American Share

This afternoon I was among a large group of Thai people and I was the only farang in sight. I was in an area of town that I don’t know at all, and I wanted to get a recommendation for a decent restaurant for dinner for later in the week. I chose a person somewhat at random, but I was conscious of asking someone who was a confident speaker of English and who was gregarious.

The person I asked was a 30-ish woman named Simee who never missed a beat. She immediately gave me the name and location of a restaurant, along with a description of the menu and pricing. She paused for a breath and said, “I can take you tonight if you like.”

This was unexpected, and it wouldn’t be convenient as I had to meet someone in another part of town in the late afternoon. Instead of saying any of that however, I only uttered one word, “okay”, which was meant to be non-committal but actually sounded like an acceptance of her invitation.

Apparently she thought so too, because then she loudly and quickly added two more words, “American Share”.

Everyone in the room laughed out loud, and just that quick I was off the hook. With all the laughter the conversation went no further, and an hour later when it was time to go home Simmy showed no signs that she expected me to actually join her for dinner.

American Share is a term that I first heard in Thailand sometime in mid-2005. It’s a phrase that I’d never heard before that, but a concept that is understood by people the world over.

It means that everyone in the dinner party will pay for themselves.

Growing up in the US we called it a “Dutch Treat”.

I’ve been told before that it has many names all around the world, so tonight I went to my old friend Wikipedia to see if they offered any enlightenment on the idea of Dutch Treat or American Share. Here’s an excerpt from the article on the subject:

The phrase “going Dutch” probably originates from Dutch etiquette. In the Netherlands, it is not unusual to pay separately when going out as a group. When dating in a 1 on 1 situation however, the man will most commonly pay for meals and drinks. English rivalry with The Netherlands especially during the period of the Anglo-Dutch Wars^{[citation needed]} gave rise to several phrases including Dutch that promote certain negative stereotypes. Examples include Dutch courage, Dutch uncle and Dutch wife. The particular stereotype associated with this usage is the idea of Dutch people as ungenerous and selfish.

In Spain, “going Dutch” is attributed to Catalans, due to a stereotype that they are somewhat penny-pinchers. A stereotypical non-Catalan Spaniard would compete to pay the bill for the group. However, the common term for “going Dutch” bears no relationship to Catalonia: “pagar a escote” (”cleavage paying”).

In Italy, the expression pagare alla romana can be translated as: “To pay like people of Rome” or “to pay like they do in Rome”. It has the same meaning as “going Dutch”.

The corresponding phrase in Turkish is hesabı Alman usulü ödemek, which can be translated into English as “to pay the bill the German way”.

Some South American countries use the Spanish phrase pagar a la americana (literally “To pay American style”) which refers to a trait attributed to people from the U.S.A. or Canada.

In Argentina specifically, ‘a la romana’ (exact translation of Italian’s ‘pagare alla romana’) is widely used and ‘pagar a la americana’ (pay American style) doesn’t exist.^{[citation needed]}

In Guatemala the phrase is “a la ley de Cristo… cada quien con su pisto” which is used more as as a ryme with the word “Cristo” and “pisto” – rather than having a religious cognotation…

In Thailand, the practice is referred to as “American Share.”

In the Philippines, it is referred to as KKB, an acronym for “Kanya Kanyang Bayad” which can be translated in English as “Pay for your own self”.

In Mandarin Chinese, the appropriate term is “AA制 (AA zhì)，” where zhì is the Chinese word for “system.”