Translation Help: "do Not Leave Your Shoes Outside Your Apartment"

[Will2011]

Hi,

I'd like to translate the following sentence in Thai as it needs to be visible in the common areas of my condo: "Do not leave your shoes outside your apartment"

Does anyone know how to translate that in a formal Thai fashion?

Thank you

[rgs2001uk]

Sounds like an excercise in futility to me, various ways to write it, this will do for starters.

กรุณาไม่เก็บรองเท้าข้างนอกอพาร์ทเม้นท์
ขอบคุณครับ

[HeavyDrinker]

I'd say use ย่า not ไม่ in this case duckies...

[rgs2001uk]

I'd say use ย่า not ไม่ in this case duckies...

อย่า even better.

อย่าเก็บรองเท้าข้างนอกอพาร์ทเม้นท์

นะครับ

[HeavyDrinker]

Indeed!! but you know what I meant! Cricket's on....shhhh....

[Songhua]

You could also use ห้าม (haam) if you want to be a bit more forceful or make a rule of it. = prohibited/not permitted (it's not a request).

Edited March 18, 2013 by Songhua

[Will2011]

Haam is what I was looking for. Na crab is useless in this case. Thank you very much.

[HeavyDrinker]

"Haam' is quite strong! Be careful as you won't make too many friends as it may be seen as you throwing your weight about...

Just my 2 cents worth old bean!!

[Will2011]

BTW, dont we say room instead of apartment in thai?

[HeavyDrinker]

BTW, dont we say room instead of apartment in thai?

Either or will do Will...some even say 'Condooooooo'. I don't think that matters.

[Will2011]

I just wanna make sure I write in a correct fashion before printing it out...

[Songhua]

I just wanna make sure I write in a correct fashion before printing it out...

Agree with HD, if you are absolutely going to enforce it (ie make it a regulation) use haam. If you'd simply prefer they don't do it, use karuna yaa. And yes, you can just say hong (room) - it won't be misunderstood.

[rgs2001uk]

I just wanna make sure I write in a correct fashion before printing it out...

Agree with HD, if you are absolutely going to enforce it (ie make it a regulation) use haam. If you'd simply prefer they don't do it, use karuna yaa. And yes, you can just say hong (room) - it won't be misunderstood.

Would love to know who is going to enforce it, who says its forbidden, and what will the consequences be for not abiding.

Where is the OP living?

Have seen this in most Thai places, its just their way.

[Will2011]

I just wanna make sure I write in a correct fashion before printing it out...

Agree with HD, if you are absolutely going to enforce it (ie make it a regulation) use haam. If you'd simply prefer they don't do it, use karuna yaa. And yes, you can just say hong (room) - it won't be misunderstood.

Would love to know who is going to enforce it, who says its forbidden, and what will the consequences be for not abiding.

Where is the OP living?

Have seen this in most Thai places, its just their way.

It is a reminder of common area rules. We live at IDEO Condo. Owners are part of the managing team. And since the management agency hired by the condo sucks, somebody needs to step up.

[kriswillems]

I would use this. It is polite, has a motivation, a deadline (april) and a sanction.

นับแต่เดือนเมษายนนี้เป็นต้นไป เพื่อความเป็นระเบียบและสะดวกต่อการทำความสะอาดระเบียงทางเดิน ทางอพาร์ทเม้นท์ขอความร่วมมือให้ทุกท่านนำรองเท้ารวมถึงสิ่งของที่วางอยู่หน้าห้อง เข้าเก็บในห้องตนเอง หลังจากนี้หากยังมีสิ่งของเหลืออยู่หน้าห้องทางอพาร์ทเม้นท์จะเก็บลงมารวมไว้ให้ที่ห้องส่วนกลางชั้นล่าง ท่านสามารถมาติดต่อรับคืนได้ภายใน 2 สัปดาห์ หากไม่มีผู้ใดมารับคืนเราจะนำทิ้งไปไม่เก็บไว้ครับ

ขอขอบคุณในความร่วมมือ

In the suggestion other people gave I would replace เก็บ with วาง

อย่าวางรองเท้าข้างนอกห้องตนเองนะครับ

Edited March 18, 2013 by kriswillems

[Satcommlee]

กรุณาเก็บรองเท้าเข้าห้องพักด้วยนะครับ

Please keep your shoes in your room.

It must be a popular one, because it is listed on Thai-language.com

Maybe you should just collect all the shoes late at night, keep them in a big bin bag at the end of the corrdior.. they will soon learn!

Edited March 18, 2013 by Satcommlee

[AyG]

กรุณาเก็บรองเท้าเข้าห้องพักด้วยนะครับ

Please keep your shoes in your room.

It must be a popular one, because it is listed on Thai-language.com

It may be popular, but it's not right. ห้องพัก means recreation room/waiting room/lounge - not apartment.

And, generally speaking, people prefer to be ordered around by women, so ค่ะ rather than ครับ.

[Will2011]

To sum up, what's the best grammatical way to translate the sentence that everybody agrees upon?

[Murf]

กรุณาอย่าวางรองเท้าข้างนอกห้องค่ะ (as said most warning signs use ka rather that krap)

I've seen this one before, also added to that.

