Chapter 66

Happy Teeth:

The other night after a couple of hours gossiping at my local massage parlour I headed for home on my trusty motorbike (yeh! yeh! scooter if you like).
As I started the engine one of the girls politely wished me "ratree sawat, fan dee".
I smiled, nodded my thanks and roared off into the night.

Now to be wished "ratree sawat" which means "good night" is fine and I appreciated it. It makes me feel I am really beginning to understand the language.
But "fan dee" which I took to mean "Happy Teeth" was slightly more confusing.

I mused about this for several minutes and was on the verge of deciding that it must be some sort of quaint Thai-ism wishing the recipient to wear a contented smile or some such thing, possibly even harkening back to the bad old days of a century ago, or so, when Thai ladies chewed betal leaves and all had more or less black teeth, when I suddenly realized what she had actually said.

She hadn't wished me "fan (ฟัน) dee" but "fǎn (ฝัน) dee" - the "fǎn" having a rising tone.

This kind of makes a difference.

"Fan" means 'tooth' but "fǎn" means 'dream'.

So the slightly odd "Happy teeth" greeting actually meant "Happy Dreams".

Having laughed about this with my friends, both Thai and Farang, our usual evening farewell has become... "Happy teeth".

I suspect that other people listening must think we have gone completely bonkers.