AIFF 2013: The Words I Love Director On Anchorage And His Film

I still have film festival video and other posts to put up.  One film maker I almost didn't record was Thanachart 'Ben'* Siripatrachai. 


The irony is that Ben stayed with us for several days of the festival and so I guess I thought I could get him any time.  Finally, I decided as we were having lunch downtown between films, I better do it.

His film The Words I Love  won honorable mention in the short docs category.  It was a film that caught my attention when I first saw the description and turned out to be a very unique film, Ben just doing seemed right to him, not following any preset rules for how to tell his story.  The audiences responded well with frequent laughs and chuckles.

Here's video we did. 






*If anyone is interested:

His nick name is 'Benz' like the car.  But in Thai, there is no final 'nz' sound, so it just becomes Ben.  So I've decided to just write in 'Ben'.  On his website he writes it in Thai (see image on top) as a final 'n.'  There really is no letter for a 'z' in Thai, though in Thai 'Benz' would  have a final 's' [เบนซ์] that wouldn't be pronounced (the squiggly line above the 's' on the end [ซ์] makes the 's' sound silent.  But in English he writes Benz.  But when he pronounced it, he said Ben.  In the image the first letter [เ] is the vowel sound 'eh'.  Then comes [บ] the 'b' sound, and finally the [น] 'n' sound. The squiggly mark on top appears to be a high tone mark [ป็], though at first I thought it was a 'Mai Dtaikhu' which shortens the vowel sound and would be found in the Thai word เป็น which is the word for 'to be.'  

So we have - เบ๊น- the way Ben spells his name in Thai.
We have -เบนซ์ -  the way Mercedes-Benz is spelled in Thai.
And - เป็น  -  the common word for the verb 'to be.'

[Update Jan 5, 2013:  I don't write Thai very often these days and I forgot a small detail.  There are two different Thai letters that represent two slightly different sounds that English uses the letter B for.  I think it's pretty easy to see the difference between ป and  บ. The first one is unvoiced and the second one is voiced.  I won't even try to explain that but if you are interested here are two sites that explain it - one in writing and one with a video. ]

 

Translation Problems - Thailand's Flood "Holidays"

Translation from one language to another is complicated. Many words don't translate exactly.

• A word in one language may not exist in another language.  In German, for instance,  there is a formal and informal word for "you"  (Sie and Du.)  You address people close to you with Du, and use Sie for others.  If you use 'you' in a translation, English language readers won't immediately catch the nature of the relationship the way a German would.  (Germans today are more casual about using Du than they were in the past.)
• A word in one language may have a totally different implication because the cultural context is so different.  "Dan wei" is usually translated from Mandarin into English as "Work unit." When I spent some time in China in the early 90s a "dan wei" was not merely a place where you worked, but a place that pretty much defined your whole life - where you lived, where your kids went to school, how you got your food and other goods, and even whether you could get permission to get married.  Translating that as 'work unit' into English simply didn't carry all that meaning for readers unfamiliar with the cultural context.   
• And words often have overlapping meanings;  if you look up a foreign word in the dictionary and there are several choices in your language, you may pick the wrong word.  That seems to have happened in this headline below.

The headline at ThaiVisa was:

Thailand declares holidays to cope with flood crisis

BANGKOK, October 25, 2011 (AFP) - Thailand on Tuesday declared a three-day holiday in Bangkok and other flood-affected areas as high tides are forecast to flow up the city's main river and worsen floods creeping into the city.

ThaiVisa is a website for ex-pats living in Thailand.  Some of those commenting responded to the word 'holidays' by making snide comments about the Thai government:

"Only in thailand do they call disaster a holiday,,,land of smiles"

"a 5 day holiday is just what the people need
No food on the store shelves
No money in the bank machines" 

"Holidays?????
Companies and the economy is falling to pieces as we struggle to keep things going despite the chaos around us
Maybe Yingluck needs a holiday! The rest of us have to work to fix the mess they make... "

It's easy to be smug and put down others.  Often it reflects more on the speaker than on the object of derision. [So, one might ask, am I putting down those commenters?  Perhaps one could read it that way, though my intent is to give an example of translation problems and where they can lead. But perhaps I'm not completely innocent here myself.]
The word the Thai government probably used was วันหยุด (wan yut.) This means, literally, 'day' + 'stop'.   It's commonly used to mean a day off, a day when you don't work.  One might say, "Let's go out Tuesday because it is 'wan yut.'"   It could be a holiday, it could be a day after exams and there are no classes, or it could be an emergency.  A day off.


