511" and "พรบ.จัดที่ดินเพื่อการครอบชีพ 2511", both on the same website.

I suspect that "การครอบชีพ" is an economic Thai neologism to be the equivalent of the English "standard of living"; maybe "ความเป็นอยู่" is not precise enough of a technical term.

Thanks again.

[taxexile]

i have an eng/thai dictionary that translates "standard of living" as either

มาตรฐานการครองชีพ or ระดับการครองชีพ

Edited August 1, 2007 by taxexile

[DavidHouston]

We have difficulty enough understanding complex Thai sentences, especially regarding the dismal science. Consider, however, the poor Thai official who had the responsibility for translating into Thai the speeches of Alan Greenspan!

[aanon]

"ความเจริญทางเศรษฐกิจที่จะเกิดขึ้นเพราะผลิตสินค้าขายให้ประชาชนอุปโภคบริโภคภายในประเทศได้มากนี้ จะมีอัตราสูงและจะทำให้ประชาชนมีระดับการครอบชีพสูงขึ้นมากจึงจะมีเสถียรภาพมากกว่าความเจริญเพราะการส่งออกเพียงอย่างเดียวอย่างที่แล้วมา"

[from an opinion piece in Matichon daily newspaper]

"Economic prosperty will occur at an increasing rate because the economy will produce more goods for internal consumption. This will result in the people having a higher standard of living which will result in [economic] stability rather than [economic] growth which in the past arose from a sole [concentration] on exports."

This is an attempt at understanding the Thai paragraph; the syntax in the sentence is causing me difficulty. In addtition to which I have these specific questions:

1. การครอบชีพ - I cannot find this term in the Thai-English dictionaries that I have. The new Matichon dictionary seems to indicate that this term means "standard of living", like the term ค่าครอบชีพ means "cost of living." Is this correct?

2. อย่างที่แล้วมา - does this mean "as in the past"?

3. Finally, I would like an opinion regarding my parsing the Thai sentences to render English. One of my greatest challenges in understanding written Thai is figuring out the syntactical flow of sentences and paragraphs.

BTW, I do this for fun; I am not a commercial translator; your assistance is not being used for my financial profit.

Thanks.

hi david,

i think you've done a good job with the translation. i've also had a go at it and, i agree, the syntax is quite difficult. the way i went about it was to translate once and then tweak until i felt i had something reasonably easy to understand, or at least more so than where i started!

so, warts and all, here is my best effort and how i got there:

1) The economic prosperity which will arise from greater production for internal consumption will occur at a great rate and will greatly enhance the people's standard of living, which will mean greater stability than past prosperity brought about solely by production for export.

2) Economic growth arising from large-scale production for domestic consumption would occur at a high rate and greatly enhance the people's standard of living, thereby delivering greater stability than the export-driven growth of the past.

3) Large-scale production for domestic consumption would yield both a high rate of economic growth and advances in the standard of living, thereby delivering greater stability than the export-driven growth of the past.

i also believe it's การครองชีพ - notice that ง and บ are on adjacent keys.

all the best.

[DavidHouston]

"ความเจริญทางเศรษฐกิจที่จะเกิดขึ้นเพราะผลิตสินค้าขายให้ประชาชนอุปโภคบริโภคภายในประเทศได้มากนี้ จะมีอัตราสูงและจะทำให้ประชาชนมีระดับการครอบชีพสูงขึ้นมากจึงจะมีเสถียรภาพมากกว่าความเจริญเพราะการส่งออกเพียงอย่างเดียวอย่างที่แล้วมา"

[from an opinion piece in Matichon daily newspaper]

"Economic prosperty will occur at an increasing rate because the economy will produce more goods for internal consumption. This will result in the people having a higher standard of living which will result in [economic] stability rather than [economic] growth which in the past arose from a sole [concentration] on exports."

This is an attempt at understanding the Thai paragraph; the syntax in the sentence is causing me difficulty. In addtition to which I have these specific questions:

1. การครอบชีพ - I cannot find this term in the Thai-English dictionaries that I have. The new Matichon dictionary seems to indicate that this term means "standard of living", like the term ค่าครอบชีพ means "cost of living." Is this correct?

2. อย่างที่แล้วมา - does this mean "as in the past"?

3. Finally, I would like an opinion regarding my parsing the Thai sentences to render English. One of my greatest challenges in understanding written Thai is figuring out the syntactical flow of sentences and paragraphs.

