Things Not To Joke About With Thai's

[sylviex]

Many guidebooks & books on Thai culture mention the taboos connected with money, for a very good reason. Exploring the reasons behind such taboos will help you understand a good deal about a culture; in that particular case, an overwhelmingly important aspect of Thai culture/society.

Exploring the taboos concerning feet and all the high-low associations will provide many insights, too.

"Common sense" alone is not enough when it comes to intercultural differences & understanding.

[bonobo]

QUOTE (sylviex @ 2008-10-22 13:44:21) QUOTE No problem with folding notes, unless you fold into an origami swan or something.

OK -- won't do that .

Wonder what the reaction was then -- happened a number of times.

Only the once. Driver not amused. The fact I was sporting a Tommy Cooper Fez at the time did little to ease the situation- justlikethat!

I meant the reaction which I thought was connected with folded notes happened a few times. An embarrassed/nervous giggle on looking at the note and receiving it. Perhaps I just have that effect on some people .

Correct-ish, it used to be a big no-no to scoop up the change, coins and notes, and shove them in your pocket. These days it is less frowned on but you will not make many Thai friends if you persist in it. I'm not sure about folding the notes though but I store them all flat in my wallet which then folds in half.

Just saw that reply. Thanks -- so possibly was something a little wrong. The notes are flat in the wallet but I was folding them before passing them over (because holding in my hand before reaching destination).

Related is that taxi/tuk tuk/songthaew drivers often do a polite "surprised" look when you pay. They seem to avoid looking like they are waiting for the money.

I note that many Thais do handle money quite carefully & respectfully; apart from the images on it there's a bit of superstition attached, it seems.

I have lived here for some time, but somehow this aspect has escaped me.  I am going to have to take that into consideration and figure out how to better handle money

Thanks. (meant sincerely)

[splodger]

was once sitting outside at a a bar when a rather large thai lady got on a motor bike taxi.next minute the rear tyre exploded,you could not see anything for dust,when the dust started to clear all you could see was people picking themselves up off the ground(all thais)and the rest of the taxi's riding off into the distance.for the whole of the rest of the evening thai's were telling fat(boom boy)jokes,so i guess fat jokes are o.k.

[Maigo6]

Does anyone have any thoughts about making jokes to thai's about certain subjects?

Can you joke about money with Thai's? And in what circumstances?

Yes..when you are giving it to them personally.

I noticed once that a thai cashier did not react well to a small joke I made about money when I was paying for some items.

But in other cases, there has been no problem.

In certain cultures, one never jokes about a person being fat, but in other cultures it may be ok.

Thais joke about my fat all the time, but then again it is rather cuddly.

The fact that you pay them makes you cuddly.

If you didn't pay, you'd be just another fatso, just like you'd be in the western world.

oh oh, do i sense a bit of envy on the part of our esteemed collegue? no, ok then just I will just ignore his blatently xenophobic comments on the premise of his ignorance and pride.

Envy ?

You think I'm envious of a fat guy ?

This jerk is at it again. Back to the bottle?

BkkJames isn't a jerk!

Flaming of posters is against forum rules, final warning !

[Geekfreaklover]

The big three to avoid are

Monarchy

Buddhism

Family

Also, if someone is of higher social standing than you are i.e; immigration, police, government officials then best to avoid all jokes.

[Maigo6]

The big three to avoid are

Monarchy

Buddhism

Family

Also, if someone is of higher social standing than you are i.e; immigration, police, government officials then best to avoid all jokes.

And the rest of the Thai population.

[bkkjames]

Does anyone have any thoughts about making jokes to thai's about certain subjects?

Can you joke about money with Thai's? And in what circumstances?

Yes..when you are giving it to them personally.

I noticed once that a thai cashier did not react well to a small joke I made about money when I was paying for some items.

But in other cases, there has been no problem.

In certain cultures, one never jokes about a person being fat, but in other cultures it may be ok.

Thais joke about my fat all the time, but then again it is rather cuddly.

The fact that you pay them makes you cuddly.

If you didn't pay, you'd be just another fatso, just like you'd be in the western world.

oh oh, do i sense a bit of envy on the part of our esteemed collegue? no, ok then just I will just ignore his blatently xenophobic comments on the premise of his ignorance and pride.

Envy ?

You think I'm envious of a fat guy ?

This jerk is at it again. Back to the bottle?

BkkJames isn't a jerk!

Flaming of posters is against forum rules, final warning !

not bad Go6 or Gohome, not bad

[Geekfreaklover]

The big three to avoid are

Monarchy

Buddhism

Family

Also, if someone is of higher social standing than you are i.e; immigration, police, government officials then best to avoid all jokes.