It's an appropriate word to use in Thai for this instance.  They were stopping business as usual. If they explicitly wanted to say holiday or festival day they could have used วันฉลอง (wan chalaawng) which means, literally, 'day' + 'festival'. (I double checked my Thai at ThaiLanguage.com)


Meanwhile, Friends of Thailand, a returned Peace Corps Volunteer group, is accepting donations that will go to the Thai Red Cross for flood victims.  If you'd like to help out, go to the Friends of Thailand website and in the lower left is a donate button.  Carolyn who runs the group asks that after you donate

". . . you send me an E-Mail message saying you have made a donation to Thai Flood Relief. The E-Mail address is: email carolynnickels[AT]earthlink.net" ;
3. As I receive notice of your donations from Google and your messages, I will send you a thank you letter you can use for your 2011 Federal, State and Local tax returns
4. At the end of two weeks, I will send the full amount the FoT Community has donated to the Thai Embassy with a list of donor names
5. The Embassy will immediately send the funds to Thailand via diplomatic pouch as they have been doing since the crisis began
6. Upon arrival in Bangkok, they will immediately transfer the money to the Thai Red Cross, which they have been doing with donations since the crisis began"

 Nothing is guaranteed perfect when you donate, but this is probably as reliable as you will find for this.

Meanwhile, here's a video (which I found at Bangkok Pundit) explaining the flood situation in Thailand.  It's in Thai, but it has English subtitles, though it's pretty fast.  But it's an interesting example of explaining a disaster to the public and what they should do.  There are more at Rusuflood's Youtube page. 

 

Translation is a Tricky and Sometimes Delightful Activity

I have a video tape of one of the farmers explaining in Thai what they were doing in Bangkok. I already put up one video tape of him speaking in Hmong. But for the Thai one I want to have a translation. I've got it pretty much translated, but I'm waiting on a few people to confirm parts I wasn't sure of.

I learned when doing research in China that translation is tricky.

• First, some words just don't have English equivalents. There are words that are similar, but don't convey the original meaning. The concept simply has not been captured by a single word in English. For instance, the formal and informal versions of 'You' in French and German, or the distinction between the word for "I" used by a woman and the one used by a man in Thai. These are still easy to understand, but the question for the translator is whether to just say "I" or "you" or to try to explain the subtlety. Other words, like
  
  
• Second, there are words that can be translated, but the cultural context is so different that the English reader would understand something very different from what the original speaker meant. For instance, 20 years ago in China, 'work unit' had connotations very different from what someone in the US might conceive. Just as we get health insurance through work, at that time in China, people got pretty much everything they needed - housing, use of vehicles, access to things like use of vehicles, and many commodities people in market economies would buy in the market place. Work units also needed to give permission for travel and even to get married. So, just translating 'work-unit' really didn't convey the significance of that word to people not familiar to China then. I would hasten to point out that things have changed a lot in China and work-units are no longer so significant in people's lives as they were before the market reforms. But while there is a lot of private housing available now in large cities, work unit housing still plays a big role.
  
  
• Third, translators might not translate your questions correctly if the translator thinks they are culturally inappropriate. In those cases you get answers that seem strange, because some variation of your question was asked.

In any case, there were a couple of terms that seemed like they needed more than a one word translation. A key one - โฉนดชุมชน (Chanot chumchon) - left me scratching my head and so today, Mi explained it to me and I'll do a post on that. But in the explanation, he used the word

ลง ขัน long khan which thai2english.com translates as

[ V ] contribute ; offer money ; take a share in the expenses

and I'm probably going to translate as 'member contribution' with a link to this post.

But when I looked at the meaning of the two words ลง and ขัน, I couldn't understand how that got to offer money or take a share in the expenses.

ลง translates as:

get down ; get off ; go down ; decrease ; drop ; fall ; reduce ; descend ; put down down ; downward write down ; note down ; register ; publish

ขัน translates as:

amusingly ; funnily ; ridiculously ; absurdly bowl ; water dipper crow ; coo laugh ; tighten ; screw tight ; wrench

So how does that get to contribute? This is where the 'delightful' part of translation comes in. The relevant term here for ขัน is 'water dipper'. As Mi explained it to me, you have your water dipper filled with water and you lower it into the communal water bowl. Or you take your money out of your pocket and put it into the communal pot.

And suddenly it makes a lot of sense.

[Update later that day - there was a water dipper at the gathering I went to tonight, so I was able to add in this picture.]

Chiang Mai 'Snow'

The other day there were little sprinklings of snow as I rode home on my bike as the Payom tree blossoms drifted down to the ground. This was a tree that I really hadn't paid any attention to, but with it snowing for a couple of days, they suddenly all called attention to themselves.
'We're here, even right in front of your building and you've never even looked at us. Well, we're going to get your attention now. You'll see us all over town and see how many of us there are. Now start paying attention." And the blossoms drifted down as I stood there.

