Comments on: mai pen rai

By: gnarlykitty

gnarlykitty — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 07:07:33 +0000

that’s a really nice take on the phrase.

By: Sarah Mackenzie

Sarah Mackenzie — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 09:47:15 +0000

Yes. I wish we had a phrase like that. “No worries” is about the closest I can get but it doesn’t have that graceful acceptance of fate to it. Maybe we should all just take it up, say “Mai pen rai” and pass it on. It could become global

By: Elemmaciltur

Elemmaciltur — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 14:10:28 +0000

True…but only a healthy dosis of it. I find that a lot of Thai is overusing ‘mai pen rai’ eventhough you obviously CAN do something about it. Sometimes, they just become too laxed about things that it’s just not good anymore. Thais need to learn to moderate their use on ‘mai pen rai’. And this is coming from a Thai person….

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 19:55:15 +0000

I’m with Sarah on this … in fact I’m posting it in my notebook tonight … as a constant reminder.

By: Preya

Preya — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 01:54:29 +0000

There’s a beautiful (and really sad) Thai song by that name…wish I could remember who sings it…maybe Tata Young

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 05:43:20 +0000

nice entry! greetings from freeezing switzerland…

By: Haddock

Haddock — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 10:25:00 +0000

I agree with Sarah. ‘No Worries’ is the closest to it in English.

By: MC

MC — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 13:12:37 +0000

This sounds similar to the Japanese expression “sho ga nai”-which basically means it can’t be helped and is used in examples like you listed in your post -literally it means “I have no ginger.” It is one of my favoirte expressions in Japanese.

By: venitha

venitha — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 02:36:10 +0000

A very useful phrase, no doubt. It seems similar to the Malay “tida’ apa”, which also means “it doesn’t matter” - but also means so much more than just that.

By: saeng

saeng — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 10:13:27 +0000

i used to think that a farang could never grasp the real meaning of the statement..i was wrong of course