แม่บ้านจะเก็บในล็อบบี้

ค่าคืน 20 บาท

[rgs2001uk]

To sum up, what's the best grammatical way to translate the sentence that everybody agrees upon?

Well depends on whether its a request or an order, KrisW wrote a detailed translation, too be honest most Thais I know wouldnt have bothered to read it all.

If you want to get their attention, use, ระวังขโมย as your opener followed by Murfs suggestion.

ระวังขโมย

กรุณาอย่าวางรองเท้าข้างนอกห้องค่ะ

Murf, have you seen some of the shoes outside the rooms?

I doubt many would be giving the cleaner 20 baht to retrieve them.

[Songhua]

To sum up, what's the best grammatical way to translate the sentence that everybody agrees upon?

As posted by murf and rgs:

กรุณาอย่าวางรองเท้าข้างนอกห้องค่ะ

[Mole]

I would have simply written อย่าวางรองเท้าหน้าห้อง

There is really no need to write กรุณา...คะ/ครับ because it would probably be taken more lightly.

ว่างหน้าห้อง is the proper phrase to use and if you google "อย่าวางรองเท้าหน้าห้อง" (including " ") you'll find lots.

If you google "วางรองเท้าข้างนอกห้อง" you will find only this one thread in the entire internet....

You farangs has been using the wrong words...

Also, placing the shoes outside is usually the norm for Thais in lower end apartments.

I rarely see this in more upscale apartment complexes though.

Edited March 19, 2013 by Mole

[kriswillems]

Not really language related, but from experience I can tell you that not any message or rule will lead to any result or improvement, even if the message has a warning (fine, putting the shoes in the bin). It is 100% ignored. You really has to put the shoes in the bin, to start seeing some reaction.

[Mole]

If you started putting shoes in the bin, you'll surely get reaction. But I don't think it'll be a good one though.

Sometimes people just have a habit of putting shoes outside. It may also be that they got visitors who are just used to leaving their shoes outside before entering.

Putting up a sign will probably do the trick. Especially if you write without กรุณา...คะ/ครับ it'll be taken more seriously.

[kriswillems]

If you started putting shoes in the bin, you'll surely get reaction. But I don't think it'll be a good one though.

Sometimes people just have a habit of putting shoes outside. It may also be that they got visitors who are just used to leaving their shoes outside before entering.

Putting up a sign will probably do the trick. Especially if you write without กรุณา...คะ/ครับ it'll be taken more seriously.

We have 66 rooms here.

Simply putting a clearly visible message on the entrance door and the walls had no effect at all.

Putting the message on a paper and slide it under every door work for 50% of the rooms.

Calling the remaining rooms and warning them helped for another 40%.

Keeping the shoes in the lobby for a few days helps for another 9%.

And then there is one room that prefers to buy new shoes every two weeks

[Mole]

I this case, this tells me more about the type of occupants your building has.

As I said, I rarely see shoes outside upscale apartments. But lower ends and especially up-country, this is quite the norm.

[Will2011]

I would have simply written อย่าวางรองเท้าหน้าห้อง

There is really no need to write กรุณา...คะ/ครับ because it would probably be taken more lightly.

ว่างหน้าห้อง is the proper phrase to use and if you google "อย่าวางรองเท้าหน้าห้อง" (including " ") you'll find lots.

If you google "วางรองเท้าข้างนอกห้อง" you will find only this one thread in the entire internet....

You farangs has been using the wrong words...

Also, placing the shoes outside is usually the norm for Thais in lower end apartments.

I rarely see this in more upscale apartment complexes though.

Thank you. I'll be using that. Can you please explain the translation of the word "outside" in Thai? Is it the same as "in front"? I am unsure whether there is a discrepancy like in English.

On a side note, the condo is, i'd say, in a middle end segment. It's 20s from the bts and one bedroom is about THB3m. I guess it's more like some tenants and young students who don't have a clue about living in a western style complex.

[Mole]

Outside is ข้างนอก or just นอก
in front is ข้างหน้า or just หน้า

There are really no specific rules which to use when and technically they can be used interchangeably.
But generally if it can be considered in front of, then this term should be used than outside.

[kriswillems]

I this case, this tells me more about the type of occupants your building has.

As I said, I rarely see shoes outside upscale apartments. But lower ends and especially up-country, this is quite the norm.

yes, it's not an upscale place. We have mainly university students (they are the worst) and people that just started to work. It's in Chonburi province, the rent is 2500 (fan) or 3000 (air), not really high. I think the people that stay in our place are not exactly low class either, they talk politely and we seldom have problems. They are nice people and I enjoy talking with them.

I don't believe people have bad intentions, but they just copy each other. Before we allowed them to put the shoes outside their room but for hygienic reasons (terrible smell near some rooms) we started to enforce the rule. Another reason is that some women try to win from Emelda Marcos when it comes to buying shoes, so there was no space left.

What happens is that they wait and see what other people do, if other people are brave enough to ignore the rule, everyone will ignore it (more or less the same happens in the traffic). So, that's why the announcements didn't work.

Edited March 20, 2013 by kriswillems