And the rest of the Thai population.

Yep, if you don't know them well, best to keep to that list.

Also, would imagine everybody reading this knows not to pat someone on the head, use your farang hands (feet) to act out any kind of joke situation.

Apart from that don't think you can go too far wrong.

[Maigo6]

not bad Go6 or Gohome, not bad

Cheers James.

I can't understand why that guy called you a jerk, perhaps he's been on the Vodka.

Edited October 22, 2008 by Maigo6

[bkkjames]

not bad Go6 or Gohome, not bad

Cheers James.

I can't understand why that guy called you a jerk, perhaps he's been on the Vodka.

Well, if he did, he owes me one on Friday night, but more likely the case, I owe him one.

[thithi]

oh....Thais do make jokes of everything tho not all of us do

family [of course with close friends]

monks

even M_na_c_y

[sassienie]

Some names never to call a Thai, not even in jest:

A 4 eyed git.

Titless wonder.

Bald headed git.

Fatso.

Poofter.

Short arse.

English has lots of double meanings, one can insult somebody but in a joking way that creates a laugh rather than anger. It`s not what you say, but the way you say it. With Thais, what you say is always taken litually.

It took me quite a while to realise that and almost got into trouble with my English humour on several occasions.

Edited October 22, 2008 by sassienie

[Maigo6]

Some names never to call a Thai, not even in jest:

A 4 eyed git.

Titless wonder.

Bald headed git.

Fatso.

Poofter.

Short arse.

English has lots of double meanings, one can insult somebody but in a joking way that creates a laugh rather than anger. It`s not what you say, but the way you say it. With Thais, what you say is always taken litually.

It took me quite a while to realise that and almost got into trouble with my English humour on several occasions.

[soundman]

Some names never to call a Thai, not even in jest:

A 4 eyed git.

Titless wonder.

Bald headed git.

Fatso.

Poofter.

Short arse.

English has lots of double meanings, one can insult somebody but in a joking way that creates a laugh rather than anger. It`s not what you say, but the way you say it. With Thais, what you say is always taken litually.

It took me quite a while to realise that and almost got into trouble with my English humour on several occasions.

A four eyed titless bald headed fat small arsed poofter!

Don't reckon anybody would want to get called that! :cheesy:

[sylviex]

A 4 eyed git.

Titless wonder.

Bald headed git.

Fatso.

Poofter.

Short arse.

English has lots of double meanings, one can insult somebody but in a joking way that creates a laugh rather than anger. It`s not what you say, but the way you say it. With Thais, what you say is always taken litually.

It took me quite a while to realise that and almost got into trouble with my English humour on several occasions

A four eyed titless bald headed fat small arsed poofter!

Don't reckon anybody would want to get called that!

That's in English ?

Had a very quick snoop about the internet and found:

Stepping on a coin or handling notes with the face down is considered rude, by all but the most westernised of retail outlets

.bangkokpicture.com/thaicustoms.php

&

[/font]

reservethaihotels.com/Vol.1/dos-and-donts.html (webpage itself no longer there but the quote remains on google).

Also came across the following linguistic trivia in a paper on taboos of Thai students studying abroad. Some of you may enjoy it:

A few years later it became apparent that Thai students studying in this country also tend to avoid certain words of their own language which bear a phonetic resemblance to English obscene words. Here again they avoid the words only when English speakers are about, but the reason for the avoidance appears to stem from their own uncertainty about the propriety of using the words because of their knowledge of English. The tradition of avoidance in a continuous one. Thai students already residing in this country teach each succeeding group of newly arrived students about the taboo [...]

These secondarily tabooed words of Thai include the following: fàg "sheath, (bean-)pod," fág (1) "to hatch," (2) "a kind of pumpkin or squash," phríg "(chili) pepper," and khán "to crush, squeeze out". In connection with the last word, it is to noted that there are other words having the same sequence of sounds except for the tone, e.g. khan (1) "to itch," (2) classifier for vehicles and other objects, and khǎn () "to be funny," (2) "to crow," (3) "water-bowl," but it is only the word having the high tone that bears, to the Thai ear, a strong resemblance to the English tabooed word.

(...)

