Question And Answers

[Lithobid]

So I'm in the barbers chair and the กระเทย is cutting away, and I'm being forced to listen to that horrible music called American Country Music, anyway, so to start our chit-chat off, I ask

1. คุณชอบลุกทุ่งฟรั่งไหม - and all I got was a confused look, should I have used เพลงของคนชนบท? What should I use?

2. After finishing with the hair cut I'm off to Tesco's for some shopping, and come across a family walking and one of their children is sitting in the shopping cart. I of course can't resist and come out with

ขอโทษครับดัวนี้(pointing to child in cart)คุณซื้อที่ไหน - all four of the family, including grandma, stopped and had dead-serious looks on their faces. Guess that humor didn't go cross-culture. I backed away humbly.

Cheers

Lithobid!

[withnail]

With regards to your first question, although ลูกทุ่ง is often translated to country in English I don't feel that any Thai person would draw any similarities between the two. It also doesn't mean that they can identify different western musical genres when they hear them. A word I have heard Thais use in reference to musical genres is แนว e.g. คุณชอบเพลงแนวไหน "What type of music do you like?" Therefore, I guess you could say คุณชอบเพลงแนวนี้ไหม or just แบบนี้ in a more general sense. Don't forget though that to their ears it could just be taken to mean western music.

With regards to the second question I'd imagine that you're right and the humour just didn't translate. Of course if a foreigner starts speaking to them out of the blue it's also possible that they weren't really ready to listen to you and certainly weren't expecting such words to come out of your mouth. Maybe they were just confused.

Edited April 6, 2009 by withnail

[Lithobid]

With regards to your first question, although ลูกทุ่ง is often translated to country in English I don't feel that any Thai person would draw any similarities between the two. It also doesn't mean that they can identify different western musical genres when they hear them. A word I have heard Thais use in reference to musical genres is แนว e.g. คุณชอบเพลงแนวไหน "What type of music do you like?" Therefore, I guess you could say คุณชอบเพลงแนวนี้ไหม or just แบบนี้ in a more general sense. Don't forget though that to their ears it could just be taken to mean western music.

With regards to the second question I'd imagine that you're right and the humour just didn't translate. Of course if a foreigner starts speaking to them out of the blue it's also possible that they weren't really ready to listen to you and certainly weren't expecting such words to come out of your mouth. Maybe they were just confused.

On the first response, I think you're right there, even in Thailand, with well educated Thai's they find it hard to discern the "western-rock-swing-classical; links". Though you're right on with "แนว" and "แบบนี้" because those are the three words I used to bring understanding to the conversation and we moved on.

The second, I agree the humor didn't apply well, though they knew I spoke Thai as they listened to my two minute conversation with a man in the TV department. They were right next to me and I know they understood that part of my thai. As an exclusion, when I made the joke, I was quite carefull that none other than that family could hear me. (although, the difference between listening and being spoken to directly by a ฟรั่ง can mean a world of difference in understanding as I've learned, or is it learnt....S!@# cain't spell my own no more.)

Cheers on your reply!

Lithobid

Edited April 6, 2009 by Lithobid

[aanon]

So I'm in the barbers chair and the กระเทย is cutting away, and I'm being forced to listen to that horrible music called American Country Music, anyway, so to start our chit-chat off, I ask

1. คุณชอบลุกทุ่งฟรั่งไหม - and all I got was a confused look, should I have used เพลงของคนชนบท? What should I use?

2. After finishing with the hair cut I'm off to Tesco's for some shopping, and come across a family walking and one of their children is sitting in the shopping cart. I of course can't resist and come out with

ขอโทษครับดัวนี้(pointing to child in cart)คุณซื้อที่ไหน - all four of the family, including grandma, stopped and had dead-serious looks on their faces. Guess that humor didn't go cross-culture. I backed away humbly.

Cheers

Lithobid!

For 1, I'd suggest using the term 'country' (with thai-style pronunciation).

For 2, using ตัว (dtua), the classifier for animals (amongst other things), probably didn't help your cause. I've tried to think of how you could get this joke across using other words but, given the actual existence of a trade in children and past deeds of farang men in thailand, there's always a risk of giving offense. It's an interesting lateral thinking challenge, though. Anyone got any suggestions?

