Talking to Thais, have you ever had "Pow Wow" moments?

[Jingthing]

I did something surprising (to myself) recently.

I was talking to a Thai who had limited English and wanted to express a thought about native Americans, what others might call American Indians, indigenous people, First Nations, etc.

But my first impulse in order to actually effectively communicate the thought was to first say Indians but realizing that sounds like from India to a Thai so I then put my hand to my mouth moving it back and forth and said POW WOW Indians! OMG -- what had possessed me?

So racist. I don't think I've ever said or gestured POW WOW Indians before in my life. But he understood immediately, smiled and didn't try to cancel me. 

I have no regrets. Sometimes you just want to communicate. But still a bit surprised that I did that.

 

Have you had such POW WOW moments talking to Thais?

 

 

[short-Timer]

10 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

But he understood immediately and smiled and didn't try to cancel me. 

No he didn't. He was likely amused by your ridiculous behavior and smiled out of bewilderment and confusion. Better to smile than to confront the zany hand movements of another whacky foreigner. That's what non-confrontational Thais do. 
 

In the event you want to try and communicate again about American Indians then in Thai they refer to them "India Daeng", meaning "Red Indians". Better you learn the language than make up weird hand gestures that only you would understand. Done. 

[Lacessit]

I still remember playing golf with three Thai guys. We all had caddies. Two of them looked very alike. So I asked which one was the younger sister, nong sow in Thai.

 

Nong sow is also slang for the vagina. The guys and the caddies broke up laughing.

[short-Timer]

12 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Have you had such POW WOW moments talking to Thais?

No idea what that means. Doubt any Thai would either. 

[short-Timer]

4 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Nong sow is also slang for the vagina.

Very rarely used as a slang. If I saw you speaking with two Thai girls that were sisters and you said those words to them, then I wouldn't suspect you meant anything sexual by it at all. 

[Jingthing]

1 minute ago, Lacessit said:

I still remember playing golf with three Thai guys. We all had caddies. Two of them looked very alike. So I asked which one was the younger sister, nong sow in Thai.

 

Nong sow is also slang for the vagina. The guys and the caddies broke up laughing.

That's a good suggestion. I already know the Thai words for colors. In the moment, I just didn't think of it as we were speaking English. You seem to be saying that my perception that he understood what I meant with the Pow Wow business was wrong. I hadn't considered that.

[Jingthing]

So what's the consensus? Typical Thais wouldn't have understood the Pow Wow thing? Haven't they been exposed to a lot of American pop culture like westerner movies with cowboys and Indians?

[Jingthing]

So he didn't cancel me but I'm starting to get the feeling that some overly woke f-rangs are. 

Oh well. 

Where I grew up we used to find a lot of arrowheads. I went through a phase where I used to wear turquoise bolo ties. I drew the line at dream catchers and fry bread though. Does that give me any native cred? 

[MalcolmB]

4 minutes ago, short-Timer said:

Very rarely used as a slang. If I saw you speaking with two Thai girls that were sisters and you said those words to them, then I wouldn't suspect you meant anything sexual by it at all. 

You can take the sex tourist out of the bar, but you never take the bar out of the sex tourist.

[Oliver Holzerfilled]

Tonto no like Jingthing.  Jingthing speak with forked tongue.  Jinghing always tell heap big lies.

[worgeordie]

You mean like with pipe of peace , in a sweat lodge , no never....

 

regards worgeordie

[cdemundo]

35 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

I did something surprising (to myself) recently.

I was talking to a Thai who had limited English and wanted to express a thought about native Americans, what others might call American Indians, indigenous people, First Nations, etc.

But my first impulse in order to actually effectively communicate the thought was to first say Indians but realizing that sounds like from India to a Thai so I then put my hand to my mouth moving it back and forth and said POW WOW Indians! OMG -- what had possessed me?

So racist. I don't think I've ever said or gestured POW WOW Indians before in my life. But he understood immediately, smiled and didn't try to cancel me. 

I have no regrets. Sometimes you just want to communicate. But still a bit surprised that I did that.

 

Have you had such POW WOW moments talking to Thais?

 

 

I had a Thai lady indicate to me that a group of acrobats performing in the street were Chinese, she used a visual aid in case I didn't understand; she put her index fingers at the corner of her eyes and pulled up and back to simulate Chinese eyes.

This made me laugh as this was something that I have done as a kid but had been taught was "politically incorrect".

