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When
you make an effort to remember someone,
or take into account his or her feelings,
for example, by bestowing a small gift
or after returning from a trip abroad
or when invited to dinner. Traditional
recipients of such gifts are friends,
family, an employee, staff, or servant.
If you make this gesture you are said
to possess náam
jai. The phrase translates literally
as water of the heart.
Everyone
likes to feel they are important, that
they matter, and that others take them
into consideration. In Thailand, one
way of expressing your náam
jai is through a simple gesture
of appreciation. Often náam
jai translates as acts of common
courtesy. Giving up your seat on the
bus for an elderly person or a pregnant
woman, allowing the person with one
or two items to go ahead of you at the
check-out in the supermarket, or permitting
another car to enter the traffic in
front of you. Náam
jai doesn’t take much
effort. Inside such a heart is the understanding
that these small gestures are part of
the glue that holds society together,
and make us all a little more human
and decent. It reminds us that there
is something to admire in people who
take into account the fact that other
people have feelings. The way a person
with a náam
jai treats another touches
all of us. If you demonstrate náam
jai through your actions, Thais
will describe you as mii
náam jai.
Empathetic
Heart
aw
jai khaw maa sài jai raw
เอาใจเขามาใส่ใจเรา
This
Thai idiom translates literally as taking
another person’s heart into your
heart. The English equivalent is to ask
someone to put themselves in the other
person’s shoes. The message is to
be considerate and thoughtful to others.
It is a common expression that every Thai
knows.
This
expression is taught to children at an
early age, in school and Thai households,
in an attempt to instill the importance
of showing compassion and sympathy to
others. There is a project to promote
good habits in a primary school, and the
teacher uses this proverb as a lesson
about working together on assignments.
The students must take into account the
feelings of other students when allocating
the work among the group. And they must
share the burden of the work and help
each other. It teaches a collective attitude
toward a common project.
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Sample jai
phrases from hearttalk
Learn more