Thursday, October 17, 2024

English translation of a conversational Thai phrase?

Twice now when I've been discussing mild interpersonal drama stuff -- once with my (chubby) (Thai) coworker and once with my (taller) (new) (Thai) coworker -- each have at some point said to me (in English) some variant of "it's going to be okay."

My hunch is that this is a translation of a common (Thai) conversational response.

Like, the first time was when I got back from my conference/vacation, and I didn't have a very good present for my one (older) (Thai) coworker who's a whiz at the phones -- she's so hard to shop for! -- and she was a little mad at her (small) gift, in comparison to the coffee beans and bottle of sweet white wine I'd gotten my other coworkers.

So, when we were texting about that situation, my one (chubby) (Thai) coworker at one point said to me not to worry, and she said that line about how everything was going to be okay.

More recently, too, my one (tall) (young) (Latino-American) coworker had brought in his laptop to work for some reason, and he was using it at the back counter when it was slow (community college homework?).

And, when he had it closed, I noticed that the back of it was covered with all of these rockband stickers, and also this one sticker that said --

FUCKING AWESOME 

-- which made me take out some masking tape and write on it --

PLEASE, NO PROFANITY AT [name of the Thai restaurant where we work]!

-- and, I put that piece of masking tape over the offensive sticker on the back of his laptop, pointed it out to my one (taller) (new) (Thai) coworker, and we waited for him to discover it.

When he found it, she was already gone for the night and I was at the front of the restaurant doing my closing duty of sweeping the floor, and I heard him read it out loud to the (white) (female) (townie) (liar) delivery driver, and he wasn't sure if it was funny, and he almost seemed confused, like maybe the owners or someone had seen that sticker and put that masking tape over the profanity on his laptop.

So, I was texting my one (taller) (new) (Thai) coworker about this entire situation, and when I mentioned that he seemed confused and maybe thought that it was the owners who had done that, that was when she texted me the variant of how everything will be okay.

I can't remember ever hearing something like that from a native (English) speaker in a equivalent low-stakes conversation, so it almost certainly must be them translating something from (Thai).

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