[Celsius]

You sound like one of those foreigners on the street, eagerly chatting with his newfound love, explaining himself with great effort, while she nods and smiles in approval, completely clueless about what you're saying.

[Jingthing]

3 minutes ago, Celsius said:

You sound like one of those foreigners on the street, eagerly chatting with his newfound love, explaining himself with great effort, while she nods and smiles in approval, completely clueless about what you're saying.

Not me.

This was my straight hair cutting dude.

I am the type that likes to talk at those times, and this guy speaks somewhat OK English, which is great to talk about hair and other stuff in the world. We even talked about the Russian war of aggression as the subject came up because he has a lot of Russian clients.

[Jingthing]

6 minutes ago, cdemundo said:

I had a Thai lady indicate to me that a group of acrobats performing in the street were Chinese, she used a visual aid in case I didn't understand; she put her index fingers at the corner of her eyes and pulled up and back to simulate Chinese eyes.

This made me laugh as this was something that I have done as a kid but had been taught was "politically incorrect".

That's sort of funny because a racist white westerner doing that would also refer to Thais that way. Asians are Asians, right?

[ChumpChange]

3 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Not me.

This was my straight hair cutting dude.

I am the type that likes to talk at those times, and this guy speaks somewhat OK English, which is great to talk about hair and other stuff in the world. We even talked about the Russian war of aggression as the subject came up because he has a lot of Russian clients.

Makes perfect sense. He didn't have a clue what you were saying, but he smiled because you are his good customer and that's what you do with regular customers. You talk about whatever a customer wants to talk about, you don't act offended, and you smile at whatever the customer says, whether you agree or you understand it or not. Then as soon as the customer leaves your shop, you forget everything that they just said, because it's nothing important to you, and you move onto the next customer. It's just idle chit chat to them and part of the job. Rinse and repeat.  

[Jingthing]

2 minutes ago, ChumpChange said:

Makes perfect sense. He didn't have a clue what you were saying, but he smiled because you are his good customer and that's what you do with regular customers. You talk about whatever a customer wants to talk about, you don't act offended, and you smile at whatever the customer says, whether you agree or you understand it or not. Then as soon as the customer leaves your shop, you forget everything that they just said, because it's nothing important to you, and you move onto the next customer. It's just idle chit chat to them and part of the job. Rinse and repeat.  

I didn't do a rinse.

He actually has things to say. It's not a one way conversation. 

[Jingthing]

Yeah I'm getting now that he probably didn't get what I meant with the Pow Wow. Very silly of me. Clearly I'll never live it down. 

[blaze master]

You're just now realising that you're a racist. At least you're starting to finally see your own true nature.

[Jingthing]

8 minutes ago, blaze master said:

You're just now realising that you're a racist. At least you're starting to finally see your own true nature.

Everyone's a racist.

[kwak250]

27 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Yeah I'm getting now that he probably didn't get what I meant with the Pow Wow. Very silly of me. Clearly I'll never live it down. 

He probably thought you wanted to give him a bj?

[Jingthing]

13 minutes ago, kwak250 said:

He probably thought you wanted to give him a bj?

I do actually. Who wouldn't. He's cute as a button but straight.

[Jingthing]

One thing I'm definitely NOT gonna do is ever ask him whether he did understand what I meant. That's because to ask that I would have to do the pow wow thing again!

[Gandtee]

54 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Yeah I'm getting now that he probably didn't get what I meant with the Pow Wow. Very silly of me. Clearly I'll never live it down. 

White man speak with fork tongue.😉

[Jingthing]

Heck, my Junior High school teams were the Navajos.

We did a really cool war dance.

Surely I get a pass for one cheeky pow wow slip, yeah?

 

[ChumpChange]

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

I didn't do a rinse.

But you wanted to give him a rinse, right?

[ChumpChange]

25 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

One thing I'm definitely NOT gonna do is ever ask him whether he did understand what I meant.

Good idea. No need to put him on the spot for a possible lose face situation. 

[GammaGlobulin]

I always disliked Tonto.

 

[ChumpChange]

31 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

I do actually. Who wouldn't. He's cute as a button but straight.

I wouldn't because I'm not gay. Alright, I think we are done here. 

[Jingthing]

4 minutes ago, ChumpChange said:

I wouldn't because I'm not gay. Alright, I think we are done here. 

Well I'm not straight but there are some very handsome lesbians that might swing me if drunk enough.