{"id":610,"date":"2011-06-16T14:37:53","date_gmt":"2011-06-16T14:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/?p=610"},"modified":"2011-06-11T16:40:47","modified_gmt":"2011-06-11T16:40:47","slug":"poo-yai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/poo-yai\/","title":{"rendered":"Poo yai"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I\u2019m going to talk about Poo3 Yai2 \u0e1c\u0e39\u0e49\u0e43\u0e2b\u0e0d\u0e48<\/strong>. Poo3 means \u2018person\u2019 and Yai2 means \u2018big\u2019. Generally, \u2018poo yai\u2019 means \u2018adult\u2019. You start off as a child (dek1 \u0e40\u0e14\u0e47\u0e01<\/strong>), work your way up to teenager (wai1 run3 \u0e27\u0e31\u0e22\u0e23\u0e38\u0e48\u0e19<\/strong>), and after a few more years you\u2019ve made it.<\/p>\n

That is of course if you survived all those times driving in Bangkok on a motorbike without a helmet while chatting on your cell phone . . .<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now, there is poo yai, and there is Poo Yai. Notice the capitalization. The difference is that sometimes Poo Yai can refer to the \u2018elders\u2019, like village chiefs (\u0e1c\u0e39\u0e49\u0e43\u0e2b\u0e0d\u0e48\u0e1a\u0e49\u0e32\u0e19<\/strong> poo3 yai2 baan3) or town mayors. It\u2019s meant as plural, such as \u2018let\u2019s go talk to the Poo Yai as they have seniority for this decision\u2019. It could also take on a sarcastic negative connotation to refer to those with power that treat everyone like pawns or children, as in \u2018the city is suffering from corruption, but as it benefits the Poo Yai nothing will be done\u2019. If you don\u2019t know already, \u2018seniority\u2019 or \u0e2d\u0e32\u0e27\u0e38\u0e42\u0e2a<\/strong> (ah1 wu4 soo5) in Thailand is determined mostly by age. That means you must listen to and obey those who are much older than you without question, as to do otherwise would be extremely disrespectful.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I once asked a Thai friend how she felt about the rule of seniority for elders. She said that \u2018it isn\u2019t fair\u2019 and \u2018it isn\u2019t right\u2019, that she didn\u2019t like the system of \u2018seniority\u2019 in Thailand. And then surprisingly she said, \u2018but when I\u2019m old I\u2019d like to be given this same respect, and treated as a superior\u2019. I guess she felt if she had to be an inferior her whole life, she would have earned her right to seniority. Sounds fair!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There are many ways to refer to really old people. There is the informal \u0e04\u0e19\u0e41\u0e01\u0e48 <\/strong>(kon1 gae2) which means \u2018old person\u2019. There is the more polite term \u0e1c\u0e39\u0e49\u0e2a\u0e39\u0e07\u0e2d\u0e32\u0e22\u0e38<\/strong> (poo3 suung 5 ah1yu4) which means \u2018person of high age\u2019. If the person is old and in a position of high respect, such as an old monk, you can refer to him as \u0e2b\u0e25\u0e27\u0e07 <\/strong>(luang5).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u0e1c\u0e39\u0e49\u0e43\u0e2b\u0e0d\u0e48 poo3 yai2 – adult<\/p>\n

\u0e40\u0e14\u0e47\u0e01 dek1 – child<\/p>\n

\u0e27\u0e31\u0e22\u0e23\u0e38\u0e48\u0e19 wai1 run3 – teenager<\/p>\n

\u0e1c\u0e39\u0e49\u0e43\u0e2b\u0e0d\u0e48\u0e1a\u0e49\u0e32\u0e19 poo3 yai2 baan3 \u2013 village chief<\/p>\n

\u0e2d\u0e32\u0e27\u0e38\u0e42\u0e2a ah1 wu4 soo5 – seniority<\/p>\n

\u0e04\u0e19\u0e41\u0e01\u0e48 kon1 gae2 \u2013 old person<\/p>\n

\u0e1c\u0e39\u0e49\u0e2a\u0e39\u0e07\u0e2d\u0e32\u0e22\u0e38 poo3 suung 5 ah1yu4 \u2013 person of high age (polite for \u2018old person\u2019)<\/p>\n

\u0e2b\u0e25\u0e27\u0e07 luang5 \u2013 [use to refer to old monks] Top Thai Movies for Farang<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I\u2019m going to talk about Poo3 Yai2 \u0e1c\u0e39\u0e49\u0e43\u0e2b\u0e0d\u0e48. Poo3 means \u2018person\u2019 and Yai2 means \u2018big\u2019. Generally, \u2018poo yai\u2019 means \u2018adult\u2019. You start off as a child (dek1 \u0e40\u0e14\u0e47\u0e01), work your way up to teenager (wai1 run3 \u0e27\u0e31\u0e22\u0e23\u0e38\u0e48\u0e19), and after a few more years you\u2019ve made it.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[10208,3,10341],"tags":[49717,49718,49720,49719],"class_list":["post-610","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-beginner","category-culture","category-intermediate","tag-adult","tag-child","tag-poo-yai","tag-teenager"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":612,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions\/612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}