BTW, I do this for fun; I am not a commercial translator; your assistance is not being used for my financial profit.

Thanks.

hi david,

i think you've done a good job with the translation. i've also had a go at it and, i agree, the syntax is quite difficult. the way i went about it was to translate once and then tweak until i felt i had something reasonably easy to understand, or at least more so than where i started!

so, warts and all, here is my best effort and how i got there:

1) The economic prosperity which will arise from greater production for internal consumption will occur at a great rate and will greatly enhance the people's standard of living, which will mean greater stability than past prosperity brought about solely by production for export.

2) Economic growth arising from large-scale production for domestic consumption would occur at a high rate and greatly enhance the people's standard of living, thereby delivering greater stability than the export-driven growth of the past.

3) Large-scale production for domestic consumption would yield both a high rate of economic growth and advances in the standard of living, thereby delivering greater stability than the export-driven growth of the past.

i also believe it's การครองชีพ - notice that ง and บ are on adjacent keys.

all the best.

Thank you, Aanon, for your assistance. Now we see how languages continue to evolve in the modern era. Like in living cells whereby evolution occurs by random mutation in DNA sequences, now words evolve by missed keystrokes. There is an apocrophal story about the word "enclosure" to reference an attachment to a letter. In the U.S. military, the word is "inclosure". Rumor has it that some general misspelled the word and no one had the courage to correct him. Sic transit gloria.

[aanon]

There is an apocrophal story about the word "enclosure" to reference an attachment to a letter. In the U.S. military, the word is "inclosure". Rumor has it that some general misspelled the word and no one had the courage to correct him. Sic transit gloria.

i remember hearing a similar story about why the word สมมติ (presume) doesn't have a สระ-อุ although it's pronounced สม-มุต. the gist was that a king or someone similarly lofty started writing it this way. who knows, it may have just been a convenient explanation at the time.

all the best.

[LookSaMoon]

There is an apocrophal story about the word "enclosure" to reference an attachment to a letter. In the U.S. military, the word is "inclosure". Rumor has it that some general misspelled the word and no one had the courage to correct him. Sic transit gloria.

i remember hearing a similar story about why the word สมมติ (presume) doesn't have a สระ-อุ although it's pronounced สม-มุต. the gist was that a king or someone similarly lofty started writing it this way. who knows, it may have just been a convenient explanation at the time.

all the best.

To khun aanon

สมมติ can write as สมมุติ as well. I guess the original is สมมติ but as most ppl write it as สมมุติ

So สมมุติ is also correct.

[DavidHouston]

There is an apocrophal story about the word "enclosure" to reference an attachment to a letter. In the U.S. military, the word is "inclosure". Rumor has it that some general misspelled the word and no one had the courage to correct him. Sic transit gloria.

i remember hearing a similar story about why the word สมมติ (presume) doesn't have a สระ-อุ although it's pronounced สม-มุต. the gist was that a king or someone similarly lofty started writing it this way. who knows, it may have just been a convenient explanation at the time.

all the best.

To khun aanon

สมมติ can write as สมมุติ as well. I guess the original is สมมติ but as most ppl write it as สมมุติ

So สมมุติ is also correct.

คุณลูกสามูน ครับ,

คำว่า "การครอบชีพ" มีคำนิยามเป็นภาษาทยไหม?

[LookSaMoon]

There is an apocrophal story about the word "enclosure" to reference an attachment to a letter. In the U.S. military, the word is "inclosure". Rumor has it that some general misspelled the word and no one had the courage to correct him. Sic transit gloria.

i remember hearing a similar story about why the word สมมติ (presume) doesn't have a สระ-อุ although it's pronounced สม-มุต. the gist was that a king or someone similarly lofty started writing it this way. who knows, it may have just been a convenient explanation at the time.

all the best.

To khun aanon

สมมติ can write as สมมุติ as well. I guess the original is สมมติ but as most ppl write it as สมมุติ

So สมมุติ is also correct.

คุณลูกสามูน ครับ,

คำว่า "การครอบชีพ" มีคำนิยามเป็นภาษาทยไหม?

คุณเดวิด

คำว่า "การครองชีพ" ในบทความนี้น่าจะหมายถึง รายได้ที่ใช้ในชีวิตประจำวัน

ดังตัวอย่างในบทความ " ประชาชนมีระดับการครองชีพสูงขึ้นมาก " หมายถึงมีรายได้เพิ่มขึ้น