Thai Smiles

It's either just me or some collective observation among long-staying foreigners that there really aren't enough noticeable smiles in both rural or urban areas for Thailand to be advertised as the Land of Smiles. A few reads here and there and I discovered that Thais regard smile as an appropriate reaction to almost any situation.

A PhD student at Bangkok University wrote an entire dissertation on Thai smiles. Interested observers were welcome during the defense. I kinda regretted being unable to find out how the exploration went. At my own thesis defense (not about smiles though), a Thai government representative smiled a certain smile over a brief conference with my advisors about addressing RQs and hypotheses on chapter 1. I knew it to be "don't-insist-or-your-advisee-is-in-trouble" smile. That smile is just one among several kinds of smiles that Thais use. Here are 13 others:

(yim - thai word for smile)

1. Yim tang namtah - used when very happy; eg. I've-won-the-jackpot smile

2. Yim cheun chom - the smile used when impressed with or when one admires someone

3. Yim sao - the smile used when one is sad (this is probably what the song meant - smile though your heart is aching)

4. Yim cheut cheuan - the smile a winner gives to a losing opponent or rival

5. Yim tak tan - the I'm right-and-you're-wrong smile

6. Yim mee lai nai - the smile the blankets bad intentions

7. Feun yim - the forced smile

8. Yim tak tai- the polite smile used for strangers or acquaintances

9. Yim yor - the mocking smile; used to taunt or laugh at someone

10. Yim soo - things-are-so-bad-I-better-smile smile

11. Yim mai ohk - when you want to smile but can't, or the smile won't come out

12. Yim haeng - the dry smile for situations like "is it today? sorry, I forgot please don't be mad at me"

13. Yim ya-ya - the smile used to apologize or to diffuse an embarrassing, tense moment

~ header from Samulli / click here for more T13 ~