Vincent: Yeah, baby, you’d dig it the most. But you know what the funniest thing about Europe is?
Jules: What?
Vincent: It’s the little differences. I mean, they got the same s*** over there that we got here, but it’s just…it’s just, there it’s a little different.
Like Vincent Vega rhapsodized about in the Quentin Tarantino film “Pulp Fiction,” here too, in Thailand it’s the little differences. And I know you are sitting there, like Jules, asking for an example, so here are five examples of the little differences of Thailand that I now find jarring when I see them in the American shows that I watch.
The noise made when you want someone to be quiet.
In the States, the understood sign and sound to indicate to someone to be quieter is a finger to your pursed lips and a sigh of “shhhh!”
Here in Thailand, it’s a sound almost as if you were “tsk tsk”ing someone or clucking your tongue at someone as if you were ashamed or disappointed or judging them.
In a classroom with young students, the teacher makes this sound a lot. You’ll also hear it on the bus, with a mother and young baby. You can also make this sound at dogs when they are barking.
I’ve definitely picked it up when strange dogs start to approach me, because it’s a sound they associate with dominance, but it still makes me feel weird to do it towards people.
Beckoning people over to where you are.
With your palm up and a waggle of either all your fingers or just one, someone in the States knows that you want them to approach them.
But in Thailand, that is a very aggressive way to call someone over and insinuates that you want to fight them if you use all your fingers, or you are propositioning them if you use just one. The proper way to motion for someone to come over is with your palm down and flap your hand towards the ground, which is what the nang kwak is doing to customers. This is also how you can hail a cab in Bangkok.
A fun story about this difference is that when we first got here, my friend Carly‘s host mom did this to her, and the first time you see it, your Western brain can interpret it as the “go away” motion. So she kept stopping and backing up each time her host mom did it, until she went and got her and laughs were had by all.
Typing out laughter online.
LOL. LMAO. LMBO. lolololol. ROFL. ROFLMAO. LMFAO. Ha. Haha. Hahahahahahahahaha. Hehe. Bwahahahah!
We have a lot of different ways to type out laughing in English online. But the Thai will type 555. Maybe 555+.
Why do Thais type 555? Well, this is a fun one. The word for five in Thai is haa and the tone is a falling tone, so your voice goes up and then down. Now that you know that, read 555 aloud. Pretty neat, huh? I love this one and definitely use it with my other Thai speaking friends and wish I could use it with everyone I chat with.
Verbal cues of listening or agreement.
When you are having a conversation with someone, often one person will tell a story or talk for a while. You want to make sure they know that you are listening, so you maintain eye contact, nod your head and say, “Uh huh,” “Yeah,” “Huh,” “Mmm” and other guttural noises.
In Thai, the sound to make is “uuhhln.” To a Western ear, I’ll admit, it sounds pretty rude and super lazy. But this is probably the one that I have picked up the most.
I do this all the time in nearly every conversation that I have with people. I do this whether I understand the person or not. It’s become my smile and nod. I just “uuhhln” my way through interactions and Thai people love it and tell me how well I speak Thai, when all I said the whole time was a kind of grunt moan and “ka.” I’ll take the compliment though.
What to do when someone doesn’t answer the phone.
My friend recent posted on Facebook about her anxiety about recording an outgoing voicemail greeting since she’ll be out of the office on vacation. That familiar, “Hello you have reached _____, I can’t take your call right now, but if you leave your name, number and a brief message I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.” Or even the electronic prerecording that comes with some cell services. All of that rarely exists in Thailand.
Most cell phones do not have voicemail and I don’t know anyone that has an answering machine. So what do you do if you call someone and they don’t answer? Well, the phone will ring and ring and ring. Eventually, your call will be disconnected. But what do you do then? Well, immediately call them back, of course.
It is not unusual to come back to a phone with 17 missed calls, all from the same person, all around the same time. Thai people will answer their phone anywhere – in a meeting, in the bathroom, in a training, in the middle of a conversation with someone else – so of course anyone who is calling would expect for the person to pick up, even if they didn’t right away. They just didn’t make it to the phone on time. This is one that I have not gotten used to and still drives me nuts.
*BONUS* Transliterating English Words into Thai
I’ll give you one more, because this one is another one of my favorites, and relates to my last post a little bit about the Thai alphabet. There is a /l/ sound in Thai, the letter is known as law ling. But when this letter comes at the end of a word, it makes the /n/ sound.
So when you transliterate words like “little,” “example,” or “cancel” using Thai script (and these are words that many Thai people know), they become “littln,” “exampln” and “canceln.” You can also Googln some more words with the /l/ sound at the end to get an idea of all the words that I get to hear changed and puts a smile on my face. Or you can just canceln that.