Greng Jai

After staying in Bangkok, off and on, for three years, I have finally found the word that describes all the weird and incomprehensible situations that happened here.

The locals call it 'greng jai', but their definition doesn't include weird or incomprehensible. This 'greng jai' is ingrained in them, so to them, it's nothing weird and they fully understand the importance of it.

But not for non-locals. It's frustratingly w-e-i-r-d.

Erm.. I think the characteristics of 'greng jai' is something like our version of 'paiseh' (but far more 'dahsyat', I must warn you!)

"Come, I give you a lift!"

"No need laa.. Paiseh.."

You know? You don't want to cause inconvenience to the person offering you the kindness.

At my other defunct blog, I related an incident where a local took a long way, which requires me to walk across an overhead bridge, instead of using a short cut because.."greng jai". She deemed it's 'greng jai' for me to spend 2 minutes of my lifetime to cross the bridge. Very inconvenient for me, you see? So we ended up paying an extra 40 bahts and another 5 minutes of my lifetime in a taxi, all because of their 'greng jai" culture.

Doesn't make sense to me.

The other day, at the bowling alley, we ordered a cup of latte at the cafe which took a million years to come. When the waitress put the cup on the table, she apologized because they ran out of coffee, and thus she had to go to another stall to purchase the latte. Why didn't just tell us, "NO HAVE? Because.."Greng jai.."

But..but..but.. at the cafe, they charged 70 Baht, and at the stall, it was only 30 Baht...Again, because of 'greng jai', we became suckerrrrs again.

I heard another real story about a farang, who fell in love with a local chick. He thought this time, it's for real. He was prepared to 'dumdumdumdum', jump off the cliff with her. One day, while having dinner, his gf (so he thought) nonchalantly announced that she was leaving for Australia for good the next day to be with her other boypren. It was obvious she was having a blase attitude toward relationship, but the farang, still had to query, "Why didn't you tell me? I thought this means something to you too!"

Yes, yes..she loved him too but 'greng jai' forbids her to spill about the other boypren, you see? It will cause too much inconvenience.

Hence, every time I cannot understand a situation, I would now apply 'greng jai-ism', and I will understand, though not completely.

You can't really blame Papah when he philosophized, "Greng jai, my S!" Having to work with locals, he has experienced far more 'greng jai' moments than yours truly.

Imagine this scenario-

'A' has done some mistakes. Papah said to correct them. 'A' said OK.

The dateline is tomorrow. 'A' said no problem. She started to work, and even burnt the midnight oil.

The next morning, deng deng deng....

The report contained the same mistakes, if not more.

So what did she work on? Donchno.

What did she stay up late for? Donchno.

Did she know what she was supposed to correct? Donchno.

Then why didn't she ask? Donchno..eh..wait.. That we know...it's 'greng jai!!!

So, isn't it apt to say 'greng jai, my ASS' at situation as such? You tell me...