Heart Talk companion Deck

Thai has a word for the feeling when you do not want to bother someone above you. It is not respect. It is not politeness. It is not deference. It is all three, plus the fear that asking will cost you face. English has no equivalent. Your Thai partner uses it every day.

In Thai, a kind person has a good heart. An impatient person has a hot heart. A coward has a silver fish heart. 743 phrases, one word: jai. Your partner knows them all. You know none.

She says jai dee when she means you are kind. She says jai ron when she means you are losing your temper. She says kreeng jai when she cannot tell you what she needs. Every fight you did not understand started here. 

52 cards. 156 Thai heart phrases. One a week for a year. The first time you say kreeng jai correctly, she will know you have been paying attention.

After 37 years in Bangkok, I can tell you that the single most useful thing a foreigner can learn is not sawadee krap. It is kreeng jai. One phrase. Once you understand it, every smile in every meeting makes sense.