In Alaska we have relatively few different types of native trees. A few more that have been introduced by gardeners. But here there are so many, many different kinds of plants and trees. As well as birds, butterflies, other insects, fish, and animals.

So, Alaskans, you should all be able to distinguish birch, spruce, poplar, aspen, willow, and cottonwood, wild mountain ash. At least. We can hold off on the varieties of these and other trees, but these are the basics around Anchorage, I think.

Anyway, my snow tree is called ต้นพยอม or Payom Tree. I wasn't completely sure if I had this right, so I googled it. Here's what google translation gave me:

[Note 2: I see on my screen, the translated table doesn't quite fit so a lot is cut off. If you have the same problem, that just means you have to go to the original link - the translated one or the original Thai links below]

Note: I've written it in English a little differently than they do. Payom vs. Paiam.
This picture is from the translated website.
You can also check the original Thai website.

Certainly not reach the exalted woman cherish. Most often sad hand chest fever. But certainly not difficult to watch นา Paiam guards. Wood is a high สอย be presumptuous to take. (Versify rule the world: Her Majesty's Department of Discovery Edcha prince bow).

ชื่อพฤกษาศาสตร์ Botanical names. ชื่อไทยพื้นเมือง Thai native title. วงศ์ Family. วรรณคดีที่กล่าวถึง Literature mentioned. ประโยชน์ ้ ้ benefits. ลักษณะ Characteristics. Shorea roxburghii G. Don. Shorea roxburghii G. Don. พยอมทองขะยอม ยอม เซียง I accept accept accept ขะ gold เซี fight. DIPTEROCAPACEAE. DIPTEROCAPACEAE. มหาเวสสันดรชาดกลิลิตพระลอ โคลงโลกนิติ อิเหนา Lilit Phra Maha Vessantara fable versify Allan Law Aiehna world. เป็นไม้เศรษฐกิจและเปลือกนำไปใส่ในเครื่องหมักดองเพื่อกันบูดใช้ฟอกหนังได้ Economy and a wooden shell to put in pickled กัน to use tanning has spoiled. เป็นไม้ต้นขนาดใหญ่ลำต้นตรง A large tree trunk straight. เปลือกเป็นสีน้ำตาล Shell is brown. ใบเป็นใบเลี้ยงเดี่ยวมนรีขอบขนาน ที่ปลายใบมน หรือแหลมเป็นติ่งเล็ก ๆ คล้ายใบรังดอกมีสีขาวนวล Form a single cotyledon and parallel to the edge of re-form the end of a promontory or projection small leafy nest flower color is ivory. ออกเป็นช่อตามปลายกิ่ง Panicle late into the limb. แตกช่อเป็นระย้ามีกลิ่น หอม ผลมีลักษณะเป็นรูปกระสวย Panicle is Raiga a different aroma characteristics of a spindle image.

This is one of the posts I've had sitting here for a couple of days and it is much easier to post than the second part of the Rural Issues post or others I'd like to post. So this is a little filler while I work on the others.

Thai Keyboard

Someone from Holland got here googling "thai keyboard shipping holland online." I doubt if he/she will be back here, but just in case, last week I bought stick on letters for my keyboard. I didn't put them on that straight, but it sure makes it easier to find the letters. 20 Baht (32 B/dollar). I don't think anyone needs to ship a whole keyboard, just the stick on letters.

To Thailand Soon ไป เมือง ไทย ใน ไม่ นาน

Working this out has taken a while. The American Jewish World Service (AJWS) had a spot for me at one NGO, but political issues ruled that out. So they worked out another one. I'm not sure how much I can blog about specifics, but I will keep blogging in general. If all works out I'll be in Chieng Mai for about 2 1/2 months. Will be helping with management activities. English level is low to non-existent I'm told, so I have to get my Thai back up to speed. Actually it was pretty serviceable last spring when we were there and I have been listening to the audio for "Thai for Advanced Readers." I need to start practicing writing again. My spelling's terrible.

Here's a page from the reader. This story is about Thais in the US.



Here's the title with a little help.



Two of the words in the title are in the title of this post. (The 'h' after the K and the T means you blow air out of your mouth when you say them. So Th is like a T sound, but T alone is the same sound but without the air coming out. A little like a D, but Thais have two different sounds. KH is like a K, K without the h is a K without the puff of air, or like the G in 'go'. So, that's why Thai, has an h, but isn't pronounced thigh.)

I was trying to find a website with the Thai alphabet. But then I found this one which looks like a great source for studying Thai.

As I keep looking for a simple Thai alphabet page with the English sounds I'm finding a lot of neat resources for learning Thai. Here's a page that shows how to write the first few consonants in the Thai alphabet.

OK, after much time exploring Thai sites, many with interesting stuff, I finally found a reasonably simple Thai alphabet with English phonetics. It has more than you need, but it's good.