ศาลาชุมนุม

[jaymic]

wow has anyone used the bing translator ,try to translate from thai to english ,never seen so much gobbledee gook ,so many strange things come up its difficult to know what it really means ,anyn=one else had the same results John

[jaymic]

I just copied this ทะเลเรียกพี่ เค็่ม from post on here I belive its supposed to mean stingy it translate as sea salt is called sister ,,,,, so whats that all about ,

[pensive]

ทะเลเรียกพี่ เค็่ม - sea-called-older sibling-salty. I would say, sea is salty sister, but that's just me.

[tod-daniels]

Well, online translators aren't anything to write home about goin' from Thai to English or vice versa. I rate Bing higher up than Google, but only just by a little ..

Every online translator I've used is notorious for NOT looking at word meanings in context, and instead provide word for word translations . They don't even have the most common Thai idiomatic expressions programmed in as phrases . They're also horrific for Thai that is purposely misspelled; as in almost anything written in "chat-sa-peak-thai". That's when you really get gibberish .

As far as the phrase ทะเลเรียกพี่ เค็่ม I couldn't weigh in other than the word เค็่ม is definitely used to refer to someone who is "stingy" in spoken Thai .

Now lookin' at the complete sentence (and seeing as I've never run across a Thai named ทะเล; sea), this could be "the sea calling their sibling salty" and might carry the meaning of along the lines of the English idiom "the pot calling the kettle black". That one dates back from when things used to be cooked over wood flames and every cooking utensil got burned black bottoms. Again, it could be comparative as in someone saying something negative about someone while doing the same thing.

As I said, I dunno but it is plausible. .. Good Luck. ..

[Tgeezer]

Well, online translators aren't anything to write home about goin' from Thai to English or vice versa. I rate Bing higher up than Google, but only just by a little ..

Every online translator I've used is notorious for NOT looking at word meanings in context, and instead provide word for word translations . They don't even have the most common Thai idiomatic expressions programmed in as phrases . They're also horrific for Thai that is purposely misspelled; as in almost anything written in "chat-sa-peak-thai". That's when you really get gibberish .

As far as the phrase ทะเลเรียกพี่ เค็่ม I couldn't weigh in other than the word เค็่ม is definitely used to refer to someone who is "stingy" in spoken Thai .

Now lookin' at the complete sentence (and seeing as I've never run across a Thai named ทะเล; sea), this could be "the sea calling their sibling salty" and might carry the meaning of along the lines of the English idiom "the pot calling the kettle black". That one dates back from when things used to be cooked over wood flames and every cooking utensil got burned black bottoms. Again, it could be comparative as in someone saying something negative about someone while doing the same thing.

As I said, I dunno but it is plausible. .. Good Luck. ..

That is a very good guess Tod, it does depend on the sea having siblings, oceans perhaps, I doubt this but it is non the less a pearl of wisdom.
เค้ม indirectly means to try to gain advantage for yourself over others -selfish perhaps. I agree ทะเล is a weird proper name.

[tod-daniels]

OFF TOPIC :
The only reason I offered that out was I've been really concentrating on Thai idiomatic expressions and sayings recently. Mostly because every Thai knows or has heard almost every idiom and if you work them into conversations it can lighten the mood.

Once you factor in geographical, religious & socio-economic stuff; by that I mean takin' into account that just two generations ago this was nearly an entirely agrarian society, so most of their idioms have those roots, I've found that most Thai idioms have their English language equivalents.

I am lead to believe that idiomatic expressions like this are much more "humanity idioms" and possibly are found in every language in the world. They are just "warped" to fit into what's relevant in context to the people who make 'em up and use 'em.

Just as an example I'll offer out; "doing good is its own reward", and the Thai one ปิดทองหลังพระ (putting gold leaf on the back of a buddha image). Both are very close in the implied meaning.

Anyway, sorry for the off topic post . . .

[David and Bui]

For more of the type of proverbs that Tod mentions, see http://www.thai-language.com/id/589868 .

[starscream]

ทะเลเรียกพี่ yes my friend said it means stingy because they normally call people that are stingy เค็ม meaning salty so its a funny way to call someone stingy. Every thai person i have said it to understand and normally laugh

[Pirin]

When “เค็ม” metaphorically implies that somebody is stingy,
“ทะเลเรียกพี่” implies that the comparative form of “เค็ม” is used.
positive --> (ทะเล) = เค็ม (as well as เค็มเล็กน้อย)
comparative --> ทะเลเรียกพี่ = (เค็มกว่าทะเล) = เค็มกว่าเกลือ = เค็มมาก
superlative --> เค็มจัด = เค็มที่สุด

It might be interesting to find that an online dictionary translates, “ทะเลเรียกพี่” as:
somebody who is as tight as a drum
or
somebody who is tight as Midas’s fist.



Examples of “เค็ม” that is used metaphorically:
1. “คำว่า “เกลือ” ใครว่าไม่เค็ม บางคนเอาคำว่าเกลือมาเปรียบเทียบกับนิสัยของคนที่ขี้เหนียว ขี้ตืดขนาดหนัก แบบว่าทะเลเรียกว่าพี่กันเลย แสดงว่าคบยากมาก”
http://www.learners.in.th/blogs/posts/339662
2. “……บางคน ก็เค็มจัด คือ ไม่จับจ่ายใช้สอย…”
http://www.dhammathai.org/store/talk/talk44.php

[Nuschka Ying]

Thats why I love that language: you dont understand anything if you dont know the context and who are the people involved and how are their relations to each other and so on!
One thing is clear: The sentence is about a stingy person.
ทะเล is definately not a person’s name, its a metaphore.

Literally the sentence ทะเลเรียกพี่เค็่ม means: The sea calls พี่ salty.

The problem is now that we cannot know who the speaker meant by พี่ . So several meanings are possible:

1) พี่ can be a third person involved (C) who is older than the speaker (A).
The sea calls C salty. --> Even the mother of salt would call C salty. --> C is extremely salty.
Salty = stingy --> Person C is extremely stingy!

2) If you (B) are older than the speaker, he could call you respectfully พี่. --> You are extremely stingy!

And Im not sure if the sea is a common metaphore for avarice. It could also stand for a person:

3) He could mean you. If the is your พี่ and you called him stingy, he tells you: You are are even more stingy than me! By using พี่ for himself to emphasize the age difference. He puts himself on a higher level.

4) The speaker could call another person (C) metaphorically the sea because he is a big miser and called one of you stingy. --> The sea calls พี่ salty --> A big miser calls พี่ stingy.
4.1 If you are the speaker's พี่ it means: A big miser calls you stingy! So as to say: Dont worry about what C said, he is the miser himself.
4.2 If the speaker is your พี่ and C called him stingy, he lost face in front of a younger person. That’s how he rehabilitates his reputation.
--> A miser calls me stingy! Again he uses พี่ for himself to get your respect back.

5) The speaker could call himself ทะเล which would mean: พี่ is (maybe you are) not as stingy as I am. I can hardly imagine someone calling himself stingy but grammatically it is possible.

LONG STORY SHORT: The sentence is about a stingy person, thats all we can know!