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Tilak/Tiruk/... Good thing?


TokBet

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Amen bro'! I have been married to an educated, upper middle class Thai-Chinese for almost 15 years and we use this term regularly, and in front of her family. In fact, wifey almost always calls me that. If she uses my name, I know I am in trouble LOL! Khunying (really) Ma-n-law thinks it's sweet, so obviously it is not a bad word, just one that has been bastardized over the years by punters and in certain tourist circles ::. Same as the word "sanuk" IMHO ::.

 

Now, to the OP, does your BG mean it? Probably not, or more accurately, only as long as you are buying drinks LOL!

 

Cheers,

SD

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Of my two serious GF's in Thailand, one a BG and one a million miles away from the sceen, both used the term Tirak and expected me to use the term as well. On a side note, the Thai's really on use this term of endearment as far as I can tell, so if you have multiple GF's, or happen to be a BG with multiple regular customers, it makes it real easy. However, you should consider it a good thing, if she has real feelings for you.

 

As for "R" vs. "L" sound. The word Tiruk, is derived from two Thai words, one of which is the Thai word for love "ruk". The reason you hear an "L" sound is that most Thais will mispronounce the "R" sound as "L". If you replace the "R" with "L" in the word "ruk", you do get one of the words for thief -- although I doubt they mean to call you a thief. The word is properly pronounced "Tea-rahk". You simply can not spell most Thais words really well in English, as such, there is no "correct" way to do so.

 

As someone who actually studied Thai with a teacher, I can assure you, you can be slowly driven nuts by the fact that most Thais do not properly pronounce the "R" sound in Thai, which sounds like an "rrrr" sound, or they leave it out all together. This is also why you will here people say "Khup" instead of "Khrup", which is the proper way to pronounce the polite Thai particle for men.

 

I prefer not to use the term darling in English, as it sounds a little too much like the term "monkey ass," which is a secret long out of the bag, in Thai. If a BG uses it, I ask her to stop. If she continues, I respond by repeating it back with the proper tone and vowel length. She'll get the message.

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I have very similar experiences only I'm not proficient in Thai not too mention less than native in english :o

However trying to translate 'lovely' into thai I got 'narak', but overall I get a clear indication she prefers to be called tirak anyday or her nick followed by 'narak jung' than just a lovely girl?

Any hints as why to?

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A word's meaning is not handed down from God, or monolithic and immovable over time :doah:. Words' meanings are historically socially constructed by the local society in which they are used, Thus a word like "bad" can come to mean "good" ("That's a "bad" piece of ass, bro'!" :hubba:) as long as the society in which the word is current is in agreement and consensus as to the word's accepted meaning(s) at this particular epoch. If you'd looked at a Victorian gentleman's cravat and said "That's a wicked cravat! :up:" he would not have caught the intended compliment, but might have suspected that you were accusing him of being an occultist devil-worshipper, because that's how his society used and understood that term "wicked". Parts of our modern society have assigned a new meaning to the word "wicked", even though, in other parts of society (a church group meeting, a headmaster's address to a schoolboy) the same word retains its older original signification of "bad, evil". The problem occurs when two users from different social circles attempt to converse and a word is used whose meaning is not mutually agreed upon by both parties :(. When both conversers agree on the meaning of a word, communication properly occurs. :)

 

So it doesn't matter if "tirac" originally (i. e. when the word came into general usage, the "original" meaning listed in non-modern dictionaries) meant "frying pan" or "lawn mower". Used by bargirls who clearly are in agreement on its current meaning within their "society" in 2003, the word now means "(regular) customer" or "john" or "paying boyfriend". It's become an acceptable, chosen term that they all use to describe a man they have shagged and are knocking about with. Outside their limited society, their circle, it may well still retain a different meaning, but within BG parlance, "tirac" means what they've concurred that it means.

 

Thus I hate it when a bird I've short-timed 20 minutes ago starts calling me "Daliin" :cussing: because to me that's a word of affection I'd only use with someone with whom I was very close, my "darling" :hug:. But I know now that the BG set currently ascribe a wholly different nuance to the same word. So I just get on with shagging the stupid cow and stick the pillow over her face to shut her up. :up:

 

jack :help:

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