The word phríg "(chili) pepper" (also used as an abbreviation for phrígthaj "ground pepper, esp. black pepper") caused one group of students to be faced with a dilemma, since, when eating out, it was necessary to use this word frequently. In order to observe their self-imposed taboo and at the same time provide themselves with a substitute term, this group adopted the device of translating the obscene connotation of the word (if interpreted as English) into the elegant Thai term of the same meaning, namely lyŋ "the lingam" (derived from the Sanskrit term).

itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog...ves/004295.html

Getting a little off-topic there - apologies.

Are there words in English/other first languages you avoid using around Thais ?

Edited October 22, 2008 by sylviex

[soundman]

If this "folding paper money" thing is offesive, someone should tell the Thai's. I've yet to meet one who doesn't fold their money.

Some of the <deleted> spewed out in lonely planet type guides is just amazing (-ly innacurate).

[Thaddeus]

Are there words in English/other first languages you avoid using around Thais ?

Ham.

[Super Hans]

Also came across the following linguistic trivia in a paper on taboos of Thai students studying abroad. Some of you may enjoy it:

A few years later it became apparent that Thai students studying in this country also tend to avoid certain words of their own language which bear a phonetic resemblance to English obscene words. Here again they avoid the words only when English speakers are about, but the reason for the avoidance appears to stem from their own uncertainty about the propriety of using the words because of their knowledge of English. The tradition of avoidance in a continuous one. Thai students already residing in this country teach each succeeding group of newly arrived students about the taboo [...]

[/font]These secondarily tabooed words of Thai include the following: fàg "sheath, (bean-)pod," fág (1) "to hatch," (2) "a kind of pumpkin or squash," phríg "(chili) pepper," and khán "to crush, squeeze out". In connection with the last word, it is to noted that there are other words having the same sequence of sounds except for the tone, e.g. khan (1) "to itch," (2) classifier for vehicles and other objects, and khǎn () "to be funny," (2) "to crow," (3) "water-bowl," but it is only the word having the high tone that bears, to the Thai ear, a strong resemblance to the English tabooed word.

(...)

The word phríg "(chili) pepper" (also used as an abbreviation for phrígthaj "ground pepper, esp. black pepper") caused one group of students to be faced with a dilemma, since, when eating out, it was necessary to use this word frequently. In order to observe their self-imposed taboo and at the same time provide themselves with a substitute term, this group adopted the device of translating the obscene connotation of the word (if interpreted as English) into the elegant Thai term of the same meaning, namely lyŋ "the lingam" (derived from the Sanskrit term).

itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog...ves/004295.html

What utter drivel. Students write a lazy paper on absolute crap, and it gets replicated as fact. YCNMIU.

If this "folding paper money" thing is offesive, someone should tell the Thai's. I've yet to meet one who doesn't fold their money.

Some of the <deleted> spewed out in lonely planet type guides is just amazing (-ly innacurate).

Yup, although I think it should be renamed "Lesbian Planet".

[sylviex]

Are there words in English/other first languages you avoid using around Thais ?

Ham.

What does it mean ?

Soundman, if you read back you'll see that I had noticed a reaction when passing folded notes (though I was unsure of eactly what was going on), on a number of occasions, before looking up a possible explanation. So I do think that's possibly a taboo of some kind but perhaps a dying one, and clearly not one followed by all Thais.

How about some input from Thai posters ?

There's undoubtedly a tradition of a less casual attitude to the handling of money, for reasons covered in posts above.

[jdinasia]

Things not to Joke about with Thais .......

[bkkjames]

Are there words in English/other first languages you avoid using around Thais ?

Ham.

What does it mean ?

Soundman, if you read back you'll see that I had noticed a reaction when passing folded notes (though I was unsure of eactly what was going on), on a number of occasions, before looking up a possible explanation. So I do think that's possibly a taboo of some kind but perhaps a dying one, and clearly not one followed by all Thais.

How about some input from Thai posters ?

There's undoubtedly a tradition of a less casual attitude to the handling of money, for reasons covered in posts above.

I believer (but could be wrong) that they only pull out the rule thingy when and if it's convenient?

[sylviex]

The word phríg "(chili) pepper" (also used as an abbreviation for phrígthaj "ground pepper, esp. black pepper") caused one group of students to be faced with a dilemma, since, when eating out, it was necessary to use this word frequently. In order to observe their self-imposed taboo and at the same time provide themselves with a substitute term, this group adopted the device of translating the obscene connotation of the word (if interpreted as English) into the elegant Thai term of the same meaning, namely lyŋ "the lingam" (derived from the Sanskrit term).

itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog...ves/004295.html

What utter drivel. Students write a lazy paper on absolute crap, and it gets replicated as fact.

You're able to disprove this, then, Super Hans ?

