Translation request

[OleKingCole]

Text from a friend (yes friend, non p4p no relationships etc) ended:

 

ดูแลสุภาพมาก

 

With my limited Thai I translated that as Look after very courteous.

 

That don't make a lot of sense! To give a bit of context, I have been messaging her a bit recently as she has just broken up with a long term boyfriend and was very cut up about it. She also seems to imagine that I am incapable of looking after myself unless she and my LLT term lady are there to feed me etc.

 

What have I missed in the translation please?

[Dr.Winston]

It means 'take care' is very polite.

[Dr.Winston]

As in polite Thai

[Dr.Winston]

It's pretty atypical Thai to be honest. My first translation seems the most obvious to me just based upon just the words but there could be other possibilities. She could be saying 'take care' and then making a statement that you are very polite/very courteous in which case it would actually represent two English sentences.

[OleKingCole]

It's pretty atypical Thai to be honest. My first translation seems the most obvious to me just based upon just the words but there could be other possibilities. She could be saying 'take care' and then making a statement that you are very polite/very courteous in which case it would actually represent two English sentences.

 

Thanks. That's sort of how I read it. Almost, it's kind of you to care. Maybe that's stretching it though. She assumes that as I have been learning for a couple of months I must be fluent

 

[Dr.Winston]

Thanks. That's sort of how I read it. Almost, it's kind of you to care. Maybe that's stretching it though. She assumes that as I have been learning for a couple of months I must be fluent

To be honest I think that she's cutting corners with her Thai when perhaps you would learn and understand more if she used fuller, non-abbreviated Thai.

[OleKingCole]

To be honest I think that she's cutting corners with her Thai when perhaps you would learn and understand more if she used fuller, non-abbreviated Thai.

 

Absolutely. But it's not really too much of a problem as when we do communicate by text it is mostly in Tinglish and I throw in a bit of Thai and she does also. I tend to use it when I have to use a possibly difficult English word so I dig out the dictionary and she will tend to use it for friends' names or in greetings or occasionally where her Tinglish lets her down. Not more than a word or two. Not many texts either. There have been quite a few recently as she has just been given the elbow by her gentleman friend and was very very down, my lady mentioned it to me so I have been just checking on her make sure she's OK. Being a friend from afar, as it were, she can perhaps pour out a bit more. At least up to the linguistic barriers.

 

Perhaps if a Thai person with reasonable English received a text using txt language, they'd find it quite confusing...

[Dr.Winston]

Absolutely. But it's not really too much of a problem as when we do communicate by text it is mostly in Tinglish and I throw in a bit of Thai and she does also. I tend to use it when I have to use a possibly difficult English word so I dig out the dictionary and she will tend to use it for friends' names or in greetings or occasionally where her Tinglish lets her down. Not more than a word or two. Not many texts either. There have been quite a few recently as she has just been given the elbow by her gentleman friend and was very very down, my lady mentioned it to me so I have been just checking on her make sure she's OK. Being a friend from afar, as it were, she can perhaps pour out a bit more. At least up to the linguistic barriers.

 

Perhaps if a Thai person with reasonable English received a text using txt language, they'd find it quite confusing...

It's funny but just today I was talking to some Thai girls over here that I know. They told me that my Thai was better than most Thai peoples these days. They didn't mean more fluent of course or even clearer, just that I use full grammar whereas the trend in Thailand these days is to abbreviate everything "watdee" instead of "Sawatdee" etc.

 

When it comes to learning, my belief is that you should learn correctly and then it's ok to abbreviate later, depending on the situation because you understand what it is an abbreviation of. IMO typical text messages tend to butcher any language.

[OleKingCole]

It's funny but just today I was talking to some Thai girls over here that I know. They told me that my Thai was better than most Thai peoples these days. They didn't mean more fluent of course or even clearer, just that I use full grammar whereas the trend in Thailand these days is to abbreviate everything "watdee" instead of "Sawatdee" etc.

 

When it comes to learning, my belief is that you should learn correctly and then it's ok to abbreviate later, depending on the situation because you understand what it is an abbreviation of. IMO typical text messages tend to butcher any language.

 

You've been speaking to my teacher!

 

Last weekend's homework, she pointed out, quite politely, that in my written work for her i should write everything fully and correctly, regardles of what I might hear spoken when there, pronouns and non abbreviated words. There is plenty of time to learn the abbreviated more colloquial speech later on. It does no harm to speak "correctly" to a friend, but it does a lot of harm to speak over colloquially in a formal situation.

 

I remember saying similar to kids I taught, one of the skills of language is to judge the correct register for each situation. In a way I suppose it's similar to the use of ครับ (krap) How frequently do you use it? It is a cultural/linguistic thing which we as outsiders don't get right, not until after a lot of conversations in a wide variety of contexts. My girl told me I overuse the word when talking amongst a group of friends, my teacher is always prompting me to use it more. One of the joys of learning language. Honestly, I am thoroughly enjoying the learning and puzzling over translations and the subtleties of tone rules etc.

 

Oh well time to get back to my daily episode of Maanii

[slick67]

Maybe she forgot to type a ข and meant to write ดูแลสุขภาพมาก instead.

 

That would make more sense, because it's a standard Thai wishing well saying: Look after your health

It would also fit in with what you wrote above.

[Dr.Winston]

Maybe she forgot to type a ข and meant to write ดูแลสุขภาพมาก instead.

 

That would make more sense, because it's a standard Thai wishing well saying: Look after your health

It would also fit in with what you wrote above.

I think that you've solved it.Just a spelling mistake.

[OleKingCole]

Maybe she forgot to type a ข and meant to write ดูแลสุขภาพมาก instead.

 

That would make more sense, because it's a standard Thai wishing well saying: Look after your health

It would also fit in with what you wrote above.

 

When typed on a tiny mobile phone typos and omissions are so easy. Seems you've cracked it. Thanks

[herds]

Maybe she forgot to type a ข and meant to write ดูแลสุขภาพมาก instead.

 

That would make more sense, because it's a standard Thai wishing well saying: Look after your health

It would also fit in with what you wrote above.

 

phew, i was thinking "what the hell is สุภาพ" doing in there