[bhoydy]

Yeah got to agree with aanon there. Using ตัว as a classifier for a human is a bit disrespectful. Maybe ลูกคุณนี้ would be better?

[aanon]

Yeah got to agree with aanon there. Using ตัว as a classifier for a human is a bit disrespectful. Maybe ลูกคุณนี้ would be better?

I suspect that Lithobid was looking to use a classifier that would work with the joke, ie. looking at the child as a product that the family had just picked up in the supermarket.

[sukhont]

So I'm in the barbers chair and the กระเทย is cutting away, and I'm being forced to listen to that horrible music called American Country Music, anyway, so to start our chit-chat off, I ask

1. คุณชอบลุกทุ่งฟรั่งไหม - and all I got was a confused look, should I have used เพลงของคนชนบท? What should I use?

2. After finishing with the hair cut I'm off to Tesco's for some shopping, and come across a family walking and one of their children is sitting in the shopping cart. I of course can't resist and come out with

ขอโทษครับดัวนี้(pointing to child in cart)คุณซื้อที่ไหน - all four of the family, including grandma, stopped and had dead-serious looks on their faces. Guess that humor didn't go cross-culture. I backed away humbly.

Cheers

Lithobid!

คุณชอบลูกทุ่งฝรั่งไหม? i think maybe he doesn't know what is Luk Tung Farang style. Maybe you can say "คุณชอบเพลงแนวนี้ภาษาอังกฤษไหม"

For the second I think u is trying to play with the kid, ตัวนี้ is for things and animals. we don't use it for human.

You can use "เด็กคนนี้"( Dek Khon nee) - this child. it's better.

You can ask like "เด็กคนนี้ซื้อมาจากไหนครับ"

[Lithobid]

So I'm in the barbers chair and the กระเทย is cutting away, and I'm being forced to listen to that horrible music called American Country Music, anyway, so to start our chit-chat off, I ask

1. คุณชอบลุกทุ่งฟรั่งไหม - and all I got was a confused look, should I have used เพลงของคนชนบท? What should I use?

2. After finishing with the hair cut I'm off to Tesco's for some shopping, and come across a family walking and one of their children is sitting in the shopping cart. I of course can't resist and come out with

ขอโทษครับดัวนี้(pointing to child in cart)คุณซื้อที่ไหน - all four of the family, including grandma, stopped and had dead-serious looks on their faces. Guess that humor didn't go cross-culture. I backed away humbly.

Cheers

Lithobid!

คุณชอบลูกทุ่งฝรั่งไหม? i think maybe he doesn't know what is Luk Tung Farang style. Maybe you can say "คุณชอบเพลงแนวนี้ภาษาอังกฤษไหม"

For the second I think u is trying to play with the kid, ตัวนี้ is for things and animals. we don't use it for human.

You can use "เด็กคนนี้"( Dek Khon nee) - this child. it's better.

You can ask like "เด็กคนนี้ซื้อมาจากไหนครับ"

I thought about using เด็กคนนี้ but aanon hit it on the head, I used ดัว becuase I wanted to refer to the child as being something purchased frequently in everyday life, though now thinking back I can see how it could be percieved as negative or insulting. Also, how many times have we told a joke in our own languages, and not been laughed at or with, and been taken the wrong way, I think it's a bit of just plain human nature as well.

Cheers

Lithobid

[yoot]

So I'm in the barbers chair and the กระเทย is cutting away, and I'm being forced to listen to that horrible music called American Country Music, anyway, so to start our chit-chat off, I ask

1. คุณชอบลุกทุ่งฟรั่งไหม - and all I got was a confused look, should I have used เพลงของคนชนบท? What should I use?

In this situation, it's better start asking with "คุณชอบเพลงคันทรี่ไหม". Then, if you got a confused look from her, you can clarify what "เพลงคันทรี่" is.