I can neither prove nor disprove it, but it's an interesting story.

[sylviex]

I believer (but could be wrong) that they only pull out the rule thingy when and if it's convenient?

I think there may be some truth in that -- just as, if you ask someone to tell you some customs of their culture, they may bring forward examples that they don't actually follow.

Also, what happens between foreigners and Thais is going to be different to what happens between Thais.

The reaction (I think ) I saw with the notes looked spontaneous, though.

[Super Hans]

Never ever mention the lack of size of a Thai males sexual organ, even in jokes.

If you (meaning anyone) did im sure they would only laugh at your ignorance

Are you saying it's a myth?

[jdinasia]

What utter drivel. Students write a lazy paper on absolute crap, and it gets replicated as fact. YCNMIU.

If this "folding paper money" thing is offesive, someone should tell the Thai's. I've yet to meet one who doesn't fold their money.

Some of the <deleted> spewed out in lonely planet type guides is just amazing (-ly innacurate).

Yup, although I think it should be renamed "Lesbian Planet".

That amazingly inaccurate in MODERN Thailand quote from Mary Haas was written apparently in 1951 ... and apparently was discussing one group of students of hers .... nothing about the language used in Thailand today was accurate except for some of the linguistics jargon and her mention of a thai word meaning 'to fornicate' being impolite.

It really was absolute crap

But the topic is Jokes, right?

[bkkjames]

Are you saying it's a myth?

I think this whole subject requires a matter of perspective. What one may call large, another may call small. Some like their hotdogs plain, others don't mind a little cheese on the top.

Personally speaking, I have never had a customer settle for the 6inch when the footlong is available at the same price. But I hear that for some purveyors, the only way they can get a footlong is to actually do it 3 times in a row.

You know what they say, its better to have too much of a good thing than too little of a bad thing.

[sylviex]

That amazingly inaccurate in MODERN Thailand quote from Mary Haas was written apparently in 1951 ... and apparently was discussing one group of students of hers .... nothing about the language used in Thailand today was accurate

... and nobody claimed otherwise !

[Gravelrash]

Western humor and Thai humor are very different. Translating Western jokes into Thai or the reverse just would not carry through. Thais like to taunt others about their weight, skin color, or ethnic background - e.g. from Isan, the south or tribal people.

Thais in general look down on tribal people, South Asians, Negros, Laos, Cambodians and Burmese.

You cannot joke about the Royal family, Buddhism, and some of their superstitious beliefs.

Your being able to get away sharing jokes with other Thais also depends on how close you are with them.

I make the same cracks (albeit Aussie style) in Thai as I do in English and it goes over the same. I always thought it odd that it would, but our humour seems to translate very well. This is off the cuff stuff, not jokes per se that often have cultural nuances.

[sassienie]

Are you saying it's a myth?

I think this whole subject requires a matter of perspective. What one may call large, another may call small. Some like their hotdogs plain, others don't mind a little cheese on the top.

Personally speaking, I have never had a customer settle for the 6inch when the footlong is available at the same price. But I hear that for some purveyors, the only way they can get a footlong is to actually do it 3 times in a row.

You know what they say, its better to have too much of a good thing than too little of a bad thing.

Never ever display a Manchester United avatar.

This especially upsets the Thais and most other people..

West Ham, that`s acceptable to everybody.

Up the Hammers!

[jdinasia]

The word phríg "(chili) pepper" (also used as an abbreviation for phrígthaj "ground pepper, esp. black pepper") caused one group of students to be faced with a dilemma, since, when eating out, it was necessary to use this word frequently. In order to observe their self-imposed taboo and at the same time provide themselves with a substitute term, this group adopted the device of translating the obscene connotation of the word (if interpreted as English) into the elegant Thai term of the same meaning, namely lyŋ "the lingam" (derived from the Sanskrit term).

itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog...ves/004295.html

What utter drivel. Students write a lazy paper on absolute crap, and it gets replicated as fact.

You're able to disprove this, then, Super Hans ?

I can neither prove nor disprove it, but it's an interesting story.

again .. the topic is JOKES to avoid ....

but yes that piece of drivel is easily disproved, all it takes is going into any restaurant in Thailand and listening.

(which also answers the 'and nobody claimed...')

Quoting guidebooks and digging up 57 year old papers that were not even accurate then (other than being a statement about one group of students playing with their language and English ... and you have to wonder where they were exposed to extreme vulgarities in English in 1951!) and NOT using your personal experience in Thailand as a guide seems odd, unless you are just the occasional tourist

Edited October 22, 2008 by jdinasia