Comments on: The shocking truth: ใจ doesn’t mean “heart”!

By: John Berns

John Berns — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 09:55:22 +0000

Jai (ใจ) is one of those words that you will go cray trying to pigeon-hole into an equivalent English word.

It’s meaning is related to both mind (thought, logic) and heart (feelings, emotions) because there is less of a duality between the two concepts to Thais than there is to English language speakers.

Westerners seem to take almost a Vulcan stance on the mind: facts are facts and logic is logic and that’s that. Here are the facts and this is the conclusion. How you feel about something it is secondary to the facts and logic of it.

I believe that a Thai would find that the facts and the feelings of people involved in the situation can’t be so easily separated when coming to a conclusion. A resolution that is “right” should take into account facts and the feelings of the people and that logic can’t be applied in an emotional vacuum.

So to say it’s either heart or it’s mind, thought or feeling is to diminish the term; it stands for something more that one or the other alone.

By: bkkunderground

bkkunderground — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:42:41 +0000

I think the more important thing to not re:ใจ is not a literal meaning of the heart but as the repository of feelings. The opposite correlation would be จิต the repository of thought. The way you are reading ใจ as relating more to thought than to feelings in some cases is correct but your conclusion that as a result ใจ is not feelings is oversimplified. The best I can explain it is the deepest and most sincere manifestation of thought จิต is when it is corroborated by your feelings ใจ hence จิตใจตรงกัน. So ใจ used in a meaning that represents thought means sincere thoughts or your mind at its deepest level, the level of the heart.

By: rikker

rikker — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:42:39 +0000

Clearly you need to listen to more 1980s Paul Abdul records. I submit exhibit A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN-Qq2umKZo Interesting language difference, though.

By: james

james — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 05:56:38 +0000

i really like your blog

but i have to say..

you said that in english we do’nt use “black-hearted”, we use “cold-hearted”

i have to admit, i was born in australia, from australian parents, and grew up in australia but i have never seen the term cold-hearted before – black-hearted, on the other hand, i use and hear all the time

just something interesting i noted about all the different forms of ‘english’ out there

haha

By: mangkorn

mangkorn — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:07:38 +0000

Good topic, Jason. Since it means both the heart and the mind, which overlap at times, but not always, I’d guess it really speaks to the “essence of one’s being.”

The spirit?

Cheers.