![]() Imagine if you asked someone “How are you doing?” and they went into a long tirade about how their health is failing, their girlfriend left them and they lost their job when all you wanted to hear was “I’m well, what’s new with you?” Nobody really cares that much whether you ate noodles or rice today, but they sure will pretend to if you go into it.įor example, if you run into someone at the mall, they might ask some variation of “What are you doing here?” They may ask this, even if the answer is obvious. In any case, there isn’t much importance placed on the answers to these questions when they are used as a greeting. While I would recommend using one of the set responses above, you could also just ignore the question and move onto something else. These phrases are more for showing warmth and concern for you (and concern over whether you’ve eaten because food is so important in Thai culture) and not an interrogation about where you’ve been and what you’ve eaten. You don’t have to tell them if you’ve eaten or what you’ve eaten or what you’ve been doing all day. * When people are asking you these questions, the answer usually doesn’t matter. ยังไม่ได้กิน – (yang mai dai kin) I haven’t eaten yet.กินแล้ว – (kin laew) I’ve eaten already.กินข้าวรึยัง (kin khaao rue yang) – Did you eat yet?.Yes -> Past or away from you? - > ไปไหน (ppai nai)Īre they stationary? Ask them if they’ve eaten yet. Is target person moving? Ask them where they are going or coming from. They are usually going to follow this very basic formula: Flow Chart for How to Say Hi in Thai The security guard at your building and the lady who cuts your hair are probably not going to say swasdee to you. While those are the standard greetings, what you’ll quickly find is that in daily life, most exchanges that you are likely to encounter are going to be fairly informal. ![]() มาไงเนี่ย / มายังไงเนี่ย (maa ngai nia / maa yang-ngai nia) – What are you doing here? *This one can be used if you are a little surprised to see someone somewhere and/or meet them unexpectedly.เป็นยังไงบ้าง (ppen yang-ngai baang) – What’s up ? / How’s it going? / How are you?.It’s more natural to just ask them one of the following: : You don’t need to use สวัสดี / หวัดดี at all with close friends. Your relationship with (or relative to) the person is an important factor in deciding the best greeting. Rather than saying hi or hello, Thai people generally greet each other by saying “Where are you going?”, “Where are you coming from?” or “Did you eat yet?” If they haven’t met in quite a while, they may also ask สบายดีมั้ย (sabai dee mai?) “How are you?” “Sawasdee” is not a naturally occurring phrase. Sawasdee comes from the Sanskrit word “svasti” which means something like “well, happy, successful, etc” This word is also the root for swastika which is usually used to refer to a lucky or auspicious object or symbol. ![]() And it’s almost never used in intimate situations. ![]() It is fairly polite so people will often use it upon first meeting or in cases of workers speaking to customers, however it’s used much less often in informal situations. Sawasdee is a greeting that was put together by humans during the 1930s. So a male would add a “khrap” at the end and a female would ad “kha.” The standard way to say “hello” or “hi” in Thai is สวัสดี (Sa-Wat-Dee). ![]()
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