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Is 'No Have! the most common phrase on LOS

Pilotman

By Pilotman
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Pilotman Ruby Member

Pilotman

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For those of you who may have seen some of my recent posts, I moved here from UK  3 months ago and I'm just trying to get my new house sorted, so lots of dealing with suppliers and various companies.  Is the most over used phrase in Thailand  'no have', even when its as plain as day that they 'do have.'?. My wife and I set off each morning with 3 to 4 jobs to do and we end up hearing 'no have' at least 3 times in the day and end the day having achieved maybe one job. The best one yesterday was trying to order onion rings from Burger King.  'No have' said the girl, despite the board saying that they did.  When this was pointed out to her,  she agreed, 'have now' . We had to laugh.  Its fast becoming a family joke to say 'no have' to everything!

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carlyai Platinum Member

carlyai

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The more you shop, the more you'll find shop people who do know what they're talking about.
Sometimes their English language listening skills cause a problem.
Try to take a pic on your smart phone with you.

Sent from my SM-J700F using Tapatalk

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Kinnock Gold Member

Kinnock

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Ah yes, the knee-jerk "mai mee" response.

 

It can be roughly translated as "I don't know what you are talking about, but just go away and leave me alone to play with my phone".

 

I've had the customary "mai mee" before I've even finished asking for what I want.

 

Spoken in reasonable but imperfect Thai: "

 

Me: "Do you ha .... "

Smiling Assistant: "Mai mee Kaa"

Me: "but I've not said what I want yet?"

Less smiling assistant: "mai mee"

Me: "but it's over there .... "

Frowning assistant: "Mee kaa"

 

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impulse Star Member

impulse

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Not in Thailand, but in China one of the first lessons I learned is to never ask a store clerk for anything until I had given up searching for it myself.

 

It was the combination of them not wanting to say "I don't know", then the loss of face that came from me finding it after they said "no have".  And the Chinese can really hold a grudge on petty slights- for years.

 

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jeab1980 Gold Member

jeab1980

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2 minutes ago, pgrahmm said:

I screen shoot/shot a picture of what I want before I go & show the person while asking....

 

It's kept the "no haves" to almost zero....

 

Also saves a lot of trudging around.....

Yep me to

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ChiangMaiLightning2143 Explorer Member

ChiangMaiLightning2143

Posted
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For those of you who may have seen some of my recent posts, I moved here from UK  3 months ago and I'm just trying to get my new house sorted, so lots of dealing with suppliers and various companies.  Is the most over used phrase in Thailand  'no have', even when its as plain as day that they 'do have.'?. My wife and I set off each morning with 3 to 4 jobs to do and we end up hearing 'no have' at least 3 times in the day and end the day having achieved maybe one job. The best one yesterday was trying to order onion rings from Burger King.  'No have' said the girl, despite the board saying that they did.  When this was pointed out to her,  she agreed, 'have now' . We had to laugh.  Its fast becoming a family joke to say 'no have' to everything!

Never ask. The only answer is no hab or I don't know. When are you going to get it? Every time they say "two weeks". Come back to Home Pro next day in stock. Part of Thai culture is polite people can't say no, loss of face.
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Pilotman Ruby Member

Pilotman

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11 hours ago, Bangkokhatter said:

Wait until you have any building work done, you will soon become accustomed to Mai Mee's twin sister, Mai Dai!

We have found a small labour and contract outfit, with a good track record of building stuff that stays up,  who seem to be doing what we want. when we want it at a good price. It remains to be seen what the end result will be, but so far its been a much more positive,  productive and more predicable relationship than any work we  had done by the untrustworthy, incompetent morons we  generally had to deal with in the UK. .  

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ben2talk Advanced Member

ben2talk

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It's annoying.

Yesterday in IKEA there was a guy trying to ask the cashier something - I couldn't understand him any better than she could. Finally giving up, she had to come up with something in 'foreign' (he wasn't English) and simply said 'No Hab'.

 

I got the same reply asking about egg-cups in Robinsons.

 

Often it can be simply translated to mean 'bugger off and stop bothering me'.

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  • 2 weeks later...
bamukloy Senior Member

bamukloy

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I would think a lot of this the "no hab" mean they have no clue what you are on about.

 

Most farang accent are hard enough for even another farang to pick up

 

But then also, mumbling under your beard even back home most folk probably cant understand pasa neanderthol

Lol

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Thian Gold Member

Thian

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On 3-8-2017 at 4:04 PM, Bangkokhatter said:

Wait until you have any building work done, you will soon become accustomed to Mai Mee's twin sister, Mai Dai!

Or shops who want to save face and say: Mai mee, mod leow....

 

I never ask anything in shops, 75% of the time when they said mai mee i do find it myself in their shop.

 

 

 

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BEVUP Silver Member

BEVUP

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1 hour ago, Thian said:

Or shops who want to save face and say: Mai mee, mod leow....

 

I never ask anything in shops, 75% of the time when they said mai mee i do find it myself in their shop.

 

 

 

Most of them just don't have a clue, & most probably an overflow of personel with Uni Degrees 

I asked for a deep fryer one day & was shown 2 (not very good ones ) Have better brand ? Mai Mee so on my way out asked again & led all the way back to the same ones, so out I go again & asked another person, Low & behold there it was an excellent brand & good product that was their SPECIAL OF THE WEEK 

So the jist is they need 100 staff (literaly ) for the IQ of 10

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