For example;

You : คุณชอบเพลงคันทรี่ไหม

Her : อะไรนะ เพลงคันทรี่อะไร ไม่รู้จัก

You : ก็เพลงฝรั่งแนวนี้ไง เขาเรียกว่า เพลงคันทรี่ สำหรับฝรั่ง เพลงประเภทนี้ก็คล้าย ๆ กับเพลงลูกทุ่งของไทยนั่นแหละ

Her : อ้อเหรอ อืม ชอบสิ (She would feel good by now because she got a new knowledge that this style of song is called "country". She might be able to use it with her friends later. )

2. After finishing with the hair cut I'm off to Tesco's for some shopping, and come across a family walking and one of their children is sitting in the shopping cart. I of course can't resist and come out with

ขอโทษครับดัวนี้(pointing to child in cart)คุณซื้อที่ไหน - all four of the family, including grandma, stopped and had dead-serious looks on their faces. Guess that humor didn't go cross-culture. I backed away humbly.

It doesn't mean Thai people never joke with others this way. But you just used the wrong word. In Thai, we would say "ไม่มีศิลปะในการพูด".

Both "ขอโทษครับตัวนี้คุณซื้อที่ไหน" and "เด็กคนนี้ซื้อมาจากไหนครับ" sound rude to me. If I were one in that family, you would get a dead-serious look from me too.

Thai people will start this joke with a smile to the kid and talk to the family something like "น่ารักจัง หาซื้อได้ที่ไหนครับ (ผมอยากได้บ้าง-this sentence is an option)", no need to use any classifier. By this, you would get friendly looks from the family instead.

[Lithobid]

So I'm in the barbers chair and the กระเทย is cutting away, and I'm being forced to listen to that horrible music called American Country Music, anyway, so to start our chit-chat off, I ask

1. คุณชอบลุกทุ่งฟรั่งไหม - and all I got was a confused look, should I have used เพลงของคนชนบท? What should I use?

In this situation, it's better start asking with "คุณชอบเพลงคันทรี่ไหม". Then, if you got a confused look from her, you can clarify what "เพลงคันทรี่" is.

For example;

You : คุณชอบเพลงคันทรี่ไหม

Her : อะไรนะ เพลงคันทรี่อะไร ไม่รู้จัก

You : ก็เพลงฝรั่งแนวนี้ไง เขาเรียกว่า เพลงคันทรี่ สำหรับฝรั่ง เพลงประเภทนี้ก็คล้าย ๆ กับเพลงลูกทุ่งของไทยนั่นแหละ

Her : อ้อเหรอ อืม ชอบสิ (She would feel good by now because she got a new knowledge that this style of song is called "country". She might be able to use it with her friends later. )

2. After finishing with the hair cut I'm off to Tesco's for some shopping, and come across a family walking and one of their children is sitting in the shopping cart. I of course can't resist and come out with

ขอโทษครับดัวนี้(pointing to child in cart)คุณซื้อที่ไหน - all four of the family, including grandma, stopped and had dead-serious looks on their faces. Guess that humor didn't go cross-culture. I backed away humbly.

It doesn't mean Thai people never joke with others this way. But you just used the wrong word. In Thai, we would say "ไม่มีศิลปะในการพูด".

Both "ขอโทษครับตัวนี้คุณซื้อที่ไหน" and "เด็กคนนี้ซื้อมาจากไหนครับ" sound rude to me. If I were one in that family, you would get a dead-serious look from me too.

Thai people will start this joke with a smile to the kid and talk to the family something like "น่ารักจัง หาซื้อได้ที่ไหนครับ (ผมอยากได้บ้าง-this sentence is an option)", no need to use any classifier. By this, you would get friendly looks from the family instead.

Yoot,

I appreciate the input. I took your approach on giving a complement first,

"โอ๋เด็กๆนี้น่ารักจังเลย ผมอยากได้บ้าง คูณหาซ้อได้ที่ไหนครับ?"

This time the child in the cart about 5-6 squeeled and giggled and the rest of the family followed suit. I never thought about entering the conversation with a compliment for the child, as giving a reason for why I would like to have one of my own like that. Definetly not nessecary in English, but has seemed to make all the difference in Thai.

Cheers

Lithobid