Responses To "khun Roo Mak!"

[JaiRai]

I would've marked the nearest exits, looked her in the eye, smiled, and said à¸à¸§à¸™à¸•à¸µà¸™ ('guan-dteen') in a casual manner.

 

Not a curse word, but if you want to piss off a Thai woman - it is THE perfect word of all time. Oh yes. Just get ready to run.

 

btw - did she really say 'roo' and not 'loo'?? That's an anomaly....

[Flashermac]

To be honest, I hear Farang bar hoppers use expressions that I have never heard a Thai say - sometimes don't even understand. I work with university educated Thais, and the BG language is definitely a bit on the crude side. Thais do classify people by the way they speak. Use working class speech and you will be judged accordingly. The "know too much" could have been a reaction to using the "wrong" kind of Thai.

[JaiRai]

There was a guy in one of my classes - had been here a few years, spoke OK Thai, and was always throwing out these boorish vulgarities trying to show off his language skills. It was over the top stuff and obviously bar-speak. Most of it was minor like 'daw-leh' (bullshitter/liar), but some things were pretty severe and I could see the instructor visibly irritated. This went on and on till she just told him point blank --> I know where you learned these things, and so does every Thai person you meet, and we don't talk like that with acquaintances or people we hardly know, it's not polite and they won't think it's funny. Anyway, he stopped coming to class (which, actually, is par for the course for most of the visa students).

 

One interesting ongoing debate is over the term "ting-tong." Some students feel that this is low-so speech and that Thais will peg you as their version of hayseed if you employ the term, the instructor contradicts that though -- says this is not the case, you'll see it occasionally in film and la-kohn and it is... ok.

 

I digress.

 

On the subject of vulgarity and language, isn't this one of your former Uni students Flash???

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ8SE4Un3ks

[Flashermac]

Probably a student from a private uni and an international school graduate. Could be Chula though, looks like he has money.

 

I see the guy has a Lao section. He doesn't look Issan.

[JaiRai]

Ps. I didn't mean to imply the OP (gawguy) fell into this category of using obnoxious bar-speak. I don't think he does - he asks good questions that have helped clarify a few things for me - which is a... good thing. I just wanted to validate your comments on Thais sizing you up according to your vocab. My attempts at Thai, even when god fucking awful, have been met with enthusiasm and courtesy the vast majority of the time. It's helped during my stay here. But, in bars/clubs get a wide variety of reactions - a lot of women instantly say "you have Thai wife." (And I'm thinking 'oh dear, not again').

 

Note - an addition to my first comment a few spots above in the dialog - though not a curse word many Thais will tell you NOT to say guan-dteen (hard to translate but basically it means - "you're an annoying person who deserves a kick"). I first heard it from the mother of a woman I met who works over at the Interchange Tower. When Mom said it to daughter, got a lot of chuckles from daughter's friends (mom is about your age Flash 555555, daughter 32). I wrote it down for future reference, but when I used it quickly got schooled - NEVER with strangers. Only with friends/family. Should've put that above.

 

And on that note - have a nice day. Motherfucker.

[Flashermac]

Same to you, douche bag.

[gawguy]

Enjoyed the vid posted by Jai Rai. Yes..you always have to choose your context so very carefully when you're playing with vulgarity. You can say almost anything in the right context "bitch", "wanker", "a-hole" even the dreaded "n" word is funny between friends a the right time. The words are indispensable. Search up "The Ascent of A-Word" by Geoffrey Nunberg. Look him up on iTunes and listen to his incisive and hilarious podcast on Ass-Hole-ism. Who is the world's most classic asshole? Donald Trump. It's his profession. It's not possible to succinctly describe him - personality, egotism, hair - without the word.

 

And farangs who try to get cute with Thai vulgarity, but just get inappropriate, like the guy Journeyman mentioned: "..was always throwing out these boorish vulgarities trying to show off his language skills." A-hole!

 

FYI: Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist, is a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information. Since 1987, he has done a language feature on NPR's "Fresh Air," and his commentaries have appeared in the New York Times and many other publications. He is the emeritus chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary and a winner of the Linguistic Society of America's Language and the Public Interest Award. His previous books include Talking Right and Going Nucular. Nunberg lives in San Francisco.

[Pescator]

There was a guy in one of my classes - had been here a few years, spoke OK Thai, and was always throwing out these boorish vulgarities trying to show off his language skills. It was over the top stuff and obviously bar-speak. Most of it was minor like 'daw-leh' (bullshitter/liar), but some things were pretty severe and I could see the instructor visibly irritated. This went on and on till she just told him point blank --> I know where you learned these things, and so does every Thai person you meet, and we don't talk like that with acquaintances or people we hardly know,

 

She doesn`t know anything, she may suspect and in many cases she is most likely correct in this assumption.

 

But as in any country, some thai people use coarse language, especially around friends and family. Phaasaa Baan.

Living among them, one will invariably pick up on some of this vocabulary. I know, I did.

[JaiRai]

She doesn`t know anything, she may suspect and in many cases she is most likely correct in this assumption.

 

But as in any country, some thai people use coarse language, especially around friends and family. Phaasaa Baan.

Living among them, one will invariably pick up on some of this vocabulary. I know, I did.

 

btw - Agree 100%. There's more to this story, on one occasion after class a few students hung around to ask the teacher questions and this guy asked her if she'd be interested in being a 'friend with benefits' - in front of two other students. Then laughed about it. You have to know this lady, very attractive and bright, but proud and extremely conservative. The two other students told me about this afterward and speculated she was more than pissed off. Hence the reason (I think) she kinda went off on this guy eventually. Lot of different ways to say 'fuck you' without saying it direct.

 

Paasaa Baan, that's good - I like that. Most 'bad words' I've learned from everyday folks who don't hang out much in the bars (unlike me - I go all the time). But they have a firm grasp of where/when it's ok to talk like this, and when it's not.

 

It's a crazy mixed-up world.

[JaiRai]

Probably a student from a private uni and an international school graduate. Could be Chula though, looks like he has money.

 

I see the guy has a Lao section. He doesn't look Issan.

 

So maybe you can illuminate Professor but I've since learned this "Kot" (falling tone) word is actually quite interesting. In the video the guy promotes it as equal to the word "fucking" in the English language, but since employing it -- I've realized that Thais only use it in two ways. One, and the most common = positive. I Kot chawp this or that means I really like something. But they don't use it in the negative the same way we use fucking - e.g., so and so is a fucking asshole, or this food tastes like fucking shit. And so forth.

 

But, and this is where it gets good - they use it for sarcasm. They love to use it for sarcasm. For example - if you say to a woman - kun kot chawp puut maak (you REALLY like to talk), it can be taken as a compliment or an insult, depending on the context.

 

I had no idea. I suppose it's a good thing to know, IF, you know how to use it (and I'm still figuring that out).