Please Help - Need To Know....

[Godwin]

My Thai Girlfriend sent this to her sister in relation to getting a Visa:

พี่นี การทำวีซ่าเราต้องทำเองหรื่อต้องให้เขาทำให้ช่วยแนะนำให้หน่อยค่ะว่าหนูต้องทำยังไงบ่างในเวลา3เดือนไปสกอดแลน

What does it say?

Does she call me a rat in it?

Thanks

Ben

[tgeezer]

My Thai Girlfriend sent this to her sister in relation to getting a Visa:

พี่นี การทำวีซ่าเราต้องทำเองหรื่อต้องให้เขาทำให้ช่วยแนะนำให้หน่อยค่ะว่าหนูต้องทำยังไงบ่างในเวลา3เดือนไปสกอดแลน

What does it say?

Does she call me a rat in it?

Thanks

Ben

I wouldn't swear to exactly the meaning but she doesn't call you a rat. She is saying that she is getting a visa, either she must do it herself or that she must let you do it, and is asking for advice on what is she to do. The information that in 3 months she will be going to Scotland, is tagged on to the end.

[Indra]

Godwin,

Let me try to translate it as follows:

"Sister Ni, about making the visa, which one should we do either make ourselves or let him help giving recommendation that Nu has to go to Scotland for 3 months"

Her sister nick name is Ni

Your girlfriend nick name is Nu (the writing is exactly the same with rat, hence her nick name if translated into English is "rat")

As you might know, every Thai people have his/her own nick name.

My Thai friend, who just got his first child last month, told me that he had got nick name (ชื่อเล่น) for his baby but so far he and his wife hasn't decided the first name.

Perhaps, the one which make you confused is บ่าง (baang with low tone), which means flying sguirrel; However, I believe that she just mistyped it as the correct word should be บ้าง (baang with falling tone), which means any.

Hence the word sequence would be ยังไงบ้าง (yang ngai baang), which means "which one?"

That's what I know so far.

However, I am not a Thai, hence explanation from a real Thai would be better.

[mangkorn]

หนู isn't her nickname, it's a pronoun. With little children, it can be first or second person; some women well into their 30s (or older) still use it as a first-person pronoun. (It's cute, so probably better to equate it to "little mouse," rather than "rat")

[meadish_sweetball]

พี่นี การทำวีซ่าเราต้องทำเองหรื่อต้องให้เขาทำให้ช่วยแนะนำให้หน่อยค่ะว่าหนูต้องทำยังไงบ่างในเวลา3เดือนไปสกอดแลน

พี่นี can refer to an actual older sister or just an older person the writer knows, and who fits the right age for being her elder sibling.

"Older sister Ni", do I have to arrange the visa myself or can he do it for me? Please advise me what I need to do for 3 months going to Scotland.

The final ในเวลา3เดือนไปสกอดแลน is not 100% clear to me. Logically she would say 'what I need to do for a three month stay in Scotland' but the Thai is slightly ambiguous.

[Indra]

mangkorn, thank you for your explanation about หนู

Yes, I think that I ever overheard about it when my Thai teacher talked with somebody else during our lesson.

meadish_sweetball, it is hard for farang to understand the Thai language structure because it doesn't have clear structure like English (tenses and other type of sentences) and scheme of compound word (hence also influence the formation of the sentence)

It easier for me when I try to decrypt the sentence using the scheme of Indonesia language (yes, my mother tongue is Indonesia) because both language have similar structure.

Let's take an example of compound word: "dining table".

In Thai, it is โต๊ะอาหาร; If we translate it word-by-word, it becomes "table food"

In Indonesia, it is "meja makan"; If we translate it word-by-word, it becomes "table eat"

We see that the explaining word is put in front of the explained word for English structure and vice versa for both Thai and Indonesia.

Concerning ในเวลา3เดือน

ใน means "in"

เวลา means "time"

So, word-by-word translation would be "in time" or Indonesia language "dalam waktu"

"Dalam waktu", if correctly translated to English will become "within" or "for" (related to time like "for 3 months")

Hence, ในเวลา3เดือนไปสกอดแลน would mean "within 3 months going to Scotland"